The more common fantasy baseball league type features a traditional snake draft, where you take turns drafting a player one pick at a time in turn. However, the original and best way to play is the salary cap format.
Salary cap is the best way to play fantasy baseball because it allows you to build your team with any construction you want. Do you want to build a team littered with top-tier players and sleepers? You can do that. Do you want to spread out the risk and have no low-end players on your roster?
You can do that, too. In a salary cap league, everyone has an equal shot at every player, which means, unlike a snake draft, you will never get sniped on a player. However, you have to be willing to pay up for the ones you truly want. It is the truest test of fantasy skill. Today, we will be talking about how to implement a stars and scrubs strategy in a salary cap league.
Stars & Scrubs Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy
The basic strategy with a stars and scrubs approach is to load up on top-tier talent and then fill out your team with cheaper keepers. This is best served in shallower formats where there is good replacement value on the waiver wire in order for you to churn the cheaper players that may not pan out. Doing this in deeper formats can backfire pretty easily when there aren’t great options to pick up.
There are two big mistakes drafters make when employing this strategy. First, they go overboard. Do not go out and spend $30+ on eight players and leave yourself with 15 $1 players. At most, you should really only have 10 $1-2 players, and even that can be pretty risky.
There will be an exception to that rule later. The second thing is using this strategy no matter what. Salary cap drafts are about extracting value. Sometimes the value is in the mid-tier; sometimes it is in the more expensive tier. If the high-priced players are all too expensive, you should adjust your strategy and take the values in the middle of the draft and build a more balanced team.
Below are a few outside-the-box strategies to mix in with a stars and scrubs approach.
LIMA (Low Investment Mound Aces) Plan
The LIMA plan, invented by Ron Shandler, is a bargain pitching strategy. In a salary cap league, you would spend a total of $60 on pitching — $20-30 on an elite closer and the rest on high strikeout pitchers.
This plan relies on your ability to identify undervalued pitchers or ones primed for a breakout campaign. If you are good at identifying breakout pitchers, it is a great strategy.
ZIMA Plan
This was a twist on the LIMA plan. In this adaptation, you still spend $200 on hitting, but instead of spending $30 on a closer, you spend it on a high strikeout pitcher and punt saves.
MRI (Maximize Relief Innings) Theory
This strategy was developed by Pierre Becquey. In this strategy, you purchase two elite high strikeout pitchers and then abandon starting pitchers for relievers. This allows you to cushion ERA and WHIP categories, while stacking up your offense.
About halfway through the season, you acquire starters through free agency or via trade to catch up in wins and strikeouts. While I have never attempted this strategy, it seems like it would be best served for deeper auction leagues.
Labadini Plan
This is a personal favorite strategy. Named after Larry Labadini, who tried it in LABR (League of Alternative Baseball Reality) in 1996, it calls for you to spend $251 on your offense and $1 each on all your pitchers. I love this strategy because it is so unique.
You will crush everyone on offense and then get lucky with a $1 reliever who turns into a closer. After that, you can trade some offense for a starter or two to help catch up in some of the pitching stats because you should have a pretty great lead in offense by the halfway point of the season. With the glut of starting pitchers these days, this is a fun out-of-the-box idea.
Modified Labadini Plan
In this strategy, you take the top pitcher in the pool, so someone like Tarik Skubal or Paul Skenes. Then you don’t spend more than $1 on any other pitcher. This gives you the best pitcher in the pool to anchor your staff while building an amazing offense.
Subscribe: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | iHeart | Castbox | Amazon Music | Podcast Addict | SoundCloud | TuneIn