If you check out the rules or settings for our fantasy baseball game, you might find yourself initially overwhelmed. Don't worry. We're here to help.
For frequently -- and infrequently -- asked questions, check out our support portal, where you can search for and find answers and solutions.
If you have a feel for where everything can be found within the game and what the settings do, here's a quick overview of what the settings mean and how they impact your experience.
Basic settings
Number of teams: It is strongly recommended that head-to-head leagues have an even number of teams to limit the number of bye weeks on the schedule, because teams will miss out on the fun during those byes. All leagues must have between four and 20 teams.
If you go with eight teams or fewer, your rosters will be stacked with plenty of star power, though you can counter that by enlarging the size of each team's roster, like using two starters at every position or several utility players. This can be a fun way to get the ball rolling if you are a newbie.
Ten teams is the traditional size of most leagues. The player pool is deep enough that each team has stars, but managers will still have the challenge of picking up free agents and players who are getting hot.
For a greater challenge, try using 12 or 14 teams. In bigger leagues like that, the player pool is thinned out enough that managers will need to have knowledge of lesser-known players in order to succeed.
Rosters: Standard rosters include one catcher (C), one first baseman (1B), one second baseman (2B), one shortstop (SS), one third baseman (3B), one middle infielder (MI) -- filled by a 2B/SS, one corner infielder (CI) -- filled by a 1B/3B, five outfielders (OF), one utility (UTIL) spot -- filled by any position, nine pitchers (P), and three bench (BE) spots. Those who are on your bench are players who are on your roster but not in your starting lineup.
The fun part of fantasy baseball is all of these options can be adjusted however you see fit. Every league is a little different, and some league commissioners find certain roster settings more fun than others. The options are endless, really.
You can adjust to have multiple starters at each position. You can eliminate the utility spot. Adding more bench spots is another option worth considering, but be aware that it changes the complexion of your league. More bench spots provide additional wiggle room on your roster, giving you more choices on a daily basis, and that can be helpful with the uneven MLB schedule (some teams have multiple days off in a given week while other play all seven days).
More bench spots can help even that out, but it also means fewer players will be available to pick up as free agents throughout the season. Be sure to weigh your options with this important decision.
You can also include injured reserve (IR) spots, so you can stash an injured player until he is ready to play again without sacrificing one of your active bench spots. Given the amount of injuries in MLB these days, it can often be a good option to have at least one but more often two IR spots.
Be aware that the IR is also a place managers often use to pick up and stash stars and elite players who begin the year injured and are slated to miss a good portion of the season.
Scoring
For more on the three most popular ways to play our game, click here.
However, there are other ways to play! Here's a quick overview of every style of play:
Roto is where teams are ranked from first to last in each statistical category. Points are then awarded according to the order in each category, and totaled to determine an overall score and league rank.
Head-to-head Points allows you to assign a given point value to individual statistic categories (i.e. HR=4, RBI=1, etc.) and each scoring period's winner is determined solely by which team accumulates the most fantasy points versus a single opponent. The end result is a win (1-0-0), loss (0-1-0) or tie (0-0-1).
Head-to-head Each Category allows you to select "X" number of statistical categories. Team totals are accumulated and a win, loss or tie is credited in each category based on the matchup results (i.e. 6-3-1 in a 10 category league). If the league creator sets Home Team wins as a tiebreaker, the home team will win every tied category.
Head-to-head Most Categories allows you to set "X" number of statistical categories. For each scoring period (usually Monday through Sunday) team totals are accumulated in each of the categories. At the end the scoring period the winner is determined by which team wins the most number of categories. The end result is a win (1-0-0), loss (0-1-0) or tie (0-0-1). These results correspond directly to each team's overall record.
Season Points scoring allows you to assign a given point value to each individual statistical category (i.e. HR=4, RBI=1, etc.) Standings are based on the accumulation of points covering all statistical categories and combined into one total points column. The team with the most overall points wins.
Teams and divisions
Some leagues use two divisions with the winner of each division granted the top two seeds in the playoffs, and the two or four next-best records earning the other playoff berths.
If your league consists of 12 or more teams, you may want to consider going to three divisions with the three division winners earning the top seeds in the playoffs and the one or three other teams (depending on whether your playoffs call for four teams or six) with the next-best records claiming a playoff berth as a wild card.
If that isn't your thing, you can also create leagues that don't use divisions, which many believe is the fairest way of rewarding the teams with the best record during the regular season. Without any divisions, the teams that make the playoffs (whether it be two, four or six) are simply the ones who finished with the best records.
Observe ESPN's undroppable players list
This is basically a safety net to ensure that managers in your league won't drop a star player who could affect the outcome of your league via collusion or tanking. Any player on our undroppable list can't be released to waivers. Note that we take players off the list if they are injured or no longer warrant being on the list because of poor performance. If you genuinely trust all of your fellow managers to not mess with the integrity of the league, choose "No" to this setting. Generally speaking, though, it's wise to just be safe and let ESPN declare players who should not be droppable.
Lineup changes
You can choose to lock lineups either on a weekly basis or on a daily basis. If you choose the weekly setting, your lineups for the week have to be in before the first game on Monday, and this is a good setting if the managers in your league don't have a lot of time to spend obsessing about their teams throughout the week. It's a more casual setting. The more hard-core baseball fan typically prefers a daily setting, which requires attention pretty much every day of the MLB calendar. This option promotes more moves (free-agent pickups, etc.) throughout the week and is much more involved altogether. You can choose whether you want your lineups to lock individually at the scheduled game time or to lock when the first game of the day begins. The first of those two makes for a more fair experience, as you are able to move a player to your bench if he is a late scratch and a replace him with a bench player whose game has yet to start.
Player acquisition system
If you choose waivers, any player who is dropped from a team will be placed on waivers for a day or two, during which time each team has the option to put in a waiver claim for him. The team with the highest waiver priority that made a claim will get that player and move to the bottom of the waiver order. This is a simple system, which is good for beginners and is the standard format.
Free-agent auction options allow teams to bid on unowned players, using their free-agent auction budget (FAAB, a dollar amount set by the commissioner). The highest blind bid gets the player. This offers an extra level of strategy, as you have to decide how much of your money to spend for each bid and how much to save for later in the season.
Season acquisition limit
Most leagues allow unlimited waiver moves (such as adding a free agent), because managers want to be actively trying to improve their rosters all season long. However, you do have the option of limiting such moves, which could be handy if your managers have limited time to commit to the league. You can set the limit of moves based on the entire season or for each weekly matchup ... the weekly limit is better for those in head-to-head leagues to help limit "streaming," which is a strategy built around picking up and dropping players each day to maximize counting statistics like wins, strikeouts and home runs.
Trade deadline
Most leagues allow unlimited trades so managers can improve their rosters throughout the season. However, including a trade deadline is generally a good idea, because you don't want managers who have no chance of making the playoffs making trades in the waning weeks of your regular season with managers who are deep in a playoff chase. You can see how that could mess with the integrity of the league. On the other hand, many keeper leagues don't include a deadline, because a team that is out of the race for this season could still make trades to improve their team for the next season -- even if that gives a significant boost to an opponent this season -- without affecting the league's overall integrity.
Trade review
If you know and trust everyone in your league, you can skip trade reviews altogether. That way, when you make a trade minutes before a game starts, you can immediately insert those new players into your lineups. However, generally speaking, it is wise to give your fellow managers a day or two to vote on whether to veto a trade. (Note: Check your league rules to see how many votes are required to veto a trade.) It's important to note that a trade should not be vetoed simply because you feel it may be lopsided. Quite often such trades turn out to be just fine or the managers had good reasons to make the deal, even if it seems one-sided. Vetoes should be reserved for when collusion or blatant tanking is involved and will affect the integrity of the league.
Keeper rules
Keeper leagues arguably are the most fun to play, because like real general managers, you construct your roster over the course of many seasons. If your team stinks this season, you can build for next year. If you think you may have a winner this season, you can trade away young talent for high-end stars to put you over the top now. The bottom line is, playing with keepers allows you to hold on to players for the following season. How many keepers you get depends on the number your league decides on.
Schedule
Since so many MLB teams rest star players and/or shut down injured players during the final month of the season, once their rosters expand from 25 players to a maximum of 40, it is wise to wrap up your fantasy league a little bit earlier.
How do you make this work? Much of this will depend on the size of your league, how many teams you want to have make the playoffs (you can choose anywhere from zero to eight) and how long the playoffs will last, but a smart way to do it is to wrap up your league by Week 21 or 22.
Draft
There are four types of drafts that you can hold for your ESPN Fantasy Baseball league:
Offline: There really is no doubt that the most fun you can have is to get your friends, family or co-workers together in a room and do a live draft in person. You can't beat the laughs, trash talk and the feeling of being a general manager making selections at the MLB draft. If you go that route, then choose Offline draft, enter the rosters following the draft and play your season out on ESPN.
Snake: A live online draft is the simplest format and is ideal for leagues that have managers spread out over many cities, states or countries. "Snake" means that the draft order reverses each round, so a 10-team draft goes from 1-10 in odd-numbered rounds, then 10-1 in even-numbered rounds. That means whoever picks first in the draft will make his/her next pick at No. 20, then No. 21, etc. The manager who picks last in the first round (10th) will also get the No. 11 pick but will have to wait until picks 30 and 31 for their next selections. This is done so that each draft position has its advantages and disadvantages. Based on a predetermined draft order, the snake format ensures that you can construct a winning roster from any draft spot, but there are certain years when having one of the top one or two picks can be a big advantage if there are a couple clear-cut superstars in a tier all by themselves.
Autopick: If your league managers don't want to commit to preparing for taking part in a live online draft, simply select autopick, and we'll draft every team for you. This is a good way to enjoy playing fantasy basketball if you aren't that up on MLB rosters or don't want to spend much time on it. You can still get viable rosters, pull for your players each week and compete against your friends, family and coworkers. Note: You can game plan prior to your autodraft by ranking players, choosing how many of each position to fill, etc.
Auction: In this format, instead of drafting in a specific order, you will have a set budget and get to bid on each player in an auction format. This really tests your skills on an extra level, because not only do you need to know player values, but you also have to consider your budget during the auction draft. Make sure that all of your managers are committed to being online from the beginning to the end of the auction, because our system will automatically bid for any manager not online. While this helps fill the void, it also wreaks havoc on the prices of players and makes it difficult for active bidders to find values. This type of draft is appealing because you can get any player you want if you're willing to go for the highest bid, but it also takes about twice as long as a snake draft.
Draft settings: When choosing a draft date and time, it's extremely important to make sure all of your managers are able to attend the draft in person or online so that you can avoid autodrafting. Our system will make autodraft picks for any managers not in attendance for a live online draft, which helps fill the void, but the human element is part of drafting, and absentee managers can have a negative effect on the fairness of the league. In other words: Don't be that guy/gal who forgets your draft is going on.