We’re only hours away from a major holiday!
Yes…there is that whole Easter thing… but Sunday also marks Opening Night of Major League Baseball!
Whether you’re new to fantasy baseball or you’re a veteran who’s won multiple championships, it’s good to know when technology evolves with the game. There are a plethora of great tools out there that can help you win your fantasy league. In no particular order, here are three.
Fantasy Alarm 2013
Look, we’re all busy. Jobs, school, kids, parents, wife… a social life; it’s hard to win a fantasy league when you can only look at it two minutes a day. Fantasy Alarm makes it easier.
It’s the worst when you’re one point down in multiple categories heading into Sunday only to learn that half your lineup is sitting out that day. Fantasy Alarm fixes that but sending you push notifications directly to your phone. They also send you updates to your cell phone whenever there is breaking news on one of your players, so you can be the first guy to grab that new closer or pickup a replacement when one of your stars hits the DL.
Fantasy Alarm is completely free and has free advice on their website as well.
‘Transaction Trends’ Tab
Those weekends you return from Vegas and can barely remember your girlfriend’s name let alone update your lineup for Monday’s games, the ‘Transaction Trends’ tab comes in handy.
On Yahoo, which is my preferred provider, this tab is located under the ‘Research’ tab in your league page — every league should have something similar.
If you don’t have time to keep up with Baseball Tonight, Sportscenter or MLB Network highlights, this tab will tell you who is hot based upon who everyone else is grabbing. While I’m not saying you should jump off a bridge just because everyone else is, watching the transaction trends of the day can really tell you about who you should consider grabbing right away. For example, Jackie Bradley has been added in more than 2,700 leagues today, most likely because Tim Kurkjian of ESPN was raving about him on baseball tonight, not to mention the rookie has been crushing it in Spring Training. Hint hint, wink wink.
FanGraphs
http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/
Ever wonder where the ‘experts’ like Ron Shandler and Matthew Berry get a lot of their information? It’s at FanGraphs.
This website digs into the sabermetrics of the game and translates the info into valuable fantasy stats. Are you a nerd that’s into xFIP and WAR? This is the site for you.
If you’re a veteran of fantasy you’re already familiar with the site, but even I have to remind myself to check it more often than I do. Everytime you turn around they seem to have an invaluable perspective on players that you won’t get on ESPN or MLB.com.
Photo Above: Real life baseball players checking their fantasy football teams.
Josh Helmuth is the editor for CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @JHelmuth or subscribe at Facebook.com/CraveOnlineSports for the latest in sports on your newsfeed.
Photo Credit: Getty
