Fantasy Baseball Has Arrived

No matter how many years I play, no matter how many seasons I go through, it’s still so darn exciting when a new season opens up. And with that let me say, FANTASY BASEBALL IS HERE!! And how about Yahoo stepping up to the plate! They’ve really done an outstanding job upgrading the entire platform this year. In seasons past I’ve had my doubts, I’ve emailed them numerous times asking for simple changes to the system. Then WHAM, they hit us with em all in the same season. I will now officially declare that Yahoo Fantasy Sports is the preferred platform of the Thief, and hands down the best platform out there. Let’s discuss the additions…

First and foremost, no more plus league upgrades. Now everyone gets to enjoy all the niceties that were relegated to a plus league (at a cost of roughly $150 per season) before including free live scoring (which should be a staple anyway). In the past I always paid the dues to move to the plus league because the offerings made it worth it. I would’ve gladly paid them going forward, but not having to pay them means more prize money to dole out. 

Auction Draft Capability! It’s about time! Yahoo has been way behind the competition on this, but they’ve finally gotten around to installing the auction draft system. There really are no more excuses for people out there; you should at least try the auction style once. I’m kind of jealous because my league is running a live IN PERSON draft this season, so we won’t get to test out the new software. But I have a lot of faith in Yahoo offering a very user friendly platform. Be smart, if you’ve never done an auction before, do a few mock drafts to become acquainted with the controls. This can be a huge edge over the competition.

Expanded league formats! Didn’t see this one coming. Along with the usual standard formats of Roto, H2H and Points, they’ve included (my favorite) the H2H with one win/loss/tie at weeks end, PLUS all sorts of ‘one off’ games like home run derby. This is great to see as it means they really went out and discovered what the players want and need, then acted on it.

I’ll add in two other things that have always been present, but are big bonuses. Yahoo allows for keeper player and keeper price tracking, making my life as a commissioner a lot easier. And they have, hands down, the BEST customer service of any platform out there. I can’t say the same for Yahoo in general, but Yahoo Sports does a great job of answering your email questions in a timely manner. Now if they could just get rid of that Funston guy…

Well, tell me what you think? Impressed with the upgrades? Excited to play baseball this year? Even if you’ve never attempted the sport before, and really know absolutely nothing, you should give it a shot. If I had to rank the four major fantasy sports for me, it would be Basketball, Baseball, Football and Hockey (it’s not fair to say I like Hockey the least, it just interferes too much with basketball). And remember, no matter how much of a disadvantage you think you are at coming into the season….

Don’t worry playa, the Thief’s got you covered.