DraftBuddy.com

Fantasy Baseball and Fantasy Football Draft Tools

Fantasy Baseball Projections Update + Improved Player Stats and News

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The 2019 fantasy baseball version of Draft Buddy is updated for Steamer projections, NFBC ADP and depth charts. Plus, the Zeile projections from FantasyPros are now available and added to Draft Buddy. Note, I filtered the NFBC ADP from December 1, 2018 to give us a good number of drafts without being too stale.

If you already downloaded the 2019 version since it was released in December, then you can keep your current download and update the data. To get both sets of projections, then follow the steps in this new demo video:

Updating is particularly helpful if you are in the middle of a draft and want to save the draft picks already input in Draft Buddy. Or if you are in a keeper league and you’ve already input the kept players.

To make sure that data is saved, then uncheck the “Reset keepers” and “Reset draft order and picks” options found in the upper-left of the action tab PRIOR to updating projections.

Last Player Picked, the online auction calculator, is also updated for the Steamer and Zeile projections.

Fantasy Stats Research Tool

Our fantasy baseball player stats are improved, and I hope you like the changes. First, we have a lot more data as I pulled in all regular season game stats going back to 2010 for all players. Now you can filter our player stats for any date range in a season, to find out things like, RBI leaders from March 29, 2018 (Opening Day last year) through April 30:

The game stats are also improved in layout, now showing the visiting team and home team stats separately, side-by-side (on wider screens). That was bugging me from the prior version.

Other improvements I would like to see are dollar values and other fantasy point system scoring options to accompany the stats tables. This is a complicated issue.

The game log stats should make their way to the player pages eventually. I am also continuing to develop improvements to the stats (and the whole site) for smaller, mobile screens, since none of us can stay off our phones these days.

Player News Research Tool

We have a new fantasy baseball news tool. You may not have known there was an old one. The old one grabbed fantasy headlines from RotoWorld to include on the player pages, and we pushed those to Draft Buddy. The news updates in Draft Buddy are found on the far right side of the hitters data and pitchers data tabs.

The new tool tracks articles and posts from a lot more websites, including local and national news sources, team blogs, official team sites, and fantasy resources. Where possible, the tool tags all players mentioned in the article or post. I am still making some adjustments to refine the tagging by teams, players and keywords, like “prospect”, “contract”, etc. Here is recent news in which Mookie Betts is tagged:

Okay, that is it for today. If you want to contribute your fantasy baseball knowledge to the cause, then please let me know.

2019 Fantasy Baseball Draft Buddy, Last Player Picked

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Fantasy Baseball Draft Buddy

Hitters with target percentages tab from 2019 fantasy baseball Draft Buddy

Draft Buddy and Last Player Picked are now available for the 2019 fantasy baseball season. Draft Buddy includes Steamer projections, MLB depth charts and Average Draft Position data from early National Fantasy Baseball Championship drafts. Last Player Picked is loaded with Steamer projections.

Since I had all the necessary data readily available, why not make these tools available earlier than usual? I’m sure many fantasy baseball players are already looking ahead to the upcoming season, and would love to start their research over the holidays. Historic stats for the 2016-2018 seasons are in Draft Buddy, and you can run LPP with last year’s MLB season stats, too.

Fantasy Baseball Draft Buddy

For those not familiar with Draft Buddy, it is our custom cheatsheet rankings and draft tracker tool, based in Microsoft Excel. It works for roto and fantasy points scoring, mixed, AL- and NL-only player leagues and auction and pick style drafts. You can customize your cheatsheets in a variety of ways, including a weighted average of projections and prior stats. We update Steamer projections and add more projections sets through the winter and early spring.

This version of Draft Buddy includes Target Percentages, a concept we learned about last year from our fantasy baseball guru, @Roto_Chris.

Last Player Picked

Last Player Picked

Last Player Picked hitters output using 2019 fantasy baseball projections

Last Player Picked is an online tool that provides rankings with dollar values for players. It works for roto and fantasy points scoring, and mixed, AL- and NL-only leagues. You can input rostered players and values for keeper leagues, to see the inflation impact on the remaining available player pool for your fantasy baseball league.

Not sure which to use? Try both! Draft Buddy is a download and does require Microsoft Excel to function. Register a free member account to access the Draft Buddy download. Both tools are free to use. Now get and early jump on the competition in your fantasy baseball league. If you have any questions about either feature then let me know.

Thoughts for Final Week of Fantasy Football Drafts

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Peyton Barber

I recommend drafting Tampa Bay Buccaneers RB Peyton Barber given his current fantasy football draft cost

And just like that we are into the final week of fantasy football drafts. As I posted over at the FF Today Forums this morning, announcing our latest Draft Buddy projections update, today I am going to sign up for some more online drafts.

Then, I will surely be kicking myself later with all of the time required for in-season management thanks to being in too many leagues! Ah, but I love to draft! Best ball?

Here are some notes, updates and random thoughts for your fantasy football draft before we get into real football starting in exactly one week!

Draft Buddy Projections Update

This morning we updated the FF Today projections, rankings, ADP and depth charts in Draft Buddy. Here are the projection highlights:

  • Alshon Jeffery down
  • Dallas Goedert up
  • Sammy Watkins down
  • Chris Hogan up
  • Slight bumps for Bilal Powell, James White and Peyton Barber
  • Slight bump down for Carson Wentz

A tip I mentioned on Twitter… if you have keepers and/or draft pick trades in Draft Buddy, on the action tab change both reset options to “no” before hitting Update Projections.

Thanks for supporting Draft Buddy, and good luck to everyone still drafting!

Recent Draft Results

Here are rosters from six of my drafts (yes, there are more) to help me pick out some trends to hopefully provide some insight for your remaining drafts.

Apparently I have zero luck getting a Top 6 pick this year. The Dirty Dozen was set by prior year finish, but three times picking 12th, two 8th and one 10th. C’mon man.

Quarterback

While I went with a top QB a couple times, I definitely lean more to the wait. There is a big group of players with similar expectations. Jared Goff and Derek Carr represent a great combination of low cost and upside in my opinion.

I was not even dreaming of drafting Jameis Winston at the start of the preseason, but he’s looked great and Bucs offense has numerous weapons. I wouldn’t normally hold a third QB but between Winston, who could perform as a Top 6 QB upon his return, over throwing another dart at a bench RB or WR, it feels worth the wait for a draft cost of next to nothing.

Running Back

These drafts are in order from most recent to oldest, left to right first row then second row. Note the last four drafts I took Kenyan Drake. He is getting a little more expensive now as people are seeing the opportunity available to him.

Clearly I was searching for value at RB from the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts backfields throughout draft season. I still think Ty Montgomery will be passable fantasy contributor (all of these drafts are PPR) but I am pretty much fading the three Packers backs now.

On the Colts, I will still take a shot on Jordan Wilkins because there are Nyheim Hines believers out there, keeping Wilkins cost pretty low.

Wide Receiver

At WR, wish I had a little less Demaryius Thomas, as he is sliding in drafts now, and wish I had more Cooper Kupp. He will be a sweet security blanket for Goff, and is used in the red zone.

I tried to make a point of grabbing Marquise Goodwin before the market caught up with him, but then you can see with the two most recent drafts I switched gears to the now cheaper Pierre Garcon. At the end of the day, I want a piece of the San Francisco 49ers passing game, and preferably (as with all picks) at a reasonable cost.

Tight End

Top TE hasn’t worked out from a value standpoint the last couple drafts, and I’ve become more interested in Indianapolis Colts Jack Doyle. I have a little apprehension about the potential slice of receptions going to Eric Ebron over Doyle.

Ricky Seals-Jones has a nice opportunity for himself and is really cheap. I’m in, obviously, but realizing how unreliable he very well could be, I opted for Ben Watson in my last draft over Seals-Jones. I may take a third TE in that league (still drafting), RSJ or rookie Dallas Goedert, to see how each start the season under my team control rather than taking a chance leaving them on waivers.

Draft Peyton Barber

In the interest of time I’ll post my tweets about drafting Peyton Barber.

Yikes, that is a lot of RB to name below Barber when I was originally throwing out an estimate of 10. Will definitely need to revisit this one later.

Good Luck Champ!

Darren Summer

Two-time Fantasy Football World Champion and long-time Draft Buddy member, Darren Summer

Crazy I didn’t piece this together years go, but we have a pseudo-celebrity among our Draft Buddy members. Or maybe better to say A-level celebrity (in fantasy football circles). Darren Summer, who has used Draft Buddy for years and years, we’ve emailed back and forth pretty much every season, and I knew he played in the higher stakes leagues online and in Las Vegas.

Darren is the 2018 Scout Fantasy, Fantasy Football World Champion. And… he also won it in 2016! Two-time champ! Draft Buddy user. Awesome stuff Darren, and good luck again this year!