Knowing Your Limits

My very first fantasy league was pre internet, back in high school. Me and 3 other friends would get together, have a live draft, and then follow the stats through the newspaper. It was a football league which meant there were fewer games, and each player was commissioned to check another guy’s stats. Then came Yahoo Fantasy Sports and the game was forever changed. I played one ‘test’ season of baseball on Yahoo and was instantly hooked. So hooked in fact, that the very next season I dove into four different football leagues, two public, two private. Didn’t take long before I realized the limits to my attention and competitiveness.

I know what you’re thinking, the more the merrier. But there’s a limit to how much attention you can place in a sport before it becomes detrimental. Today, I play in no more than two leagues per season, a number I find to be optimal for a bunch of reasons. Moreover, there are an optimal number of stat categories to play with as well, all centered around making sure you’ve got the best shot at winning. Let’s address some of the issues with playing in either too many leagues, or with too many stat categories, or both.

1. You Can’t Love All the Players All the Time

Of course, with the Team Analyzer, it sure seems easier to build winning teams! But look, if you’re sitting in three or four leagues, chances are you’ve got like 30 different players you’re rolling with and you just can’t be high on all of them. You’re essentially saying that the guys you have on one team in one league are good enough for a different manager owning them in a different league to win with. Moreover trade offers, add/drops, and roster moves all become that much more difficult. I head into every season with a list of guys that I want and while that list might change, I simply don’t accept having a team with guys I don’t want. I recommend playing in two leagues max, and working to have as many of the same players on both teams as possible. It cuts down the confusion, shores up your strategy and allows you to focus on what matters most, winning.

2. One Smaller League is Better than Two Bigger Leagues

Fact: everyone playing in more than one league will make the statement about each of those leagues that “There’s a couple guys that make moves but the rest of the league is dull and inactive”. I had the same problem early on. It boils down to the fact that there are two types of fantasy sports players, there’s “US” and there’s “THEM”. US are the people who spend time on sites like this, US are the people who are always working deals, and US are the guys who watch our teams as often as we can. THEM are the guys who like the idea of fantasy sports, but not the commitment. THEM are the guys who come to a draft unprepared, pick their players, and then are never heard from again until the next draft. THEM are the guys that do not eat, sleep, and live the game. Why play in two leagues with half of US and half of THEM in each, when you can just cherry pick the US’s out and form one solid group. One thing I can promise you, the rest of US in that league are dying for someone to take the reigns and make it happen. For my group, I was that guy. Every season I make it clear to everyone I play with, you’re expected to be one of US, if you turn into one of THEM, you’re getting booted to go play with THEM in a stupid nonsense public league. We must have active managers in order for us to be effectively active ourselves.

3. The 20 Stat Categories League

More is not better, it’s just more confusing. Adding in all the nonsense stuff like technical fouls and four different variations of whether or not a guy can hit a three pointer is pointless and damaging. The only thing this proves is that a commissioner can check a whole bunch of boxes in setting up the league. The unintended consequences of such a strategy are mind boggling. If you’re looking at your league and Brendan Haywood and Ben Wallace are top 30 players because you’ve added 4 different ways to calculate the fact that they get a lot of rebounds, you’re entirely missing the point of playing this game. They get rebounds, great, that’s nice, but they are not better than someone like Stephen Jackson who has a nice rounded stat line but doesn’t pull down 10 boards with 6 defensive and 4 offensive to compete with a Haywood. More is not better and it makes it harder to know who you should be going after.

If you’re a hardened veteran in fantasy sports, it’s time to step up and play right. No more than two leagues, with a reasonable amount of categories, so you can properly focus on a core of guys that will bring home the gold. If you’re new to fantasy sports then you’re lucky enough to read this and save yourself many seasons of frustration before figuring it out.

It ain’t about proving you can follow more leagues than the next guy, or more stats than the next guy, or more players than the next guy. It’s about proving you can beat the next guy by employing a consistent and effective strategy. This is how we dominate, this is how we win.

One last note about the Thief Nation forum and Team Analyzer. If you’re new to the site and don’t have access, but have read this post enough to make it this far, we welcome you here. It means you care about playing and winning and you likely can offer us as much valuable insight as we can offer you. To access the Forum and the Analyzer, click on the links above this post (Thief’s Tools and Thief Nation) for instructions on how to do so. We don’t give out blind access to ensure we keep THEM out. If you haven’t gotten this far (then you won’t be reading this) or if you haven’t noticed those links, and just send me blind requests to access the tools and forum, you won’t get very far. Current members can rest assured that they are surrounded only by US, and if you want to join, take the time to do it properly (it ain’t hard and it’s all FREE!).