This is my third year competing in TGFBI. I’ve been assigned to a league of fantasy assassins for 2023, League 5. Another challenge. Go to the link and scroll down for details.
Looking Back to 2022: What Went Wrong?
In 2022, I finished 77th overall, which was in the top 17 percent. I was 4th in my league.. I attribute my lack of 2022 TGFBI excellence to the strong set of competitors in my league, and a bad draft during which I made some poor picks. Particularly, my picks at the rounds 8/9 turn were horrendous. I rationalized it in real time. Looking back, those rounds 8/9 selections were panic picks. I felt I was being shut out of 3B and massively over-reacted.
The good part of making mistakes is you get to learn from them. I understand better my propensity for panicky picking, and now guard against it. Whenever I hear that voice telling me, “you’re missing out on 3B [or whatever],” I answer back: “TGFBI 2022!”
The fear I felt in 2022’s TGFBI derived from being overly concerned about tiers. Tier drafting is a thing in fantasy baseball. Players try to grab the best bargains at each tier. The problem with that style of drafting, for me, is that it leads to panic. That is where you make gigantic mistakes in the draft room. You tell yourself you must reach for certain guys or you will miss out on the tier. I’m not saying a good tier drafter cannot make the strategy work. Just that for me, it doesn’t work as well.
League 5 2023 Draft
Here is a link to our League 5 Draft Board . My picks through the first 10 rounds are shown in the feature image of this post.
I am drafting from the 7 hole, which I like because I feel like I am dictating the room rather than reacting to it. (Last season, I was drafting from the turn. ) For this draft, I didn’t take an SP1 until round 5, selecting the Guardian’s Shane Bieber with pick 67. Since, I’ve stocked up on solid starting pitching taking 5 SPs with my first ten picks. I don’t have a true ace on this TGFBI team pitching staff, but maybe I can make up for it because my SP4 and SP5 will be stronger than my competitors’ SP4s and SP5s.
Why so pitcher heavy this year? Several reasons. First, I like a lot of the offensive players in the back of the 2023 player pool. Second, you can get offense and saves off the waiver wire during the season. Finding good reliable starters on the waiver wire during the season is more difficult.
Game 