In so many of these fantasy baseball articles, much of the focus is placed on specific players and their analyses. Will Ryan Braun repeat his rookie season, or be a 2^nd round bust? What should be expected of Kosuke Fukudome? If Barry Bonds finds a new team, will he be the sleeper of the year? If Rich Harden has a few quality starts, will the Athletics quit while they’re ahead and just store him in Bubble Wrap until the trade deadline? Today, however, I’m going to deviate from the typical look at players who should or should not be on your radar by taking a step back and commenting on the draft itself, including how to exploit the tendencies of the other fantasy managers. After all, the amount of energy exerted already by baseball writers on the effects of Johan Santana’s move to the Mets could power a small Midwestern town, with enough power left over to fly Kyle Kendrick to the Japanese team he thinks he’ll be playing for this year.

Managers Playing Favorites: Last year, I finished first in a public league where one of the teams I competed against was named “Loyal Royal.” In the draft, that manager grabbed ex-Royals Jermaine Dye and Octavio Dotel in rounds 5 and 7, respectively, and would later pick up Brian Bannister, Gil Meche, Joakim Soria, and Alex Gordon. As avid baseball fans, we may have one team closest to our hearts, but as avid fantasy baseball fans, we need to remain objective in determining which players are worthy of a draft pick, and when. It’s easy to spot the team and player biases when you’re playing casually amongst friends, as you see them often in their Phillies cap and Pat Burrell jersey. When you’re less knowledgeable about those you’ll face in a league, be ready to gain an advantage should they tip their hand and reveal their real-life allegiances during the draft. If someone names his team “Green Monster Mashers,” he may be unreasonably possessive of players like David Ortiz and Jacoby Ellsbury, and may reach for them earlier than he should. If you gather from live chat during the draft that one of the managers hails from Phoenix, he might be the one who has his eye on Stephen Drew. Use such information to your benefit, and you’ll be able to predict who will pay a premium for certain players during the draft, and later on in trade discussions. Just be sure to keep your league, division, team, and player loyalty a secret to the other managers.

Draft List Discrepancy: Another factor that determines where a player will go in your draft is the result of the default list compiled by the company hosting the draft. These default rankings allow even the most novice fantasy gamers to still be able to field a competitive team, even when they don’t know Jimmy Rollins from Jimmy Gobble. Such default rankings significantly reduce the chance for those who put in the effort and find the sleepers to keep them hidden from others, but you can still get the edge through other means. For example, as good a site as Mock Draft Central is in allowing you to get a feel for drafting prior to the real thing, ultimately their default rankings may lead you to continually see a player drafted a round or two earlier or later than they would in the actual draft for reasons beyond the human element. Below is a list of several players I noticed with a sizable gap between their overall placement on the Mock Draft Central default list and the Yahoo! Default list, recorded on the same day:

• Nick Swisher- MDC: 85^th overall Yahoo!: 103^rd overall
• Jermaine Dye- MDC: 90^th Yahoo!: 105^th
• Brett Myers- MDC: 94^th Yahoo!: 108^th
• Carlos Delgado-MDC: 114^th Yahoo!: 136^th
• Ken Griffey Jr.- MDC: 134^th Yahoo!: 145^th
• Robinson Cano- MDC: 80^th Yahoo!: 47^th
• Felix Hernandez- MDC: 95^th Yahoo!: 88^th
• Tim Lincecum- MDC: 129^th Yahoo!: 98^th
• Francisco Liriano- MDC: 140^th Yahoo!: 120^th

During the actual draft, many of the managers will be caught up in the moment, and no amount of mock drafts beforehand will fully predict the actions of the managers, including you. Due to time constraints on picks, managers may simply not scroll far down the list to find and grab players according to another company’s ADP. In the case of Carlos Delgado, you may have expected him to go around 114^th overall based on MDC, but when that point in the Yahoo! draft comes, chances are, managers are looking at the group of players near the Yahoo! definition of 114^th overall. This means that if you want Delgado, you can grab someone else you like with your 9^th round pick, wait until the draft swings back to you (whether that’s 6 picks or 16 picks later), and grab him then. Conversely, if there’s a 33 pick difference in Robinson Cano’s position, you’ll need to get into the mindset that waiting until the 7^th round isn’t going to cut it if you want him, because he won’t be around that late, based on Yahoo! standards. Also, notice that Myers and Hernandez are next to each other in MDC rankings, but you may not have to decide between the two during an actual draft, because there’s plenty of pick separation possible to give you a shot at both. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, and a manager may search by name or position, in which case you may lose the waiting game. However, if you’re looking to increase the value of your picks, be aware of precisely when a name will visibly appear at the top of the default list, because you may find that an earlier mock assumption won’t be the final say in a player’s true draft position.

Anticipating a Rival’s Next Move: For many of us, we conscientiously try to attend the live draft when it’s scheduled. In many cases, however, a fantasy participant will be a no-show, and opt to rely on the autopick option. Pay attention if this happens, because that team will be less discerning in its player selection. Some are willing to put in the time and pre-rank enough players to complete the draft, but others will leave decision-making privileges up to the computer and be at the mercy of the fantasy league’s default rankings, as mentioned above. When this happens, one of two possibilities will occur; either the team will take the best available player overall, or the team will start filling up starting positions yet to be addressed as the draft is coming to an end. Once you establish which teams have a human at the controls and which are at the whim of the A.I., you can start figuring out which players you can get to fall to you. If you see that a team is simply picking off the top of the default list, and you want to take Dan Haren with your next pick, your ability to get him will revolve around him being below the top overall slot when autopicking teams have their selection. Also, knowing which positions need to be filled by those teams in the last rounds of the draft, like a catcher, will let you know that your sleeper pick won’t be stolen away when such teams have other priorities and won’t deviate from positional requirements.

Use these helpful tips when it’s the real deal, and you’ll be in good shape to gain advantages. Whether it’s holding Jose Valverde hostage until your Astros-faithful friend gives you what you want in a trade, giving yourself an extra round to consider Nick Swisher and improving the value of the pick, or feasting on the predictability of teams being drafted without human strategy, there are ways to make the most of draft day. Like a poker player who looks beyond what cards he’s holding by reading the tells of the other players and knowing what’s next from their perspective, you too can be in a position of strength by knowing all the angles. Soon enough, you’ll know more about your opponents than they know about themselves when it comes to tendencies, and it’ll feel like their cheat sheets are in your possession, not theirs.