Top 21 FREE Fantasy Baseball Draft Tools You MUST Use
Mar 17
How helpful is a listing of the best FREE Fantasy Baseball Draft Tools? Last year, I posted, “The Top 18 FREE Fantasy Football Draft Tools You MUST Use” and I got a great reaction from readers. It was definitely one of the most socially shared articles on my site, and it was one of the most read pieces on my site – not just during the season, but well into the Fantasy Football season. So I decided to also post this article, detailing the “Best FREE Fantasy Baseball Draft Tools,” and hope readers enjoy it just as much.
The funny thing about the football version of this article is that it started out as the “Top 13” tools, but people kept emailing and messaging me about some free Fantasy Football Draft Tools that I didn’t even know about. So one by one, the list grew to the Top 19!
So for this article, we’re starting with 21 – and we’d love that list to grow too! Send us some of your favorite FREE Fantasy Baseball Draft tools and I’ll add them into the list if I think they’ll be helpful to readers. (If you’re a website or a writer, and I missed your creation, shoot me a note!) You can contact me through this link – but be specific with why your draft tool is so helpful to readers!
These free Fantasy Baseball draft tools are not ranked in any order. But I numbered them for referencing in other articles. Enjoy!
Update — March 17: TWO ADDED FREE TOOLS HAVE BEEN ADDED!
19 FREE Fantasy Baseball Draft Tools
1. FantasyRundown.com’s Daily Article Discoveries
When I first published this article, I meant to add this one that I use daily and got caught up trying to find other ones. Goose at Fantasy Rundown sorts through all of the articles that get posted daily on all of the other Fantasy Baseball websites. Then he handpicks the best ones — and posts a link to them on his site. (He does this for Fantasy Football, too.) He’s like your personal assistant tracking down great content for you to read. He also gives a quick synopsis of the article, so you’re not just clicking blind. Great stuff!
2. TradeDebate.com’s Trade Rater
I actually have a widget for this tool that I keep in the right rail sometimes (like now!). Basically, you get to vote on other people’s trade possibilities, and then their community will get a chance to vote on your trade proposals. You can vote that Manager A wins, Manager B wins – or that the trade is fair! Then you’ll see what the community thinks in percentages. Just a great community tool that every site should have available!
3. FantasyPros.com’s Experts Consensus Rankings
You should be familiar with FantasyPros.com by now. While you might not have ever visited their site, you likely have seen their rankings widget on many Fantasy Baseball sites – like mine! I use them for my Fantasy Baseball rankings. Their free rankings on their site show the consensus rankings of about 50 writers, including me.
You can sort by all, by hitters, by pitchers or by individual positions. And you’ll see the “Best” spot a player has been drafts and the “Worst.” You’ll also get the average ranking spot, as well as the players ADP, and a special “vs. ADP” column. You can adjust the number of games for position eligibility – and you can sort rankings by just your favorite columnists, or eliminate ones you think are bad.
4. CheatSheetWizard.com’s Draft Simulator
This is a) entertaining as heck, and b) very helpful.
“The Draft Simulator is an efficient way to practice for your draft. It’s similar to doing a live mock draft except that you’re drafting against our computer algorithm (which uses a random selection of expert cheat sheets and ADP sources).”
You select your league size, roster requirements and eligibility rules – and then select which spot in the draft order your team will be picking – and then begin your mock draft. It’s a very fast exercise.
I did a 23-round mock draft in 10 mins. It even shows you the percentages of players that experts would recommend you pick. At any time in your draft, you can choose to auto-pick the rest of the way, or just start over.
If you upgrade to a PRO account, you’ll get more in-depth analysis, keeper support and more customizable settings. My guess is – you’ll like the free part of the simulator after using it a few times, and then you’ll fall in love with the upgraded version.
5. CheatSheetWizard.com’s Draft Analyzer
Along with the Mock Draft Simulator above, this tool analyzes how your team did and measures it up against other teams to see how you did.
That’s for free.
If you upgrade to a PRO account, you’ll get details on strengths and weaknesses, along with analysis of your ESPN and Yahoo drafts, and your real drafts. You can also import mock drafts from Yahoo! and ESPN.
6. Baseball HQ Friday Weekly Newsletter
Every Friday, from Jan. 25 through Sept. 6, Ron Shandler and his crew send out this awesome newsletter – fo’ free. Every Friday, when I get the email, I purposely don’t open it until I have enough spare time to read it through entirely. It’s informative on several levels, including analysis on some of the biggest issues of the week, and while it has a lot of “Fanalytics” talk in it, the newsletter never talks down to you. Fantasy Baseball players of all levels will get some great information out of this email.
You’ll get player analyses, statistical insight, Shandler’s Master Notes and innovative game strategies with every newsletter. BONUS TIME: You’ll also get Shandler’s “Unpublished Secrets 2013” report, which offers up a different perspective on the game we play.
7. MLB Depth Charts …
from MLBDepthCharts.com
This isn’t your grandfather’s version of MLB depth charts. You’ll get a team’s projected 25-man roster, including a projected batting lineup, bench, starting rotation and bullpen. They also show the platoons they expect to see, and indicate which players are on the outside looking in. Finally, they show notable minor leaguers for each squad, at each position.
Just a ton of information for each baseball team. Well done. It’s also something I refer to frequently when writing articles, building player rankings, etc.
8. ThomasGeorge.com’s Dollar Values Calculator
I remember working with Robert Burghardt back in like 2000 and 2001, when I owned FantasyRef.com. At any rate, I really like this tool! Cool way to get dollar values for a league with a specific size and style. And you don’t end up seeing an unreasonable 40 catchers with dollar values, like you would at some of the major media sites. (Very few leagues are drafting 40 catchers – much less spending $1 or more on them!)
You can even adjust the percentages you would like to spend on each position. They even show you their projections for each player for the coming season, so you understand why there’s a difference in price.
9. ThomasGeorge.com’s 2013 Position Eligibility Chart
A quick one-page, table-view look at position eligibility of players in standard Rotisserie leagues that use 20-games played as the eligibility mark.
10. ThomasGeorge.com’s Free MLB Stat Downloads dating back to 2001
As I mentioned before, ThomasGeorge.com has been doing this forever. So if you ever want to do your own projections, download the previous three years or so, average them out, then adjust those stats accordingly. Enjoy! TWELVE SEASONS’ worth of stats!
11. MLB Trade Rumors
This is like the ProFootballTalk.com of Baseball! They have their fingers on the pulse of every Major League Baseball team, and you’ll know about possible deals (and possible players to pick up) before nearly everyone else.
12. TheBaseballCube.com’s Stats Sorter
Another great source for stats. As a matter of fact, they claim to be the only site to have Major League, Minor League and College Stats for players all on the same page. You gotta love that! (ESPN’s Tristan Cockcroft turned me on to this site back in 2003 and I can’t get enough of it.)
They have some great stat records dating back to the late ‘50s. Wondering who had the most doubles at home in April while batting leadoff between 1990 and 1999? Then look here. (It was Devon White, with 11.) I could play with this for HOURS!!! … Seriously, though, don’t you want to know which right-handed hitting catcher had the most home runs in August (my birth month) since 1971 (my birth year)? (… It was Carlton Fisk with 71 homers!)
13. NFBC Average Draft Positions
Everybody loves them some ADP.The industry standard for Average Draft Positions has recently become the ADP rankings from the National Fantasy Baseball Championships, run by the guys at Stats.com. The Washington Post posts these ADP rankings for you.
This newspaper actually has several interesting stats for several sports on it, like for Fantasy Football, it shows “Most Dropped Passes” by position. (TE Jimmy Graham led the NFL with 13! Very helpful!)
14. MockDraftCentral.com
Most Fantasy Baseball writers hold their mock drafts here, and many of them can be found for your enjoyment! Better yet, participate in some mock drafts yourself! With the free membership, you can participate in one mock draft per day, and three per week. You’ll also get their ADP report, and a free Draft Day cheat sheet.
15. TheFakeBaseball.com — Draft Tiers
The guys at TheFakeBaseball do some good stuff – and I really like their printable Draft Day Cheat Sheet with the position tiers colored in.
It’s a PDF you can download for free, and it’s just a great overview of each position’s Fantasy depth.
Even if you use a different cheat sheet, this is still a nice piece of info to have handy. It’s pretty, too! (Their Cheat Sheet is also available at this link as a PDF file.)
16. DraftTracker.net Collects the Wisdom of the Crowd
Again, I’ll quote their own write-up for an explanation of their draft tool.
“Started in 2009 as a community project, DraftTracker is a FREE, Excel-based Fantasy Baseball draft kit. Unlike any other draft day tool, DraftTracker is the product of the “wisdom of the crowd”. Included are: Composite Projections from the expert community (up to 11 sources!) and Median Draft Position from the general public (7 ADP sources updated throughout March). Our mission is to deliver the most comprehensive and user-friendly experience to help you dominate your draft.”
While the product is free, they do ask that you chip in a donation if you like it. Me thinks you will!
17. Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy
The fellas at DraftBuddy.com put these free Fantasy Baseball Draft tools together. The Cheatsheet Compiler creates custom cheat sheets, tailored to your league, in an Excel spreadsheet. You can adjust their projections however you like. The Draft Buddy runs along with your draft, updating rosters and showing projected standings in all categories. For auction leagues, it also adjusts auction inflation calculations.
18. KFFL.com’s Who Do I Draft?
Limited to KFFL.com registered users, the “Who Do I Draft?” tool allows readers to post a question to the KFFL Nation for help with figuring out who to draft next.
19. DraftPickLottery.com
I love this site because you can do weighted lotteries in it. You can also do a straight random draw for your draft order, or you can set it up with a weighted system. Your weighted system can be a simple: 12th-place team gets 12 balls in this year’s lottery hopper, 11th-place team gets 11 balls, etc.
Or you can design it so you tell the system how many teams get how many balls in the hopper. For instance, I’m in a league where the worst keeper team from last year gets three balls in the lottery, the second-worst gets two balls, and everyone else gets one ball.
My only wish is that they would allow a – build-the-suspense option. That means they reveal the picks one by one, either slowly on one page, or you have to click to the next page each time. The slow draw is 10 times more fun than a quick load of a page. (For the designers: You’ll get more page views, too!) It’s all about the drama!
20. OddLEAGUE.com
Great new tool! oddLEAGUE emphasizes tiering players not by position, but by category, in a pretty simple, yet robust Fantasy Baseball drafting tool. They believe that live draft management is key to walking away from the draft table with a balanced team. With features like being about to predict the probability any player will be available with your next pick , this tool really separates itself from old clunky spreadsheets and complicated draft strategies other owners might be using. They’re using award-winning projections from FantasyPros and their ADP data comes from Mock Draft Central. All this for free!!!
21. Fantasy Baseball War Room – Razzball: 3000
Love this one! Basically, it’s a draft tool that will help you track where your team is at during every point in the draft. It shows if you have too many steals or home runs, or if your ERA or WHIP are too low. The tool goes off of Razzball’s projections and rankings, and you can use the tool post-draft, as well, to see how the team stacks up. Great concept, easy interface.
So do you have some free Fantasy Baseball draft tools that I don’t know about yet? Shoot me an email through my “Contact DG” page and I’ll check it out — and possibly add it! You’re also welcome to comment on this post about any of the tools above and your experiences with them. Good luck!
David, I’m blown away. I was completely unaware of many of these tools. What an extremely helpful compilation!
Thanks, Tim! I’ve been kinda working on this off and on for a few weekends. The “101 Fantasy Baseball Tips” e-book has me much farther behind on this site than I hoped to be! But yeah, the guys that created these tools/pages definitely deserve some props. Big help! (Thanks again!)