TG Fantasy Baseball

ESPN released their early-season Sunday night baseball schedule this week. Of course, we're going to see plenty of Yankees/Red Sox games on National TV this year. Why would this year be any different than years past, right?

The early-season schedule across Major League Baseball is a little different this year and fantasy leagues need to be aware of it. First of all, there is a two-game series in Japan between the Seattle Mariners and Oakland A's on Wednesday and Thursday March 28 and 29. AL-only and Mixed leagues need to be aware of this as these two games will be played a full week before the rest of the MLB schedule starts. Also, most teams will still be playing a handful of spring training games while the A's and Mariners are going at it in regular season action.

Next, the Miami (no longer Florida) Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals will battle in the opening of the new Marlins stadium in south Florida. They will play on Wednesday night April 4 as the only game on the schedule. The Marlins get a whopping one-game homestand and get a quick turnaround to face the Reds in Cincinnati the next afternoon. I don't know who scheduled that one. Maybe it was a disgruntled Mets fan trying to slow down Jose Reyes.

Finally, the rest of Major League Baseball begins on Thursday April 5 and Friday April 6. I can't remember a year when teams are scheduled to begin their seasons so far apart from each other. Oh, by the way, what happened to the tradition of the Cincinnati Reds being the team to start the season at home? That's long gone.

If you're looking at the full MLB schedule, be careful because it really isnt' clear which games are spring training games and which ones are regular season games.

For fantasy leagues, if you are holding your draft after March 28, our recommendation is to go ahead and count the games that have already been played, even though everyone knows the outcomes. It's only two games out of 2,430 total Major League Baseball games, which is less than one-tenth of one percent. If an expected scrub like Scott Sizemore, for example, has two big days in Japan and people in your league want to bid him up based on two games, go ahead and let them. Two games isn't anywhere near enough of a sample size to determine how a player will perform over the full 162-game grind.

Now, we certainly don't recommend waiting until after April 4 or April 5 to hold your draft, but missing one or two games before your draft is completely fine.