One of the biggest questions in fantasy baseball is whether to draft hitting or pitching early.  For me this isn’t even a question.  I go hitting early and I don’t think twice about it.  In today’s game pitching is a far more dominant force than hitting which makes hitting that much more valuable.  If you wait too long to draft hitters in an already thin position and find yourself starting Yangervis Solarte you are really going to be hurting.

In terms of depth pitching is far deeper than hitting is especially in some particularly thin positions such as shortstop, second base, and third base.  The drop-off between the top couple of second basemen or shortstops is significantly greater than that of the drop-off between pitchers.  For example at second base you have Robinson Cano, Jose Altuve, Ian Kinsler, and the usually reliable Dustin Pedroia.  Even in this short list, the drop-off after Altuve, and Cano is fairly significant.

Pitching can always be found late in your draft.  One of the best pitchers in all of baseball last season was Johnny Cueto and I didn’t draft him until approximately round 14.  This year Cueto likely won’t make it past the third.  The key is stacking up on hitter early and building that starting lineup, then going pitching before finally adding depth to your team.  In the first five rounds of the draft if you are able to draft yourself a second baseman, shortstop, third baseman and two more stud hitters of any position you are going to be in great shape for the rest of your draft.  Once the middle of the draft comes and the other owners begin panicking and reaching for hitters you will be able to sit back and stack up on pitching or build depth.  Guys like Jordan Zimmermann and Masahiro Tanaka will go in the middle of your draft where you will be in prime position to take them since you have already built up your hitters.  If those two guys are your first two pitchers, there is nothing wrong with that as they are two of the better pitchers in baseball and are more than talented enough to win you a fantasy championship. 

Another reason for taking pitching late in the draft is that it is easier to stream pitching than hitting.  For those who don’t know what it means to stream pitching it means to have one or two roster spots for pitchers that will be a revolving door base upon who is hot or has an easy matchup that day.  This is much harder to do with batting because to plug in a hot batter means taking out another hitter.  This isn’t always easy to do particularly the spot that your streaming batter plays is a spot occupied by a great hitter who just happens to be in a cold spell.  With pitchers they only pitch every fifth day so your not actually benching a player when you stream another starting pitcher. 

Batters play everyday whereas pitchers are very fifth day.  In my opinion it only makes sense to take players with your first few picks who are actually making a daily impact on your team.  Also, when I saw draft pitchers in the middle rounds that specifically means starting pitchers.  Do not fall into the trap of I have to draft Craig Kimbrel because he’s the best closer in baseball.  Without even drafting a closer last year I ended that season with Zach Britton, Greg Holland(through trade), and Jenrry Mejia all of whom put up very good numbers as closers.  Closers can be taken at the end of the draft or not at all as there are always closers losing their jobs or getting injured and replaced. 

The key here is to remember take hitting early, in particular those positions that lack depth, and draft pitching in the middle rounds where more than enough talent can be drafted.