Every good worker has a good set of tools. What would you think of a doctor who walks around with a rusty hacksaw? How about a meteorologist who uses a Magic 8 Ball? What if the band Tool didn’t have musical instruments?
Every good fantasy baseball player needs a good set of tools, too. Over the past decade or so, I’ve been tracking down some of my favorite free fantasy baseball tools for my readers. Why free? Well, you already pay for a subscription to The Athletic, and we’re grateful for that, so we want to help you save money elsewhere. (Here’s a quick one: try cooking popcorn on your stove instead of buying microwave bags. It’s ridiculously cheap, and the taste is 10 times better.)
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While there are probably hundreds of fantasy baseball tools out there, we tracked down a little over a dozen of them here. These are the cream of the crop! They’d be hitting cleanup in any fantasy tool lineup.
I broke these free fantasy baseball draft tools down into a few different sections to help you decide which ones you might want to use and which ones just aren’t for you. It’s also very likely you’re aware of many of these tools, but my guess is there are one or two you’ve never seen before! Enjoy!
17 Free Fantasy Baseball Draft Tools!
OK, now here are the best unAthletic fantasy tools you can use for your drafts!
1. FantasyPros Mock Draft Simulator
For me, this is the best fantasy baseball draft tool not on The Athletic, mostly because it allows you to run free one-man mock drafts up against the consensus rankings of dozens of fantasy experts, including many of the writers on this site.
You load up your draft settings, league size, scoring type, etc., and a set compiled average rankings from several writers (they change each time you do it) are loaded up to draft against you. You also choose where you’ll pick, and you can change that each time you run it, too.
In 15-20 minutes, you’ll go through an entire mock draft – with the ability to revert a pick to see what would’ve happened if you took the other guy!
While this is a free tool, there are some limitations unlocked if you subscribe, and there are a ton of extra features if you do choose to pay, including the ability to get keepers removed from the draft, and much more customizable settings.
If Bill Belichick played fantasy baseball, he’d use this tool.
2. Roster Resource’s MLB Depth Charts
I’m a big fan of great depth chart pages in both fantasy baseball and football because it’s a one-page window into what the future holds at certain positions on certain teams. But they have to be smartly arranged, easy on the eyes and updated frequently. Roster Resource has gone through a couple different names, but they’ve been the best depth charts around.
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On these depth charts include not just their projected 25-man roster, but also their projected lineups, rotations and bullpens, along with notable minor leaguers and their prospect rankings nearby.
FanGraphs smartly bought the baseball depth charts side of this site, which is like when your favorite math teacher marries your mom!… But not quite as psychologically problematic later in life.
3. Rotoworld’s Fantasy Baseball Player Headlines Page
Of course, you already know about Rotoworld’s player updates, but did you know about this page specifically? It’s all the most important fantasy baseball player news of the day. Rather than their normal updates page, which pushes some updates down with less important updates, this page is stocked with what you need to know. I like to have one tab with this page open on my browser all day, and it updates on its own, so I can pop in and out for a quick recap on the day!
4. NFC Average Draft Positions
The National Fantasy Championships are known for being the spot where the big boys play, so what better place to look for ADP information than here! It’s like asking the best novelists in the world what books they’re reading or asking the best chefs in the world what’s their favorite things from Taco Bell!
5. Razzball’s Stat Comparison Tools
I’ve mentioned these before, but I like how easy these tools are in helping readers get a quick look at what an advanced stat looks like next to a player’s fantasy stat.
- FIP vs. ERA for Pitchers: See which pitchers have a chance to trend toward better or worse ERAs in the coming months.
- BABIP vs. Batting Average for Hitters: Which batters just haven’t seen the best “luck” compared to what their BABIP suggests against their average.
6. CBS Sports’ Roster Trends
Back in the mid-2000s, data mining was becoming a thing – creating content out of data companies already had in house from their user-based statistics. I was part of the team that came up with what people wanted to see and read about, and that included which players were the most added, most dropped, most viewed and most traded. If you have a team on CBS, you can also get numbers for most owned, most started, most activated and most benched. All this information can be useful at different times for different reasons. Other companies have since joined the fray, including Rotoworld, ESPN and Yahoo!, but CBS is still my favorite.
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7. Closer Monkey’s Bullpen Alerts
Keeping track of who’s finishing games and picking up saves is important, but knowing who is on deck to replace those guys is even more important. Ramp up your bullpen game with these free updates, whether you use their email updates, text alerts or tweets. Find out which pitchers are seeing action, and which closers might get the night off because they’ve pitched in consecutive games. There’s no need to pay big money for closers anymore.
8. Closer Charts – ESPN and The Fantasy Fix
I like the closer chart over at Closer Monkey, but I like the closer charts on these other spots for different reasons, too. Figure out which format you like best, but bookmark the other two for confirmation before you draft a bullpen arm.
ESPN’s is nice because it’s broken down by division, and there are some short writeups after each division with the news you need to know.
But the chart on TheFantasyFix.com is way more extensive, without the writeups and explanations. They give you the current closer, the handcuff option, another option, and a darkhorse option. Finally, they even give you their best guess on who the 2021 closer is expected to be! Extensive!
9. FantasyLink Chrome Extension
Do you use Chrome as your Internet browser? Or are you still kicking it with Netscape Navigator? If it’s the former, then check out this Chrome extension if you also have a league on ESPN, Yahoo! or CBS. It will scan your rosters and your league’s free agency, and places links next to the player’s names to sites like FanGraphs, Baseball Reference and Baseball Savant. This essentially gives you quick access to more powerful stats from your league service.
Intermission: Plugging our own tools!
OK, these aren’t technically free, since you already pay a subscription. But consider them part of your membership perks!
A. Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit
This link has links to everything worth linking to this spring, including four very important sets of rankings:
- Jake Ciely’s 2020 Rankings
- Derek VanRiper’s 2020 Rankings
- Al Melchior’s Top 325 Hitters
- Eno Sarris’ Top 175 Pitchers
If you don’t know these names, just know that these are four of the most respected names in the industry, with a combined 60-plus years of fantasy baseball writing experience, and close to 100 years of playing experience. They. Are. Fantasy. Ballers.
B. Youth Camp
One of the most important types of players to learn about are often the ones who have played the least – rookies and prospects! Here are a few links to the most important articles dealing with these baby boomers:
- John Sickels’ Top 100 MLB Prospects for 2020
- DVR’s Most Valuable Rookie Hitters for 2020
- Early 2020 MLB Draft Preview
The draft kit also links off to rookie rankings, sleepers, breakouts, busts, bounce-back players, and a ton of other useful articles that will make you a fantasy baseball beast like no other!
This fantasy writing staff is stocked with fantasy writing award winners and fantasy writing hall of famers, with Ron Shandler among them! He’s, like, my hero. I’m mad I don’t have a Ron Shandler jersey.
Bookmark this draft kit! And now back to our regularly-scheduled tools compilation!…
10. Fantasy Baseball Google Alerts
Speaking of Google! This is one of those free fantasy tools you might never have thought about, but it’s helpful! Add an alert for “Fantasy Baseball,” on Google Alerts, and you’ll get links to fantasy baseball news and articles delivered to your email every day. Free!
11. FanGraphs Player Graphs
FanGraphs is one of the most extensive baseball statistics sites, and I lean on their stat leaderboard pageswhen I’m doing comparisons. It has the cleanest look, best ease of use and it’s one of the most extensive in my opinion. Their player graphs pages are a deep dive into each player, with charts for great visual aids. On these same player pages, you’ll see links to FanGraphs’ most recent articles that touched on that player and the most recent fantasy player news from RotoWire.
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12. Razzball’s Fantasy Baseball War Room
Their draft war room tool helps you practice building your fantasy team, but it also helps you track where you are during the middle of your draft. Are you top-heavy on some stats and too deficient on other stats? This is great for Rotisserie owners, of course, as it can help you build a well-balanced team, just like your breakfast that includes Lucky Charms!
13. FantasyPros’ Cheat Sheet Creator
Let FantasyPros do all the work of cheat sheet creation! Pick which positional rankings you want along with your overall rankings, and set which eligibility rules are being followed. Then it combines the rankings of over 60 fantasy writers to give you a great reference sheet. One of my favorite features if that you can add tiers and tags (sleeper, avoid, etc.) to your cheat sheet to really make it useful for your draft.
14. MLB Pipeline – 2020 Prospect Watch
There are dozens of spots to learn about young players, but MLB has really improved their own prospect information in recent years, and the MLB Pipeline is great. Sort by the top 100 prospects, or sort by the top 10 prospects at each position. Get to know next year’s players today!
15. Tout Wars Player Values
If you’re in a fantasy auction or a fantasy draft, follow the action on what’s considered the greatest set of fantasy baseball leagues in the world. There was even an amazing book written about this league about 15 years ago called “Fantasyland: A Sportswriter’s Obsessive Bid to Win the World’s Most Ruthless Fantasy Baseball,” which introduces you to one Nando Di Fino (Ed. note: Hello!). It’s still one of my favorite all-time entertaining reads. I won the Tout Wars Mixed League back in 2008, and this league has gotten bigger and more competitive ever since!
16. Prospect361.com’s Dynasty First-Year Player Draft Rankings
Knowing the prospects is one thing, but figuring out where they fit in with your dynasty fantasy team’s plans is something else. Prospect361 takes a look at the first-year players and where they rank against each other if you were doing a dynasty redraft or first-year draft for this season. Baseball is tricky in this aspect compared to football because you have young players who aren’t considered rookies, yet.
As I mentioned, I’ve been tracking free fantasy baseball draft tools for the better part of the past decade, and I’m looking forward to hearing your reactions to the ones I’ve listed above, and any new ones you know of that I can add to my future list!
(Top photo: Elsa/Getty Images)
