Customer Reviews

Fantasy Baseball Strategy: Advanced Methods for Winning Your League

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Though the book does make you take a hard look and ask some serious questions about what your strategy and goals are (which is a positive), there are quite a few vital matters that are brushed over. For example, he talks about his "Fundamental Theorem of Fantasy Sports" and the notion that you want to operate your team in a way that will not vary depending on whether people know what you're doing and to adapt your strategy based on what the strategy of others will be. Fair enough, but he skimps over ideas and suggestions as to exactly how you go about gathering this intelligence, which is really vital to making it work. Trying to do it at the auction or draft is improbable since you're trying to do it for 9 or 11 other teams at once, and that just seems infeasible.

Furthermore, I take issue with some of his theoretical underpinnings. For example, he uses as a starting point the notion that the average (let's call it mean, for clarity) fantasy batting average is worth zero points. But in most leagues, the mean batting average is not worth zero, but 5 or 6 points. Given that his whole valuation system begins from this premise, following his system will give you overvalued players with high batting average and undervalued for everything else. I also question the almost complete reliance on the previous year's performance, which will cause one to miss out on promising young players who don't have much of a track record in the majors, and he doesn't address major league equivalencies of minor league performance at all that I saw.

It is a brisk read (about 3 hours to whip through it) and not terribly written, but to put a lot of his advice into practice (for instance, taking advantage of people with fluke performances) you would need to have a team structure with an enormous reserve. Since that's not the case in my league, I'm finding little of practical use here.

I couldn't understand the discrepancy between most of the reviews and one that seemed very different. On one hand, browsing through the table of contents of this book led me to believe that it is very different from what is out there. On the other, one reviewer was so venomous, I must admit I did have second thoughts about buying the book, having not heard of this author before. I was curious why anyone would tout an author's books so vehemently while ripping this one, that I was not sure what to believe. Some of the good ones did seem too good, but the bad one seemed too bad. I decided to look for an independent book reviewer on this book.

I found this at www.athomeplate.com

The review seems fair and at least the reviewer, Jonathan Leshanski, stand by his comments enough to post it on his website. You should decide for yourself what is real and what isn't. Here is what he wrote:

In the beginning when I picked up Fantasy Baseball Strategy I wasn't quite sure what to expect - after all I had never heard of Henry Lee and had no idea what type of information that he would be able to contribute about fantasy baseball. In truth I didn't expect to learn much more than I had in countless seasons of playing fantasy baseball and talking and debating with many other skilled players.

With that in mind I have to admit that I was slightly blindsided by Mr. Lee's overall approach. The book details not only fantasy baseball strategy but it also offers a system in which a player can use in creating a draft plan AND a regular season strategy of their own. The basics of the system are not complicated, but the details certainly are and in order to get it all down the player would likely require an analytical brain, time and a lot of hard work.

What this means of course is that the approach will not be for everyone, but for those that take fantasy baseball as seriously as they do breathing this book can open your eyes to some things that you likely overlooked.

One of the most wonderful things about Mr. Lee's system is that it doesn't matter what kind of a draft you play with or what categories your league uses - the system can be applied to every specific circumstance because you are forced to customize it.

The book consists of 11 chapters, which include: Characteristics of Champions, Fundamental Theorem of Fantasy Sports, Competitive Strategy, Valuation, Special Considerations, Management Style, The Draft, Free Agents, Trading, Keeper Leagues, and Putting it All Together.

The chapter titles give you an excellent overview of what is contained within. Of particular interest were the chapters on the Fundamental Theorem of Fantasy Sports, Competitive Strategy, Valuation and the Draft. Each of these chapters contains some gems that will benefit both the novice and experienced player. A handful of these tidbits are obvious although they are things that most of us never put into words, while others are much more subtle.

I'm not going to have the time to put a lot of Mr. Lee's ideas into practice this season, but even without that time I feel that I benefited from the book. I think most fantasy players will feel the same way. You might not have the time or impetus to use the tools provided to create your own custom fantasy guide (which this guide prepares you to do), but there is so much more in this book that you'll find yourself better prepared for your next league.

I don't know how well this system will work, but without having tried it I am very impressed with its fundamentals. I suspect it will make anyone that reads it a much better fantasy competitor.

I won't say the book doesn't have some flaws, but they are minor and no doubt future revisions of this book will get better and close some of the cracks. As for now, rate this a top fantasy strategy guide and give it 3 of 4 balls for all serious fantasy players.

Our Rating System is based on a four ball system as follows:
One Ball: Average. It has something to say but is nothing special.
Two Balls: Something men usually have - also means its a cut above average, and worth reading/owning.
Three balls: Stands out from its peers and is highly recommended.
Four Balls: More than just what two men have when hanging out together, it means it is an exceptional book that truly earns a walk - straight to the local book store to get a copy.

I liked this book. It may be a bit overwhelming for the beginner, but it covers new ways of approaching fantasy baseball. I wish there were a few more examples, but part of what it preaches is that you cannot just do the same thing season after season and expect to win. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results right?

I have spent a ton of time researching and trying to learn as much as I can about fantasy baseball. I have been doing roto leagues for 10 years and I have never found a book that was this good and detailed. I can say that I truly feel going into this year that I will have the best team when this season is over. Never before have I seen a side of roto baseball like this. I almost feel guilty using this book because it will give me such an advantage come draft day. I highly recommend that you get the spreadsheet that is available with the book. One last thing, I thought I had a concrete strategy going into this season and after reading the book I realized that my strategy was no better than the other 11 guys in my league. I now feel as if I will be unique.

If the author truly has a PhD in astrophysics, as suggested by one reviewer, he must have a Bush speechwriter as a ghostwriter since most of the book is at about an 8th grade level.

This book will help you only if you are a fantasy baseball novice, and you play in the same type of shallow mixed type league as the author. Or if you are an 8th grader.

Otherwise the strategies presented within have all been done before, and often written about more clearly and in greater detail by earlier authors.

If you are desperate to spend 20 bucks on this book, send it to me, and I'll send you the book and 10 bucks change. Otherwise you would be better served to read older books by John Benson, Alex Patton, Art McGee, Ron Shandler, and Pete Golenbock. Many of the editions are old or out of print but can be picked up for a few bucks either on Amazon or Alibris.

Read this in prep for my first auction draft to get a handle on the differences between that and the regular snake drafts I always played. Offered great insight on objective ways to evaluate and rank everybody. Also good chapters on strategy as well to help avoid pitfalls during auction. Recommended as a good read for anyone venturing into (or are already in) auction drafts.

Someone on a fantasy baseball discussion board said a good strategy book is John Benson's. I just got back from the bookstore and read Benson's section on 'Inside the game' from his Rotisserie Baseball 2004. There isn't much there. Even though the book is 440 pages long, 45 are devoted to the different rules, 45 I guess you could call strategy, and 350 pages are devoted to individual players. It is published in November so I didn't even look at the player analysis. Don't get me wrong, I'm thinking of ordering his Future Stars book, but for strategy, there is only one clear cut choice. I opened up Henry Lee's new book Fantasy Baseball Strategy and it is phenomenal. He gives clear examples of how strategies can create advantages for you.

After reading the reviews here, I was convinced this would be the greatest thing since sliced bread, or at least more valuable than Shandler or Baseball Prospectus.

I was sorely disappointed. The writing is poor, production values low, and the strategic analysis is nothing new. Shandler's LIMA plan is more applicable, better thought out, and has been around an been tested longer. I don't understand the unanimity of the other reviews. I must be missing something, because it's like I read an entirely different book. For the money I spent, I really feel quite ripped off. The same money would buy me a Shandler Baseball Forecaster or a Baseball Prospectus, and either one leaves me far better prepared to do well in my drafts and auctions.

This book might be of value to people playing their first fantasy league, but I doubt it. I can't recommend this book at all, and will be selling my copy. Maybe it's just not my cup of tea, but I find the writing poor, the analysis superficial and weak, the production of low quality, and the price too high. Good luck in your drafts.

I recently read and finished Mr. Lee's book on fantasy baseball strategy, and could not put the book down. I literally read it from cover to cover one afternoon/evening. What I liked about it is that it was an easy read with a plethora of great information. I have been playing fantasy baseball for the past 10 years and consider myself above average for my league. Although some of his information was a review, most of it made me think and open my mind to other viable strategies. I was truly impressed by this book. I have read John Hunt's book on fantasy baseball strategy but this was far better with more information and more practical to boot.

I can't tell you how valuable I found Henry Lee's book! After mainly floundering in our 12-team league for 12 years, I followed Henry's strategies for our draft and was in the top three all year, only to drop to fourth on the last day of the season. If you want a strategy that will catapult you to the top, look no further. Henry is the REAL DEAL! I highly recommend this book and Henry's spreadsheet to anyone who wants to win it not just be in it. Thank you, Henry!