BAP Kardashians

BAP stands for "Best Available Player" in this case, a drafting strategy that is fairly common in fantasy leagues and that everyone should have at least a general understanding of.  The rational is that you should always take the best player you can at your draft slot, regardless of position, and then try and fill in any gaping holes later on when the difference between available players isn't so great.  Why take a 5th round talent in the 4th round, for example?  If you don't like the 4th round talent you picked, you can always trade him for that 5th round talent and get something extra to sweeten the deal.  It's a strategy that can necessitate a lot of maintenance, but if you're up to the challenge it can let you draft without worrying about positional runs or researching too heavily into deep sleepers.

Now, aside from ensuring that you have plenty of valuable trade chips by the 10th round, sometimes BAP drafting can actually result in a very impressive team on its own.  This is where the "Kardashian Principle" comes into play.  I call it that because basically you're prettying up a "nontraditional" looking team with a sweet back end of the draft.  Feel free to finish laughing before you scroll down.

Say that you have a late middle round pick, the 10th in a 12 team.  When your pick comes Robinson Cano is clearly the best pick available.  A dynamic, solid contributor in 4 of 5 positions, and a good bet to stay healthy as well.  Your second rounder nets you Roy Halladay, the best pitcher on the board by far.  You're all set here, and looking good.  Picks 3-7 however, net you Felix Hernandez, Adam Dunn, Mike Stanton, Drew Stubbs and Jay Bruce.  All excellent picks, but at this point you A) don't have a first baseman, and B) have a team batting average that will be lucky to break .260.  All of the traditional .300 hitters are gone by that point, and most managers are thinking about how they can flip some of their pitching or power for some singles.  If you draft BAP consistently, you'll be in this situation.  You can panic and start loading up on more power and pitching to trade, and lose out on the value that you should be taking on the 8th round, or you can stick to your guns and find creative ways late to keep your massive advantages in ratios and power intact while bringing that average up.  A player like Billy Butler is an obvious fix, but Logan Morrison and Freddie Freeman can be taken much later and give you 500+ at-bats of a .300 average.  Combine one of them with 500 at-bats of a super-utility like Ben Zobrist or (the cheaper) Jed Lowrie and you'll have a team average more in the .270-.275 range.  It's that easy, and they'll be cheap enough fixes that if you find out that it's not quite enough of a modification you won't be burning down the house trying to get a deal done later.

I'll be doing a series of quick-hit columns over the week so that you'll have a reference as to what "Statistical Kardashians" will be available in the back end of your draft.  A lot of drafting is not panicking when other managers deviate from your expectations, and having reference sheets are a great way to keep a cool head and put the pressure back on where it should be: on the competition.

As an homage to the above scenario first up are First Basemen, and then I'll try and get through the rest of the lineup by draft day.