I cannot imagine playing any fantasy game other than Scoresheet Baseball. For me, it has everything that's fun about fantasy baseball, and little of the drudgery. You build teams and set line-ups according to your own way,  then test it against other knowledgeable baseball fanatics without going through the trouble of having to micro manage every pitch or every at bat.

There are principally five different ways of drafting players for your Scoresheet team.    Each has their own scheduling considerations. All perpetual leagues start off with a protection list, which in standard Scoresheet leagues are due in late January.       If it is a new league or an annual league that is when the first round of players would be drafted.  Here is a summary of these drafting methods.

In preparing for the protection list, you certainly want to make some trades in order to make sure you have as many draft picks as possible and aren't throwing back into the pool any players who could have been combined in two for one deals to strengthen your protected 13. You might also need to take care of an excess cross-leaguer problem (no more than two players per team who are no longer in the league). Occasionally, a player you were hoping to protect will cross-over just before the player lists are frozen. That leaves little time to fix it. Hence, I avoid vacations during the last half of January.

The next three weeks will be when you will be doing your most important homework of the season. You don't want to analyze players who are already protected and pass over ones who aren't but who you thought would be. Write-off the first three weeks of February to prepare for the 2nd phase draft.

The deeper you get into the draft, the less critical the players are you are drafting. Hence, the pressure is off. However, there is still a large pool of players to choose from and there are always surprises in Spring Training. Be cautious not to over-react to spring slumps and hot streaks – especially early in the month. Complete unknown qualities, however, such as a Cuban import are worth re-evaluating. Sometimes, a pitcher learns a new pitch and takes a great leap forward. It is most important to keep up with news regarding injuries. Hence, wherever you go for March break, make sure you have internet access.

Leave time at the end of March to make your line-up decisions. The first one always takes the most preparation – especially if you are inexperienced. The pressure is now far less to make the perfect line-up as we can change it for free any time.

Keeping up with baseball news will be very important until the final supplemental draft – now scheduled in my leagues in early August. After that your team can go on cruise control for weeks at a time. I was in France with no Internet for all of August one year and still won 117 games. Do get back before the final trading deadline in early September to make final play-off adjustments. Then kick back and watch those most critical final four weeks pan out.