I've got my orange Crush

Heading into the Fantasy Sports Trade Association MLB experts draft in Last Vegas, I knew I had to change my strategy. (Luckily, I avoided employing the one that wasn't so kind to me at the tables.)

FIRST (Focus on Infield with Risk Spread Thin) made its debut, at least in organized form, at the Tout Wars mixed auction, and I used a similar staple for the LABR mixed online snake. It didn't happen chiefly because of this arrangement, but I finished in the basement in the first one, while I was competing for the title pretty late last year in the latter.

It's a tiny sample size to judge its use, but when I selected the 13th spot in this draft, I decided to revise my focus. The takeaway from my Tout disaster is that in the early rounds, you can't write off raw dollar returns, regardless of position - well, in most cases. This year, second base sticks out to me as a place to gain an advantage. You'll see I followed suit there but altered my tunnel vision a bit by taking two outfielders in the first three picks.

So for the 13-team, 29-round mixed 5x5 snake draft at The Mirage on Monday, I loosened my strings on what it meant to be a member of my fantasy core. Being at the wheel allowed me to address two needs immediately, so I had more freedom to not look at the POS column and instead look at the investment.

After all, the need for a firm plan in a serpentine process hardly matches that of a bidding war. By the time you start to reach the middle rounds, though, you just need to do what those smartphone-inclined kids are doing and APP: Adjust to the Player Pool.

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