Fantasy Baseball: Scott Pianowski's last-minute drafts tips — here's what you need to know

This yearly article used to be an email. Some baseball peeps would drop a note around draft time and ask for last-second advice, picks and pans, swing thoughts. I’d give a bunch of off-the-cuff observations and opinions and ship it out.

If you were in my inner circle — and not a direct competitor — I’d send you this stuff. Now, I give it away for free. Maybe it doesn’t help my bottom line — I know some friends will use this list against me in fantasy baseball drafts to come — but I’m here for the greater good.

Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season Imagine you were an hour away from your fantasy baseball draft and we met on the street. This is the stuff I would tell you. Top tips to crush your drafts — Hitting is more reliable, pitching is more variable.

So I start every draft with an idea that I want to pound the hitting and figure out the pitching. I’ll aim for one Hero SP at the front of my rotation, something in the first four rounds. I will consider Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet and Paul Skenes in the second half of the first round, but Logan Webb, Logan Gilbert or Hunter Brown later would also work.