Be sure to read Part 1 here and Part 2 here!

Dominate your draft! Conquer your league! Humiliate your friends! It’s the time of year when some non-Razzball sites try to lure you into paying $19.95 by promising you success not just in fantasy baseball but in military takeover.  Destroy! Obliterate! Decimate!  I don’t know about you, but I’m turned off by fantasy baseball ads that sound more like commands from a war general than ways to improve how you look at some numbers.

There are three keys to fantasy success, and those kind of sites aren’t selling any of them.  

The first is Time Invested.  

The second is Skill.  

Before I tell you the third, is anyone else addicted to this stupid Safeway Monopoly game? I know I’m not going to win, but I keep hearing this voice inside my head saying “maybe no one else is trying as hard as you are… maybe you’ve got one of the rare pieces that they only make one of…” If you ever thought fantasy baseball was a waste of time, lady and gentlemen, I present Safeway Monopoly.  I swear I spend over an hour each week going through those annoying little stickers, all of which I already own.  Success in Safeway Monopoly is different than success in fantasy baseball. There’s no skill – anyone can lick stamps and put them on a board. There’s no benefit to the time you invest – I have some friends who haven’t won squat despite shopping exclusively at Safeway and scouring the internet to find rare pieces.  Yet, another friend of mine won $200 on it with no effort.  You know why?  Luck.  Those who win at Safeway Monopoly have one thing: luck.  And so do some fantasy baseball players. The third component to fantasy baseball success is luck.  

Jay’s Note: I’m happy to present a unique addition to our preseason content, as one of the readers/commenters approached me about writing on the subject of “the Razzballer”. This story isn’t just unique to Webelos Willie, but to all of you as well, and maybe even the most human story I’ve ever read. Okay, maybe not to that degree, I’d probably give that award to L. Ron Hubbard’s “Battlefield Earth”, but regardless, this three-part series was such a great treat to read and because of that, I invite all fans of the site to tell us your story down in the comment section… How do you prepare for the upcoming season? How do you use Razzball? So, without further ado, here’s Webelos Willie’s Razzball story, and it just might be your story too…

It is four weeks before my draft and a lyric from a Tom Petty song plays over and over in my head. The waiting is the hardest part. MLB spring training games haven’t started. My commish hasn’t renewed our league yet. We aren’t even sure if all of last year’s owners are returning.  

This is a crucial time for fantasy baseball and nothing has happened yet…

I have found that there are three components to success in fantasy baseball. Each week in this series I will mention one. The first is: Time Invested. Sometimes just showing up everyday leap-frogs you over the owners who are used to fantasy football and forget to change out their lineups some mornings. Look, fantasy football is checkers. Fantasy baseball is chess. Fantasy football takes a little bit of time every week. Baseball requires your attention every damn day for half of the year. But right now – before the baseball season has even begun – is when the time you invest really pays off.  

Here’s how I am spending my time right now during the fantasy baseball preseason…