The Fantasy Baseball Generals is a website devoted to illuminating the underlying theory and strategies of fantasy baseball.  We call ourselves the Generals because we trumpet the idea that thinking about your opponents’ motivations, goals, tendencies and strategies is the paramount consideration in fantasy baseball decision making, and one that is almost never discussed in any great detail on any other website.

We try to illuminate these ideas through the examples of military history, economics, mathematics and world history.  With that in mind, here is what we are trying to do: Napoleon was one of the greatest innnovators in military history. He devised an army structure that got away from the massive marches and lines that armies generally used, and his defeat of the Prussians at Jena is the best example of this.  He emphasized speed and flexibility and did not rely on hoary old maxims and rules (and there is no shortage of such “conventional wisdom” in the fantasy world).

His army was a pyramid with himself at the top, and then various independent companies led by his best men.  He would give these companies the goal he wanted to achieve but would not tell them how to do it, leaving it to each individual’s genius and ability to carry out his plans.  In our view, what Napoleon was doing was “strategy,” and what his company leaders would do is “tactics.”

Virtually every fantasy website, big or small, provides information on how to be a company leader; they provide tactical information.  Virtually none talk about how to be the Napoleonic strategist. Which is why this website was born.

The great generals in history all crafted plans based, inter alia, upon their opponents and no plan could be enacted without great consideration given to their opponents’ methodologies, tendencies and psychology.  So, that is what we are trying to do here; to develop strategical expertise as well as tactical.

With this in mind we think that the type of information and the thought process you will see here differs from the morass of fantasy baseball information out there, and we hope you will agree.