"So you have no frame of reference here, Donny. You're like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie and wants to know..."

Ok, perhaps that was just a gratuitous way to sneak a Big Lebowski quote into this post.  Regardless, this entry is going to focus on setting up two tools that should help you either a) get up to speed quickly on fantasy baseball if you're new or b) give you important information very quickly about players and changing roles so you can be the first to act when new information becomes available.  The two tools are Google Reader (with rss feeds) and twitter.  The nice things about both tools is there is nothing to install and both  are easily accessible from mobile devices (iphones/blackberries) as well as from any computer with internet access.

First google reader

Step 1:  Set up an account at reader.google.com.  If you already have a gmail account, you can just use that as the log in.

Step 2:  Click Add Subscription in the top left.  Paste in these urls
http://razzball.com/feed/
http://feeds.feedburner.com/rotofeed
http://www.ballbug.com/index.xml
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/rss_2.0/
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/?feed=rss2

And if you subscribe to Baseball Prospectus or Baseball HQ, you can probably search for their feeds as well.  But those should keep you up to date on the latest baseball happenings.

Step 3:  Now just click on All to get a steady stream of fantasy baseball information. When you've read your fill,  click "Mark all as read" so that you can better separate new information from old information.   If you want to add other non-baseball sources (why would you ever do that), you can make different folders in "Manage subscriptions"

There are certain things in baseball that you want to know very quickly, like when closer roles change, whether an injured player is starting, or when a hot prospect is called up, not to mention the daily checking on if a player is getting the day off.  In particular, keeping on top of the last one can be quite beneficial.  Many people could get 5-10% more stats just by fully utilizing their 182 game limit for each position.  For the latest information, I like to use twitter. 

Step 1: Sign up at www.twitter.com
Step 2:  Click "Find People" then search on twitter for and follow (or click on the following link and follow)
FB365
baseballtips
therotofeed
SeanRoto
GreyRazzball
knoxbardeen
bigjonwilliams
robertreed
TroyPatterson
rotoinfo_com
Alyssa_Milano

Yes that last one is Alyssa Milano.  She sleeps with players, she gets insider information. 

Step 3:  Even better than these feeds is the twitter search feature. If you want to know the latest info (like on a player starting, or weather in chicago, if any new information is out about players being offered you in a trade), I'd recommend searching twitter. I find it the fastest way to get the latest news.


Step 4:  Try to check twitter often

Hopefully those tools give you an edge, allowing you to be first to the free agent pool and/or your lineup as new information comes out.

Additional Tool:
One last point, if you have a blackberry or iphone, you can take advantage of this information easier with an app from yahoo or espn.