More often than not, playing in your fantasy baseball home league is more about bragging rights than anything else. Beat your buddies and you can walk a little taller throughout the offseason because you were smarter and played a savvier game all year. Sure, you can each kick in $100 to create a prize pool, but we’re not talking about potentially life-changing money. But with the rise of daily fantasy sports (DFS) and the ever-increasing number of competitors in the National Fantasy Baseball Championships (NFBC), people aren’t looking to bring home just the bacon -- they want the whole damn pig.

If you’ve got some disposable income and you’re looking to bank some real coin playing fantasy baseball, there are a number of high-stakes platforms ready and waiting for you. However, you need to make sure that you have your eyes wide open going in and are ready to commit. What we’ve put together for you here are just some tips to keep in mind if you’ve decided to walk down the high-stakes path.

Find a Trustworthy League

If you’re going to commit the kind of scratch it takes to win big, then you need to know you’ll be paid out properly and on-time at the end of the season. Don’t just hand over your money to anyone. Do your homework and make sure the company is reputable and capable of making the necessary payouts. The NFBC is obviously a great place to play, but you should also check out our friends over at RT Sports. Do not just hand over your money to anyone.

Stay Within Your Budget

Do not risk more than you can afford. If you’re going to freak out about losing $500 or $1,000, then maybe playing high-stakes isn’t for you. While you want to walk in to every league and say you’re going to do whatever it takes to win, fine, but the balls bounce differently for everyone and if you’re going to be a frantic mess at the end of the season because you’re about to lose your $1,500 entrance fee, play at a much lower price point. Again, it’s about disposable income here. Getting your daughter new shoes and school supplies in August is a lot more important.

Maintain Focus

This actually comes in two levels:

1. Make sure you are 100-percent committed to this league.

It doesn’t matter if it’s weekly roster moves or daily roster moves; you need to pay attention to what’s happening in baseball at all times. You need to stay on top of each and every one of your players and everyone else who may be available to you off waivers. You need to study injuries, trends, standings, and more. Take a weekend off to go to your buddy’s bachelor party in Vegas and you better make sure you set aside a few hours of sobriety to make sure you keep tabs on all things MLB.

2. Limit the number of leagues in which you play.

This comes from years of experience. As an up-and-comer in the fantasy industry, I worked a number of freelance jobs and in turn, joined every site’s fantasy league. Between my home league, industry leagues and a variety of other money leagues to which I was invited, I was spread way too thin. Some years it was upwards of 12-15 different leagues. That’s just way too many leagues, even for a guy who works in this business.

If you’re going to commit a large chunk of money in a high-stakes league, you need to limit the number of leagues in which you play. Not every league has the same rules, the same scoring, the same waiver process or the same deadlines. Keeping them all straight can be a massive pain in the ass and it also creates different values for the same player. Rougned Odor may be great for your standard 5x5 roto league, but in your Head to Head Points league, he’s not as appealing. Wait, which league is the high-stakes? Exactly. You may think it’s easy now, but once the season gets underway and players start off cold or end up hurt and you have to maneuver to keep pace, there’s a world of confusion that develops. That’s the last thing you need when you’ve got big bucks on the line. That’s not to say you can’t play in three or four leagues, but anything more than that, you’re risking focus and attention that needs to be present at all times.

Risk Assessment

There are some strong similarities between playing high-stakes fantasy leagues and playing DFS. In daily, if you’re looking to simply double or triple your money, you play cash games and use players who are considered low-risk because they have a high floor. You’re playing against a smaller group of people and using the chalk is what everyone is doing, more or less. If you’re looking for huge prize pools, you’re playing in deep GPP tournaments where you’re now competing with hundreds of thousands of people and you need to take some risks in order to differentiate yourself from the pack and take down the top prize.

In high-stakes fantasy leagues, you’re usually looking at the same sort of thing. If you’re just looking to triple your money, then you can simply focus on the individual league you’ve been put into. Usually it’s a 12-15 person league and you play it out for the title and the league prize. If you’re looking for the overall prize, that big $200,000 check, then you not only need to win your individual league, but also the winners of all the other satellite leagues. That usually takes an approach with a little more risk. Suddenly you’re relying on those injury-prone, high-upside players you would normally avoid if you were just playing it straight.

Before you even join a league, make the determination of how you want to handle it. If you just want to win your satellite league and triple your money, then play it safe and limit your risk. If it’s all or nothing for you and you want to take a run at the big money, set yourself up a proper plan and target those players you think will differentiate your team from that of everyone else. Just make sure that, even if you’re going for the big money, you don’t try some weird, oddball strategy that could lose it all within the first month of the season. There’s taking risks and then there’s flat-out stupidity. Know the difference.

No Trading

When it comes to high-stakes money, the reputable companies will not allow trading for fear of collusion. Makes perfect sense, right? This is extremely important to keep in mind heading into your draft. Some people like to load up on power early in their draft with the expectation of trading a power bat for some speed later on down the road. Not here, buddy. Not allowed. Be sure when drafting that you account for this. Yes, you can pick up guys off waivers to help you out, but you need to make sure you have your categories properly covered coming out of the draft.

Forward-Thinking

This is necessary for any type of fantasy league success, but even more important when playing in a high-stakes format. Be a proactive owner, not reactive. Have the foresight to know that a rookie will be called up in a couple of weeks and grab him ahead of time, not after the team announces his impending arrival. In a competitive high-stakes league, he won’t even be there on the waiver wire when he does get the call. It’s the same thing with potential closers. If you see a guy like Joakim Soria struggling and Juan Minaya is somehow sitting on the wire, you better grab him before he even sniffs his first save chance. You need to attack waivers ahead of time in order to stay out in front. Think of it like a chess match and see the board five moves ahead instead of just what’s in front of you.

The only other advice I think I can offer you here doesn’t come from me, but from the legendary high school basketball coach, Coach Finstock…

"There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that, and everything else is cream cheese."

Best of luck to you this season!