Around this time of year, there’s much to think about. The NBA season is winding down, and the battle for playoff seeding is entertaining. March Madness is starting up, and everyone is rushing to fill out his or her bracket. The NFL draft is a couple months away, and free agency started Tuesday. Fantasy baseball is easy to forget about.

Yes, it is fantasy baseball draft season, and you shouldn’t forget that. Between bugging your friends to join and setting up the league, it’s not the easiest of things to begin doing, but is well worth it.

Between the pre-draft chat, researching some sleepers at catcher, reading Matthew Berry’s columns and planning a draft party, fantasy is fun before the season even starts —  which is where it really shows its importance.

I would have ordinarily nevercared about Salvador Perez’s play in the middle of July until I owned him in fantasy last year. I never had a reason to hate Jay Bruce until he beat me in the semifinals of my league two years ago. Fantasy baseball helps increase your interest in the sport, and keeps you watching baseball night after night, and for that it is simply the best.

Baseball is actually invigorating to follow on a night-in, night-out basis, but without fantasy you may not have a reason to get MLB.TV and follow 10 games on a summer night.

Let me give you a few words of advice.

First, don’t pay for saves. You probably just read that and had no idea what it meant, but neither did I when I first heard my friend say it to me years back. The closer position is ever-changing, and it’s never worth it to draft dominant reliever like Craig Kimbrel with an early pick when you can pick up a starting pitcher or catcher of more value. In the middle of the season, there’s always a guy who becomes a closer that you can pick up if you’re active.

For that reason, and many others, be active. This doesn’t mean you should live on your computer, but check your team at least once a week. As long as you don’t have injured guys in there, you’re good. You might want to peek at free agents during that time, too. If there’s a guy who’s being added by a crazy amount of people, you can pick him up without knowing anything about him and rub it in your roommate’s face later when he turns out to be a great pickup.

One more thing: don’t draft Starlin Castro. It’ll be the biggest mistake of your life. Just trust me on this one. Ballads have been written about my season last year. Just don’t.

Baseball is fun (who knew!) and you need to get in on it, pronto. Make a fantasy league, find a league, dream about a league. It’s a fun way to spend the summer, and you might pick up a new favorite sport.