Okay all of you fantasy baseball buffs, how are you making out? Did you have a great draft whereby all of your studs are healthy and producing as expected as you sit atop first place in your respective fantasy leagues?
Well mine is. At least in my family league with a permanent draft with four keepers from last season. But that's not usually the case with fantasy baseball, because many injuries, under-achivements, over-achievements, and emerging stars abound.
However, most of you guys are either in salary leagues and rotisserie leagues with more competition, and with an entirely different situation. I am also in a rotisserie league and am 17th in a league of 25, and 4,000th overall in the country with about 12,000 contestants. I feel your pain too. This article is not addressed to you hotdogs who are sitting snug in the top 3 of your leagues whether rotisserie or salary, but this is for those who didn't start off quite that well.
Let's say that, as my rotisserie team is, you find yourself with low numbers in several areas. For example, let's say that like myself, you have (based on 1-25 ranking in a league of 25) great numbers in pitcher wins, era, whip, batting average, and RBI, but are very low, with 3's or 4's or 5's in HR, SB, runs scored, Saves, and K's. What do you do with your team to try and lift the lower numbers and maintain those higher numbers to get back into the mix? And how do you do this in a league with limited trades?
My advice is to steady the ship and make changes at the same time. What I mean by this is that you must keep the players that contributed to your good numbers, unless they're injured. Then you must drop the pretenders who started off good, but who are currently hurting you. The ones like Jose Lopez of Seattle, Brad Hawpe of Colorado, Josh Willingham of Florida, to name a few. You have to spend a little more and put the quiet remedies in to replace them. That means you don't overspend so to keep the quality players who are carrying you, and you don't acquire the no brainers who are already performing well. This won't allow you to catch anyone since those people will have the same players anyway. What you do is take the quiet guys. For example, I'm keeping Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriquez, Roy Halladay, Pedro Martinez and Ryan (not Ron) Howard. They contributed immensely to my team and they must remain. I am in the case of the pretenders, replacing them with the quiet guys. The guys who can perform in the power and speed numbers I need, without spending money.
In my case, I am putting Coco Crisp back into the outfield for the stolen bases and runs scored. I am putting J. Cantu back at 2b for the HRs, and gambling a bit on Javy Lopez to replace Willingham, although that will cost a few dollars. But Javy may well get locked in and begin popping homeruns at an amazing pace as He has done in the past. That is two players who can quietly increase your homerun total, and another in Crisp who can quietly increase your runs scored and stolen base totals.
In regards to pitchers, I have bad K's totals and save totals but am doing well in the ERA, Whip, and Wins categories. So I am going to stay the course with the main players who accumulated the good numbers, and Pedro who has been a hardluck case in acquiring wins thus far, but they'll come. I will drop Josh Beckett and Dontrelle Willis for their lack of K's, even though I feel they'll get going. But I need K's, and right now it appears that Carlos Zambrano and Jason Schmidt are the alternatives which will bring my K total up. This may cost you guys money, but the K's will catch up with many players in your league, and enable you to re-adjust your lineup accordingly. This is where I will bench a high priced everyday player like Miguel Cabrera for a quieter and cheaper player who can maintain the numbers. A good example at 3b in this case is Garret Atkins of Colorado, when He is playing home. Bench him when away. This allows you to bench an expensive player and start better strikeout pitchers. You have to be keen and keep a watchful eye on when to do this.
I am going to go with dependable relief pitchers regardless of their current save totals. I feel this is an area where if you have stoppers who just didn't get win opportunities, that their teams will eventually give them save chances. Mariano is the obvious example here, but don't count out Joe Nathan yet. The Twins will no doubt get on a roll, and He will chalk up many a save before this season ends. So if you have quality relievers like I do, but don't have the saves, steady the ship, and keep them in there.
Actually, this is the angle one must take regardless of what league you are in. Whether it be a point accumulation league, a salary league, a draft league, or a rotisserie league, or any combo of the four, you will need to steady the course with players who can still bring you the numbers, as well as replace the duds, the one's you know are duds, with quieter, yet potent replacements. This way if the Soriano's, The Thomes, The Tejada's, The Suzuki's, or the expensive Santana's or Oswalts keep accumulating points, you'll keep pace but the people above you in the standings will probably have makeshift lineups that begin to struggle a bit, and will have to bench them pitchers anyway. But either way, you can keep the players that are producing, replace the players that aren't in a manner where you don't have to sacrifice those producing players, and adjust your lineup a bit according to schedules and costs. You can do it. Just keep at it. No true devout fantasy baseball buff ever gives up. You keep your hands steady on the wheel, and shift lanes quietly, as you veer for the end prize, the finish line in early October.
Steer the course, use quiet replacements, utilize schedules to upgrade pitching areas while maintaining the batting stats with competent temp replacements, and stick with your closers all season long, as they will accumulate saves and lift your numbers a little higher, or maybe even much higher. Steer The Course and find Quiet Replacements. It's not over until the fat lady sings. It's not over until it's over. It's not over until you give up. Never give up! The worst case scenario is that you will continue to run into bad luck with injuries, slumps, and underachievers the rest of the season while looking up at the guys who made all of the right moves. Even then, you'll be able to restrategize for next season. But let's not entertain that thought until September at the earliest. There's still alot of baseball to play.
Mark C. - (Baseball Etc.)
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