This week, everyone, I learned something important about fantasy baseball: You really, really have to look at the league
every damn day. Every day! I don’t know what I have been thinking, but I really let things go to seed this week for a variety
of reasons…and I am sorry to say, things are not going well. I could totally lie, you guys, and say that I let things go on
purpose just to see what would happen, but instead we can look at my laziness this week as a learning experience.
Head-to-Head League
The autodraft went off for this league last Thursday; I used the same rankings I’d used for the autopick draft in my Roto
League, mostly because I thought that it had worked pretty well for that league. I did not end up faring as well this time,
though – 4 of the players I drafted are actually on the DL, and I didn’t have a chance until the weekend to look through and
replace them with players from the FA list.
This league uses standard 5x5 categories, and the lineup is 2 C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, MI, 5 OF, Util, 2 SP, 2 RP, 5 P, 5 BN,
and 2 DL. There are 10 teams, and since it’s a head-to-head league, I will play each of the other 9 teams 2 or 3 times
during the 22-week season. The standings are determined by wins and losses, more like the MLB. Even though the scoring
is on a weekly basis, I will have to move the players around every day to make sure I have active players in each slot for
each day to maximize my point-getting ability.
Once I got some time to look at my team, I made a few moves that I hope will help me a little bit. I dropped Jeremy Hermida,
who’s on the DL now and may come back soon (or maybe not, since his replacement Luis Gonzalez has been doing well in
hitting) and picked up Coco Crisp. Maybe he doesn’t play every day, but at least he is healthy for now. And if he gets traded
to one of the Chicago teams like the rumors say, maybe he will play a little more for me. I dropped Kelvim Escobar (who’s on
the DL now with a shoulder injury that could be really serious) and picked up Tom Glavine, who is playing, and I dropped
Chris Ray (who is on the DL recovering from surgery last year) for Andy Pettitte (who just came off the DL). I also dropped
2B Freddy Sanchez, because he’s injured and I already have an extra 2B (Aaron Hill). I picked up Joe Crede, who plays 3B
and therefore can be CI in this league.
I drafted J.J. Putz, who’s on the DL for a few weeks at least, and B.J. Ryan, who’s on and off the DL. I decided that none of
the available FA pitchers were better than either of these guys (especially since Ryan is pitching on at least some of the
days), so I left them on the roster for now at least.
The scoring for this league starts this coming week, so I think that it is possible that I can be on top of this one right out of
the box. My first game is against Joe, my #1 source of information, though, so I am not sure how excited he will be about
helping me this week. I may have to throw myself on the mercy of some other friends I have who are experts and (perish the
thought) do some reading on my own!
Roto League
I was doing pretty well in this league when I checked last time, considering that everyone else in it has won or placed in a
fantasy baseball league before. Unfortunately, my slacking off has cost me. I slipped from 4th out of 8 owners to 6th. Yow! I
feel ridiculous about this, because I should have checked every day to move players from my bench to fill in for players who
were inactive on a particular day. To rectify this problem, I went ahead today and changed the lineups for the next week so
that at least I have players in each position – that should help – and each day, I will check in and see who’s hot and who’s
not to make some minor adjustments. This way, if there is a particularly heinous day during the week and I don’t get to
check in, at least I have the chance to get some points.
Points League
This week was a catastrophe for this league. I went from being 2nd out of 10 to 8th. Ouch! I did the same thing for this
league that I did for the Roto League – going through the games for each day and making sure I have at least someone in
each slot who is actually playing that day. This league is a little rough, because the bench is so small, and I don’t have any
extra pitchers, but there is not much I can do about that now. I’m going to conference with some of my roto experts this week
and see whether it is better to get more pitchers at the expense of batting or to stick with the status quo.
This week was not the best for me in terms of progress, but I did realize that there is a lot more dropping and adding in
fantasy baseball than in fantasy football. Even in leagues with big benches, there is just no way to fill every slot every day
without dropping people. I will try to do better this week in terms of looking at my lineups more often. Just as I thought earlier
this year when I started, fantasy baseball is a lot of work. I am hoping that the standings will fluctuate frequently in the Points
and Roto Leagues – I can’t be the only one who doesn’t have a player in every slot every day. The MLB schedules are just
getting started, so maybe I am just having bad luck at the outset. I also am working on learning more about the players.
What I am telling you is that I will absolutely have to put more effort into this if I am going to make a respectable showing this
year. At least I figured this out early…there are a lot of games left to play!
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