This is more of a general fantasy baseball strategy post (and aimed for Roto more than H2H). This is sort of a continuation of this morning’s roundup. Well… At least the thought process for why I’m writing it is in continuation. Do you start or sit pitchers? There isn’t an easy, broad answer to start every guy, so I understand the trepidation behind starting certain guys. You don’t want Ubaldo sitting on your team’s face right after he ate Mexican food. But you also don’t want to start a guy for all his bad outings and sit him for the great ones. In a lot of cases, Perry Mason, this comes down to over thinking. Listen, even your fearless leader sometimes over thinks his starts and misses a good one. And some guys really are for just matchups. You’re not starting “Fire Chin” Gaudin every time out.
Please, blog, may I have some more?fantasy baseball strategy
When you’re looking at pitcher matchups for fantasy baseball, sometimes the cards just align for certain guys. On the right day, Piniero can look like Winiero. Or Jamie Moyer looks like “Play Me” Moyer. Or Carl Pavano becomes Pava-yes. *Grey groans at his own wordplay* It’s all about the matchups, right? Anyone can win against the Nats… Well, maybe. Maybe not. I decided to look at teams in general to see what their overall stats could tell us about potential fantasy baseball matchups.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Last week in a barrage of me making sense, I looked at fantasy starters whose ERAs will get worst. Well, do onto others or turnabout is fair play or some other cliché leads me to this post — the inverse of last week’s or fantasy baseball starters who will get better. If you weren’t around last week, I mentioned what FIP is; don’t really feel like going into it again and regular readers will tire anyway, so go back and read last week’s. Anyway, here’s a list of pitchers with the biggest difference between their actual ERAs and their FIPs.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Let’s see, winner of the All-Star game gets home field advantage… The WBC… Open the season in another country… Steroids testing after letting the world believe Bret Boone was good… Finally, interleague play. Selig, hang your legacy right next to the monkey carcass that helped spread the AIDS virus. Well, interleague is here whether we like it or not. I don’t, but this is only partially about me. So what can we do about interleague play for fantasy baseball?
Please, blog, may I have some more?Okay, take off your aluminum foil cap you use to get better TV reception and put on your thinking cap because we’re going into The Land of Sabermetrics with your host, me. Today we’re going to look at FIP. Stands for Fielding Independent Pitching. It’s basically ERA without those pesky fielders helping or hurting you. It’s a pure ERA. It’s like when you go to the Supercuts and then you don’t want to shower because you’ll never get your hair styled again like Jeffrey does it. It’s your hair right after Jeffrey styles it and before you wash it. That’s FIP. Okay, so let’s take a Exhibit A pitcher who has an ERA of 2.75 but his FIP is a 6.75. A -4.00 difference. That means he’s been very lucky and there’s a good chance his ERA is going to go way up. So here’s a list of pitchers with the biggest difference between their actual ERAs and their FIPs.
Please, blog, may I have some more?We all realize that a player’s lineup position will have an impact on his statistics. I’ve recently been pondering the fantasy impact of scenarios such as:
What is the impact of Russ Martin and Matt Kemp’s fantasy value if they hit 2nd vs.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Ah, May. The time when trees are in full bloom, birds return to sing a new spring song, and you look at your fantasy baseball team and think, Holy Crikey I’m stuck in eighth place and my top three picks all suck and my bullpen is a mess and boy oh boy do I need saves.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Every season around this time of the year managers start to grow bored with their drafted players and the siren’s call of rookie nookie starts to take hold. As injuries and ineptitude begin to set in and pitchers go on the Disabled and Disgraced Lists, the buzz surrounding pitching prospects can overwhelm one’s better reasoning.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Always one to double check his Razzbill of sale to make sure he got everything he paid for, Razzball commenter Ron Mexico’s Papi saw my post yesterday about holding tight in your fantasy baseball leagues and flipped the script to ask me about selling high. Surely, if some guys should be held because they’re bound to revert to their old, productive selves then there must be guys who need to be sold off because there’s no way they can retain their torrid start. Yes, definitely. This is why I do a Fantasy Baseball Buy/Sell every Friday, not a Buy/Buy. (Mr.
Please, blog, may I have some more?I already sort of covered this when I went over how you should not be dropping guys from your fantasy baseball team that you just drafted because they’re in a slump. Due to the amount of feedback that continues to come in about whether or not Chris Davis is worth more than Cristian Guzman (fill in any schmohawk name), I decided to cover the same topic again, but this time with examples.
Please, blog, may I have some more?

