fantasy baseball strategy

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Borderline Fantasy Starters, Week 23-24

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Last week my borderline fantasy starter post regressed to the mean, if ‘the mean’ means getting pantsed in the six grade in front of the girl you have a crush on, but you’re wearing skintight gotchies so no one actually sees anything except your stained underwear.  You know, not great, not terrible.  My line for last week was:  3.43 ERA in 84 IP.  The innings were low because guys were bumped or injured.  Masterson pitched well (7 IP, 1 ER), but it was two days after I recommended him, so I didn’t count it (but I did mention it — natch!).  The WHIP was 1.31 with 5 Wins and 52 Ks.  To recap, these aren’t guys I’d drop anyone worthwhile to get, these starters are meant for streaming purposes and all of their ownership in ESPN is under 50%.  These streamers are in no particular order.  Also, in the final month of the season, managers juggle their lineups more, so there’s no guarantee all of these guys are listed on the right day.  Anyway, here’s some borderline starters for this week in fantasy baseball:

Friday, September 10th

Clayton Richard – Unfortunately, there weren’t a whole lot of guys to recommend on this first day.  Richard should be started every time out in Petco and that’s where he is on Friday.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Simply Fred

Learning from a Compadre

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Thought I’d take a look at a random fellow RCL manager’s draft and in-season moves to see if we could learn anything that may help us improve our own management skills.  First, a look at DRAFT DAY.  These are the SIX player positions (of the TOP TEN picks) that are still left on his team from draft day:

1 Infielder (Weren’t we supposed to target more than one on draft day?)

1 OF (Round 9; got to have at least one from Pujols, Braun, Kemp, Holliday, don’t we?)

2 SP (Isn’t pitching much more fragile than hitting?)

2 RP (SAGNOF; wow, Round 6 and Round 8; wouldn’t they have been better off with another infielder and outfielder?)

Is it possible that this team is dead last, given that they only have TWO POSITION PLAYERS left from their top ten picks on draft day?  Maybe I should have picked another team, but let’s try to glean something.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Borderline Fantasy Starters, Week 22-23

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Last week, my borderline fantasy starter post was nominated for a Clio.  Lost to Draper, but what else is new?  Drunks get all the breaks.  Just being nominated was a thrill.  My line for last week was:  2.17 ERA in 108 IP (that’s only 26 earned runs, you’re welcome).  The WHIP was 1.19 with 7 Wins and 71 Ks.  To recap, these aren’t guys I’d drop anyone worthwhile to get, these starters are meant for streaming purposes and all of their ownership in ESPN is under 50%.  These streamers are in no particular order.  Also, in the final month of the season, managers juggle their lineups more, so there’s no guarantee all of these guys are listed on the right day.  Anyway, here’s some borderline starters for this week in fantasy baseball:

Friday, September 3rd

Fausto Carmona – I’m not a fan of Carmona, but he gets the French in Safeco, talk about an easy victory.  French may just start pitching for the Indians halfway through the game.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Borderline Fantasy Starters, Week 21-22

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Last week our borderline fantasy starters, I came away with an 3.95 ERA.  Not too shabby considering two of those earned runs came from Ross Ohlendorf, who I warned you to only start in extreme circumstances, and Travis Wood got absolutely rocked for 7 earned runs.  Without those two, the ERA was 2.90 in 62.1 IP.  There were also 62 Ks with 6 Wins.  To recap, these aren’t guys I’d drop anyone worthwhile to get, these starters are meant for streaming purposes and all of their ownership in ESPN is under 50%.  These streamers are listed alphabetically.  Anyway, here’s some borderline starters for this week in fantasy baseball:

Friday, August 27th

Barry Enright – Hey, ya’ll!  It’s Uncle Barry Enright.  Hey, Uncle Barry, good luck in your game vs.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Borderline Fantasy Starters, Week 20-21

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This isn’t meant to replace Smokey’s two-start pitchers for fantasy that comes every weekend.  This is meant to supplement that, like something A-Rod’s cousin would give you.  This isn’t two start pitchers, this is barely owned guys that could give you one start.  A pick up and a drop.  They’re all owned in less than 50% of ESPN leagues.  Pretty much everything I told you in the beginning of the year about trusting your big guns and not trusting the wayward sons-of-bees goes out the window this time of year.  If you’re battling for pitching points or a playoff spot in H2H, you need to take some chances I wouldn’t necessarily take in April.  Suddenly, James McDonald looks ownable and Ross Ohlendorf doesn’t look like Ross Ohlendorf, but looks like a guy who’s facing a team that he has an under 3 ERA against.  So I’ve assembled one, two or three starters from Friday, the new Humpday, until next Wednesday, the old Humpday, that you could take a chance on depending on how bad your pitching shituation is.  I’m not completely proud of all of these guys, but their mommas are (even Momma Ohlendorf).  Anyway, here’s some borderline starters for this week in fantasy baseball:

Friday, August 20th

Homer Bailey – Looked solid in his last start, but it’s risky because I don’t always believe the 2nd time’s a charm.  Against the Dodgers in LA looks like a start where Bailey can hold his own.  Or at least not totally screw the pooch.  Or pouch, if you’re a kangaroo.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Young Fantasy Starters, the Shutdown

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The Verducci Effect as explained by Amerigo Verducci, “Pitchers generally feel the effects of abusive increases in workload the next year, not the season in which they were pushed.  That’s a no amore!”  I believe Amerigo’s cousin in the States, Tom, leaves off the last line when he’s describing it.  So to avoid this, clubs shutdown or skip young pitchers (this applies to those 25 years old and younger).  In fantasy baseball, lots of championships are won in September, H2H and otherwise.  If you have rookie pitchers, it’s imperative — ooh, strong word — that you pay attention to which pitchers are going to be shutdown or skipped.  Anyway, here’s a list of some pitchers who may be shutdown in September:

Mat Latos – I’m positive if they clinch early, Latos will be done for the regular season.  Then again, Latos was on Amerigo’s list last year and he’s doing a’ight.  I say pitch him an extra 200 innings this year and he’ll have a zero ERA in 2011.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Run, Joe Blow, Run

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It’s long overdue we turned our attention to the underrepresented side of SAGNOF — the cheap steal.  Long ago I realized I like my steals like I like my women, cheap. Sure, there’s girls out there that know which spork to eat their Hamburger Helper with, but real value is found in girls that can have fun in a bar with sawdust on the floor and Jimmy Buffett playing on the jukebox.  Now this doesn’t mean I’m turning my nose up at Kate Bosworth if she shows up at my door in a Vera Wang, carrying some takeout foie gras.  Same goes for fantasy baseball.  Steals is a category I tend to neglect on draft day in March, so it’s necessary to grab them off of waivers.  I’m not suggesting you punt steals, because that would put too much pressure on your other categories.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Fantasy Baseball, Fun With Numbers IV

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Now it’s time for everyone’s favorite game, Fantasy Baseball, Fun With Numbers.  Ding, ding, ding… Bassoon… Triangle!  Triangle!  Triangle!  Cow bell!  More cow bell!  One last ding.  In today’s installment of Fantasy Baseball, Fun With Numbers, we’re going to look at some players for the last month and try to figure out if maybe the numbers tell a different story than their names tell.  At this point in the season, it’s very important to abandon names and just try and plug in the best stats.  Anyway, here’s the latest in Fantasy Baseball, Fun With Numbers:

ALL STATS ARE FOR THE LAST 30 DAYS.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Fantasy Baseball Strategy, Picking Up Spot Starters

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Last week I went over picking up free agent hitters.  So now I do onto pitchers as I did onto hitters.  I opined that there were five things to look for with hitters, after looking up what opined meant.  Most of the criteria had to do with the hitter and not so much who he was facing.  It factored in, but didn’t dominate the decision.  If you feel like pitchers are going in the opposite direction, your powers of perception are incredible.  It is a true wonder how you’re divorced multiple times.  Put yourself on the free agent market, you catch you!  Pitchers are a lot harder to figure.  The pitcher can really only do so much.  I try to not even concern myself with wins.  It’s a crapshoot.  This is more for H2H than roto, but sometimes in roto you want a spot start too.  I ain’t mad at cha!  So here’s what I do concern myself with when picking up spot starters in fantasy baseball:

1.

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Grey

Fantasy Baseball, The Trade Deadline

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Fantasy baseball trading deadlines are right around the corner, time is slipping…slipping…slipping into the future and your fantasy baseball teams need to lose yesterday’s lunch or get off the pot.  The worst feeling is coming within a few points of winning and pulling up short because you held too tightly to your players.  In October, there won’t be an award for being 50 steals greater than everyone else while losing the championship by 1 point because you didn’t trade for power.

Please, blog, may I have some more?