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In my first ever post on points leagues in the beginning of May, I left you with the closing statement, “POINTS ARE POINTS.  SELL THE NAME TO WIN THE GAME.”  The premise is simple, don’t worry about the guys who garner all the attention in traditional category leagues.  Find ways to score more points, regardless of the players’ name recognition value.  Points leagues are their own little fantasy worlds that exist under some vary skewed parameters.  Think of points leagues like fetish porn.  Razzballin does invoke some interesting imagery as the title of an adult film.  Eeeee… Some thoughts just can’t be unremembered.  Grab some hard stuff and throw it back to help ease trauma.  The foreplay of the season is behind us and July signals the time to really turn it on to make the push for your fantasy playoffs.  Let’s get you lubed for some nice 2nd half moves.

As I’m writing this post, it’s Independence Day in the US of A, which provides opportunities to drink in public, light things on fire, remove more articles of clothing and do it all with small children and it’s socially acceptable for one day.  It’s also a nice little reminder to be independent, in thought.  This notion should not be overlooked for fantasy baseball.  Let’s not continue with the same old missionary position of draft team, set lineup, make a trade or two and passively watch your team finish in the druthers of mediocrity yet again.  Every single point counts whether it helps you win a matchup on a given week or gives you a tiebreaker in the standings.  Let’s go over a couple of ways you can start to squeeze a few more puntos outta your equipos.

Stream your starters.  I know, it’s old news and you’ve been told this a million times.  Here’s a new way to look at it though: for each streaming spot on your roster you get to drop another starting pitcher holding a permanent roster spot.  Every roster spot you can put into the lineup more often (doesn’t even have to be daily) is more points.  Unless your points league has very strict penalties with negative points, there is a huge reward to be gained by doing this.

Use more relief pitchers.  Yeah they might only get you a couple of points, but they can pitch 3-4 times per week.  Typically, innings equal points and so do Ks.  These guys can vulture wins and pile up the holds.  Don’t let your P spots go to waste.  And to build on that, don’t let your SP spots go to waste if you can help it.  Find some relief pitchers who have SP eligibility like Zach Britton (trade target) who has taken over the closer role in Baltimore and he can slide into your SP slot on the daily.  Other guys to target with SO eligibility: Wade Davis, Neil Ramirez, Carlos Torres, Justin Grimm.

Use platoon splits.  Hell, you can even platoon if it makes sense.  Real life platoons worth using could be Kole Calhoun and Colin Cowgill or Derek Norris and John Jaso.  It looks like the Cubs might start platooning Justin Ruggiano and Nate Schierholtz who hold nice splits against the other side.  Juan Francisco is borderline ownable in a lot of leagues, but he’s always a great start against righties.  Raul Ibanez just signed on with the Royals and took away at bats from Lorenzo Cain on Wednesday and if Moobs keeps sucking hind tit, Ibanez could start to see semi-regular playing time.  Logan Morrison has been getting quite heated up of late in Seattle but his playing time will likely get cut down once Corey Hart comes back from the DL.  That should be a nice platoon worth targeting as well with each having clear advantages vs. other hand pitchers.

The key to all of this is that you have extra roster spots to play with.  Cut bait on the middling starters you have and get friendly with the Stream-O-Nator stat.  Just be a day or two ahead of the curve at all times.  Contrary to real life, fetish porn actually will ensure you score more in the fantasy world.  Give in to the pleasures.