Fantasy Baseball
One week in (we started late) and my fantasy baseball team is a mess. 4 Players are on the DL, Tim Lincecum and the rest of my starting lineup are throwing into bats, and my top batting picks are streaking – and not in my favor. There’s only two days left and I might lose the whole week.
I actually like fantasy baseball more than football. It lasts longer so there’s more time to catch up. There are more players so there’s less luck involved with injuries and streaks. There’s also, and I find this peculiar, almost more coaching strategy to fantasy baseball than there is real baseball. In any given week my lineup of players competes head to head in runs, home runs, runs batted in, stolen bases, batting average, and on base percentage, also wins, saves, strikeouts, holds, earned run average, and walks and hits per inning.
With two utility players (any field position) and four pitcher spots (either starting or reserve) I can move players in response to the strengths of the team I’m opposing. If we’re evening matched batting average, I might add a good leadoff hitter to my utility spot to help me win that category. If the opposing team has me way beat in steals, I might pull my fast guys and throw in power hitters – no point competing where I can’t win. Same thing in pitching – I can mix and match starting pitchers and closers to maximize the categories I can likely win. There’s quite a bit more personnel management involved than there is in actual baseball.
Usually anyway. With four injuries, all to good guys, I’m stuck with four bench players I can’t do much with. Do I drop them and have them used against me when they get better, or do I keep them and wait it out? Why are all my pitchers losing? Sigh, one more frustration for this year.
More to come – it’s a long season. For the curious, here’s my team:
C Alex Avila
1B Pablo Sandoval
2B Michael Cuddyer
3B Jose Bautista
SS Jimmy Rollins
OF Jacoby Ellsbury
OF Andrew McCutchen
OF Nelson Cruz
Util Aramis Ramirez
Util Jemile Weeks
BN Emilio Bonifacio
BN B.J. Upton
BN Ike Davis
SP Tim Lincecum
SP Zack Greinke
RP Brian Wilson
RP Brandon League
P Yovani Gallardo
P Joel Hanrahan
P Carlos Marmol
P Ervin Santana
BN Drew Storen
BN Chris Carpenter
