Dog Days Fantasy Thoughts
July 27th, 2009 | Published in Fantasy Baseball, Strategy
The dog days of fantasy baseball are upon us. Simply updating your roster and managing your DL at this time of year make you an active owner. The trade deadline is also upon us, which is another exciting time in fantasy baseball. Here are some strategies you can use in order to make a run in ‘09.
Trade your keepers
This probably doesn’t seem like the best idea, but if you’re in position to make a run at the crown, it’s time to pull the trigger. There is no glory in coming in second. That means, you can move a keeper in order to fill out the rest of the holes in your roster, and play for first. Your team will be weaker in the long term, but the reason you’ve worked so hard to compile your group of keepers is to win, and now it’s time to make it happen.
Let me be clear here, don’t go around dangling Hanley Ramirez for whatever you can get. For the most part in fantasy getting the best player in the trade is good for your team, but if you can get a package that addresses your weaknesses then you can get help. Also, try to get more marginal keepers in the deal. For instance, if you have Chase Utley and pitching is your weakness, Robinson Cano, Zack Greinke, and Adam Wainwright might be a package that you wouldn’t normally consider, but could help you win it all.
Categories, Categories, Categories
I preach this all year, but it becomes more important when each and every point means everything. The first thing to do is figure out which categories you can make a move in, and which category is the cheapest to acquire. The easiest way to do this is sort your standing by each column and look at the gap above and below you. Next, go to the waiver wire, sort by the last 30 days, and see the leaders in each category. Theoretically, let’s say your last roster spot is going to David Murphy and his decent all around production. Now, you’ve noticed that you can’t really move up too far in HRs or RBIs, but AVG and Rs have a point in each category that are there for the taking. Now you sort by Rs and AVG and see that Martin Prado is doing well in both. He is probably as good as Murphy and he’s also getting the categories you need, so that’s a free upgrade.
The other way to do this, is to trade a good player with weaknesses in those categories. Say Ian Kinsler was carrying you the first couple months of the season, but now his AVG is starting to hurt quite a bit. Now, the key here is, how much are you going to miss the categories that Kinsler produces in. If you’re feeling safe in your other categories, then trading Kinsler for Cano would make your team better overall. Kinsler’s value is higher than Cano’s so you’ll want to get something else in the trade, either another guy who hits for a decent AVG, or someone that could make up for the loss in the other hitting categories or a pitcher that does well in a category you can make up ground.
I’m not endorsing Cano, he just happened to work out well in both examples. The important part is to know where you can improve and focusing on that. For a more specific example, someone in a league I’m doing very well in, was trying to convince me that I need saves. While I only have five points in saves, I also knew that there was a big gap on both sides of me in saves. I’d put $20 on the fact that I end up with five points in saves at the end of the year. Extra closers have almost no value to me, when he thought they’d be very valuable to me because the 5 is my lowest point total in a category.
The most important take away, is to know where you can improve and where you’re spinning your own wheels. Prince Fielder is a great player, but if you’re already doing well in HR and RBI he’s probably not helping you as much as someone else could.
