My Strategy

I would imagine that my general strategy to playing fantasy baseball is similar to most players out there. Yet over the past few years my philosophy has adapted and evolved. Plus I found that research is vital to improving your team in the present and for the future.


Baseball is a kids game at the core and I admit that I am constantly adjusting my roster the way a kid would play with tinker toys. I find what works and strive to make it even better. If a player isn't performing he might be replaced by someone on the waiver wire if they appear to have a higher upside. There are times that having patience would be better when a player I drop starts performing down the road. It does irk me to have to pick a player back up for more than I originally had them for but that is the nature of the game.


For hitters I try to find a healthy mix of power, average and speed. Ideally you would find someone with all three like Josh Hamilton or Hanley Ramirez. Two out of three often finds productive players like Drew Stubbs, Hunter Pence and Mitch Moreland. Then there are the one category specialists that dominate one category but have trouble in the others such as Mike Stanton and Juan Pierre. The trick is to find the right mix of these players and I am lucky enough to have some of these on my roster. Finding a good power hitter should help in the home run, runs, and RBI categories. Having a base thief not only helps in stolen bases but also boosts in runs because they are getting in better position to score. 


For pitchers I am going after high strikeout performers first because each swinging miss contributes not only to the strikeout category but boosts ERA and WHIP. Secondly I look for good control because fewer walks puts fewer unnecessary players on base and that helps keep both the WHIP and ERA down. Zack Greinke, CJ Wilson, and Jeremy Hellickson all fall in this category while Jaime Garcia has made great strides this season also.


Each week I am following who is hot in the majors and following players in the minors. If a hot player is available on the waiver wire I may try and bid for them and try and ride out their hot streak with them. I keep an eye on the minors to add players to my watch list for both future drafts and possibly to pick them up in season if they are called up. One helpful guide is the Future's Game which will give a clue which players the organizations have on their radar and will likely fast track. Joey Votto, Carlos Gonzalez, Ryan Braun, Yovani Gallardo, Jamie Garcia and Justin Verlander are all Future Game alums.


My favorite aspect is picking up a sleeper before he is on anyone's radar. In the past I made the mistake of collecting these players and trading them for highly touted prospects rather than just keeping these hidden gems for myself. Two examples from 2007 were James Shields who I traded for Clay Bucholtz and Carlos Pena who I traded for Nick Adenhart. I ended up trading Bucholtz the following season and the Adenhart tragedy could not have been foreseen. My current golden sleeper is Allen Craig who I picked up last season and called up from my farm team a few weeks ago. While I enjoy snagging the highly touted prospects when given the chance there is something special about getting a sleeper that pans out. Anyone can win with the top players but it is extra sweet when I beat you with my blue collar players.


This season I am battling for second place as our leader looks to keep a stranglehold on the championship for the fifth year in a row. My goal is to win at least one category and hopefully claim two or three. At present I am in first for strikeouts and when the schedule allows I will forgo saves so I can load up on pitchers that have two starts. I am currently in second for steals and middle of the pack for home runs so week to week I am juggling my line up to be steal oriented one week and power hitters the next. Hopefully that will pay off. That is my strategy for now. As always I will keep adapting and trying to evolve.