Fantasy Baseball

With the playoffs approaching, I’m going to reveal which side of the fence I’m on with this advice: lock adds and drops for the playoffs.

The first time I ever played fantasy baseball was in a Yahoo! fantasy league during the 2001 season. Imagine how proud I was, in all my noobtastic glory, reaching the championship match in my first year! I set my lineups every day, and sat back to watch if my guys were going to perform better than his guys.

And then I saw it - he dropped Roger Clemens one day, and picked up some other guy. Then the next day, Randy Wolf and Kirk Reuter were shown the door. I didn’t know what was happening. Then I realized - he was loading up on starting pitchers to beef up his stats. It was the final week, so he had nothing to lose. He cheated to win the championship.

The next year, when I started my own league, I took up the practice of locking adds and drops in the playoffs for this very reason.

Two years ago, I relinquished my commissioner duties in a league I started and became only a participant. I didn’t make the playoffs that year, but I advised the new commish to lock adds and drops. She didn’t feel the need to, and guess what happened? Someone pulled the loading up on pitchers move in the championship, and the title was tainted. She has since realized why I stand where I stand, and locked adds and drops the following year.

So I advise you to do the same to keep the integrity of your league intact. Good luck in the playoffs!

I bet you’re just dying to know who the BUOSPIA is.

It’s Jake Westbrook of the AL Central leading Cleveland Indians.

In six August starts, he went six plus innings in all of them and notched wins in all but one of them. He’s good for a 1.90 August ERA, and less than one percent of ESPN fantasy owners got to enjoy that. Maybe you’re looking at a good pickup for the September championship run.

As I mentioned in my previous post, setup men can be great use for the strikeouts and WHIP categories. And with the numbers Yankees rookie Joba Chamberlain has been putting up, I’m surprised more haven’t jumped on him.

Chamberlain has pitched 11.1 innings, has yet to give up an earned run, and has 17 strikeouts. That’s an unheard of 13.5 K/9! And the Yankees will definitely be using him. He’s not a bad pickup for a September championship run.

Closers get all the play in fantasy leagues, while often time, steup men are left to rot on the waiver wire.

But setup men can be great for strikeouts, innings, and WHIP, if you pick the right guys. Here’s a few that could be useful, and are all owned in less than 50 percent of ESPN fantasy leagues.

Carlos Marmol, Chicago Cubs: 4-1 with a 1.27 ERA and a 12.6 K/9.

Jonathan Broxton, L.A. Dodgers: 4-2 with a 2.19 ERA and a 10.6 K/9.

Pat Neshek, Minnesota Twins: 7-2 with a 2.49 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

What’s up with Mike Mussina these days? He didn’t get out of the third inning yesterday - this only a week after he couldn’t get out of the second. The start before that wasn’t pretty either - six earned runs in five innings.

Today he stands with an 8-10 record and a 5.53 ERA. Yet he’s still owned in 25% of ESPN fantasy leagues. Why? Maybe it’s because his average draft position was 147th overall and people don’t like to admit when they’re wrong.

It’s time to drop Moose like a hot potato though.

Those of you who lost Chase Utley and Alfonso Soriano have been trying to keep pace in your fantasy leagues without your superstar. If you’re still in it, congrats. Your boys are back.

Soriano is set to be activated in time for Tuesday’s game, back in the leadoff spot and ready to propel your fantasy team into the playoffs. Utley is going to be activated Monday in time for the Phillies’ game against the Mets.

Get them in your lineups now. If you have them on the DL, activate them tonight, if your league requires one day for transactions to go through. You don’t want to miss a single one of these guys’ at bats.

Jeremy Hermedia and his few fantasy owners have enjoyed one heck of a week. In addition to riding an eight-game hitting streak, the Marlins outfielder has had five multi-hit game in his last eight games and smacked three home runs. He’s seen his average rise 24 points in that short time.

He’s owned in less than one percent of ESPN fantasy leagues. He’s red hot just in time for the fantasy playoffs.

He may only be owned in three percent of ESPN fantasy leagues, but Garrett Anderson’s 10 RBI night Tuesday gave lucky owners more ribbies than most players do in a week - certainly a welcome performance in the stretch run.

Congrats, Garrett Anderson owners. All both of you.

It’s easy to not notice good players on bad teams. We see the team is bad, so we assume the whole team is.

But maybe it’s time you took a look at Tim Redding of the Washington Nationals. This guy has had a an up and down career, and has been designated for assignment or cut twice since 2005. He started this year with a minor league contract. It’s no wonder fantasy owners are completely ignoring him.

But I think if you knew about his 2.53 ERA and the fact that he’s taken in less than two percent of ESPN fantasy leagues, you might want to give him a closer look.

You’ve just gotta love these HUGE Sunday performances.

Last day of the fantasy week, two weeks until the playoffs, and you’ve got a chance to jump ahead for good on Sunday.

Enter Johan Santana and his SEVENTEEN strikeouts. Good pitchers need two starts to rack up that much. Decent pitchers do it in three starts. Johan just did it in ONE start, and on a Sunday to boot.

Congrats, fantasy owners!!

Toronto’s Shaun Marcum is on a roll - he hasn’t lost since July 18th, and has given up two or fewer runs in his last four starts.

If you need the pitching help, grab him now so you can start him Monday as he goes against the A’s, one of the worst offenses in baseball.

In case you haven’t noticed, the closer for last year’s World Champions is starting this year, and he’s been on quite a roll.

Adam Wainwright pitched a gem of a game last night, going seven innings and striking out eight and giving up no earned runs. All this happened one start after he went the distance in a 2-1 loss to the Dodgers.

He’s 11-9 with a 4.01 ERA, which is probably why he is only owned in 28 percent of ESPN fantasy leagues. But with the Cards surging and Wainwright on his game, he could be a steal of a waiver pickup for the playoffs.

San Diego’s Brian Giles has hit seven home runs all season - five of which came in a span of three days this past week.

Maybe the launching pad that is the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati helped a bit, but still - congratulations to the four percent of owners in ESPN fantasy leagues who have the elder Giles on their teams!

The fact that the Giants got an actual player for Matt Morris is still mind-boggling. But that the guy is actually good? That’s a full brain explosion.

Since putting on a Giants uniform, Rajai Davis has been getting on base at .500 clip, while hitting .395 and has swiped eight bags. He’s especially red hot this past week, as he’s gone 11-for-24 with five doubles. He’ll continue to play every day for the rest of the season, so look for him to top 20 steals, score plenty of runs, and hopefully keep that average over .300.

Fantasy football is right around the corner, and if you’re like me, you delve into this bit of fantasy sports fun in addition to your baseball leagues. I have a draft this Friday, and another one a week after that. It’s fun, but there’s a lot of prep involved.

But this isn’t a fantasy football blog, just as we’re not living in a fantasy football world. It may get more attention, but this is the stretch run for fantasy baseball and it’s no time to slack.

I know it can be daunting setting your lineups every day. Fantasy football players have it much easier with the two-days-a-week lineup setting. But you’ve made it this far - don’t let up a day or two or before you know it, it’ll be four or five and you’ll miss the playoffs because you got lazy. I know because I’ve done it.

Depending on your style of league, there may be only three weeks left to claim your spot in September. Don’t let it get away from you now.