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!