Fantasy Player's Edge

April 16, 2008


Roster Shuffle:


Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Ryan
Howard, David Ortiz and Mark Teixeira are hitting
a combined .191 with 11 homeruns. Your misery has
plenty of company.

Yost gave Braun the day off yesterday. He told him to
take a walk something Braun hasn't done in 53 atbats.

Borowski was officially disabled yesterday, 2 years
too late. Betancourt has been anointed as his successor.
Rafael choked a bit last year in this capacity so
keep an eye on this one.

I'll say it again. If you only have an hour a day to
play this game here's a bit of advise. Try to log on
1 hour before the bulk of the games begin. The New
York media had Reyes skipping yesterday's tilt with
the Nats. Not only did he play but went 4/5 and
unsuccessfully attempted a steal in the 1st. This
must have been the mildest of hamstring strains.

Granderson took BP and reported no pain. No
timetable has been set for his return.

Alphonso Soriano gimped off in the 1st inning
after fielding a routine flyball. Take a look at
Carlos Quentin (power) or David DeJesus (speed)
if you need a quick fix.

Speaking of Quentin if he keep his production up
Jerry Owens will be out of a job when he returns
from the DL. Does anyone care?

From the "Where Did This Come From" file the
Braves put Peter Moylan on the DL with an
elbow strain. I guess Acosta will close by default.
This really is a guess.

Howie Kendrick is now out until the weekend.
Keep adjusting.

Randy Wolf and Scott Olsen were outstanding last
night. I'm more inclined to trust Wolf but listen up!!
Olsen entered the fracas with a 1-4. 8.54 era/1.96 whip
lifetime against the Braves. So he throws 84 pitches,
62 for strikes over 7 shutout innings allowing 5 hits and
no bases on balls. If Scotty boy ever gets his head
together he could easily become a # 1 especially in
Florida. Keep a side eye on him.

With Borowski out Jose Valverde is making a bid to
become baseball's most enigmatic finisher.

108. That's the number of innings used that would keep
you on track to deploy maximum innings (1250) over
the course of the season in Rotisserie. But who's counting?
(PS- you should)


Streamers: (tomorrow's probable starters available as free agents)

Use these players to gain advantage in wins and strikeouts.


Carlos Silva- Hi Ho Silva and the Tonto's are looking to
bring the A's to justice. 3-2, 3.12/.99 over 58 innings.
.99 whip over 58 innings, there I said it again.

Vincente Padilla- Rangers wildman goes bird hunting
while on Halladay. 3-2, 3.74/1.25. Roy is 7-5 with
outsized stats, 5.75/1.45 when facing Texas.


Spotties: (tomorrow's position players available as free agents)

Use these players to fill in for injured players and on off days.

Joe Inglett- who the hell is Joe Inglett? He's Padilla's
muchacho going 4/6 with 2 extra base hits vs. Vincente.

Kevin Kouzmanoff- has little compassion for Francis'
recent troubles and is looking forward to "driving" him
over the edge. 7/15, 5 extras, 2 jacks, 6 rbi with only 1k.

Emil Brown- this desperado continually eludes Hi Ho Silva.
11/24, 5 extras, 1 blast and 0 k's.

Jose Guillen- keeps his Garland up all spring and summer.
8/16, 5 rbi with 1 k.

Coco Crisp- has a profound grasp of Mussina's macernations.
8/24 with 4 steals. (check the scoreboard, do you need steals?)


Start/Sit: (today)

Guide to using bench players when matchups are favorable.

Ken Griffey(start)- treats Zambrano as if he were the world's
largest pinada. 11/30, 7 extra base hits, 2 homers and 8 rbi.

Dan Uggla (start)- resents being called Fuggla by Hudson in
a recent GQ interview. 9/25 with 2 extra and a trio of ribbies.

Xavier Nady (start)- finds a Penny heads up on his way to the
ball yard today. 3/8 with power.

Guide to sit starters when matchups are unfavorable.

Normally sit these players in Roto formats only.

Ed Byrnes (sit)- Kookie is the last living ballplayer who has trouble
hitting Zito. 1/15, 5 k's and 0 steals.

Jason Varitek (sit) - is still looking over the menu when he visits
Wang's establishment. When he orders A Wang gives him B.
1/19. If he's your only catching option leave the spot empty for
a day.

Torii Hunter (sit)- gets all tangled up in the Meche. 3/22 with 4 k's.

Josh Willingham (sit)- during the same GQ interview Hudson
commented that Josh was the best dressed every time he sees
him and not a hair out place. 0/13, 5 k's.


Game Keys: (daily strategy tips)

Streaming, or dropping and adding starting pitchers
is a strategy used primarily in Head to Head competition.
It's used to gain an advantage over your opponent in wins
and strikeouts. Be prepared to experience pain when employing
a streaming strategy. Normally streamed pitchers are back of
the rotation types so do your homework to minimize the
negative impact this strategy can have on era/whip. Read
the Player's Edge daily.

Start/Sit is crucial to the success of your team. Every player
has matchups that are either overwhelmingly favorable or
unfavorable. Even superstars have tough opponents. The
advantage of playing start/sit is as follows. Player A is a
stud batting .330 on 198 hits over 600 official atbats. If
you can isolate his unfavorable matchups and sit him for
60 atbats where he hits .200 (12 hits) then Player A's
average for your fantasy team becomes .344 (186/540).
The converse is true for bench players. If you can maximize
their best swings during the season you will greatly enhance
the overall performance of your team. Read Player's Edge
daily.


Final Thoughts:

Please reread as I saw this again yesterday in several leagues.

Here's a pet peave and I see this all too frequently. Why do
owners set lineups only for a particular day? As an example
a fair number of top players were off yesterday and were
rightly benched to make room for spot plays. However,
these owners rarely reactivate these players in advance
of their starts the next day. There is no need to assume
this kind of risk. Always set your rosters, including pitchers,
days in advance. Do this as insurance should you be
unable to log on for any reason on any given day. Pitching
rotations are announced 3 days in advance so there is
no reason for a star hurler or stud batter to be inactive
when they're in fact playing. On more occasions then I can
remember I have faced owners who have had there best
players inactive because they did not set their rosters in
advance.

Also, don't second guess yourself when taking a calculated
risk using a streamed pitcher or spot starter for a stud.
There are no guaranteed outcomes in this game. Accept
the outcome good or bad and move on. You're not a genius
if it worked or an idiot if it didn't. Just assess the potential
risk/reward and make your decisions.


All Done!

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