Previous installments of the kacsports.com Fantasy Baseball Primer have dealt with choosing players for you roster. This section will deal with advanced tips for maintaining your roster throughout the season. Some basic roster management advice was given earlier in this primer, such as maximizing starting pitchers with two starts in a given week as well as platooning offensive minded teams such as COL and HOU based on whether they are playing at home and/or are benefiting from a favorable schedule.
As mentioned earlier, there are 12 taxi squad positions, to go along with your 28 starters. A typical distribution for the paper challenge game is as follows�
Note: Two designated hitters are also in the starting lineup, usually comprised of outfielders/first basemen.
Having a lot of depth among starting pitchers is strongly recommended, for the purpose of maximizing starts while piling up wins and strikeouts. On-line game participants should consider carrying 11 or even 12 SP�s. This is because there are two periods per week (Mon-Thur, Fri-Sun), giving more opportunity to maximize starts. On-line teams should try at all possible to avoid starting SP�s not scheduled to start during a given 3-4 day period. In those occasion where an on-line must keep an idle pitcher active, it is strongly recommended to use your lowest-salaried SP in that capacity, to save cap space for the rest of the roster. The point-style games mandate that 8 hitters and 4 pitchers are on the taxi squad. If at any point during the season where a team is comfortable with their four relief pitchers, a good play is to have 4 SP�s on the taxi squad (which would make 10 SP�s total) for the purpose of maximizing starts.
In both the paper and on-line challenges, all teams are allowed 10 player purchases ($10 a pop), along with 4 Free Agent Purchases (free) and two roster expansion purchases (must be made last week in August - $10 total). A good way to think of it is this, you have 14 purchases to make over the first 20 weeks of the season, along with the roster expansion purchases for the final five weeks. The point-style games allow 12 player purchases and two roster-expansion purchases � with no free agent purchases. As you identify the dead weight on your roster early on, do not shy away from making purchases. History dictates that the sooner teams jump on the bandwagons of a particular player, the better.
The weekly list of Free Agents appear starting in late April comprising of one catcher, one first basemen, one second basemen, one third basemen, one shortstop, two outfielders, two starting pitchers, and one relief pitcher. No player appears on the free agent list more than once in a given season, so it is usually best to burn your free agent purchases before your other purchases, since most of the top players appear by midseason. You do not want to have a free agent purchase left late in the season when the weekly list is not nearly as attractive as early in the season.
As far as making other purchases are concerned, keep an eye out on the rosters of your competition. CDM provides powerful research tools to help out in that regard. A good idea is to sample some rosters of the top overall teams, along with a list CDM provides containing the usage of all players among the top 100 and top 250 teams in the challenge. This is a very good way of identifying valuable players that you may had originally overlooked. CDM also has a BBS board where team owners converse and exchange ideas on rosters and purchases, as well as giving information on player news. One initial area contestants look at early on in the season is new closers who emerge with their real-life teams who are listed at a low price by CDM. Picking up effective cheap closers early on is a good way to clear valuable cap room for the rest of your roster. Also keep an eye out for cheaper players who can help out in keeping below the cap.
Finally, make sure that you do not run out of purchases with no depth at a particular position. Attrition during the season will cause you to replace players at various positions. There is nothing more devastating to your teams fortunes than being out of moves and having let�s say � only one healthy second basemen or three healthy relief pitchers. If you only have one purchase left and are short at two different positions, do not use that move unless another casualty occurs at one of the two positions. Then use the purchase and take your chances from there.
Making intra-roster moves often amounts to a huge weekly challenge. Reasons for making changes vary but are not limited to injuries, reduction in playing team, and unfavorable/favorable matchups for the coming week. I have already outlined some of the strategy regarding starting pitchers (two-steppers). Matchups are also very important with SP's. As mentioned in an earlier chapter, NL pitchers usually provide a lower ERA/WHIP than their AL counterparts. SP�s are not usually recommended if slated for starts in Colorado or Houston. However, hitters slated for games in those two locales get a huge boost. Also, players (both pitchers and hitters) due to pitted against some of baseball�s bottom feeders often provide huge dividends. One nice play last season involved SP�s going v. Milwaukee, who enjoyed games with many strikeouts. Most of Milwaukee�s whiff kings return intact in �02. Also, keep an eye on the teams being targeted for contraction (MON, MN, FLA, TB) in what could be one of the most unusual of seasons. If these teams start stripping their rosters before the trade deadline, then players involved in games with those teams should get a boost.
Many owners like to use a maximum-game theory when selecting a weekly hitting lineup. That would involve starting hitters slated for 7 or 8 games, instead of 5 or 6. This strategy at times can be very helpful but some valuable advice would be not to overdue it. A player slated for 7 games instead of 6 is not automatically an advantage, as many managers choose to rest a player one game in a week without an off-day. More important would be to start a player with either a favorable schedule and/or slated to have his games at home as opposed to on the road. Also be aware that players slated for early season games in the Midwest or Northeast are susceptible to rainouts, as well as snowouts in Colorado. Also note that MIL, MN, TOR, MON, HOU, AZ, and SEA are either in domes or retractable roof facilities. Also rainouts in locales in California after April are very rare.
Relief Pitchers would be another area to guard against micromanaging. Don�t automatically switch from Closer �A� to Closer �B� because �B� may have an extra game. Most real-life managers opt to rest a closer after two straight days of work, so the extra game often doesn�t make much of a difference. Go with the 4 closers who appear to be getting the most opportunities. Also the odds of a closer getting a save are slightly higher in a road game than a home game (visiting team can never �walk-off�) � but that is a negligible factor. Be more aware of relievers who are struggling, as not only are they then hurting your ERA/WHIP � but they can be replaced in the closers role at any time. The fall from effective closer to middle relief/mop up can be fairly swift � just ask John Rocker.
The final installment will deal with potential situations that may occur during the 2002 season, along with additional advice to help your challenge or points team�