Taking a Pit Stop

We have all heard the old adage the fantasy baseball is a marathon, not a sprint. Well I wanna tweak that just a little bit. I think fantasy baseball is like a NASCAR race, not a drag race. You might be thinking, isn’t a nascar race the car equivalent of a marathon? In some ways yes, but one of the most important pieces of strategy in NASCAR is when to take your pit stops. Yes, you MUST take pit stops. The reality is that  if you do not strategize well for the year, you will be mentally exhausted by the end of it.  

You also cannot just wait for yourself to get mentally spent and decide to just take a break. You need to set your team up for success.  Last week was my final pit stop for the season, Clave had one the week before, and Dixon has one this week. I knew this one was in place before the season even began. I was at camp and I really wanted to be invested in that week and all those kids. So it really provided me the best time for a pit stop. With just a month and a half of the season remaining I know exactly where I stand in each league I am in. This is also important.  

Let’s take a look at few pieces of season-long strategy I had in place for a whole week off:

1. Invest in hitting. The bulk of my budget or first dozen rounds of drafting go to hitting. This goes along with sacrificing pitching for hitting in trades throughout the season. Hitting is the hardest to catch up in, and also VERY difficult to stream in hitters effectively. So you should leave very little to chance in hitting and let your lineup be the strength of your team. 
2. Streaming is an art. Even in 5×5 leagues where the only potential hit on streaming is hurting your ERA and WHIP, I do not like to wildly stream in pitchers. This will make it harder for you to dig out of holes in ERA and WHIP. In one league Clave, Dixon, and I play in, we actually are hurt by walks issued or BBI. So when I stream in pitchers, I start with that league. If a pitcher is good enough for that league he is good enough for any league.  
3. Know your players. Some leagues have-keeper year maxes and in these leagues you need to know who you might be able to trade for on the cheap. You also need to have your keepers in mind for next year so you know who is expendable on your team. If you are torn between two or three guys for your last spot and miss out on trading for a guy like Joey Votto who cannot be kept because you couldn’t decide to keep Shin-Soo Choo, Matt Cain or Pablo Sandoval, you might miss out on winning this season!

After you have set yourself up for season-long success you need to address your pit stop options.

• Know your categories. I talk about this a lot and for good reason. If you are 30 home runs behind the guy in front of you at this point in the season, that point is all but lost. That means your focus needs to be elsewhere. So, that strategy would include benching a slugger like Nelson Cruz for Rajai Davis and attacking steals.  
• MRI: This is not the first nor will it be the last time we mention maximizing relief innings (MRI). Using middle relief guys is a slick way of poaching wins and 2-3 ks per outing when you do not have time to rotate in starters. Even if you don’t score a win or don’t need holds in your leagues, you could get a nice little line like this: 3 innings pitched, 6 ks, 1 walk 0.0 ERA, 0.33 WHIP. That was Sean Marshall last week by the way.  
• Get a co-manager. Lastly, I like to suggest co-managers to people, however that is not for everyone. The worst case scenario for a pit stop week is that you have a player in an active spot hit the DL with a capable back up on the bench that you never got to put in. Hopefully you have a trustworthy friend that will help you out for one week. If not, email me, I would be obliged to help loyal readers.