Case #1: Your team is either in last place or near the bottom of your league's standings.
My strategies for baseball, as for any other season, is to divide the season into four quarters. I may have tanked the first quarter due to a poor draft, poor wavier pickups, poor trades, key injuries or all the above. It is not the time to dwell on past mistakes but to learn to avoid them in the next quarter. The immediate goal for the second quarter is to "right the ship!" Quantify where your strengths and weaknesses are. Review the wavier wire daily. Some of my best pickups in a given season come to me via another team's lack of patience with a player. How many teams have all ready dropped J. Giambi (NYY) and Robinson Cano (NYY) due to their poor season starts. On the other hand, you might have carried one or both of these players based upon the knowledge that soon they'll bust out of it (which they are currently doing!). If your roster has two or three players like the aforementioned, this very well could be the reason why you are so low in the standings. With increased productivity on their part you might rise in the standings just by maintaining the same roster that failed you for the first quarter of the season. A classic example of "Patience has it's virtue!" But in fantasy sports, patience of this type is very difficult. Other examples of players that could bust out in the seond quarter could be Prince Fielder (Milw), Roy Oswalt (Hous), Ken Griffey (Cinc), Carlos Beltran (Mets), the entire Seattle Mariner Roster, Frank Thomas (He ain't dead yet!), Joe Borowski (Cleve), and many many more.
Case #2: Your team is on or near the top of the league's standings.
In essence you review your roster in the same way as the lower ranked team but with a increased slant on your above average performing players. Ask yourself, can you expect them to maintain the same level of performance in the second quarter as they did in the first. Many teams fall in the standings because they fail to maintain their roster in the same way as the first quarter. Ask yourself, can Chipper Jones (Atl) maintain his current level of batting (+.400 Bat.Avg.) for the foreseeable future. Chances are there will be a drop off. A slight drop off might not have a negative effect upon your team's weekly performance. But a large drop off, which is mathematically more certain, might be the difference between victory and defeat. If the later occurs do you have a player or players who could carry the load? Usually a good defeat or two will force you to react (don't over react to a defeat!). This where the patience factor comes into play again. Review your weekly strengths and weaknesses. React when appropriate. (Example: Last week one of my Yahoo Fantasy Teams had a pitching staff that came in with a 1 win and 7 Loss weekly performance. Since I have a good deal of confidence in this staff, I didn't feel the need for any major roster moves. This week, Thur Friday, the same staff is 4 & 0 with a sub 2.00 ERA.) Thus don't destroy your roster that got you here due to one poor week.
Review:
- Have patience with high performers.
- Have a plan if someone drops off or is injured.
- Review your league's transaction logs daily.
- If you are in multiple leagues, identify players being picked up or dropped more frequently and check their availability in your league.
- Remember, it's a long season!
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