I admit to being both a control freak and somewhat compulsive, which to many of you might smack in the face of the laid back Berkeley Zen hippie personna I have worked to cultivate.
But, truth is, I was pretty successful in the corporate world before I retired to do this stuff full time a few years back, but a lot of the reason I did move up the company ladder was that I did play close attention to details, something that in many ways likely makes me a successful Fantasy game player.
On the other hand, that Zen, whatever it is, however it may be defined within me, does offer some form of detachment such that even if my team is languishing at the bottom of the standings–and today that is six of eight roto teams over which I have a little control–I know to take a deep breath. That there are still 25 weeks left in the season and I have a lot of good players, and I know J.D. Martinez, Kevin Kiermaier, and Sonny Gray should all be just fine in the end.
But, I know if I have a roster hole, now is the best time to jump on players for the beginning of the season gives the best chance for maximum at-bats or innings from a player culled from the FAAB pool.
That too gets dicey for me, though, as though it is easy to dump or reserve a $1 crapshoot like Josh Phegley, there is little to nothing that can or should be fun to a slumping Martinez, even if he struggles the entire season. That is because I paid a premium for the rights to his bat, and barring a truly advantageous swap, I have to live or die with such a player.
That kind of reminds me of the quandary that hits during football season, where it seems my teams always break out to something between 2-0 and 4-0 to start the season. It is hard with that early success, because it is difficult to play the free agent pool when your guys break out hot.
For example, it always seems as if Theo Riddick has a monster game first or second week of the NFL year, but by Week 5 has settled into 4.73 points per week. However, since Riddick starts well, and the rest of my team is doing well, the thought of replacing him when my fantasy squad is thus far successful is seemingly a no-brainer. But, that makes me kind of flatfooted come the rest of the season, for if I hold off jumping early free agents, it means Alvin Kamara will slip past me as often or not, his fantasy team will pass mine.
For, luck or skill or whatever one wishes to call it, knowing just when to pull the trigger on anything fantasy is a tough call and important skill. Trade a guy too soon and your counting stats suffer accordingly. Dump a guy back into the waiver pool at the wrong time and see him grabbed by another team, and flourish along with his new owner.
It is tough, knowing when to be patient and when to be proactive, but for now we barely have a week of numbers under out belts. Kiermaier will get hot and even steal some bases, and Martinez will hit some homers so don’t even close to think about dropping your stars who are slumping, especially at this embryonic stage of the season.
Rather, try to chill and give the standings a month to settle. As I tweeted last weekend, noting how schizy the play of my squads was, my friend Doug Dennis smartly suggested waiting a least three weeks into the season before even looking at the standings.
Of course that is easy for him to say: His team is ahead of mine everywhere.
Tune into the Tout Wars Hour on the FNTSY network, hosted by me, with Justin Mason and featuring Lord Z every Thursday night at 9 PM ET and follow me @lawrmichaels. Don’t forget that Tout Wars FAAB deadline is 1 PM ET/10 AM PT every Sunday, and we will review the picks ups in all leagues during the show.
