Fantasy Baseball Advice

[Spin Teacher]

As some of you know I've dominated your sorry butts in almost every fantasy basketball league we have held here. I won football a couple times as well, but have never won our fantasy baseball league. This year I started a baseball league, but nobody here entered. So I'd like to give you my stategy going into this year, and where I currently stand. Then I could use your advice good or bad.

My goal was to have an offense with depth. Meaning guys that could play multiple positions if someone got hurt, or wasn't playing that day. I planned on using 3 of my 6 bench spots on offense, at the same time being at least 2 players deep at every position.

For pitching I wanted to get 4 good closers & 4 good middle relief guys (for Holds). I wanted to keep only 1 good starter & rotate in another from the FA pool. I wanted to use my 3 bench spots in pitching for my relief pitchers. That way if I need saves I could have 4 closers & a middle relief guy starting. But if I need holds I could have 4 middle relief guys & 1 closer starting.

Where I'm at now: I've got 1 too many catchers, 2 of my more flexible players on the DL, I've got more starters then I want & I'm short on middle relief. I was going to attempt to trade a couple starters & Posada for a good relief pitcher or 2. I could use another outfielder as well. If Casilla pans out I might be alright just using Figgins as an outfielder.

Here's My Team:
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/2811/teamju5.jpg

Here's The Current Standings:
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/9281/standingstj5.jpg

Here's All The Team Stats:
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/3946/statsca4.jpg

[Captain Beefheart]

This a public league i'm guessing. Haven't really played this year, just too time consuming and public leagues are flat out too dissapointing for me.

Anyways from someone who's prevented you from winning for the last two years there really isn't much you can do at this point as far as roster goes(your OF is garbage). Just stay on the lookout for players on hotstreaks and just roll the dice when it comes to waivers and rotating pitchers(splits/matchups etc). Casilla for example seems capable of slapping .290-.300, and has obviously done some work on his walk rate. Whether he can maintain this through 2008 is yet to be see but I'd hold on to him.

As for the playoffs it just depends on matchups, look at the potential one's and try to figure out where you've struggled all season and where you think you don't have a chance. In that case I always use the "unload deadweight" mode, if I know for sure i'm not beating a guy at holds/saves I waive them off and concentrate on the stats I can actually win. When it comes to hitting I've never been a big guy on steals, over the time I've been playing, it's the most incosistent category, and loading your team with the Gomez, Taveras isn't really worth it as they only contribute in 2-3 cats.

[superboy]

I think you should stand pat. If anything try to improve your pitching, although good pitching ever so hard to find. Good team though!

[Spin Teacher]

Darn you Captain, do you really have to rub it in. :p I was looking forward to trying to beat you this year. You better give me a shot next year.

Well I recently made offers for a couple trades, going after the likes of Gomez, Shoemaker?, & some middle relief. Mostly been fishing Contreras around because even though he's really hot, I don't think he'll keep it up all year. His history doesn't show he's capable of it.

I understand why you wouldn't be big on speed, but I tend to let my personal opinions on players in real life get in the way a lot in fantasy sports. In baseball I'm a fan of speed, defense & pitching. This year the biggest difference in my strategy was going after flexibility & willing to use some of my bench for position players. I normally use all extra spaces for pitching. Thus far there's only 1 team I think is better then me, but I think I could compete with anyone else.