This week’s fantasy baseball roundtable question was posed by Eric Stashin of RotoProfessor. He asks “What do you think the biggest mistake fantasy owners make in handling their pitcher’s throughout the season?”
I couldn’t wait to answer this question, but it was difficult for me to narrow it down to just one mistake, as I think fantasy owners screw with their staffs so much that they end up with pitching stats much worse than they should. Zach Piso was the only responder to give one of the other huge mistakes that I would have discussed had I not given the answer I did. He basically talked about how owners ignore the reality of a pitcher’s underlying skills, which we focus on at this site, and instead choose to blindly follow ERA. Rudy Gamble talked about a mistake that isn’t widely discussed, which is that of making sure you account for your league rules, especially when managing your staff in an IP cap league, such as most Yahoo leagues.
I was actually surprised that both Brett Greenfield and Jason Collette talked about always starting your 2-start guy as a mistake. I disagree that it’s a mistake, because if I own a pitcher, it’s because I think he has value, and why wouldn’t I maximize his value by activating him for his 2-start weeks? I don’t see how it will hurt your ERA and WHIP, unless the pitcher in question is actually not a good pitcher, in which case you shouldn’t own him to begin with.
Brett mentioned how he benches a 2-start pitcher if any of his starts are against the Yankees, Red Sox, or at Coors. I will partially agree here in that 99% of the time, I’ll bench a pitcher who has a start at Coors. But unless my pitcher is either the worst on my staff, or has both starts (not just 1) against the top offenses in baseball, I’m not benching him during a 2-start week. Jason is making the bold move to bench Kazmir this week, which he first announced on The Bullpen message board on Rotojunkie. I own Kazmir in 2 leagues and would never dream of benching him, so we’ll see how that works out!
What do you guys think are the biggest mistakes owners make in handling their pitchers and do you agree with my response and everyone else’s? Are any of us wrong?
Questions, comments, criticisms, praise, expert league invitations? Email me at FBGeneralsMike@gmail.com.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Jason Collette // Jul 8, 2008 at 6:58 am
I knew my bit would raise some eyebrows. I actually left Kazmir in this week as I forgot to go pull him yesterday morning before our lineup deadline. When I made my statement, Kazmir was facing both Pettitte and Sabathia this week in his starts. Both were on the road where he has a 3.94 ERA over the last 3 years. In 8 decisions against the Yankees since 2006, he has 2 wins and a 1.40 WHIP. The strikeouts and 3.00 ERA are nice, but the WHIP and high rate of no decisions do not make those starts overly profitable.
While 14.1 innings is a small sample size, Kazmir has a 1.88 WHIP against Cleveland over the past three seasons. Clearly, this year’s Indians offense is not the same as in year’s past, but when this start was one that was opposing Sabathia, this did not look like a great matchup on paper either. 2 possible no decisions with good strikeouts but a WHIP beating led me to think benching Kazmir this week would be a wise play.
Like I said, I got sidetracked and forgot to pull him so we’ll see what happens starting tonight.
2 Loren // Jul 8, 2008 at 8:23 am
I have a staff of Hamels, Halladay, Felix, Peavy, Verlander, plus Parra, Sonnanstine, and a stashed Liriano so I do play the matchups often, which sometimes leads to Halladay riding the pine maybe every other week despite being arguably the best pitcher on my team, because of his playing on the Blue Jays and in the AL East. Also, Peavy sits more than he starts on my team since he’s on the god-awful Padres. It’s worked out so far though as I lead the league in Wins, K, and WHIP while being in second in ERA.
I think playing the match-ups is important especially if you have serviceable options behind your top guys, as top offenses can easily destroy a spectacular week even against the best of pitchers.
3 Mike Podhorzer // Jul 8, 2008 at 8:38 am
Umm wow, benching Halladay and Peavy? Benching Peavy more often than you start him? I think you need to end that practice immediately!!
If you aren’t using them every start, then maybe you should trade them for max value since you’re just wasting them benching them so often.
4 Patrick DiCaprio // Jul 8, 2008 at 9:14 am
On the two start pitcher I agree with Jason! I don’t always start a two start pitcher, though I do start them probably 85% of the time.
Mike you are right on the Peavy question–if you dont start Peavy all the time someone will so trade him.
5 Phil // Jul 8, 2008 at 9:18 am
I try to get 1-3 “aces” for my teams, and i call them aces because i will start them every start(even against the yankees and boston- I’ll consider not starting at Coors), then I spot start the other non-aces on my staff. That’s worked for me best. I also don’t agree with not starting a two-start pitcher if one of the matchups is less than favorable on paper(if he’s an ace, you start him regardless) - in a keeper league my aces this year are: King Felix and Kazmir. I spot start Verlander, Ervin Santana, and Jair Jurrjens. Works for me.
6 Jason Collette // Jul 8, 2008 at 10:39 am
Of course, it is easy to bench Kazmir in a league where I also have Lackey, Duchscherer, Shields, Vazquez, and Smith on the staff. I went against all that is holy and actually traded for all but Shields and dumped closers. I am still in first place with an 82.5 out of 100 points in the league and am dead last in saves with 9 that came from my middle relievers. I’m trying to win a league while completely punting saves.
Leave a Comment