How to Win More Often: Part Two

Re-Building Is for Losers and Incompetents

Or Don’t Give Up, Don’t Ever Give Up...

You are not running the Pittsburgh Pirates or the Kansas City Royals. You do not need a five-year plan to recover from a bad fantasy season. A collection of 37 minor leaguers isn’t going to help you either. Should you find yourself in possession of a fantasy team with few or even no keepers you have better options. In auctions spend a great portion of your money on the best players available. After you have bought every star player you can afford you can then start working to acquire whatever injured but returning stars or sleepers you can fit on your roster. Do not be afraid to have a few one dollar players on your roster. When I have weak rosters I often plan to have a one dollar catcher, a one dollar middle infielder, a one dollar outfielder and two or three one dollar relievers. You never know when those one dollar guys are going to turn into Gary Matthews Jr., Mike Cuddyer, Jose Lopez and Scott Proctor.

As soon after your auction as possible start scouring the waiver wire for any talent that might have been missed at your draft. Examine every early call up and if they look promising consider picking them up to replace your one dollar guys. Look for teams willing to trade a quality but boring veteran or two and something for one of your stars and a one dollar guy. For example in 2007 you might buy Derrek Lee coming off his injury for a discounted price lets say $32. In an NL-only league 5x5 in 2005 Lee was worth roughly $50. Let’s also pretend that he spends the first two months of 2007 hitting as he did in 2005. Not only would you have a good potential keeper in Lee but he’s also excellent trade bait. A team sorely in need of homers and RBI might trade you $25 Nomar Garciaparra, $25 Randy Winn and minor leaguer Dexter Fowler for Derrek Lee and your $1 Gabe Gross. Then you can flip Dexter Fowler and Randy Winn to one of the teams which has an owner in love with prospects (every league has one, if you don’t know who it is it might be you) for $30 Mike Cameron and a 2008 minor league pick. There are endless variations and scenarios but you get the idea. In this case you would have turned Lee and Gabe Gross into Nomar Garciaparra, Mike Cameron and a draft pick. You might be surprised how much never giving up and always trying to improve your team for the present can move you up the standings.