Maximize your starts, if you can

Hello again, baseball fans. Well, I'm sick, like most of you are I'm sure, of watching NBA and NHL highlights on Sportscenter every morning, so thank the heavens that baseball season is finally underway. Hopefully you've drafted your fantasy team and you may even have some trades on the table.

Before any of those stats start piling up, I'm going to take this opportunity to talk about how to maximize your success in fantasy baseball. I'm talking about getting the most out of your starts. Your team may have the players with the best numbers at the end of the season, but if you haven't been starting them at the right times and in the appropriate moderation, it hardly matters. Let me explain.

In rotisserie leagues, where teams accrue cumulative stats, there is a limit on the games played for each position. In typical leagues, a team will have 162 games to start at every offensive position. Ideally, you will have a start shortstop, for example, who can play all 162 games for you, but that's not likely to happen.

Let's say that Derek Jeter gets struck by lightning in August after playing only 140 games for your team. You can still trade for, pick up, or use from your bench a player to maximize the remaining games. Players will get injured, things will change, and you have to stay on top of your team to be successful.

Or let's say you have Miguel Tejada set to start against Curt Schilling in Baltimore (a pitchers' park) on Tuesday night. In the meantime, Tony Batista is on your bench, is on a hot streak, and is set to face off against Mike Maroth who has a 7.13 ERA for Detroit. Start Batista.

What about if you've been playing Jimmy Rollins at shortstop while you're waiting for Nomar Garciaparra to get off the injured list? Be conservative, and save some of those games for Nomar.

Another thing to be aware of: your catcher will not play 162 games. No catcher does. You will need a second catcher to keep pace with the passing games.

But batters are easy. It's those pitchers that you'll really have to think about. Most leagues have pretty stringent limits on innings your team is allowed, so you have to use your starts wisely. You'll see a lot of starters come and go over the course of the season, and your success will be about discipline.

My advice is to start only your top three pitchers regularly. You'll own more -- which is just as important -- but they'll be primarily for trade bait, or they'll pitch in favorable situations: in pitchers parks against bad teams, for instance. If you're lucky, your number four starter will blossom into a number two guy, and then you can trade someone to stock up your lineup or bullpen.

Sometimes even your studs will be in situations where it would be smart to sit them. You've got Roy Halladay but he's facing Pedro on Tuesday. Don't be afraid to bench him. You'll have other opportunities.

You'll find, about halfway through the season that the inexperienced fantasy player in your league will be way in the lead in wins and Ks, but has been starting Kerry Wood plus five mediocre starters every week and has few innings left. By August, those innings will be gone, and his pitching stats will halt with a high ERA and a poor win percentage.

Meanwhile, you've been patiently working Mulder, Kevin Brown, and Bartolo Colon all season in only quality situations, and you're right on pace to finish your innings at the end of the season with high rankings in wins, ERA, Ks, and WHIP. You can even trade for Kerry Wood for cheap since he is worthless to his owner.

If you've got a pitcher who you're not sure about -- a sleeper perhaps -- wait him out. Bench Byung Hyung Kim, for instance, for a few starts until he proves to be the sweet starter you were expecting. The point is, don't waste your innings frivolously on anything short of a sure thing. Good fantasy pitchers get you Ws without using up too many innings and have a consistently low ERA.

This brings me to your non-starting pitchers. Closers use up fewer innings than starters, maybe averaging three or four fewer-than-two-inning appearances a week. Playing a lot of closers is a proven strategy to grab saves and conserve innings while not risking much in terms of ERA and WHIP. Great closers will get you Ks too.

Another strategy that I've seen is for teams to use middle relievers. Though they rarely get wins or saves, these guys can saturate a few innings a week with strikeouts and reliably low ERA. If your starters aren't all getting it done, look to middle relievers to keep you competitive. Some MRs who should be sweet this year are Mike Timlin, Latroy Hawkins, Jeff Nelson, and Tom Gordon.

So that's my spiel. It's all about conservation of greatness. Now I'll take the opportunity to field a question.



Dear Freeman's Fantasy,

Someone has just offered me Marcus Giles, Edgar Renteria, and Josh Beckett for Jeff Kent, Miguel Tejada, and my extra 3B Dmitri Young. Should I bite?

Gooch



Well, I e-mailed Gooch back to check out the rest of his team, and it turns out the kid has Bagwell, Morgan Ensberg, Reggie Sanders, Luis Gonzalez, and Jose Guillen -- all guys with likely 30+ homerun potentials. Oh yeah, plus Bonds. So it looks like he can afford to lose the HR differential of Kent and Tejada. But what Gooch doesn't have is steals, and Giles and Renteria would bring those on.

On the other hand, Giles is relatively unproven, and though Kent and Tejada both had off seasons last year, let's remember that they also have both won MVP awards in the past three years. Good second-halves last year suggest that Jeff and Miguel could return to superstar form.

The X-factor is Beckett, who is unproven but highly-touted based upon his post-season performance in 2003. Injuries have hampered him during the regular season, but he has potential for stardom. His ERA has always been pretty low, and I like his K/BB ratio.

What this trade comes down to is that Gooch would be getting the stats that he needs -- steals and batting average -- while taking a loss in power, which Gooch has. Even though Kent and Tejada may be more valuable than Giles and Renteria overall, they are not more valuable for Gooch's team. Plus, he's getting a potential top starter for a bench player in Young. I say: go for it. A lot of guys won't give up good players because they are "too valuable," but if they are not the most valuable for you team, you don't need 'em.

Okay, that's all for now. Write in your fantasy questions to elliot.freeman@tufts.edu. Happy baseball season.