Late Season Strategies

As we roll into the middle of August and football season starts up, it is easy to forget about our fantasy baseball teams. The NFL is marketed very well and can easily turn a half-hearted fantasy baseball owner away from the great game. There are a lot of things that one can do to refocus strategy to win their league.

1. Monitor the standings closely. Where are places that you can capitalize on and gain small points? If you can sit down for a good hour or so and analyze the standings, you’d be surprised at how straightforward it is to find areas of improvement. Most trade deadlines have passed, so you can focus all of your time and energy on finding good value on the wire. Fantasy baseball is a long season, and you will be surprised at how much growth you can make in the last month, just by simply understanding your team’s position.

2. Understand your league’s rules. What kind of fantasy league are you in? If you are in a head-to-head league, focus on finding good “hot” values that you can plug in week-by-week. If you are in a roto league, look for values that are likely to produce over the remainder of the season. Check your players’ position eligibility as well: is that hot second baseman you signed also eligible at catcher? Review your rules and see if there are any rules you can exploit to your advantage.

3. Know your limits! Be careful and very wary of position limits or maximum/minimum innings limits for your pitchers. If you go over, you could lose enough points to keep you out of contention. If you are currently ahead of pace on innings, find the best starters and calculate the remainder of projected innings. Play the matchups right to get the best combination of players going. Position players shouldn’t be that far off, with the exception of catchers. If you have more catcher games to give, consider rostering a second or third catcher to play as part of a platoon.

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