Fantasy Baseball How To:

Effectively improve your team via the waiver wire.

By this point in the season, you've probably come pretty close to recognizing what all your team is strong at, and what all categories they could use some help with.
If you aren't really sure, take a look at your accumulated stats (there should be a link for this somewhere on the league's homepage) and see what categories you need help with-I prefer writing down each category that I feel I need help with.

With this information at hand, you should start to focus on stats on the waiver wire instead of big names and/or numbers that you are already in good shape at.
For example, lets say that you are 2nd in your league in home runs but only ninth in stolen bases, but some one has just dropped Chris Davis whom you have had your eye on since before the draft. Obviously you would be tempted to pick him up, but instead try to find an unheralded speed guy. You can still make room to put Chris Davis on your team, but finding a speed guy needs to be your top priority.

Pitching, on the other hand, can be a little more complicated though, depending on your league's scoring settings.
If your league has a category for Innings Pitched along with all the other 'normal' stat categories, it may be wise to have an extra starter on your team in place of a reliever, but don't go overboard with this. Don't sacrifice your ERA, WHIP, Saves, and Walks just to try and gain an advantage in K's, Wins, and Innings. If you'll do the math here, you're hurting your team by doing so.
Slowly throughout the year, try and pick up starters who flying under the radar but performing very well and you may be able to pick up a clean sweep in pitching categories once in a while.

Closer watch

A handful of teams, whether the reason is injury or ineffectiveness, now have a different closer ending games for them. You should consider picking these players up and squeeze every save and strikeout you can out of them.

• Scott Downs-Replacing the injured BJ Ryan.
• Ryan Franklin-The main St. Louis closer, hasn't given up a run in 7 innings .
  
• Brad Zeigler-Teammate and would-be save stealer Joey Devine is out for the year.
• Todd Coffey-The interim closer til Hoffman gets back (which should be a week or so). still, could net you a save or two in the mean time.
• Rafael Soriano-Has been the Braves most effective closer thus far.
• Carlos Marmol-Sweet Lou likes him more in the 8th, but he will get a few spot saves every now and then and will help you greatly in Ks.
  
• Manny Corpas-Took over for Huston Street, hasn't been effective yet though.

Here are some other players who aren't closers yet, but who you should keep a serious eye on in case something happens.

• Chris Perez-Having some control issues, but he's the most talented reliever the Cardinals have.
  
• Dan Wheeler- Troy Percival isn't exactly the poster boy of durability. When he breaks down, Wheeler will be next in line for saves.
• Jason Grili- Newly appointed closer Manny Corpas has already struggled and Grili is posting a 1.29 ERA.
• Chris Ray-I know he's not doing well, but neither is George Sherril.
  
• Tommy Hunter-Could pull an Adam Wainwright and close for the Braves down the stretch (if they're in contention)
  

What to do with DL eligible players

Today, Pittsburgh catcher Ryan Doumit was placed on the DL, leading to thousands upon thousands of fantasy owners dropping him from their team in exchange for some garbage replacement like Ramon Hernandez when they easily could have (and should have) just placed him on an empty DL spot.

They would still have to pick up a well-below average replacement while he is out, but once he comes back in mid-June or July (with still a good 2 or 3 months of baseball left), they will have a top 10 catcher in their lap.

So my advice to all of you is if somebody in your league drops a player that is slightly above average, pick him up, stash him on your DL, and laugh at the owner after he gets healthy and helps you win a title.

Fantasy Baseball team updates

This week...definitely wasn't my finest week ever. Almost all of my teams lost ground in the standings. Here's the recap of Week 2.

Team 1:
I started out the week with high hopes. I was only 1/2 game out of first place and was playing a team that didn't win a single category the previous week. All of my hitters decided to pick this week to not do jack squat (which I guess isn't really too bad of a thing) and my pitchers only did average. I finished this week 3-7-3 but am still in 2nd place, now 3 1/2 games back of first.

I dropped Chad Qualls and Howie Kendrick for Fernando Rodney and Orlando Hudson, respectively. Also, I plan on taking offers for Russell Martin, Troy Tulowitzki, and Chris Davis within the next few weeks.

Team 2:
Same story as team 1. I was right in the thick of things, playing a team that got dominated in Week 1, but got hammered instead. I dropped 8 out of 10 categories to bury me in 7th place, 7 1/2 games behind 1st.

I was pretty busy on the free agent market, dropping Chris Young (OF), Kevin Slowey, Ryan Zimmerman, Scott Baker, Huston Street, and Randy Winn (who I also added this week) for: Randy Winn, Jeremy Guthrie, Kevin Millwood, Travis Snider, and Manny Corpas. I am currently shopping; James Loney, Howie Kendrick, Kelly Shoppach, Carlos Villanueva, and Jeremy Guthrie.

Team 3:
This team didn't entirely suck this week, but also wasn't lights out unstoppable. I finished the week against a pretty good team with a 9-11-2 record and am now sitting in 3rd place, only 3 games out of 1st place.

I dropped Joba Chamberlain and Max Scherzer for Fernando Rodney and Joel Hanrahan (I had no closers) and am shopping arond Chris Iannetta.

Team 4:
This was easily my best team this week, the only team I had that had a winning record. I finished the week 8-4-0 and am currently in sole possesion of 1st place-a single game ahead of the two players tied for 2nd.

I dropped Kevin Slowey, Jason Motte, Vernon Wells, and Jared Weaver for Kevin Millwood, Fernando Rodney, and Manny Corpas.

I'll be back with more updates on how my teams are doing next Monday. Feel free to ask any fantasy questions!

Fantasy Note

Both Kevin Milwood and Josh Johnson are starting tomorrow. If they are still available in your league(s) it would be a wise move to pick up either one or both of them. Johnson has 20 win potential this year with an ERA in the mid to high 2's and 200+ strikeouts while Milwood could get anywhere from 15 to 18 wins with an ERA between 3 and 4 and 180 or more strikeouts.

If you can pick them up, you should probably think about doing so...

Buy Low/Sell High Canidates

I know its early in the season, but its never too early to be thinking of your teams long term success. The best way to do this? Like many things in life-buy low and sell high-meaning trade away players who are performing way better than expected (if you don't think they can keep it up) and trying to get under performing stars whose owners may be getting nervous.

The SELL HIGH group. If you own one of these players, consider trading them soon while their values are still high but if you don't, don't let go of too much for them.

• Emilio Bonifacio (2B/3B-FLA)
  
• Nick Swisher (1B/OF-NYY)
• Jack Cust (U-OAK)
• Marco Scutaro (2B/3B/SS-TOR)
• Kyle Lohse (SP-STL)
• Kevin Milwood (SP-TEX)

The BUY LOW group. If you happen to own a player on this list, just wait it out. If you don't start sending trade proposals pronto while you can still get them for cheap(er).

• Ryan Braun (OF-MIL) He has injury concerns right now, but I don't think they're too serious which is great news. The "injury" drives his value down even more.
• Mark Teixeira (1B-NYY) Also has injury concerns. Keep an eye on his injury.
• Jimmy Rollins (SS-PHI)
• Prince Fielder (1B-MIL) Started off slow last year too but ended up alright.
• Chris Iannetta (C-COL) He'll be a top 5 or 6 catcher by the end of the year.
• Brandon Webb (SP-ARI) There's no better time to steal a player than when he lands on the DL
• Cliff Lee (SP-CLE)
• Roy Oswalt (SP-HOU) Look at his 2nd half last year
• Ricky Nolasco (SP-FLA) Peter Gammons likes him-and he knows more about baseball than all of us...combined
  

Attention!

If any of you are football fans, check out my blog on the goings-ons of the NFL world at http://nflep.blogspot.com/. Right now I am doing a team by team preview of the upcoming draft and will be posting plenty of other stuff on there.

Also, within the next week, I will be sharing a few pointers on the Art of the Unfair Fantasy Trade. It will show you a few of my tactics for trying to get as much as you possibly can in a trade (and then some).