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Bleacher Features - Know When to Say When
Cash Chitwood plays in an auction league and has some different ideas about when to call it a season. His favorite player, Ken Caminiti, has been no help to his team, The Widgets, lately.
I've seen people play for next year. Deciding when can fall under three basic strategies: The first one is the "Panic" or "Titanic" strategy. This is when you have a huge amount of injuries that will hamper your team the rest of the year, or key player(s) just don't cut it. The stratgey here is to trade off all valuable players for anything you can get. Sit on the bottom and claim/buy every free agent you can get, building a base for next year. This is a very common practice for newer owners, and there is no real timeframe of when to sink your own ship.
The second strategy is to count points. Your desire may not to be to win, but just to place in the top four. Count how many points you stand outside of the place you want to finish. Look at your potential. How many points could your team get if you left it exactly the way it is? Figure high, median and lows. If you are 10 places out of your goal, but you will probably at best be able to move up 2-3 more places in the year, its time to do something. Don't forget to look at the other owners potential, as well. Also, count pure numbers. If you are 10 homers behind someone at midseason you'll have to acquire someone that would hit 20 the entire year to be close, or pray the team you are chasing loses that amount for some reason. If you can't make your goal, bail. This is a good midseason strategy, and gives you time to make some good deals for future players. The third method, is the "Magician" method. This is not really a dumping or pure building strategy, but it can lead to a powerful team next year or even this year if you get lucky. This works for new, aggresive owners, or someone who needs those few points to get in to first place. First, declare you are moving someone big (make it sound like a fire sale). I did this with Curt Schilling this year (final year of ultra contract at $13). Usually you'll get a few teams interested. What you do now is pure thievery. Wait for what you need. In this case I waited for a hitter. Try to get as much as you can in addition to the player you want, and this will be done partially by the quality of the player, other interested owners and possible injuries. Offer them up once or twice per week, but stay firm on who you want. In the above example, I got Rick Reed, Derek Bell, and Aaron Boone, all reasonably priced for next year. Sometimes you can pull this off using lesser players (or hot free agent aquisitions). Other times, it does not work at all, but at worst you keep your players. Good luck, rob them blind and then sell them the cane. Take me to the Fantasy Baseball Forum Take me back to the Bleacher Feature page. |
