By Brett Avery
The Fantasy Insider
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

Need to detonate your lineup to clear out the dead wood? This week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic is the week to light that fuse.

The Fantasy Insider did it at the start of his Monday research session and he’s feeling much better, thanks. Well, mostly better.

TFI fired up the laptop Monday and found his lineups were as barren as grandma’s cupboards: two active players in the Expert League, three in the Pacific Tour League. Who says he needs additional incentive to hold Sundance’s hand and jump off the cliff?

Truth be told, for much of this season TFI’s spent too much time each Monday night researching and writing his column and hardly any time selecting his lineups or maintaining his rosters. It has been too easy to shuffle the lineup so that six players are active and ignore systemic problems.

It shows in the way he’s trailing badly in his rotisserie Expert League (fifth with 45.5 points after spending much of the season solidly in third place) and head-to-head Pacific Tour League (9-8-1, the early leader in power rankings but now a game and a half outside of a playoff spot).

So after several weeks of fighting back the nagging feeling that he should clean the slate, TFI settled down at the computer Monday night (with the second game of the Sabres-Hurricanes game in the background) and made some changes.

They’re not earth shattering, clear-the-decks moves by any means. Regular readers of this column would recognize TFI as the typical buy-and-hold investor, so making wholesale revisions every week -- LCF’s version of day trading -- isn’t quite his style.

But as part of his continued learning process in LCF’s first season, he’s going to make the necessary weekly changes to his lineup and let the points fall where they may.

Consider yourself warned.

Each of TFI’s leagues has one or two team owners who are on the waiver wires first thing Monday, snapping up those few free agents who look like that week’s no-brainers.

So TFI, emboldened by last week’s advice to add Tim Herron to the roster (thanks for the timely victory in the Bank of America Colonial, Lumpy!) and some other recent selections, will begin scouring the waiver wire Monday night.

As always, TFI suggests keeping an eye on the list of players fully exempt into the next major championship, in this case the U.S. Open. That way you won’t cast off someone you may need next month at Winged Foot GC.

For this week, though, it’s a handful of roster moves (outlined below) and the start of a new philosophy. TFI’s keeping his fingers crossed.

Addendum: Of course, the beginning of this happy tale is not without its bumps and bruises. TFI submitted the same move in both leagues Monday night: drop Daniel Chopra and pick up Brett Quigley.

It went through just fine in the Expert League but Geo’sgolf snapped up Quigley in the Pacific Tour League thanks to a higher spot on the waiver pecking order. So TFI went back Tuesday morning and dropped Chopra for Richard S. Johnson.

You think this revised game plan will mean his opposing team owners will start cherry-picking TFI’s waiver moves at the midnight hour? If they do they’re. .. geniuses, right?

On to This Week’s Brilliant Question:

Sometimes you pick a player (to add or drop) when he’s not even in the field. Why? --Larry

TFI can name that tune in three notes:

1] TFI is a big believer in the concept of the worm going to the early bird. Most fantasy competitors concentrate so hard on the players in that week’s field that they overlook any other players worth adding. So a team owner who jumps on an idle player can gain a big advantage when everyone else is looking elsewhere.

2] It’s much easier, to TFI’s eye, to assess a potential roster addition without the factor of that week’s tournament. Let’s face it: A guy might make an exceptional long-term contribution to your lineup but if he’s got a so-so record at that week’s venue you might make the mistake of passing on him. Or waiting, and having another owner sweep the guy onto his roster.

3] Sometimes the off week is when that particular player floats to the front of TFI’s mind. He could set the name aside in a tickler file but invariably he’ll forget to mention the guy in the following week’s column.

Three players TFI might pick up/trade for to get onto his roster this week:

--Brian Gay. Last year he missed 13 of 33 cuts. The year before that it was 16 of 32. The year before that? In 2003 it was 19 of 34. So what do we make of his missing only four cuts in his first 15 tournaments this year, and back-to-back top-20 finishes? TFI’s not not asking too many questions while snapping him up (although he’s overjoyed by those yowsa short-game stats).

--Sean O’Hair. TFI feels as if he’s sticking his neck out a bit on this one, especially after panning the guy the week of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (he’s only made the weekend six times since February). But those top-10 rankings at the Bank of America Colonial in both major putting stats -- per round and per green in regulation -- give TFI plenty of encouragement.

--David Duval. Answer: October 2002. Question: When was the last time this guy posted back-to-back top 25 finishes? Those three sub-70 rounds to finish off the Bank of America Colonial were also a long time coming. He’s got the power to handle the TPC Southwind and the putting touch is solidifying. The last step of this comeback will happen, girls and boys, and TFI feels the day’s approaching. Perhaps a chance of scenery -- he’s played this event once -- will do him good.

One player TFI might waive/drop/trade away to get off his roster this week:

--Daniel Chopra. Might waive? Old news. Just hasn’t shown much this season, especially those five cuts in his last seven starts. True, TFI suggested picking him up the week of the Shell Houston Open, and he has made three cuts since then. But it’s too little to keep him in the roster with crunch time coming.

Rotisserie results for Expert League at Bank of America Colonial: 69.0 points (first!). One-putts 171 (first), birdies 87 (first), birdies 10 (tied third), 300+ drives 25 (second), fairways 188 (second), greens 291 (second), money $407,069 (third), scoring average 69.2 (tied fourth), scrambles 86 (first), eagles 3 (first). Overall: 45.5 (fifth). Nice to know the lineup, even in a decimated state, can pull out a weekly victory.

Rotisserie lineup for FedEx St. Jude Classic: Ben Crane (not competing), Steve Flesch, Brian Gay, Joe Ogilvie (not competing), Brett Quigley, Camilo Villegas. Not competing: Michael Campbell, Sergio Garcia, Geoff Ogilvy, Bo Van Pelt. Roster moves: Dropped Daniel Chopra, added Brett Quigley; dropped Brandt Jobe, added Brian Gay. As TFI submits this column he’s still wrestling with whether to waive another player or two and get to six active players. Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion!

H2H results for Pacific Tour League at Bank of America Colonial: rawson brothers 211, TFI 156. Driving: Chris DiMarco 8, Chad Campbell 39. Short game: K.J. Choi 49, Carl Pettersson 14. Putting: Justin Leonard 32, Tom Pernice Jr. 14. Tough to remain competitive when the opponent has three players with 40-plus points and five with at least 30.

H2H lineup for FedEx St. Jude Classic: culver_08 (7-11) at TFI (9-8-1). Driving: Chris DiMarco, Fredrik Jacobson. Short game: Tom Pernice Jr., Carl Pettersson (not competing). Putting: Richard S. Johnson, Justin Leonard. Roster moves: Dropped Jesper Parnevik, added Fred Jacobson; tried to drop Daniel Chopra and add Brett Quigley but Geo’sgolf was higher on the waiver order and swiped Quigley; dropped Chopra and added Richard S. Johnson. The last time TFI met the third-place team in the East Division they were barely outside a playoff spot. Now culver_08 is five games out of second and on a five-game losing streak.

Salary Cap Cup results for Bank of America Colonial: The main lineup of Chad Campbell ($35,657, tied 30th), Justin Leonard ($13,260, tied 56th), Bo Van Pelt ($117,600, tied 12th), Joe Ogilvie ($28,200, tied 37th) and Tim Petrovic ($11,760, tied 71st) totaled $206,477 and placed 10,506th. Through Week 20 it totals $7,638,365 and ranks 7,038th. Someone asked the message board the other day whether they knew of anyone who could have five players make the cut and total less than $150,000 for the week. TFI was too modest to say he’d unfortunately done is several times (but was too happy this week to have at least crested $200k to respond to the post).

The "Hey, buddy" backup lineup of Rod Pampling ($708,000, third; includes $300,000 as round leader bonuses), K.J. Choi ($75,900, tied 17th), Lucas Glover ($0, missed cut), Harrison Frazar ($12,120, tied 68th) and Brian Davis ($0, did not start) totaled $796,020 and placed 1,322nd. Through Week 20 it totals $7,096,013 and ranks 9,042nd. That tells you something girls and boys: TFI’s backup lineup is about $540,000 short of the main lineup, which is worth about 2,000 places in the standings. Gotta get over that hump and into the top 5,000 before Segment Two ends.

Week 20 winner: golfcell $2,443,942.

Segment Two leader: Derek’s Heroes $14,831,201.

Salary Cap Cup lineup for FedEx St. Jude Classic: Main lineup, David Toms $300,000, Justin Leonard $274,000, Fredrik Jacobson $241,500, Shane Bertsch $88,750, Richard S. Johnson $75,000. Total: $979,250. "Hey, buddy" backup lineup, Stewart Cink $283,750, Camilo Villegas $251,250, Brett Quigley $228,500, Bill Haas $144,000, David Duval $75,000. Total: $982,500.

Have a question or comment for TFI? Send it to him at brettavery@aol.com. Please remember to include your team and league names and whether you’re playing a rotisserie or H2H league.