Here we are three weeks into the baseball season, and fantasy players are freaking out.  Sometimes I think we would be better if we didn’t see the standings of our fantasy leagues until May 1st.  With 11% of the season gone, you only have 89% left to fix your team.  “Fix” being the key word, which means you need to admit you made some mistakes with the players that you chose.

For comparison sake, the percentage of the baseball season that is gone would be less than 2 football games, so would you be looking to make massive changes to your football team after the first week?

Every year in October, I put together a “crystal ball” Diamond Challenge baseball team.  I’m always curious if someone could have won the $25,000 grand prize by putting in a team at the beginning of the year and NOT making one change to the team all year. And for 17 years, the answer is yes!  Part of that yes is because you can pick the players with the best stats, but part of that yes is because you weren’t able to “manage”, taking the player out when he was slumping or getting lit up.  When you can make changes, there’s just as good a chance of making the wrong choices as the right ones!  But what fun would that be?

As fantasy baseball owners, part of the fun of playing is managing the team.  So when Ryan Howard is hitting .186 with twice as many strike outs as hits, we ask ourselves, Did I make a big mistake taking him this year?”  Our first urge is to dump him, that bum is keeping my team at the bottom of the standings! The rest of the league must think I’m a buffoon.  And depending on your league rules, you might get a call from some other owner willing to take him off your hands for Casey Kotchman…who he points out is hitting .317, and has the same amount of home runs (four) and RBIs (12) as Howard.  Wow, how can you pass that up?!

Very quickly if you have any desire to win!  You drafted Howard because you expect him to hit close to his career average of .286, and provide you with at least 45 home runs and 130 RBIs.  While Kotchman might hit for a higher average (although his career average is only .271), 20 home runs and 100 RBIs would be a miracle.

The point is you probably had an idea of what every player you drafted for your team would do this year.  Unless you were being overly optimistic (Borowski can get 45 saves again, and this year he’ll keep runners off base), or your player suffers an injury that can affect his stat potential you weren’t counting on (other than JD Drew), you need to give your players a chance to prove you got them right.  Projections can be wrong, but for the most part, especially if you are using good projections (like the Hot Sheet), the players will do what you expect. 

From now till the end of the year, the 89% left is all your team will get.  So if you really believe Ryan Howard will become himself again, the 89% you’ll be getting from him is .300, 41 home runs and 118 RBIs, numbers that most players can only dream about.  If you want the other players in your league to know you’re a buffoon, dump him know and get some player who won’t give you half his numbers.  You’ll secure your spot in that league forever!