Opening Day is finally here, after a stellar Opening Night offering from Philly and Hot-Lanta. Hopefully you’ve set the DVR to record House M.D. (Kutner Dies, hopefully I ruined that for you) and 24 (John Voight just majorly pwned a n00b.)
Maybe you got your fix last night and watched Myers shit the bed and Schafer look like an All-Star but please:
Do Not Do Anything Stupid!
Unless you autodrafted, you’re not allowed to make roster moves based on performance. You obviously can switch ‘em up if someone gets hurt, or Motte’s the situation for 4 games in a row, but for the most part — No Roster Moves.
There are 162 Games in a season, and one game shouldn’t change your mind. Ricky Nolasco looked great until shit hit the fan and he gave up 5 Runs (4 ER). The Blue Jays aren’t an offensive power house, and the Orioles aren’t going to finish ahead of those damn Yankees.
There are some notable exceptions though:
Maybe you wanted Schafer but didn’t feel he had value at the 8th spot, batting ahead of the pitcher. If he starts batting lead-off, go ahead and pick ‘em up.
The Back-End, Last 5 Picks:
You are however allowed to play with the last five picks, if you get some crazy feeling. The last five picks in your draft, or your bench spots are generally pretty much waiver-wire quality — so you can always get them back.
While I’d advise you to keep them, if you really wanted Felipe Lopez but couldn’t bring yourself to pull the trigger, then give ‘er tits. If you just needed to see something, anything, just evidence that he existed in space AND time — then go ahead and pick up Lopez.
I’d recommend keeping your Waiver Wire claims to a minimum for the first week until you get a feel for your team. Almost all other sources will tell you to sit on your team for a month, but screw that cheese — if you’re not going to take a risk with the ass-end of your line-up and pick up a Michael Bourn-type, then you won’t win big.
Some people sit on their waiver-wire priority until the big-stud comes up, but I say screw it.
The first month of the season, and the first week after the All-Star break is when you win a fantasy league. You shouldn’t deviate too much from your original rankings, and definitely don’t go dropping anyone outside of your bench guys.
If you start pouncing on these waiver-wire claims, don’t even bother starting them. Just take the wait-and-see approach for a week or so before they even come close to your line-up.
Bigga Bigga Bigga Money
If someone does overreact and drop a player that sits higher than your bottom five, pick him up pronto.
If someone drops David Murphy because Nelson Cruz got the start, I’d have no problem picking him up if I liked him more than my 5th outfielder, Josh Anderson.
This may seem like common-sense, but you need some stick-to-it-ness if you’re looking at the standings and you’re in last place at 0-19-1 after two weeks, and you only managed a tie against the guy who was punting saves.
KUTNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh, worst death ever.
Also I have made 3 roster moves already.
Hopefully they are well thought out moves, and not just impulsive attempts to rid yourself of the 4 catchers you’re rostering.