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Strategy: Managing Max Innings and Games

May 1, 2006 @ 14:29:34

By Nicholas Minnix
Edited by KFFL Staff

The excitement of a fantasy baseball season can last for six months, but somehow most of the emphasis on strategy falls only on the draft. But for the beginners, even if you've amassed the best army, it's the deployment of your troops that can make the difference between winning and losing at the end of a long and grueling season.

In nearly all rotisserie and points leagues, there's some sort of cap on games played (for the hitters) and innings pitched (for the - wait, I hope I don't have to explain that one). Some variations for your hurlers include games started or some other combination of appearances. Regardless of your league's requirements, though, the point is that you have to adhere to them.

Sometimes your league provides you with a tool to keep track of your progress. So how do you maximize your squad's efforts while not maxing out on your maximum games played and innings pitched? And who's this Max fella? You don't need General Ulysses S. Grant or James Carville to develop a game plan for you, but you could put some thought into how you use your bats and arms.

HITTERS

It's difficult to make max games played a problem for this group unless your league has strict limits. (In leagues with weekly lineup changes, it's unlikely that they'll even be an issue.) We'll use the default league setting from a typical host like Yahoo! Fantasy Sports as an example. After you've collected 162 games worth of stats from a hitter's position, you get no mas.

Don't plug in your bench players on off-days. It's tempting to do so on days when you're a little light, but you shouldn't. Each team plays 162 games, and there are roughly 180 days in the season, so the schedule has built-in days off. Few players participate in all of their team's games, but the regulars (especially the stars) play most of them. Texas Rangers shortstop Michael Young has played an average of nearly 160 games during the past three seasons. Baltimore Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada has a consecutive-games-played streak of 943 and counting - so he's bankable (even with his knee hyperextension). When dealing with the hot-and-cold streaks of your lesser players, you can take the same approach, but with a shorter leash.

Play manager with your catchers and platoon players. When using players who take the field less often, you can be more liberal with your substitutions. Catchers other than Cleveland Indians backstop Victor Martinez will ride the pine around 30 or 40 times a season. Special situations like that of San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds, whose "rest days" are often reported, necessitate a dependable extra outfielder, for instance. If for some reason you're using a player who's involved in a platoon, you can sub away. You want to make sure that you have a quality or hot player to use though; employing any old replacement hitter just to get a game played can be counter-productive - it's likely to bring down your average while adding little or nothing to your totals.

PITCHERS

Managing your staff can be a little more complicated because pitchers' outings are not as easily quantifiable. A game played is a game played, but a pitcher might never record an out, or a starter could go all nine. So what do you do in a league with a limit of, say, 1,250 innings? The pitching categories can fluctuate drastically throughout a season because of the makeup of a given staff and possible differences in innings pitched between each team.

You'll want to find a delicate balance between the use of your starters and your relievers. Starters average between 190 and 220 innings per year. Most relievers should expect to be used between 65 and 75 innings. It's realistic to imagine, then, that the use of the equivalent of five starting pitchers and three relievers over the course of a season would put you on target for 1,250 innings. If you had five Roy Oswalts and three Mariano Riveras, your job would be easy. But you don't. As the season unfolds, you'll have to take inventory of your team's innings and see how you can be more efficient with them. Managing your innings is more about adjusting than following a formula. Some general rules apply.

Never sit your closers. You should expect the top closers to earn saves for 50-to-60 percent of the innings they pitch. They generally have a positive effect on your ERA, WHIP and strikeouts. If saves are, or becomes, a category of strength or weakness for you, you can always make a trade. Until then, they're always in your lineup.

Allow your best starters to pitch the most innings. This sounds simple enough, but it depends on the quality of your starting pitching. You almost always pitch your aces. If you have five, you're incredibly fortunate (and probably have some bad hitters). If you have three, start them nearly every time out. (Hard to blame you if you skip one at Coors Field, though.) If you have only one, he shouldn't miss an outing. These pitchers give you the best chance at grabbing a win each time they take the hill, netting one for every 12-to-15 innings they pitch. If you went with quantity over quality, you'll have to play the matchup game - avoiding hitter-friendly parks and high-octane offenses - much more often. It's not necessarily a bad idea, but you need to pay close attention to the location of the game (Ameriquest Field is a bad sign) as well as the opposing team's batting average and runs per game. Also, spot starters always linger on the free agent list. It's not necessarily a good idea to own Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cory Lidle, but when he faces the Florida Marlins at Dolphins Stadium, he could make a valuable contribution to your team. Dump a deadbeat and throw him in one time.

Use the pitchers with the best strikeout rates. The team with the best strikeouts per nine innings (K/9) ratio at the end of the season is most likely the winner of the strikeouts category, because you all pitch the same number of innings. Use this in conjunction with the previous maxim. When deciding which fringe or spot starter you might use for a potentially positive matchup, go with the guy who has the better K/9.

Just remember to use your starters judiciously. If you find yourself ahead of the pace, focus on using only your top arms. If you're behind, search out the solid matchups for your lesser starters and make a leap in the standings. Top setup men like Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim reliever Scot Shields can provide you with quality innings while lowering your ERA and WHIP, padding your strikeouts and nabbing the occasional win or save. The key is a diverse staff.

In addition, take precaution when you have pitcher returning from the disabled list. In general, the longer a pitcher has been out, the less likely he is to be effective or pitch deep into a game. You don't want to waste valuable innings on a starter who may negatively affect your ratios and is unlikely to deliver a win.

The management of your games played and innings pitched isn't a science. Hitters are easy to monitor; pitchers can be a more of a hassle. Don't strictly adhere to the recommended rate, but don't fall too far behind or get too far ahead, either.

In a perfect world you could set a lineup and never touch it again. But it's not, so you can't. The details might seem minor, but the teams that focus on the details are the ones that get their names engraved on some gaudy chalice at the end of the season. Don't fall asleep at the captain's wheel when your ship and crew might need you most.