Slumping Players :(

[Mordraken]

I'm at a loss of what to do. In my weekly head to head league, I'm getting killed by underperformers. My entire roster has taken a dive for the past 2-3 weeks. People like Jose Valentin, Barry Bonds, Jim Edmonds, Eurubial Durazo, Jose Cruz, Todd Helton, Brian Giles... if he's slumping, he's on my team. (and yes I put Bonds into the slumping category with a whopping 11 RBIs in the past month - 22 games out of a possible 28 he could have played in- that's a pace for 63 on the year...).

Question is, what do I do with these slumping players? Do I bench people like Valentin, Edmonds, Cruz, Durazo and forgo the RBIs and Runs that they give me? Without that many players, I would not have a chance of winning those categories, but I would have a chance of winning OBP and SLG.

Or do I continue to start them and hope that they get more than a single every second night?

It's freaking frustating. My lineup is solid (Bonds, Helton, Giles, Vidro, Durazo, Edmonds, Boone, Cruz & Toby "I can't hit the" Hall) but so far this week I have a .278 OBP and a .300 SLG; past month my team has about a .365 OBP and a .485 SLG. That's only barely decent, and definetly sub-standard for a fantasy team.

Dropping players isn't really an option - we have limited pickups in our league, and I don't believe people like Edmonds & Valentin (my 2 worst players excluding my catcher) are scraps to be discarded (even though he has an OPS of .750 for the past month).

Any suggestions on how to get through the slumps when it's half your team slumping? Prior to this nasty streak (1st month or so) I had one of the league's best offenses....

[jdh]

Well, slumpos do happen, and sometimes everyone on your roster will go into a slump. You definitely do not want to bench players that are slumping, if it means that you are leaving starting positions unfilled. This might help your batting average somewhat, but there is no use helping your average, when you are hurting yourself in runs, homers, RBIs and steals. If you have bench players that are on hot streaks, consider benching your starters and playing your bench players, or consider making short term waiver pickups of players that are on a roll that you can ride out.

Helton, Bonds, Giles, and Edmonds are all studs and will be just fine and come out of it. I'm not as sold on Valentin and Cruz performing all that well this year though. You basically have to just ride out the wave, and if all your players are slumping at once, it likely means most of them will go on hot streaks at once too.

[bleach168]

I feel ya. I have Durazo, Bagwell, Manny and Maggs. I heard they were some good, but I haven't seen it.

Just keep plugging them in the lineup and hope they turn it around soon.

[Gmogd]

Tell me about it. I have Buehrle, Maddux, Ohka, Schilling, Jason Giambi, Manny, and Maggs. And injuries to Beckett and Erstad. Plus Isringhausen who just gets delay after delay in his recovery. Add to that the fact that Vlad and Jimmy Rollins have decided not to run this year. Someone try and claim they've got a team which is underperfoming more, it'd be nice to see someone with worse luck.

[Guest]

is manny gonna pick it up soon?

[Nero]

is manny gonna pick it up soon?

he better...although I don't feel so bad since I traded Maggs to get him...I suspect they'll come alive at the same time

[BankRoll]

Everyone has slumps, you just gotta live through it.

May stats:
Pudge - .149BA .543OPS
Bagwell - .267BA .694OPS
Soriano - .231BA .750OPS
J. Hernandez - .194BA .544OPS
M. Ramirez - .289BA .857OPS

April stats:
Alfonzo - .174BA .543OPS
Vlad - .271 .875OPS

That leaves only 2 starters who have been consistent the whole season, Encarnacion, who is by no means a superstar, and Kearns. At the end of April I had a commanding first place lead (I was first in every hitting category and top 3-4 in every pitching category) and now I've dwindled into second thanks to those May pigs up there. But still with all those slumps I'm only 1.5 points out of first, so just gotta hang in there.

[sinicalypse]

yeah, vlad's lack of steals will likely bring him down to the mere mortal fantasy player realm.

still, interestingly enough, despite a ~16 game swing between vlad and carlos beltran, who started off the year injured, they've both attempted 7 steals. beltran, 6 steals, 1 CS. vlad 4 steals, 3 CS.

so i think that a combo of being dropped back to 4th in the order with the expos' success has been whats limiting good ol vladdy. he tends to get caught a bunch 37/16 in '01, 40/20 last season... so i think that if the expos NEED steals more, they'll turn to vlad.

otherwise, endy chavez, jamey carroll, and even orlando cabrera are getting some ops and making the best of them. cabrera has 4 steals alongside vladdy.

[fife76]

I understand the boat you are floating in. I have Burrell, Manny, Tejada, Larry Walker, Klesko, Garcia. I would love to see them live up to their potential, but it's killer when they are all down at the same time. I am about to give up on Garcia though.

[sinicalypse]

speaking of slumping players, how about manny ramirez? his power hasn't been overwhelming all season long, but lately he's tailspun from .340 to .299 while his RBI totals stay locked in the upper 20s. i was certainly expecting more out of manny, as he was my 2nd round draft pick in all three of my leagues. d0h.