Everyone usually hangs onto a veteran or promising youngster in hopes that they'll prevail from a long-term slump. This hang-on could last for a few months, until August, or the whole year. When a leaguemate dumped Lowell the other day (kept mostly out of damaged pride from a trade) it got me to thinking... when is it time to cut bait on a player if you've hung onto them all year? Guys like Ichiro, Beltre, RJ... all name valued, yet perhaps it's better to go with the hot bat/hand from here on out.
My guess is mid-August, since 1.5 months of productivity is highly unlikely by that point. Thoughts?
I'm one of those guys who holds 'em for almost the whole season.
The decision to bench a star-quality guy is hard enough. Cutting them outright often seems like a mistake.
I've added Hafner, D. Wright, Huff (three teams), Furcal, A. Jones and Giles to various teams, all early- to mid-round picks that owners just gave up on.
I would say that the only time to cut these guys is after your trade deadline, when you can't get anything out of them.
In roto, you're often chasing categories at that point, and in H2H you need hot guys for the playoffs, so that's the only time to do it.
"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." — Douglas Adams (1952-2001)
I'm a little lenient on 1st rounders like Beltran or Helton because I'd rather them ride my bench than drop them. But normally I have players broken into three tiers: 300 ABs for studs, 200 ABs for mid-tier players and 100 ABs for flukes and the like. It's not a hard rule, I just use it as a rule of thumb and it helps me make tough decisions especially on players who I'm "falling in love with" and really shouldn't be.
Maine has a good swing for a pitcher but on anything that moves, he has no chance. And if it's a fastball, it has to be up in the zone. Basically, the pitcher has to hit his bat. - Mike Pelfrey
Good points.. it's very easy to 'fall in love with' a player, especially if you've seen what they've done the past few (or sometimes one) season. It doesn't help that the so-called fantasy experts keep the comeback record spinning around and around. It's a battle against your own will power and whether or not you can let go of your perceived hopes from draft day and just call it an off year for the player.
I like the at bats idea.. it's a decent rule of thumb that provides a peace of mind when cutting bait. As duckbillgates mentioned, when it comes down to playoffs, dead weight won't win championships.
If i have a legitimate replacement available(almost never in a big league) i may go ahead and pick them up. As far as trading them....If it is a big name player i will NOT trade them for less than full(or at least close to full) value unless they just struggle for a long long longgggg time.
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by MashinSpuds » Thu Aug 11, 2005 3:51 pm 
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