Spot Starting

[redsoxflyfishr]

I know there have been things written on this before but I wanted some additional input about spot starting. In my H2H league this year I am thinking of taking Mashers with my first 5-6 picks then load up with about 4 stud closers. The idea being that with that many closers I can sacrafice going for the top tier pitchers early to help carry my pitching stats each week. I know I'll be behind most weeks on W's but with the closers carrying the bulk of my pitching my ERA and WHIP should be low...in theory. And then add my SP the day before they have a scheduled start. Has this strategy worked for anyone in the past? Or is this just a great way to end up at the bottom of the rankings? I would obviously take some quality starters later in the draft like Kazmir, Lackey...just not rely on them a whole lot.

[kentx12]

If you are going to do this "which I wouldnt recomend" I would go with the approach of no starting pitching unless you have a mininum ip limit. Going with no sp's you should win whip, era and saves each week. If you go with spot starters they can ruin your era and whip and then you loose 4 of the 5 pitching categorys.

[Zito is God]

This has been discussed before and it has mixed results.

Everyone agrees you cannot punt SPs altogether. Spot starting should net you Wins and Ks but will drastically damage ERA and WHIP. Closers do not always get you good ERA and WHIP. Closer giving up 1 run = 9.00 ERA. Unless your closers are something like Krod/Rivera/Ryan/Hoffman you're not a lock to win WHIP or ERA. Punting those 2 categories is not smart either.

I have alwasy wanted to try to make a team that spot starts ALL their pitching because of the high amount of Wins and Ks while pretty much punting ERA and WHIP. That said punting more then 1 cat is simply not smart. Thats my take.

[redsoxflyfishr]

There is no maximum on innings pitched for the season and we only have to have 10 innings a week for stats to count. I agree spot starting does have a huge downside to it. It was just a new strategy I had seen and wondering about it's success rate.