Should I drop Matt Morris?!

[cacky]

I've been giving some thought to dropping Matt Morris. Reports say he'll be out 3-6 weeks, but it's much more likely he'll be out closer to the six weeks, and possibly longer than that when you consider rehab starts. That means he won't be back till at least early September.

That said, is it a good idea to drop Matt Morris at this point? I was thinking of either picking up Phil Nevin or Nick Johnson when they come back, otherwise picking up random pitchers off FA when they have favorable matchups against teams like Detroit just to pick up on a few wins. I have a solid pitching staff but am not leading in wins or ERA (I'm 2nd or 3rd place in those categories right now). I also have Sweeney on my DL spot so Matt Morris is just taking up a bench spot.

I play in a daily roto league, non-keeper.

What do you think?

Should I drop Matt Morris and get someone off free agency/waivers since he might be out for too long? Or should I hang onto him, since he could be back by early September and actually do something for my team?

[Madison]

I'd be more worried about Sweeney coming back this year. Personally, I'd hang on to Morris.

[jdh]

From your post, it seems like you're in a roto league. In a roto league, having to burn a roster spot on Morris if you don't have the DL slot to put him in is a real killer, and you're likely only to get a week or two of production out of him the rest of this year. Who is available on the wire that you could drop Morris for? If there's a solid starting pitcher out there, then I would do it and get production right now, but if you would be dropping Morris to take a flyer on a guy like Jose Lima, it's probably not a good idea.

As far as Sweeney goes, the last report that I heard is that he should be back in a couple weeks. With KC in the pennant race, and with them able to use him as a DH, you'd think he will be very motivated to come back ASAP. Yes, there is the possibility of him being done for the season, but there's also the possibility that he'll come back and be a very productive, top 10 1B in a couple weeks. There is more potential for production there than there is for Morris, who you'll be lucky to get 4 good starts from the rest of the year.

[cacky]

I ended up just dropping Morris to get Darrell May for the spot start against Minnesota tomorrow, and then dropped May to pick up Phil Nevin.


I now have two hitters on my bench but I'm sure sooner or later someone out there will be itching for one of my third basemen (the other being Chavez).

No more solid starters on the waiver wire. No Harden.

How do you think I did?

[jdh]

Spot starting isn't a bad idea, depending on how you are with innings caps and limits, but I wouldn't mess around with spot starting against Minnesota. If you are going to spot start questionable pitchers, you want to do it against very weak offenses, and the Twins have an above average offense that can easily light up any pitcher (they rocked Hudson and Mulder last week).

Here are the only teams I'd consider spot starting guys like May against: Detroit, Cleveland (on the road), Tampa Bay, LA, San Diego, Pittsburgh (now with Lofton and Ramirez gone), Mets.