who do I pitch this week?

[EugeneStyles]

I've got kind of a nice dilemma this week. I have too many pitchers, a few of them with 2 starts during the week. Help me out on who to start. This is a head-to-head points league. Innings, wins, strikeouts, and saves all give positive points. Runs, walks, and hits all give negative points. Starters and closers end up having approximately equal value.

I get 7 pitchers, no inning limit or anything like that. These are my 10 choices...

Darryl Kile*
Jeff D'Amico
Shawn Estes
Josh Beckett
Kazuhisa Ishii
Brett Tomko
Jason Schmidt*
Matt Clement*
Juan Cruz
Vladimir Nunez


* = has two starts during the week

So far, I am benching Schmidt, Clement, and Cruz. I want to find a way to get Clement and Schmidt's two starts into the lineup, but I don't want to miss out on any quality performances. And if they have bad starts, I could end up with negative points.

Also, should I drop anyone for Dave Mlicki, who's still available?

[cwebb]

Your choices seem fine! You don't have a real ace but considering your pitchers go with quality instead of quantity here!

Who's available? Lawrence? Tomko or Byrd as a stopgag?

[Arlo]

If your week runs through the 5th, when Beckett will get his next start, I'd bench D'Amico for Clement. One more start, one less start in the stadium formerly known as Enron.

Don't worry about Mlicki. Losing two Schmidt starts may not be the worst thing that can happen; wait to see if he's really back at 100% before benching someone else in favor of him.

[EugeneStyles]

Actually, Beckett started today (Sunday), whereas next week for the league starts Monday, so he'll just get one start next week. I'll probably bench D'Amico, though, like you suggested.