How much value is there in having a good bench? (fantasy)

[jbauer2485]

Sorry, gotta disagree with this. Sure, it's nice to have a couple guys on your team (hopefully multi-position guys) who can provide you with numbers when your main guys have off-days. But it's not efficient to feel like you must have every position covered all the time. You could be using those roster spots more efficiently with pitching. And it's a much worse idea if you plan on using these same guys to help you on a long term basis when your starters go down. This means these largely unused guys have to be quality players -- which means you're reducing your quality of pitching at draft time. I'd rather have 9 guys that I want in there every day. If one of them goes down, I'm scrambling a little. That sucks, but I think it's the way you get the most value out of your roster throughout the year.

Note -- I'm assuming you don't have a dozen bench spots on your team. That changes everything, of course. Help won't be available on the FA wire in that kind of league, so you better make damned sure you've built the strongest bench you can.

I agree with this. I generally stock up on sleeper pitchers and RP for bench spots. Whatever my weakest position is I'll take a backup, that's about it. I've always been able to find WW replacements for any position throughout the year.

[MissingOakley]

In roto leagues with multiple util spots, it's easier to play bench hitters on off days. But will that cause me to fill up my games too early?

As for SP on the bench, I definitely agree it's good to have some extra arms. In a 1250 IP league, 5 starters who go 200 IP plus 3 relievers at 70 innings gets you about there. Since 4th and 5th starters are often shaky, it's good to have an extra SP or two to try to play matchups.