Micromanaging Team Hitters

[ROC AllStars]

What is everyone's thought on micromanaging team hitters, what I mean by that is constantly splitting time between solid producers and hot bats, trying to ride out hot streaks in the roster and slumps on the bench. For example, my current roster is:

C: Hernandez
1B: Delgado
2B: Weeks
3B: Zimmerman
SS: Rollins
OF: Berkman, Hunter, Matthews, Rowand
Util: Adrian Gonzalez

Bench: Hermida, Ibanez, Lugo, Mora, Delmon Young

I think overall Delgado and Gonzalez will have better production than any combination of my bench players, but I find myself sitting them during their slumps, which I'm afraid will come back to bite me when one of them hits 2 HR on my bench. Is it better to leave your best career hitters in the lineup or to mix and match?

[enigma77]

I'm not sure I have enough "stars" to really answer that, but I'd ride the hot bats. I mean, if they're truly hot bats, think of what you're giving up by sitting them in favor of a star in the midst of a slump. That's no different from having the star break out and you missing that.

I have sit guys for the right reasons this year and left HR's and such sitting on my bench. I finally decided to quit looking at stats, stats vs. pitcher, etc. and just put who's done best over the past week in my lineup. This week, that strategy has worked fairly well. How it will work in the future remains to be seen.

Personally, I stress out over who to start. I've even considered taking my roster down to 9 batters, and stocking up on pitching. Is that totally insane?

[SendHelp]

IMO having a bench full of hitters is entirely wasteful and causes alot of anxiety of who to start everyday. and you always seem to guess wrong.

most people on the boards would use a 7-man bench for 2-hitters and 5-pitchers. if you require an extra hitter, add/drop as necessary.

[enigma77]

IMO having a bench full of hitters is entirely wasteful and causes alot of anxiety of who to start everyday. and you always seem to guess wrong.

I agree completely. I have read a number of posts on here where people think decided which guy to start is the essence of Fantasy Baseball, because it forces you to act like a manager.

I can't buy that theory, because in Fantasy Baseball, you tend to have better backups than you would in real life. Plus, all the second guessing wouldn't happen in real life, because if you had to choose between player A and B, and chose A, then B wouldn't play. If he was batting .100 over the past week in real life, noone would second guess your decision. However, in Fantasy, he actually plays, goes 3/4 with a HR and 5 RBI, and you beat yourself up over it (or at least I do).

I think by the end of the regular season, I'll have my 9 players with an open spot or two, and put pitchers in all my other BN spots. Just seems to work for my personality.

[Heartattack Kid]

I switch pitchers everyday, look at match-ups and last 3 outings. This last week I finally dropped 4 pitchers and picked up 4 hot players, Cust, Pena, etc.. 49r 19hr 49rbi. I won 9-5. Pitching I won 4 cat. I play in a 12 man league. 7 by 7. I look at the last 3 to seven days to decide who plays. I found looking at individual players against a pitcher usually does not work. In this league 8 teams are dropping and adding players daily. Very competitive. I am in many other leagues. I usually leave 1 or 2 spots to add or drop players that are hot to sit while the star slumps. I had 5 stars slumping at the same time, that forced me to change direction. It really comes down to what kind of a league you are in.

[hooligan1]

IMO having a bench full of hitters is entirely wasteful and causes alot of anxiety of who to start everyday. and you always seem to guess wrong.

I agree completely. I have read a number of posts on here where people think decided which guy to start is the essence of Fantasy Baseball, because it forces you to act like a manager.

I can't buy that theory, because in Fantasy Baseball, you tend to have better backups than you would in real life. Plus, all the second guessing wouldn't happen in real life, because if you had to choose between player A and B, and chose A, then B wouldn't play. If he was batting .100 over the past week in real life, noone would second guess your decision. However, in Fantasy, he actually plays, goes 3/4 with a HR and 5 RBI, and you beat yourself up over it (or at least I do).

I think by the end of the regular season, I'll have my 9 players with an open spot or two, and put pitchers in all my other BN spots. Just seems to work for my personality.

I counld not possibly be more in agreement with this! I have been playing fbb for six years now and I had decided by the middle of my first season that I hated having bench batters, because inevitably, the guy I would start would go 1/4 with 3 K's and the guy sitting on my bench would be 4/5 with a double, two jacks, five ribbies and, what the heck, why not a stolen base to boot? I found it infuriating and so now, in my main league, we have 20 spots and I run nine hitters and eleven pitchers, not counting DL'd guys. I won't even consider having a bench batter.

[Padsin05]

In roto style I try to keep 2 bench players, one who can steal some bags if I need to move a category, and one who can fill multiple IF positions.

Last year I had Dave Roberts as my 4th OF and would plug him in every couple of weeks to keep my SB's up, and my IF was Freddy Sanchez, who I could rotate in daily at 3 diff IF positions on days off or if someone was slumping

this year my SB guy is Victorino and my IF who I took rather early just to be able to use him like this is Lugo

[schmidty]

IMO having a bench full of hitters is entirely wasteful and causes alot of anxiety of who to start everyday. and you always seem to guess wrong.

most people on the boards would use a 7-man bench for 2-hitters and 5-pitchers. if you require an extra hitter, add/drop as necessary.

Amen. I tried the hitter micromanagement path, and it caused nothing but stress. I've never been able to go all the way with no hitting bench, but always seems to end up with just 1 or 2. At least 1 extra OFer. Maybe a 2nd bench spot for a IFer (maybe back-up to someone fragile), or a dropped star who's slumping and I'm trying to wait it out to see if he comes back.

[Slump Busters]

I am a micromanager and I admit its stressful. However I feel you need the bench to plug in players on off days, and also to cover for that last minute lineup check when you find a player is being benched for rest by his actual manager.

I use the exact same method as Pasdin05. I have a solid roster of 9 players, and then have two or three bench players that fill "gaps". For speed this year I started with Duffy and went to Victorino. For general utility I have Rich Aurillia who can play any position on the infield, for a wild card I had Billy Bultler but am looking hard at someone like Winn who has the hot hand. I have found this system fairly successful over the past 3 years of 2nd, 1st and 1st in a 12 team league.

[zig zag daddy]

I will carry bench players because I dont want to leave any games on the table when someone gets a day off. I like to play matchups (righty/lefty) and bench slumping players.

I also dont want to leave any games on the table for any position. Right now I am carrying 3 catchers because I am -6 games projected for the season at catcher. I dont want to miss out on those chances to accumulate some stats.