Advice needed...how to use bench and DL spots on ESPN/Yahoo

[drez]

I'm new to fantasy baseball (and fantasy sports all together). I used to be a huge baseball fan, but fell away from the sport in the late 90's when i was in high school. I've had a desire to get back into the sport and felt fantasy baseball could be a fun way to relearn who the players are and of course make the game a little more interactive vs just watching my Astros play.

I've done a tons of reading over the last few days, but not really knowing what I was doing, I created a couple teams on ESPN and Yahoo each. I figure I'll settle into a format I like and will likely focus on one team later on the season. I have H2H and Roto leagues on both ESPN and Yahoo.

I still have a ton of questions, but there are a few specific things I was hoping people on here could help me with. It is mainly questions on how to handle injuries, pitchers and players who are off on certain days. Since each site is a bit different in the setup, I'll ask questions specific to Yahoo and ESPN.

Yahoo: I have a roto league with a C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, Util, Util, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P and 5 Bench spots. I have a H2H team with the same setup but only 3 bench players vs 5 for the roto. I believe there is only one DL spot on each.

My questions are as follows for these:

1.) How should I handle pitching composition? I know 4 of my 7 pitcher slots have to be an SP or RP (2 SP spots and 2 RP spots). What should the composition of the other 3 P spots be? Is it better long term to have deeper RP or SP?

2.) How I handle subs with only 3 or 5 bench spots? I'm trying to figure out how to handle subbing out infield/outfield/utility hitters if they get a day off, or subbing out SP if they have a day off. Also there is injuries. I only have one DL spot, so more than one injury and I either burn a bench spot or have to look at dropping someone. I guess overall, what is the most efficiency way to look at bench players? It's impossible to always sub SP who aren't playing with RP or other SP (not enough roster spots) or always take out hitters who aren't playing (not enough bench spots to have cover for all the infield/outfield/utility spots). Finally, how can I incorporate injuries?
I'm a bit overwhelming and I have no clue the most efficient way to use my bench.

ESPN: My questions are basically the same, but the team compositions are little different. I have C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 2B/SS, 1B/3B, OF, OF, OF, OF, OF, UTIL, P, P, P, P, P, P, P, P, P. and only 3 bench spots. Only one DL spots as well.

Same questions for ESPN. How should I balance the 9 pitcher spots between RP/SP and how on earth do I handle injuries, infield/outfield players who are off one day and SP's who aren't playing for most of the week. I only have 3 bench spots and 1 DL spot to work with.

Thanks everyone!! I'm overwhelmed but also having fun!

2

[Laubster]

A key component to keep in mind in ROTO is you will only get a certain amount of games per position. Say your League had started on March 31 you would get 162 for Position players and a certain amount of Innings Pitched for all Pitchers. So what I have done in the past is if I had a player like Pujols at 1st Base I wouldn't worry about having a back up for him because over a 162 game season he will play the majority of the games and I want his bat in there. Conversly if you have say a player like Tejada or Hardy at SS then you might want to have another option if one isn't hitting. How many teams are in the Leagues ? If you want to talk a little more frequently I am on AIM: BaritoneLaub, YIM: claubster or you can email me and will answer any questions you may have.

Calvin