any strategies for lowering your innings pace?

[sinicalypse]

in this one league, i'm on pace to be ~53 innings over the limit.

i'm in first with something like 94.5 points, and second is 79, tho with fluctuations i've had leads like 88.5 to 85, but i've managed to sit atop first since basically the beginning of the season.

the only thing is, my glaring weakness on the pitching side is that i've only got 23 wins (good for 4 out of 12 points, somehow) but i'm well ahead of the pack in saves with 77 (second place is 58, third is 45)

here's the staff

SP - carlos zambrano, roy oswalt, josh beckett, johan santana, zach greinke
RP - mariano rivera, danny graves, danny kolb, jeremy affeldt

i've been sitting santana, but with his 7 IP 10 K performance, coupled with the fact that his two previous starts had him coasting for 5+ IP before imploding, i dont think i should sit him anymore. greinke is so good that its hard to sit him, you know?

i could feasibly trade a reliever for a position player (i'm only really schlepping in RBIs, where i have 5 points, otherwise i'm 12/9/5/12/11 on offense) but what would you recommend to do in order to maintain my place atop the league and pare down some innings so i dont run out of them in the last couple weeks of the season?

last year in one league i was in first going into the last week of the season, but i ran out of innings, and my dormant pitching totals lost me 2-3 points over that week, and i ended up in 2nd place because of the points i lost... so i just dont want that to happen again.

what do you think?

(sorry about the dblpost in tradekeeperwaivers, i accidentally was in that forum when i first wrote this)

#j1m

[Quaker]

Last year I was on pace to be way over. Starting in late June, I started my top 2 pitchers every time, and started the other 3 when they had favorable match ups.

[Lofunzo]

Last year I was on pace to be way over. Starting in late June, I started my top 2 pitchers every time, and started the other 3 when they had favorable match ups.

That will work or you could try to trade some SP for a good RP. Less innings but better ERA and WHIP. 53 innings isn't much of a problem. I am a little over but haven't done anything because I have Beckett and Wolf on the DL. I'll take a little hit now for some production later.

[LBJackal]

Well you could try to trade 2 SP's for a better SP. I'm sure you thought of that, it's the most basic solution and sometimes doesn't work since nobody wants to help the guy in first place

But if you're only over by 50 IP, I wouldn't sweat it. Keep starting your SP's, and eventually one will get injured and miss a few starts and you'll be right on track. I like to be on target to be over a bit, since I'd rather be out of IP with a couple days left, then have surplus IP at the end of the year. If you keep getting too many IP, then sit some SP's if they face the Yanks/BoSox/Jays, or pitch at Coors. But I wouldn't worry about it too much yet.

[thetongueofire]

i prolly dont think that you should be worried about rbi's when you're doing well in both runs and steals.. prolly just random bad luck.. as for the IP issue... a fairly significant portion of those 53 will be erased by the AS break.. anyways like Lo suggested you could deal a SP like Grienke for a good reliever who has better ratios and K/IP value maybe but i wouldnt worry a ton about being 53 over now but obviously you could be lil more selective with your matchups.

[Cornbread Maxwell]

Another strategy for you would be to look into the top middle relief pitchers. I know having guys like Otsuka and Rincon are gold, but most people dont pick up on them.

YTD -
Otsuka
28IP - 4W - 1Sv - 35K - 1.26 ERA - .84 WHIP

Rincon
29IP - 7W - 1 Sv - 36 K - 2.45 ERA - 1.26 WHIP

Remember - since there is an IP limit in roto, one of the main things to look at in your pitchers is per inning totals.

[slomo007]

Well you could try to trade 2 SP's for a better SP. I'm sure you thought of that, it's the most basic solution and sometimes doesn't work since nobody wants to help the guy in first place

That's what I did...and it's paying off bigtime (Millwood and Penny for Pedro)

Try this method first. Especially if you can get a struggling star like Pedro, Mussina, or Santana.