Disabled List Position Strategy
Most fantasy leagues allow owners a few DL spots and now it is time to begin to use those positions productively. For the past few weeks, several players were known to be injured for 2011 season (ex. Adam Wainwright), but they have not yet been placed on the official DL. In the last few days, teams have begun to officially place players on the DL and the list looks to expand a ton in the next few days as the regular season begins. Now is the time to exploit these extra roster spots. Here are a few suggestions for roster management as the DL list expands.
I will be looking at individual names as the DL expands later in the week.
1. If you are in a non-keeper league and the player is out for the year, drop the player. There is absolutely no reason to have these players even taking of DL spots.
2. Move your players to the DL before looking at the available players. Hopefully the players on your team were better than those readily available.
3. If you have available DL spots on your roster, go pick up available free agents on the DL. Just looking at ESPN, Stephen Strasburg is only owned in 4.5% of all leagues. There is an OK chance that he may pitch this year, so why not pick him up with an available spot; there is nothing to lose. If you are in a keeper league, anyone near Strasburg’s or Wainwright’s ability should immediately be picked up and placed in an DL spot for next season.
4. Watch for players being released into the free agent pool. Some owners may have their DL positions filled with players that are expected to be back relatively soon and have to release less talented players. On the other hand, they may just be wishing to have the player be gone off their roster. Over the first couple of weeks of the season is when most waiver wire mistakes are made, so be on the look out for opportunities, DL related or not.
5. Now if you are an owner with two many players on the DL and too few of spots to put them in, possibly look to trade the player to someone that has a DL opening. You may have to down grade in the long run, but at least you didn’t let the player go for nothing. Another option is to just carry the player a while thereby removing an extra bench player. For a player that is expected to be back within a couple of weeks, this may be a reasonable option.
Not all owners will be in the same predicament with players on the DL, but be ready for action in the next few days. Between now and Thursday (and continuing on for a few days after then), the DL list will definitely grow and you should be looking to expand and improve your roster during this time.
Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.
The only problem with number 3 is you can’t just pick up people and put them on your DL, at least not in Yahoo!. If you want to pick up Stras, you are going to have to drop one of your players, move him to DL, and then hope you can get your player back.
Well… actually you can. If a player on your roster is put on the DL in the next few days, and on most teams this will occur, slide him into the DL spot and you now magically have another roster spot. Then you can fill that spot with another DL eligible player off waivers (aka Strasburg), and again you have yet another roster position available (aka Brandon Beachy). This is why I liked drafting Utley in my Yahoo league because overall you gain an extra player in the early going.
I had a manager who finished 12th in my 12 team league, then drafted Strasbourg, Wainwright and Bryce Harper with his last 3 round picks. He’s offered me a pretty favorable deal for Chase Utley, meaning that he’ll have 4 excellent keepers for essentially $0.
How is Utley an excellent keeper?
He’ll be “excellent” at “keeping” that team in 12th place.
amiright?
[crickets]
Utley probably isn’t an excellent keeper. But is he excellent for $0? Sure
I’m not sure the strategy on this is all that complicated. Players with injuries are discounted. So just take advantage if others discount incorrectly. The Strasburg example for a keeper league fits that. But the key is really how do you value injured players more than how to deal with the DL. And how to know when your league is undervaluing them. That sort of analysis would include not only guys currently on the DL, but guys coming off injuries last year too. If players are really worthwhile they shouldn’t be dropped. Unless you’re in a weak league. If the latter is the case, your DL strategy shouldn’t make all that much difference in your ability to win.
Valuing an injured player is an interesting thing in itself because a lot will have to do with the type of injury and how fast the player will come back (or the % chance he will at all). Easiest example: take a pitcher off of TJ over one off of shoulder surgery everyday of the week. An analysis of injury types would be quite interesting.
As far as the mechanics of the DL goes, though, one big thing to note is that with a lot of injuries, the players take a while to get their groove back. If you are not in a keeper league or a very deep league, you may be stuck playing that guy for a few weeks before he finds his groove. If you are in a roto league, this startup period can really erode a lot of the value of holding a DL guy. Mid-season in head to head, it’s more tolerable, but still a concern if you league is very competitive and it’s difficult to make the playoffs. For instance, if you have a speedster out with a hamstring, then don’t go too excited when he comes back and he doesn’t get the green light much for the first few weeks. Of course, this somewhat brings out my earlier point: valuing injured players and type of injury is key to any DL strategy.
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“March 28, 2011 at 2:51 pm
The only problem with number 3 is you can’t just pick up people and put them on your DL, at least not in Yahoo!. If you want to pick up Stras, you are going to have to drop one of your players, move him to DL, and then hope you can get your player back”
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this is very true. in Yahoo you can exploit this info when moving players to the DL, so its very important to get the add=>DL=>drop order correct so you dont lose a player via waivers unnecessarily.
quick example:
i have Morrow on my bench, who should become DL eligible on Yahoo any day now.
I want to replace Morrow’s roster spot with Nolasco, who is a FA.
however Frank Francisco is a FA, as he went undrafted due to the known fact that he will also start the season on the DL
So when Morrow finally hits the Yahoo DL List, ill move him there, then pick up Francisco first. Then move Francisco to the DL.
Then finally i can add Nolasco. So i will use 1 roster spot and i didnt have to subject any of my players to waivers.
When all players are healthy I can then decide who is the best option to activate/drop, and in the best case scenario, make a 2-for-1 trade for a higher quality player.
(note that Yahoo does NOT allow you to make any trades if a player on your fantasy DL is no longer on the MLB DL.. you must move them to your bench first… so try to complete any trades a day or 2 before they are eligible to be activated)
I wish fantasy league systems would allow you to trade for a player that is currently on the DL and automatically put him on the DL for you. Typically you need to have a free roster spot in order to get that DL player on your bench first, and THEN you can put him on the DL.
Example:
My 25-man roster is currently full, but I want to trade 1 healthy player for 1 DL player and 1 healthy player. In order for me to do this transaction, I would need to drop someone from my bench, just so I can put the injured player on the DL. The fantasy leagues should be able to have that injured player automatically hit the DL on my team without me needing to drop a bench player
Wainwright or Strasburg?
So, I’m just going to say I would pick these guys up if one of my players went on the DL but would not draft them that way if I were in a deep keeper league. Problem is, you have 162 games to play to win. The two guys that drafted Wainwright and Strasburg in my league I have no doubt will be dropping them at some point when players who are ‘playing’ get hurt and they need the spot for them. I think the people who drafted those two will eventually be putting them back into the FA. It’s a nice thought on draft day, but reality and a long season take it’s toll every time. Of course, I drafted Peavy so what the heck am I talking about…
as an owner who drafted strasburg very late in a first yr keeper league this season i can see this being an issue (i have latos AND morrow as well, fml) but not so much of an issue that id be willing to drop him when i can keep him in rd 20 next season as a potential top 5 SP.
we have have 3Dl slots though so in leagues with only 1 or 2, ya its definitely a problem