Maintain Pressure as Owners Quit

The fantasy baseball season is in the final stretch. This section of road is the easiest going. Owners quit since their team is out of contention and/or they want to concentrate on football. With these quitters out of the way, it’s easier going for the active owners. Here’s a short ramble on how the active owner should approach the subject:

The inspiration for this rant came after I saw my FAAB bids in a league this morning. I was down to $12 in FAAB out of $1000 but $0 bids do exist. I noticed one must add (Yangervis Solarte) and bid $10 on him to keep everyone honest. I won to my surprise.

The reason I was taken off guard was that several teams were holding tons of FAAB dollars. Here are the post FAAB totals.

1. $971
2. $880
3. $767
4. $719
5. $328
6. $314
7. $260
8. $202
9. $168
10. $88
11. $85
12. $75
13. $41
14. $1 <– me
15. $0

This league is supposed to be competitive but only six owners made additions (ranks 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 13). Having some teams not bid is understandable. Some weeks I don’t add players as I have too many players coming off the DL. But nine sitting out?

With teams starting to really bow out, owners need to determine who are the few active teams what they can do to win.

The Leader

For the first place team, don’t hold back now. It’s time to put your foot on the league’s throat and push down hard. The main reason to not rest is that as teams drop out, the few other competitive teams will start moving up in the standings. However, so too will your 1st place team.

This owner’s goal is to keep everyone playing so it’s harder for the other contenders to move up. One move I’ve used in the past is to remind teams of certain rules, deadlines, or a possible trades to bring absentee owners back in the league.

Here’s a move I used once was in an innings cap league. The innings weren’t exactly capped as each owner could go as many innings as possible in one day. With about a week to go, I stacked one day and was done with my pitching. Then I reminded the whole league of the rule and everyone was fighting for that one-day boost. No one was able to stack any single day, and I won easily.

I got a nasty email from the 2nd place owner saying I cheated him from the title. I see nothing wrong with getting owners active. I just picked my time and place to do it.

A league notice might be “required” when keeping a prospect call-up or new closer acquisition from your closest competitors is needed.

In head-to-head leagues, keeping teams active can be tricky as other owners may use the same approach.

Chasing Teams

Don’t give up now. As teams quit, it’s easier to climb up the roto rankings as dead rosters start to fall back. One item to check is to find which categories dead teams are leading in and target them. It might be impossible to gain in rate stats but keep chipping away at the counting stats

FAAB Budgets on Active Teams

All owners should know the resources of every active team. Knowing these totals will allow owners the knowledge on how much FAAB will get certain players.

Now once or twice, an owner will go into zombie mode and start trying for a week. There isn’t much an owner can do when this person shows up. They should not be pushing up their bids on the chance someone comes alive. Just take the lumps and move on.

Dead owners

I’ll plead to those owners who continuously drop out of leagues (unless they are winning), plan on the dropout. Several options exist to shorten the season or effort. For those who like to draft but don’t want to play out the league, best ball leagues are an option. Additionally, owners can join Cutline leagues where the bottom teams continue to get removed as the season progresses. For those who prefer football more, just stop the league on July 31st. Owners should know their tendencies and embrace them.

I’m done ranting … for now. Congrats to the owners keeping up the fight. The road to the top is now clearer as many owners drop out. Finish strong.