The Dog Days are Upon Us … Well at Least Me

I’m going to blame Mark Melancon. I started out yesterday with the hope of writing about him. The article was selfish because I took a chance on Hunter Strickland before he was named the closer and my gamble paid off. With Melancon back, I wanted to see if his reduced velocity cutter would still be useful. And that was as far as I got with the article.

I was sick of thinking about fantasy baseball.  The problem is that when your livelihood requires continuous fantasy baseball content, this sickness can’t last. I tried to move onto another topic with no luck. After a few unproductive hours, mainly wasted on Twitter discussing valuing player risk, I just gave up. The dog days of summer hit me head on and I lost.

This event usually occurs me a couple times during the summer with content and demands coming at me constantly. I approach them two ways. Either I just power on and produce 20-grade material or beg my bosses for a break. As this article demonstrates, I am going with the first approach.

At least I’m not in the same situation in previous seasons with my fantasy teams making the feeling worse. There are times I love the daily grind of moving players in-and-out of my lineup based on matchups. Right now, I don’t even want to look at my teams let alone make any moves, especially every single day.

In the past, this phase would last one or two weeks and my teams would suffer. I’d try to rally, usually after the league’s manager asked if I was alive. Most of the time, I’d finish near the top of the standings but I kept rehashing those days when I didn’t manage my team. Could I have gained more points with optimized lineups? Would I have picked up some important free agents during that time? I was just mad at myself for the months of work derailed by an off week or two.

About two years ago, I decided to vanquish this issue and only participate in weekly lineup leagues. While I deal with the frustration of a DL’ed player being in my lineup (i.e. Buster Posey getting hit in the head in the week’s first at-bat and useless), I found these misfortunes eventually evened out with all teams seeing their fair share. The best part is that when I look back, I know I could not have done anything differently. When I neglected my daily lineup leagues, I could only blame myself.

Additionally, I just started saying no to many league invitations. While I participated in several mocks to start the season, I’m only playing out five leagues. I used to be in at least twice this number and I could see they overwhelmed me during this down phase. It’s easier to manage the five teams once a week than the same five teams and the daily lineups for at least five more leagues.

But I need to get paid because I like beer and air conditioning, so the articles must keep coming. I’m trying my hardest to stay away from as much baseball and related news so when I do have to write, I’m not completely burnt like yesterday. I’ve even gone as far as thinking about that sport with the weird shaped ball.

If some fantasy owners don’t hit this wall, congratulations. I wish I it would never happen to me. For those who do struggle with the long grind, I feel your frustration. Hopefully, the feeling lasts for just a brief time or you’ve found ways to deal with it. One recommendation when it does happen, try to take note of the biggest obstacle and find ways to lessen at the appropriate time. Otherwise, power through and I hope everyone makes it to the finish line.