Category Management

Category management is very important as the season moves along. The questions all fantasy players should be constantly asking and re-asking themselves is: "What are the categories I can most easily improve?" and "What categories can I deal from without having to worry about losing any or as little ground as possible?

Let's take an example from a real league, again from my 15-team Tout Wars Mixed League to guide us through these questions.

As you can clearly see, my pitchers have not been getting many wins. Thank you Mr. Greinke! We are only just past the 40% mark of the season and there is still time to ask the question "What if?" I can only lose one point in wins if I were to trade a pitcher for a hitter. So can I gain more points elsewhere?

Well if we look at the runs category, I could easily gain two points with a player who would score just one run a week more than one of my hitters.

And if we look at the home run table:

We see that not only could I gain a quick half point there, but I can also avoid losing two more points if that new hitter also hit the occasional home run But while I can only lose one point in wins, what of the highly related strikeout category?

Again it looks like I can only lose one point there, although I do lose the possibility of picking up a point or two, and in fact that may not happen depending on which pitcher I can trade.

So it seems like if I can do the following:

1) Find a team that needs a SP;
2) Upgrade one of my starting hitters for a few runs and an extra dinger or two
3) Actually consummate such a trade,

Then I could gain two to three points in hitting while losing only one in pitching if all broke well.

The question is finally is gaining that point or two total worthwhile? I say yes in virtually all leagues. Even if I am playing for peanuts I want to do better than my friends and in many leagues it would be a better draft pick next year in addition to the bragging rights.

What if I could easily show you how to double that small gain with the same trade?  Check one or two of your leagues where you might have a similar categorical situation and next week I will show you some new rotisserie math to double your gain.