The Dog Days of Fantasy Baseball Summer

Well gang, it's officially here.  The Dog Days of Fantasy Baseball Summer.  It hits every year where your team just hits a rut no matter what you try to do.  You drop a player who is in an 0-40 slump and pick up someone hitting .500 the last 10 games.  As soon as you make the move, the player you dropped hits two home runs and the guy you pick up adopts your former player's slump.  It will invariably happen and there's not much you can do about it except pick up and wait for a new day.

I know there isn't a lot of time left with playoff seeding TBD, but here are my tips to you to help prevent the dog days from affecting your team too much:

1. Guys with proven pasts will snap out of it:  Don't jump the gun too quickly on players going through major slumps.  In the last 4 games, Ellsbury has gone 0-22 with an 0-7 night last night against the Indians.  He's killing my OBP and not getting any stolen bases or anything for that matter.  The fact is, Ellsbury is only 31 years old so this is nothing to be alarmed about.  It's only a terrible slump, but he will snap out of it.  People are dropping him in leagues but I don't recommend doing the same.

2. Get as much value per player as possible:  I recently dropped Billy Hamilton in my league.  I couldn't justify only putting him in my lineup solely so he could steal a base here and there.  When he wasn't stealing bases, he wasn't doing anything at all.  The dude has a .267 OBP and is ranked 87th in the league in runs scored.  Meaning when he does get on base, and does steal, he's not even making it around the bases to score!  If you need some OF speed and someone who will fill up the boxscore better than Billy, choose Dexter Fowler.  He has a .333 OBP, 71 runs scored, and the inverse amount of stolen bases.  He is a more productive player than Hamilton and will help get you more categories. (owned in 52% of Yahoo leagues).



3. Keep an eye on guys coming back from injury:  After having not played since the first few weeks of the season, David Wright is just about ready to return.  Guys like Wright and Joe Panik who may have been dropped to clear room for another healthy player have been flying low in free agency.  If you have the space, pick up one of these guys, or others like them who are in the playoff hunt.  Wright will have an immediate impact on teams once he returns as the Mets are right smack in the middle of the playoff hunt.  The Mets and your team will certainly benefit from Wright's return to the lineup.



Good luck with your teams as they fight for a playoff spot.  I know it's tough when your team is in a rut, but you gotta stick with your gut and you'll be king, like Tut.  I wasn't planning on rhyming all of that at first but it just kind of happened.  I'm sorry, it's Wednesday, things like that happen.