This week i had a dilemma and has i did my best to survive i thought i would share with you what to do and when.

With the lead heading into Friday i noticed that my second baseman was most likely going to miss the next series due to injury. Normal i would just let him stay in my roster since i don't have the bench to replace him so i needed to go into action to maintain my lead on the week.

First I looked over my roster and found the one player who i can let go of and who might be actually costing me wins in the pitching columns.

Next i found the player who is putting up numbers at the present time, not caring about the past or future as i only need this guy for 3 days and since this is a expert league there isn't really anyone there who will be a valuable keep for the long run.

So now i have someone to fill the roster spot, i still have my second baseman for the year once he is healthy and hopefully i can pullout the win this week

cheers and good luck

Sometimes we as novice players get Star Struck with the Names and forget that this isn't GQ magazine, it's Fantasy Baseball.

As a novice you will learn that there is a lot of players that the papers don't talk about that are the studs of the league and some can even be found throughout the year on the free agency.

To find them on the free agency you must tread there constantly to find one who gets dropped because of an injury or because of a bad week or two.

Trading for them is sometimes hard but if you are studying and find one that has been cool you might be able to go after them and get good value for them. Most importantly don't over pay for them like i did early in the year when i got desperate for relief pitchers. Be cool and wait your time.

So to cover all i have said, take a look at players whose names you don't know and think of them on a strictly Fantasy Level. Find the value of these players and make a move for them.

Cheers

As you may notice you have some players beginning to switch up positions with hot free agents so it is time to get the lead out and do some homework.

There are some new relief pitchers for the taking and can get you some good innings pitched with lose ERA's. There are some middle relief pitchers that are getting wins and saves who are available in most leagues so if you are in a league that is ERA first then these guys can get you some good numbers in categories that can help you win weeks.

Just simply look over the free agents, list the players in the category you need help in and there you have the best of what is left. But WAIT. I always check the last 7 days and the last 14 days to make sure that they have been hot of late. Now what you will find are some flyers who have been hot in those time periods. I like taking the flyers for a while and then if they cool off go get another flyer. but if you do this you have to stay on top of it so you don't get a ice cold pitcher jacking up your ERA.

good luck all

With Manny being suspended for 50 games I thought I would share with everyone a little something I wrote last year. Hope you enjoy.

Today I am going to throw my hat in the ring just once about the Mitchell Report and how it has changed baseball.

I hope I am not telling you something you didn't already know by mentioning that there were more than just those who named in the report using banned substances. There were the players who were making sure there wasn't a trail leading back to them. So how does this all relate to baseball today; simply but, besides pitching being down, a staggering stat I heard on ESPN shows that MLB is in line to fall some 1000 (one THOUSAND) homers short of the total of the 06 season. Coincidence, I think not.

We all love to see one jacked out of the park and fantasy owners are relying on their studs to do just that. What the report has done is scared those not named and using, straight. Now, it is for the good of the human being not to use. Although ball players do not use to the same extent as professional wrestlers, 64 wrestlers have died in the last 10 years before the age of 50 for many different reasons. Of those 45 who wrestled in WrestleMania VI (1990) 12 have past on. Substances being banned from sport does lessen some numbers (such as homers), but the health of the athlete has to be taken into the forefront, and with everyone on a level playing field the true gifted athletes who have not been using in the past will still get their numbers and once again reign supreme.

I don't want to get into name calling, but let’s just say that the homer title set by Roger Maris (61) will be tough to reach for even anyone in the coming future.

So, in fantasy today I think we all need to re-direct our focus on the RBI's and other stats and stop trying to find the next great HOMER KING. As of Tuesday May 15th and after the first quarter of the season Carlos Quenten is the home run leader in the American League with 10 Homers; while 5 others have 8. In the National league you have Lance Berkman and Chase Utley with 14 Homers and 4 others with 10 or more. A lot of teams are trying to blame the weather, but with the number of warm weather cities and domes you would think that you would have more than 4 players with more than 7 homers after 40 games.

So, when it comes to free agency, look for players that are hitting consistently and driving in runs. As for pitchers, there have been a lot of surprises and this is where you really have to watch who is getting pulled up from the triple A teams and who have been finding the strike zone with regularity.

I do realize that I might have stepped on a few toes and not everyone will agree with me here, but I must bring these staggering stats of this year’s lack of productivity to everyone’s attention so that we can hit the free agent market looking for what will best serve us to win week after week.

When you team takes a power outage you will be looking to get some help in order to keep up in the standings. First thing to do is to look over your roster for who is expendable and not and who has never been a valuable fantasy player in his career in baseball. This can do done by looking at his stats and looking over the categories that you score in. once you have identified the player/s who is taking you ship down it is time to look over the free agency. sometimes there is a player coming back from injury available or just a hot player. you can use the hot player till he starts hitting nothing but the shadows of the ball and then move onto the next hot batter. Always make sure that the player you pick up has been scoring in the categories you are lacking, or at least will be able to contribute to your roster in one way or another.

Always keep in mind that you will never get called out for POWER STREAMING and i will never agree with PITCHER STREAMING for starts so keep active in free agency but always "stay classy San Diego." (quote from Achorman)

cheers and good luck