It’s crunch time. Your fantasy baseball team is only one game out of the last playoff spot in your league. You can taste victory, but what’s the best way to handle your lineup?
Most people will go with the tried-and-true players who have gotten them to where they are. But at this point in the season, you have to go with the hot hand. They are the ones who will carry you into the postseason and maybe even further.
Look at Brandon Moss of the Oakland Athletics. He’s only owned in 45 percent of Yahoo! leagues, but in the past seven days he’s hit five homers, driven in 12 runs and scored eight others.
If he’s out there, then owners are likely still starting players such as Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Goldschmidt has been a dominant fantasy player this season, but in the past seven days he hasn’t hit a single ball out of the park and has a batting average .100 points less than Moss.
Owners will be hesitant to jump on the bandwagon, because Goldschmidt has been such a force all season. But on a game-by-game basis, especially in leagues that allow rosters to be set on a daily basis Moss could end up giving you that one homerun that sets you apart from your opponent in head-to-head leagues or closes the gap in rotisserie leagues.
There are even hotter players than Moss who are available, like Salvador Perez, who is available in 35 percent of Yahoo! leagues. He only has nine homers on the year and 60 RBI but has four of the homeruns in the past week and 13 of the RBI. Kansas City is also in the run for a playoff spot, so they won’t be taking their feet off the gas any time soon.
Perez is likely getting benched on teams that he is owned on if Buster Posey is also on that team. Posey is hitting .305 on the year and has driven in 66 runs, but in the last seven days hasn’t hit a homerun and has only scored three runs.
Most of the time Posey is almost the immediate starter over Perez based off of name value alone. But on days like Friday when Perez is playing against the lowly Toronto Blue Jays and is just hotter.
A fantasy owner is not doing his/her job if they overlook players like Moss and Perez who are really hot and could give their team a boost. It’s lazy owning to just say, “Posey has had a good year, he’s due.” There’s a possibility that as soon as you bench Posey he could hit a homerun and drive in two or three runs and you get burned on the bench, but that means Posey is out of his slump and is back to form.
Don’t be a lazy owner, and play the hot hand if you’re looking to continue your fantasy season.