Major League Baseball : Fantasy : Ask Rotoman
In last week’s column I wrote about SF closer situation. The analysis was fair. It pointed out the problems Brower and Herges have keeping runners off base, and it suggests that Jason Christiansen is probably the Giants’ best bet even though he’s a lefty. I also mentioned that Tyler Walker had gotten a save.
What I didn’t mention is that I’d picked Tyler Walker up in the Tout Wars claims last Friday. I didn’t mention it because, well, I forgot. Walker was on my list simply because SOMEBODY had to get saves in SF.
In that same claims I also spent $21 of my $100 waiver dollars on Todd Jones, who figured to be the closer in Florida while Guillermo Mota was out. And for a team whose only closer was the cheap but DLed Joe Borowski, picking up extra saves made good sense.
I bring all this up not because I’m stuck on my team. Though I am. But because this story illustrates the bottom line in league-play fantasy baseball: You often don’t get to pick who you end up with. A lot of the time you end up with someone you wouldn’t have ended up with if you had your druthers.
And sometimes that person is Ted Lilly, and sometimes it’s Jon Garland. And before the season I wouldn’t have paid a dime more for one than the other. To my good fortune others paid more for Lilly and I ended up with Garland. Maybe you went for Jose Vidro and settled for Brian Roberts.
As we all start to get a feel for our teams (thank goodness Scott Rolen is only out for six weeks, probably) it’s a good idea to look for the places where everything is going our way. Odds are that gravy train is going to end sooner or later.
But not Brian Roberts.