It's almost Thursday again, and besides Monday, it's one day of the week where you find holes to fill in your fantasy baseball lineup. One of the most under-utilized strategies in fantasy baseball is picking up not just pitchers, but hitters as well, for spot starts.
This strategy is very effective when you are able to dig a little deeper, finding the best matchups available on Mondays and Thursdays. Yes, it does work!
For the sake of the readers who are participating in fantasy baseball, the focus will be on hitters who are not in the top-100 rankings for the season. The idea is to mention players that are available in at least some leagues, if not most average-sized, 12-team leagues, so that the spot-start strategy can be utilized.
On Sunday, seven hitters were bolded and focused upon as potential spot-starters for Monday. When I say spot-starter, I mean someone that you necessarily don't want to hang on to; they're simply someone to pick up off of free agency for just that one day because a good matchup presents itself, and you're looking forward to having as complete a lineup as possible.
On Monday, those seven hitters mentioned combined for nine hits in 26 at-bats (.346 AVG), four runs, a home run, and seven RBI. Even more surprising? The average ranking of these players is currently 534.
That means 533 players have better numbers so far on the season. Besides Casey Kotchman's 0-4 performance, every hitter mentioned had at least a hit, and five of the seven mentioned drove in at least one run.
And how about Barry Zito? Mentioned as a possible "sleeper," Zito responded with seven shutout innings and the win. Mind you, coming into the game, Zito was 6-15 with a 5.73 ERA. If anyone actually played the contrarian and picked him up, congratulations, as you had even bigger cojones than I!
Now, with Thursday right around the corner, I only hope I can come close to replicating Monday:
- The day starts off in Cleveland at 12:05 EDT, when Zach Greinke takes on Cliff Lee. Greinke started off the season 3-0 with an ERA of just 0.75. Now, with the season beginning to wind down, Lee almost has it locked up with a 2.34 ERA on top of a 17-2 record. Anyone think the southpaw might be slightly worn out after last week's complete-game victory over the best team in baseball? Counter with C John Buck and 1B/OF Mark Teahen
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