Late Season Strategy: How to Truly Evaluate Where you Stand

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

When it comes to a stretch run in fantasy baseball, you often need to make a key trade to make it all happen.  The most common way is to trade from an area where you are strong in, to gain in an area in which you are weak.

This is mostly for you primed to make a stab at the championship in Roto leagues. If you are in a head to head style league then you really need to play each match up independently and thus your moves need to be managed differently. In Roto style leagues you can build a solid lead in a category or two, then use players from those strong areas to obtain players that will help you where you are lacking.

Though if you are not careful, this late season strategy can backfire by hurting you where you thought you were strong and not gaining you enough where you are weak to make a difference.

First you need to assess your team. Which categories do you think you are strong in? Are you actually safe in those categories?

For instance say you are at the top of the Runs category, you might think to yourself that that is a category that you can trade from to gain elsewhere.  However upon further research you see that there are 4 people right on your heels. Thus, if you trade away a solid runs guy, you may end up losing 4 points in that category.

Now if you can make a trade that guarantees you those four points PLUS four more, then it still may be worth it.  However you notice that you are way ahead of the next closest team in saves and even though you don’t lead the category, you aren’t really in danger of losing points if you trade a closer away. This is a safe bet to trade from because there is little to no risk.

Second you really need to be aware of the other teams in the hunt for the championship.  say you see a chance to gain points on one of the team in front of you.  This is great because it is really double points!  you take away from their lead and you gain on your own.  So that is a great way to make up ground.  Though, if you don’t pay attention you may set yourself up for failure in this.  If that team loads up in that category it creates a futile battle for you to try to gain ground there.  So pay attention to the trades made by the teams around you.  Because in that same vein, maybe a trade is made that creates an opportunity in a category that you did not previously consider.

Lastly, you need to commit — and soon because you are running out of time.

Really, you may already be out of time, but if you make the right move, anything can happen (to an extent).

It is unrealistic to make up 20 points this late in the season, trust me I know, I’ve crunched all the numbers. It would take an epic collapse along with a torrid hot streak, and that just ain’t gonna happen. If you are within 15 points, however, I’ll still give you a slight chance at making a stab. But if you don’t come up with a strategy soon, the season is gonna slip away from you completely.

I know that if you are in a keeper league it is hard for you to trade away your future, but let’s be honest, how many of us really have a five-year plan for a fake baseball team? Or at least, who really wants to admit that we have a five-year plan for a fake baseball team?

All in all, If you are top 3-4 in a Roto league, you might as well be in win now mode, nearly at all cost.

You win this year and you won’t even care about next year. However, if you play for next year and don’t win or even have a good year, you will think back and second guess yourself for not trying harder in the previous season. If you make a run and end up with not great keepers, who cares? Dump your whole team and start fresh. It will create a pretty enjoyable challenge for future you.

Besides, half of the fun of fantasy sports is building a team. It is for me at least.