Fantasy baseball owners panicking after the first three weeks of the season, need to take a second to take a deep breath. Remember, the MLB regular season is 162 games and seven months long. Meaning to say, what happens now, doesn’t necessarily dictate what will happen in the future. Here is a guide to using your entire fantasy roster, instead of hitting the drop and add buttons on a regular basis.
To begin, MLB fantasy baseball rosters are usually made up of 15 position players and 10 pitchers for a total of 25 players on your roster. Of the 25 players, your live roster is made up of 20 players, as three position players and two pitchers make up your bench. In theory, the bench players should be able to play any of the positions of your live roster. As a result, if injuries or slumps occur, you can put a bench player in the place of someone on the live roster, and hopefully the bench player will add a spark to your team’s success.
However, for most rookie MLB fantasy players, they tend to hit the eject button on starters if for no other reason, than they want to take a chance on a brand name player that is on the waiver wire. The truth is, if a brand name player is on the waiver wire, chances are they aren’t having a good season either.
At the same time, many veteran MLB fantasy owners believe the fantasy wire is a blessing in disguise, as you can find some good value on players that have flown under the radar. For instance, if you are playing in an innings based league, consider picking up a long reliever or a reliever used in multiple situations. One guy we like a lot is Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Shawn Camp. To start the season, Shawn Camp was literally on nobody’s fantasy team, as he had a zero percent owned percentage. However, three weeks later, and seeing how many situations he is called upon for, many fantasy owners have acquired Camp from the waiver wire. In fact, just last week, Camp had jumped from zero to five percent owned. If you're hurting it's safe to view Camp as a low-end Fantasy relief pitcher in leagues that utilize middle men.
