By JIMMY D / Poker style serves fantasy objectives | Jimmy's archive
Fantasy players and poker players have things in common.
Both crave the competition of battling one-on-one.
Both need to study past performance to predict the future.
Both love to win.
Both can employ aggressive or cautious styles.
But unlike poker, you can’t bluff your way to a win in fantasy sports. While you might be able to take a weak hand and raise or scare someone out of a pot at the poker table, that strategy won’t work in your fantasy league.
You need to have the numbers and everybody gets to see them. And you have no control over the players.
So in a week when they started making millionaires in Vegas again at the World Series of Poker, Jimmy D has strayed from his cautious poker ‘grinder’ mentality to aggressively trying to bully his baseball league.
Are you content to go the safe route and nurse your lead atop the standings or do you take some calculated risks as we hit June to try to extend that lead? Go after the big chip stack, so to speak.
Jimmy made the following moves this weekend, which could just as easily decrease his lead at the table as increase it.
Johnny Damon – the Yankee outfielder has struggled at the plate and with injuries, so why would Jimmy peddle speedy Bosox lead-off man Julio Lugo for him?
Excellent question. Jimmy is still trying to come up with a sensible answer.
The problem for Jimmy was four-fold:
- Jimmy had three solid SS (Lugo, Carlos Guillen of Detroit and Miguel Tejada of Baltimore).
- Jimmy had two streaky, fading outfielders (Pat Burrell of Philly and flash-in-the-pan Jack Cust of Oakland) and needed to get one or both out of the lineup.
- There were no decent OF on the waiver wire.
- Since Jimmy leads the league, nobody wants to trade with him.
So ditching Cust opens a spot for Damon, who can still hit and steal the occasional bag and who will get some time to nurse his injuries while DH’ing (since Jason Giambi is out indefinitely). And while Lugo’s RBIs and stolen bases were great, he hasn’t been getting on base (.225 batting average) enough to get driven in by those big Bosox bats.
If Lugo heats up and Damon stays cold or gimpy, this one will hurt.
Jon Garland and Jamie Moyer – Jimmy’s policy of rotating his bottom two starting pitchers each week has paid off to date. Each week, Jimmy checks the list of pitchers scheduled to get two starts that week, then ditches one or two of his underachieving one-start guys back on the waiver wire.
This week, it was bye-bye to Chisox Jose Contreras and Indian Cliff Lee and hello to struggling Chisox righty Garland and struggling codger lefty Moyer (who faces the Mets and Royals for the streaky Phillies).
Ryan Braun – No more waiting on Braun, the sparkling Brewer 3B whom Jimmy scooped off the waiver wire two weeks ago. The Brewers have him in the 3-spot in that hard-hitting lineup and Jimmy gets him into his lineup too this week.
Chone Figgins – Yes, the speedy Angel who forgot how to hit in now a Jimmyville Jackal. Why? Another good question.
Mainly so Jimmy can run around singing “Getting’ Figgy wit’ it.” Maybe not.
Figgy was 8-for-11 before Sunday’s 1-for-4 night, raising his average from .132 to .200, so while Jimmy was in a gambling mood, he grabbed the two-position Figgins.
NBA finals bust?
Don’t be so sure that San Antonio crushes Cleveland in the NBA finals, despite the betting lines that suggest oddsmakers figure it’s over in five.
The Spurs are 4-1 odds to sweep the Cavaliers, who won four straight against Detroit and who witnessed that epic, Jordanesque Game 5 performance by LeBron James.
But Cleveland has won three in a row against the Spurs and won 88-81 at the Alamodome in November.
Having the league’s marquee player in its pinnacle event is great news for the NBA.
Puck party
By the time next week’s column appears, we will have a newly crowned Stanley Cup champion as well.
Jimmy sticks by his preseason Ducks prediction, provided Chris “Forearm-to-the-Head” Pronger stays in some games late in the series.
Jimmy will start previewing keeper-league moves you can make in the weeks leading up to the NHL entry draft, where Moosey Jakub Voracek is expected to go high.
Stay busy, stay lucky.
Jimmy D |
