Be(ware) the Wolf

Little Red Riding Hood?  The Three Little Pigs?  An American Werewolf in London?  Wolfen?

They’re everywhere.  Lurking.  Patiently awaiting their time to strike…

Throughout history, the wolf has been an image of ferociousness, deceipt, and destruction.  A monster to the hapless and the meek.  Forget the story of Red….ever wonder about the story of Grandma?  You know she never saw that guy coming.

Even the Bible tells you “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s cloting but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”  (Matthew 7:15)

So why should fantasy baseball be any different?

We’ve seen it all a thousand times.  Team Domination has been in first since mid-April and its GM, Joey Know-it-All is bragging up a storm about his players.  The hitters are all off to hot starts and the pitching has been untouchable.  His studs are performing like super-studs and his role players are making your studs look like….well, role players. 

But then we see a chink in the armor.  He loses one guy to the 15 day DL (maybe even longer), another guy is day to day with a hammy issue, and one of his closers just blew a couple of more save opps and has lost his job.  Over the next week or so, Team Domination starts losing points.  It’s lead over the rest of the league is diminishing.  Panic starts to set in; nerves get rattled.  And suddenly, Joey Know-it-All finds himself anxious and desperate to stop the bleeding.

But the scent is already out there, and creeping out of the 9th place shadows, we find Joey’s best friend, Tommy Never-Saw-Him-Coming, the GM of Team Stealth.  The wolf is here.

In fantasy baseball, the wolf knows…

The wolf knows your strengths.  He knows your weaknesses.  And most of all, he knows what you think your team needs to be fixed again.

Tommy is the wolf and he’s circling his prey.  He’s surrounding Joey with names like Moises Alou and Omar Vizquel and C.J. Wilson and before you know it…..he strikes!!!!  An old infielder here, a down on his luck closer there, the blood splatters!!  And when the dust finally settles, there’s the wolf…walking away with Hanley Ramirez in his mouth.

  Joey never saw it coming….

O.K., so maybe no one in their right mind, not even Joey Know-it-All, would give up Hanley for those three shlubs.  But that’s not the moral of the story here. 

The moral of the story, kids, is do your research!!  Don’t just jump on the first offer you get without doing a little homework.  If you put that much time into preparing for your draft, then you should put that much time into each and every trade offer that comes your way.  If you think your team needs help, really take a look at where help is needed.  In roto, what categories can you realistically move up in?  If you trade someone away, what categories will you move down in?  Is it worth it overall?  If it’s head to head, then check your upcoming opponents strengths and counter properly from there.  But don’t just make a quick deal to blindly fill some holes with a flavor of the week kind of guy.  You’ll be paying for it in the end when the crap you used as a band-aid starts to flounder and you watch what you traded take off.

On the flip side…

Take a look around your league.  What’s going on with the owners at the top of the standings?  Are you checking the injury reports?  Anyone starting to panic?

Get your costume ready.  You too, could be the wolf…