By Chad in DC

Cappo, League 16

One of the most interesting fantasy baseball strategies is commonly known as “punting”.  For the sake of this article, I’ll define punting as making no effort to compete in a given category, or categories, in order to maximize points in all remaining categories.

You probably could tell from the title, I never have and never will go into a 5×5 fantasy baseball league with the intention of punting. Now let me tell you why.

Not Playing With a Full Deck of Cards

In your standard 5×5, 12 team league, each owner enters the season with the possibility of accumulating 120 total points.  That is, if they somehow manage to win every category. However, an owner determined to punt a category has arbitrarily set his/her ceiling at 109 points because said owner is likely to tally only one point in the category given the boot.

There’s a reason the word “handicap” generally has a negative connotation in the English language, so count me out when it comes to self-imposed limitations.  Instead, I shoot for finishing in the top third in every category, which means garnering a minimum of nine points out of 12, and totaling at least 90 in the overall standings.

In the extremely balanced and ultra-competitive FBM leagues, 90 points should make you a serious contender to fly the flag at year’s end.

Now, the obvious counterargument posed by punters is while I may be forfeiting one category, it’s going to allow me to dominate all others, and thus gain a competitive advantage. The most common categories punted are stolen bases and saves, so let’s examine each of these categories more closely.

With stolen bases, it’s well-documented that teams are running more than they did just a few years ago, which for fantasy owners means you can increasingly acquire stolen bases cheaply. The top of the league leaders in stolen bases are stacked with guys who went in the second half of many FBM drafts - if they were even drafted at all. This list includes reasonably priced speed merchants like Bourn, Gomez, and Taveras.

Now with closers, I think we all know how volatile closer situations can be. For those of us who enjoy chasing saves or simply find it a necessary evil, tons of saves are available throughout the season from guys who did not begin the year as their respective team’s closer.

Just this year, injuries have caused Borowski to lose saves to Betancourt (a move that everybody not named Eric Wedge realizes should have been made two years ago), Rauch to vulture some saves from Chad Cordero, and likely Smoltz to, later this month, seize Soriano’s job in the ATL.

And with it only being mid-May, we are just witnessing the start of the annual MLB ‘closer circus’. In addition, because there are only 30 official closers in the Majors at any one time, all a fantasy team requires is two healthy firemen to compete in saves. So I implore each of you out there, please don’t punt saves from day one.

Like Most Things in Life, There is an Exception

So, many of us leave our drafts thinking we just experienced 90 minutes of enlightened thinking and possess a well-balanced team that’s destined to hold the title come October. However, soon after, reality sinks in, in the form of multiple injuries and many of our players experiencing the unexpected off-year.

When Murphy’s Law strikes, the result is potentially a severe deficiency in one category, which we dedicated FMB owners undoubtedly try to rectify through active trading and working the waiver wire hard. Despite our best efforts, we may remain in or near the cellar in said category, and now the second half of the season is upon us.

In my opinion, this realistic hypothetical may provide a logical time to consider punting this rather irritating category and focusing on adding value in all the other cats. Especially if the lagging category is batting average, ERA, or WHIP; as the ratio categories are the most difficult areas to make up ground in as the season matures.

On the flip side; counting categories like homeruns, stolen bases, wins, and saves are often the easiest to move up quickly in because these stats are accumulated less quickly than their 5×5 peers. So if you’re at the bottom in batting average but bunched up with a group of owners in homeruns after the All-Star break, it may be the time to flip your Ichiro and Polanco for some power help in Dunn and Khalil Greene.

To sum this up for you guys, preemptive punting is not advised but reactionary punting ‘well into the season’ may pay considerable dividends.