By Chad in DC

Cappo, League 16

Believe it or not, Mafia, there’s only about 40 days left in the 2008 MLB regular season. So, if you’re fortunate enough to find yourself still competing for first place in your league, I implore you to put away those fantasy football mags and focus (with intensity akin to Michael Phelps in the closing seconds of his 100 meter butterfly race) on the fantasy baseball championship that is yours for the taking.

While the Sporting News trading deadline has come and gone (and with it the last opportunity to make a blockbuster trade to push your team over the top), there are still a number of tactical strategies you can use to out-manage your fellow owners and elevate your team’s place in the standings.

The Dog Days Are Supposed to Be Hot

The weather in the latter half of the summer gets to be steamy, so fantasy owners competing in the August and September months should feel comfortable with the heat; that is, playing the hot hands whenever possible.

If you have underachieving veterans that you’ve been waiting on the entire year to hit their stride, now is the time to cut them loose (assuming they’re not in your keeper plans) in favor of the flavors of the week.

So, hit up your free agent pool and see which players have been bringing their “A” games in the past 7 or 15 days.  Say ”so long” to Fausto, Andruw, Pronk, Byrnes, Konerko, Helton, and the like.

Use ‘Em or Lose ‘Em

Unlike the unused minutes on most of our cell phone plans, we can’t simply roll-over our unused innings pitched and games played to the ‘09 season. So, if you’re trailing the league leaders and are currently projected to be around 200 innings behind the FBM 1550 IP max, it’s time to step up to the punch bowl, take a big gulp of that Kool-Aid the 411 guys are serving, and start pitching and ditching with abandon.

While this may have unintended consequences for your ERA and WHIP, it could also shoot you up the counting categories of Wins and Strikeouts, and, like the saying goes, desperate times do indeed sometimes call for desperate measures.

The considerable length of the baseball season, combined with any MLB manager’s propensity for liberally granting their regulars a day off or two, as well as the unavoidable injury bug, make it pretty freaking hard for fantasy managers to stay on pace in games played for their position players.

However, one way to effectively slice into this games played deficit is to utilize the miracle of same day roster transactions and pick up active players on Mondays and Thursdays, the two days when MLB rarely plays a full schedule. So, check out your G/IP usage and plan on increasing your add/drop frequency over the remaining six weeks to up the number of games that your hitters play.

Know Your Cats

Of course, I’m not talking about your feline house pets but rather your exact position within each of the 5×5 FBM categories.  In the latter stages of the season, like I previously mentioned, the counting categories (everything except BA, ERA, and WHIP) are the easiest in which to gain ground.

If, after careful review of your end-of-season point potential, you realize your place in certain categories is pretty much set in stone already; while on the other hand, you’re bunched up with a number of owners in other categories; this fact should drive your future decisions on whom to start … as well as whom to pick up from free agency.

So, if you have no where to go in HRs but are within 10 SBs of passing six owners, guys like Cust and Cantu should have a seat firmly on your bench while speed demons like Taveras and Cesar Izturis need plenty of run in your starting lineup.

In sum, take the advice of Horace (the revered Roman poet - not the former Bulls power forward) and ’seize the day’ by using these strategies to outmaneuver your fellow managers.  I hope you get to fly your FBM league’s flag at year’s end.  Good luck!