Drop It Like It's Hot

As I scour the countless sources, blogs, message boards, etc. etc. that I read daily from March through September (let's be honest, all year), I can't help but notice something... Today's date is April 24th.

Now, I know what you're saying.  "... And?"  To that I say, "And, why on Earth is every struggling player not on Yahoo!'s Can't Drop List being dropped left and right?"

In my 6 leagues this season, the following players have all been dropped at one point this season (the bolded I am guilty of dropping myself):

Kenji Johjima, Aaron Hill, Joey Votto, Jon Rauch, Ted Lilly, Jeremy Accardo, Ryan Theriot, Ervin Santana, Andre Ethier, Kelly Johnson, Phil Hughes, Corey Patterson, Jeff Kent, Todd Helton, Randy Johnson, Derek Lowe, Jason Kendall, Heath Bell, Jonathan Sanchez, Jeff Keppinger, Johnny Damon, Troy Percival, Rick Ankiel, and Juan Pierre.

Now, some of those are more eye-popping than others, but when you take into account some of the names who were picked up as replacements (let's just say, they didn't all make it into my Hype Train or Cheap Sources entries), it can get a little more head scratching worthy.

Here's the question, though: Why?  Why are people dropping perfectly healthy players after a bad week at the plate, or a 5 ER outing?

Well, for starters, the articles they read are telling them to.  This morning Yahoo!'s Andy Behrens challenged his readers to defend their Andruw Jones ownership. Tim Heaney from KFFL has a Diamond Market - Falling blog piece up where he outlines players to Hold, Stash, or Drop.  The only Drops he really recommends are in shallow leagues, or on players who had no business being owned in the first place; so he's not fueling the fire too badly.  However, there are a large number of people out there who follow these articles as gospel, and when you see Andruw Jones' Drop-O-Meter skyrocket on Yahoo!, you'll see that.

Now, I'm not saying that Andruw will turn it around, oh no.  I didn't draft him in any leagues -- I knew that going in.  But certainly if I had projected him differently, and had expectations higher than I had, I wouldn't be changing them all too drastically after 69 AB in a new uniform.

So, if we're not dropping these players, what are we doing with them?

We're putting them on our bench.  Letting our fantasy players ride the pine.  Yahoo!'s standard league format allots five (5) bench spots on a roster.  There are various strategies with regard to bench formulation, but one thing I'm certain of -- reserve one spot for a player who is under-performing but has no business being dropped.  The rest, do what you will with -- I generally carry as many pitchers as possible.

Case in point, in the aforementioned Behrens' Roto league that I am a part of, I added Mark Reynolds to my roster on 4/9, at which point Johnny Damon, my Utility Player, was batting .200 with 2 R and 1 RBI.  Now, instead of dropping Damon, who has since hit 3 HR, stolen 3 bases, and raised his R and RBI totals to 16 and 13, respectively, I relegated him to my bench, where he remains even today.  Reynolds has been a tremendous fill-in at Util., and with a GP limit, getting Damon in has been difficult, but he's contributed when some of my other OF have had poor match-ups, and I'm generally satisfied.  The rest of my bench is filled with pitchers.  Oh, who did I drop for Reynolds, you ask?  Well, it was a player who had only seen 15 AB up to the date of the drop, and whose manager I thought I would be infuriated with all season for stifling his potential.  I dropped Joey Votto.  No, I don't want to talk about it...

Look, the point is -- players start slow.  Scratch that.  Some players start slow (other players are Chase Utley), and it should be noted that some of these 2-for-15 streaks that have you hitting the Drop button go wildly unnoticed in June, because you don't see it in their season totals as much.  At this point, every AB still weighs so heavily on a players' AVG, that a guy can raise his .040 with a 4-for-4 day.  It's not a sprint, folks.  The guy in first place on May 1 doesn't get the cash prize or the trophy.  So before you go dropping Victor Martinez or Troy Tulowitzki, remember it's not even May yet, and as the weather heats up, so do a lot of players.

So be patient, young grasshopper, for the player you drop today may be the player your rival scoops up and wins your league with tomorrow (See: Justin Morneau, '06).

Until next time...