Doctoring patience
Refrain from hasty fantasy diagnosis
ENTREPRENEUR JiJim RRohnh once said, “The twin killers of success are impatience and greed.”
It is like he was talking about fantasy baseball owners when he said it.
Owners draft players like Mike Trout, Clayton K er shaw, Aaron Judge and G ian carlo Stanton expecting immediate results and peak performance from the first pitch of the season until the last. It is greedy and unrealistic thinking. The second those players do anything besides what is expected of them, panic begins to set in.
Sometimes players comes out of the gate moving as fast as Bartolo Colon running to a gym. This is where you have to remember the fantasy baseball season is a marathon (a long marathon), not a sprint.
Take, for instance, Mark Teixeira. He was historically a slow starter, hitting .235 in 269 career games in March/April, but he hit .282 in July and .281 from August-October. He did what was expected of him when he was needed the most.
You drafted Trout, Judge and the other stars because they’re reliable when you need them. If they get offff to slowl starts, iit iisn’t’ timei to start making trade offers (but, it is when you take advantage of the dope making the offers). If a player starts slow, be patient.
George Springer not only became the first player to hit a leadoff home run for a defending World Series champion, he also is the only player to hit a leadoff home ron Opening Day in consecutive years, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
As impressive as those feats are, March/April historically have not been kind to Springer — he has hit just .229 over 127 games. The only month he has been worse is August. The first month of the season has also brought his worst on-base percentage (.302) and his second-worst slugging percentage (.440), OPS (.742) and runs scored production (74).
Springer, however, turns things around quickly, hitting . 288 in May, .293 in June and .332 in July.
There are others who have a history of struggling early, such as Edwin Encarnacion. He never seems to get it going until June, hitting .240 in March/April and .247 in May (despite bashing 118 homers and driving in 360 RBIs over 594 career games in those months). March-May is also when he has hihis llowest average, highest strikeout total and his lowest OBP, SLG and OPS.
Justin Verlander picked up a win in the opener, but March /Apri l is t he o nly “month” he has a losing record (22-24) and an ERA above 3.67 (he is at 3.98). He tends to be at his best in June (31-13) and, when it matters most, in September/October, when he is 43-17 with a 2.89 ERA.
Brian Dozier has his worst average (. 225), slugging percentage (.366) and OPS (.676) in April, and Jason Kipnis is a .228 hitter with a .642 OPS before hitting .291 in May and .295 in June.
You also have to make sure you don’t get too caught up in players who get off to red-hot starts. Just because the White Sox’s Matt Davidson smashed three homers in the opener doesn’t mean he is going to be the next Stanton. Remember Eric Thames last year? Trevor Story in 2016?
If highly prized youngsters like Matt Olson, Rhys Hoskins, Rafael Devers, Luke Weaver, Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell or Luis Castillo get off to slow starts, don’t abandon ship. There isn’t a lot of history to go on with these players, so give them time. Patience is a virtue for a reason. Don’t forget that.