“Ninety percent of success is just showing up” ~Woody Allen.

In a standard 5 x 5 league, seven of ten categories are cumulative. For hitting: runs, home runs, RBIs, and steals. For pitching: wins, saves, and strikeouts. In hitting, any marginal player has a better chance of adding to one or more of the cumulative categories than hurting you in AVG or OBP. In pitching, the cumulative uptick of saves, strikeouts, and wins justifes absorbing the poor outings of otherwise borderline closers or speedball starters.

Therefore, much success in fantasy baseball derives from the grunt work of roster assignment. This is especially true in rotisserie formats. It is especially true in leagues that allow daily roster changes.

In July and August, roster assignment creates separation. These are the months when people pay less attention to work. They go on vacation. Sometimes the beach house doesn’t have broadband. Meanwhile, owners whose teams are slipping out of contention are less likely to log in every day.

By just showing up, you can swap in a second catcher on the day game after the night game. You can swap in backups on Monday and Thursday travel days. In pitching you can track starts against whatever limits you are using (i.e. weekly start, season inning-pitched) and adjust accordingly.

Maximize your opportunities. If anything, that is my fantasy manifesto.