Drops & Disasters: Fantasy Baseball Roster Moves (5/18)

I will be pinch-hitting for future NFBC Hall of Famer Mike Mager this week, so we can all be confident that I will not be Wally Pipping him anytime soon. Mike is incredible with his written content here at FTN, both in this tremendous and revolutionary article series, as well as with his famous feedback in the Discord. We appreciate you, Mike!

Regarding fantasy baseball, Scott Pianowski has said that if you don’t make a drop you regret, then you are not playing aggressively enough. I completely agree with that opinion and think even more so in the 12-team format, fantasy players are not necessarily aggressive enough. Winning the week is important, and so is looking for breakouts and having coverage for injury. If you are stashing injured players on your bench, you won’t have access to a Gabriel Arias who could be having a mini-breakout, from a player you added just to not take a 0. Additionally, players come back from injury typically slower than we expect and take some time to get back to their normal level, so that 0, you are stashing, remains unproductive longer than we often care to admit. Being aggressive in dropping injured or low-performing guys is key to finding new talent to utilize on your fantasy team. Embrace the churn!

Even if you drop a player, that doesn’t mean you can’t add them back, as you will likely be monitoring them more than other managers. You can also be a week or two early on adding another manager’s drops, like Colton Cowser, a hitter I think could make a huge impact when he returns. Let’s dive into the meat and potatoes of the article!

Some of the players that should at least be considered as potential drops this week are set forth below in the following two tables – the first includes hitters and the second includes pitchers. In addition to the player’s name, team and position, the tables include the player’s ownership percentage in the premier 15- and 12-team contests: the NFBC’s Main Event and Online Championship, respectively. Finally, the tables list my rankings as to how strongly – or not – I feel each particular player should be dropped in those 15-team and 12-team formats, respectively. The key to these rankings, from 0-4, is as follows:

• • 0 = Do not drop

• • 1 = Team context dependent; probably should not be dropped on most teams

• • 2 = Team context dependent; compelling arguments to drop and not drop

• • 3 = Team context dependent; probably should be dropped on most teams

• • 4 = Drop