Fantasy spectrum

Even when most of the news is from other sports, my posts will be primarily about baseball. I'm kind of easing into that mode; I haven't really allowed myself to follow baseball much since the World Series and my fantasy leagues ended. I still have to send out some hard-copy reports to the computer-challenged and those without sufficient equipment, and some checks to the winners. A couple of interesting player moves. A year ago at this time, OF Marlon Byrd had to go play winter ball in the Mexican Pacific League to prove himself worthy of a major league contract. He was coming off a year that included a drug suspension. He was a valuable addition to the Pirates' lineup down the stretch and in the postseason. Now he's a valuable addition back with his original team, the Phillies, who signed him for 2 years and $16 million. The Blue Jays signed 1B Dan Johnson. He has had some really ugly statistical seasons, but has elevated his game in September/October crunch time for just about every team that has employed him. After some false alarms, is Toronto really ready to make a run for the postseason. I'd like to see that for John Gibbons' sake if nothing else. * * * After this week's first NFL game, I'm leading 15-0 in one league and trailing 15-0 in the other. I seriously doubt that the leader will stay the same in both leagues, and maybe not in either. The league where I'm ahead is points-only. I scored 9 with Rob Bironas and 6 with Delanie Walker. But now I have just six players remaining, and my opponent has all eight of his. In the other league, a points/yardage/bonus setup, my opponent's points came from Adam Vinatieri -- 3 PATs and 3 field goals with some bonus points for distance. She has eight players remaining, but I have all nine of mine. * * * Remember how one of my tips for fantasy hockey was to make sure you make your daily lineup revisions early so you don't forget them? As I was driving to Fort Worth this afternoon, I thought I'd forgotten to make mine. Then as I began writing this, I made some moves late last night, late enough that it was after midnight and the moves would register for Friday. Perhaps I should have made all the moves. I put Torey Krug in the lineup to replace Milan Michalek. Krug was -2 and Michalek +2. My goalie woes continued, but to a lesser degree. I'm still having trouble gaining wins. Steve Mason played very well, stopping 36 of 38 shots, but the Flyers lost to Washington in a shootout. Mason did help considerably with his 1.85 GAA and .947 save percentage. I stayed at 61 points, but dropped into fourth place, half a point out of third. My team's plus/minus, driven by the 4-point swing between Krug and Michalek, now is only one ahead of my league's fifth-best team in plus-minus. My goalies are within 4 percentage points of ninth place, and within 5 points in save percentage but the 3.02 team GAA is 17 percentage points out of ninth place.

Fantasy hockey

This season I decided, pretty much last minute, to get into a fantasy hockey league for the first time. That's because I'm covering a lot more hockey this year after covering virtually none during the truncated 2013 (there was no 2012- in front of it) season. In the wee hours of Oct. 1, I went to espn.com and found a league that was drafting early that morning, maybe 5 a.m., and had 9 of 10 spots taken. I clicked the appropriate links to allow me to join, looked around for how I could customize the draft list, had trouble finding what I wanted, decided I was too tired to make credible moves anyway and went to bed. When I woke up, fairly early but not at 5 a.m., I saw my new team's roster. Lots of guys I'd never heard of. And that wasn't a bad thing because I'm trying to familiarize myself with the players around the league. I didn't even know a whole lot about the Stars. Their roster has changed a lot in the last two seasons. Anyway, my autopicked team quickly plunged to the bottom of the league. I found that out the next time I checked, a few days later. With a lot of moves, a couple of trades that didn't go through but pointed me in the right direction and more attention paid to the league, I've moved up to third place. But it isn't a good place. I'm closer to seventh or eighth place than I am to the two teams ahead of me. Here are some tips I've learned for myself that I can pass on to you. 1. Avoid signing up at the last minute, not customizing the website's draft list and above all else, having your team autopicked. I'm pretty sure I missed a run of goalies somewhere that would have led me to draft at least one higher than their autopick value indicated. 2. Learn what the categories mean. I saw PIM, but wasn't sure whether having a lot of penalty minutes was good or bad. (It's good.) But what the heck is ATOI? Nothing like Bill James' Favorite Toy, but instead Average Time on Ice. It's an equalizer to help give defensemen more value. There's also a category called PPP. I figured it had something to do with power plays, but I wasn't sure what. Power Play Points. Again, it can be an equalizer for defensemen. They're not going to score many goals, even on the power play, but if they spend a lot of time on the ice at the point on the power play, they're going to get assists when a teammate tips in or gets in the way of a slap shot. 3. Follow the action daily, and make sure you check in early enough to make moves. Unlike the fantasy football and even baseball leagues I'm in where the lineup changes are weekly, you can have a new lineup every day. It doesn't do you any good to have all of your fantasy bench on teams that are playing that night, while your marginally better or even stud players' teams are taking the night off. Conversely, if you don't switch back the next night, you might miss out on some good performances from players you sat the night before. 4. Don't overreact to short-term problems. This is one I should have remembered from any other fantasy sport. I spent the first couple of weeks picking up goalies who had played one good game to replace established players who might have given up 4 or 5 goals the night before. As a result of No. 4, I still have just 4 points in 3 categories from my goalies. I'm trying to rotate them in and out, in accordance with point No. 3 above. If all three happen to be playing, which sometimes happens on Tuesdays or other busy nights, I try to pick the two hot hands or the two with the easiest opponents. That's still a bit of a guessing game. But my GAA and save percentage are dropping slowly, to the point where I might even pick up 1 or 2 points in the next week or so. Hockey is not the marathon that the baseball season, but at least this season it's a half-marathon. * * * Thursdays are a busy fantasy day this year. They start with a reminder from an office football pool I'm in from my daughter Diana's former employer. I make those picks, with the spreads. I'm pretty much in the middle of the pack, one game under .500 for the season. I need to make up seven games in seven weeks to get into the money. If I could do that, it would also be more likely that I'd win a weekly prize of almost twice my investment for the season. After that, I check out any waiver claims I made after the weekend's games, plus injury reports on my players and bye-week information to see if I have to make any changes in either of my fantasy football lineups. This week, the Rams are off so I replaced Greg Zuerlein with Matt Bryant and Rob Bironas. I also picked up Andre Brown on waivers in one league. He replaced a wide receiver as my flex player, with two other pretty good RBs in that league. In the other league, I culled through the scrapheap of RBs to find a replacement for Arian Foster and came up with Bernard Pearce. He's just a backup. I elevated D'Angelo Williams to the starting lineup in that league, which counts only scoring and not yardage. As with the office pool, I'm mediocre in both fantasy football leagues. 5-5 in one, 4-6 in the other, but still with playoff chances if I manage my lineups correctly or get lucky. Peyton Manning's gimpy ankle has been carrying me in one league; Matt Stafford is my man in the scoring-only league. This season, I'm now also somewhat micromanaging my fantasy hockey team. On waivers, I picked up Anaheim defenseman Francois Beauchemin to put me on a good road, as well as Ottawa forward Clarke MacArhur, whom I hope has Kent or even Douglas as his middle name. Today's lineup changes put Beauchemin in for Pittsburgh's Matt Niskanen, Boston defenseman Torey Krug as my utility player in place of Ottawa forward Milan Michalak and Islanders goalie for Toronto's James Reimer. Time to eat. More, including baseball, to come soon.