I’m in very good shape right now in my fantasy baseball league with about a 20 point cusion between my team and the team in second place. I’ve won the league the last few years and have a decent core of keepers, but the team I have now looks a lot different from the team I drafted. Over 40% of my team were picked up from the Free Agent pool:

Keepers

• A. Rodriguez (NYY – 3B,SS)
• R. Furcal (Atl – SS)
• B. Abreu (Phi – RF)
• V. Guerrero (Ana – RF)
• J. Bagwell (Hou – 1B)
• J. Santana (Min – SP,RP)
• T. Hudson (Oak – SP)
• P. Martinez (Bos – SP)
• B. Zito (Oak – SP)
• C. Schilling (Bos – SP)

Drafted

• C. Patterson (ChC – CF)
• F. Thomas DL (CWS – 1B,DH)
• J. Nathan (Min – RP)
• D. Baez (TB – RP)

Traded For

• J. Vidro DL (Mon – 2B)
• R. Baldelli DL (TB – CF)
• G. Mota (Fla – RP)

Free Agent Pickups

• B. Davis (CWS – C)
• J. Morneau (Min – 1B,DH)
• P. Polanco (Phi – 2B,3B)
• C. Crisp (Cle – LF,CF)
• J. Guillen (Ana – LF,RF)
• M. Kotsay (Oak – CF)
• M. Mora (Bal – 3B,LF)
• M. Sweeney DL (KC – 1B,DH)
• A. Burnett (Fla – SP)
• D. Hermanson (SF – SP,RP)
• B. Wickman (Cle – RP)
• S. Kazmir (TB – SP)

The core of my pitching is definitely in my keepers, but you can make a good argument that the hitters I got in the draft (Patterson, Thomas) and from the free agent pool (Melvin Mora, Jose Guillen, Justin Morneau) and as good as the hitters I kept.

When I played in the Yahoo winner’s league a few years back, I was amazed to see the team in first place adding no-name players and dropping mid-level proven players. He rode the hot hand all year and won the league handily. I’ve started treating about 40% of my team as interchangable parts and trying to ride the hot hand myself. The last two years at least, it’s payed off.