- 1B Brett Wallace of the Houston Astros is hitting .382 (34/89) with a .967 OPS and a ridiculously high BABIP of .471 deserves to be owned in more than 27.4% of ESPN leagues and 27% of Yahoo! leagues. He recently strung together six games in which he had two or more hits in a game and has done it 10 times in 24 starts. Any player sporting this much wood going into May should be on someone's roster in your league.
- C Alex Avila of the Detroit Tigers leads all catchers in the majors in Total Bases (48) and RBI (21) and has produced an unexpected 5x5 line of .309/12/5/21/1. Any catcher producing numbers like these deserves to be owned in 100% of all non-NL only leagues. So explain to me why he's 74% owned in ESPN leagues and just 66% in Yahoo! leagues.
- SP Josh Tomlin of the Cleveland Indians is 4-0 with a 2.45 ER and a 0.91 WHIP. He has gone 5-for-5 in pitching a Quality Start and easily could be 5-0. He hasn't shown the ability to be a strikeout pitcher (just 18 K in 33 IP) but he's giving three-category scoring. He deserves better than 60.4% ESPN and just 44% Yahoo! ownership.
- RP Sergio Santos of the Chicago White Sox has done a solid job (3-for-3 in save opps) as the team's most recent closer and looks to be settling in nicely into the role. All full-time closers deserve to be owned more than 56.3% in ESPN leagues and 47% of Yahoo! leagues. If Matt Thornton (25.4% E; 41% Y!) and Chris Sale (11.9% E; 31% Y!) are still owned in a league that doesn't count Holds, that league probably sucks.
- OF Peter Bourjos of the Los Angeles Angels and OF Jason Bourgeois of the Houston Astros have combined for 11 stolen bases and a .313 batting average. They are a combined 26% owned in both ESPN and Yahoo! leagues. How about this, combine them into a nice platoon and see what they do as a 4th/5th outfielder combo in deeper mixed leagues.
- Manny Ramirez is still owned in 10.7% of ESPN leagues and 6% of Yahoo! leagues. If he's still rostered in your league then this means you have an owner that has bailed on managing their team already. It's May 3rd. These people have no business playing fantasy baseball and have poisoned the rest of your league with inactivity.
This post is written periodically to help point out one of the things fantasy baseball owners complain about most: inactivity. Inactivity on any level within a league can kill the competitive balance for the entire league. Even if three-quarters of a league's members are very active, the inactivity of the other one-quarter will cause frustration to owners trying to make trades.
I truly think a large portion of fantasy baseball participants are addicted to the thrill of the live draft but are bored or even overwhelmed with how much effort it takes to manage one, let alone many, successful teams for six months compared to the relative-ease of managing a fantasy football team.
Is it getting harder each season to find quality owners and quality leagues? The answer for me is yes. I had to shut down three of my keeper leagues this offseason because I got tired of competing against 2/3rds of the teams and pulling teeth with the other 1/3 to keep them active. What types of issues are you already experiencing in your leagues this season that makes you wonder why some people bother to join in the first place?
