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My Mantra – Stay Balanced

“There are many variegated ways to win.”

I heard this on a podcast recently. Can’t remember which one. So, I can’t requite credit. It’s moreover not the first time I’ve heard the phrase. Maybe I shouldn’t worry too much well-nigh it.

I stipulate with this statement. But since I’m a natural contrarian (ask my wife) my knee-jerk response is, “Yeah, but there aren’t an infinite number of ways to win.”

I think well-nigh this a lot. Probably too much. Maybe the thoughts that follow are obvious. Or maybe I have some unique insight to share. So here goes. Besides, I haven’t written a true blog post in a long time. Buckle up.

Seeing this Tweet is what ultimately pushed me over the whet to write this:

I’ll stipulate with the tragedian here. In life we think a lot well-nigh those woebegone lines. We tend to be backwards looking. Either relishing in the past or wallowing in it. The Stoics would want us looking at the untried path into the future and all the possibilities that exist. But we like to be crippled by bad decisions and finger sorry for ourselves.

I may well be wrong, but I get the impression that most of us are the opposite in playing fantasy baseball. We have to be inherently forward looking. The stats piled in the standings can’t be changed. They are what they are. We have no nomination but to pull up the self-ruling wage-earner listing and plan for the future.

We talk well-nigh the future all the time. We are unchangingly “preparing”. Projections, prognostications, subtracting players for the future, dynasty leagues, pursuing a championship. It’s all forward looking.

Maybe that’s why we like this game? Is it inherently optimistic?

Anyways, we fake baseball players tend to forget our past decisions. I’m here to be negative and bring us when to all of our horrible decisions!!!

That’s not really my intent. Some good retrospection and review is good at the end of the season. But I’m not proposing we start looking in the rotisserie rearview mirror any increasingly than that.

I do think the image is insightful and helpful at demonstrating a key bit of strategy I try to unchangingly bring myself when to… Stay balanced.

I’ll go as far as to say this is my guiding principle in playing rotisserie (it’s not so relevant for points leagues). I use it any time I’m struggling with a decision. Should I take a pitcher or a hitter? Should I take speed or power? Do I take my third outfielder or my first catcher?

We discuss the topic in The Process but don’t write-up the reader over the throne with it. I’m well-nigh to write-up you over the throne with it.

Stay balanced!

The phrase is purposely ambiguous. It can midpoint so many things, all of them helpful. Here are some examples:

  • Don’t indulge yourself to get backed into a corner. Alimony your team well-turned in both pitching and hitting. Alimony a wastefulness wideness statistical categories. Stave putting yourself in a situation where you can’t take wholesomeness of good fortunes that come your way. If you are out of balance, needing pitching, and an wondrous hitter falls in the typhoon your visualization point becomes getting plane remoter out of wastefulness or passing up the opportunity.

  • Balance the risk and uncertainty on your roster. Don’t be too risky. Don’t be too inobtrusive or risk uneager (BTW, if you say “risk adverse” and you’re a podcaster, I have shaken my fist at you before). You don’t want to be the manager rostering Oneil Cruz, Adalberto Mondesi, and Justin Verlander. You moreover don’t want a team full of Randal Grichuks and Mark Canhas. There is value in pursuing upside and floor. Both serve a purpose.

  • Balance the risk and uncertainty of the draft. It’s OK to be superiority of a run. Don’t put yourself in a situation where missing a run will cripple you. It’s OK to leave a dollar of value on the table in order to stave stuff the sucker without a closer or the guy that has to start Yan Gomes. That uneaten dollar of value you sacrificed can pay off when the typhoon heads when your way without the run and the “chasers” are reaching.

  • Avoid subtracting single points of failure or systematic risks to your team. What’s a single point of failure? Adalberto Mondesi with few other stolen wiring contributors is a single point of failure. Jacob deGrom in the first round and not pursuit up with flipside starter for seven rounds is a single point of failure.

  • Don’t tropical yourself off to possibilities. Don’t get too strong at a unrepealable position. Drafting J.T. Realmuto and Will Smith (the #669257 MLB ID one) as early catchers looks super valuable on your fancy SGP spreadsheet (show off!). But it closes off the door to realizing value from catchers off the waiver wire. Flipside worldwide example I see is drafting five super stud outfielders surpassing filling in other positions. Looks unconfined when you’re posting screenshots on Twitter. Not so unconfined on a week in mid-April when a handful of intriguing outfielders pop up.

  • Strangely, you sometimes have to get heavily out of wastefulness to later fall into balance. Examples are stook batting stereotype and pitching ratios early in drafts. Alimony the worthier picture in mind. You can unzip wastefulness over a longer spectrum of time. You don’t only find wastefulness in the short term.

Hopefully you can see the value in this silly principle. That’s the point of stuff principle based! You just need to alimony one phrase in mind and it can help guide so many decisions.

Let me tropical by tying this when to the untried and woebegone lines above. I made some rotisserie-related edits to the original image. Hopefully you can read the fine print.

You get an opportunity to make increasingly decisions by staying balanced. Increasingly possibilities are at your fingertips. There are more ways to win! And not only is wastefulness good for you but those that get out of wastefulness are latter doors.

Sometimes you just have to let others write-up themselves. This game can be a war of attrition. It’s your job to stay in the run as long as you can. Alimony piling up opportunities to find value and make increasingly decisions.

Stay smart… and stay balanced!

The post My Mantra – Stay Balanced first appeared on Smart Fantasy Baseball.

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