Are You Maverick Or Are You The Iceman?

Michael Kopech is giving me a supreme test of my patience in this latest week of the baseball season. Kopech is the sometimes erratic starting pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who shows occasional glimpses of genius and impeccable control. He can occasionally throws a 7 inning gem wherein he will strike out 10 guys and walk 1 while surrendering only 2 hits. And occasionally he will allow 7 walks with only 3 strikeouts in 4 innings pitched with 4 hits allowed and only 2 earned runs. This won’t kill your team ERA to put in a 4.50 ERA but the 7 walks will crater your WHIP and in a week he was lined up to pitch Tuesday and Sunday it is demoralizing for those of us who like to stack 2-start pitchers.

The concept of stacking 2-start pitchers has been around for a while and I must confess that I do look to practice it myself. It is empowering to give ourselves the perception that we are actually managing the collection of talent that we have at our disposal. And herein lies a valuable lesson in roster construction. My ESPN Dynasty League is set for 30 active players. Our rules call for 16 offensive players, 8 pitchers (starters and relievers), and 6 bench players. And what you do with those 6 bench slots I like to think separates the men from the boys. Since we are a dynasty league we allow for a 5-player supplemental minor league roster. We allow every team to protect 20 of their 30 active players and all 5 members of the supplemental minor league roster. The 6 bench players are either a tool to win games in 2023 or a reservoir of young talent to plan future improvement with.

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For me, the 6 bench players is an opportunity to win games in the current season ONLY. If I stack my roster with young players with promise, I risk exposing some of them in the next spring’s draft. I would rather find 4-6 extra starting pitchers and look to stack them in those weeks where they are lined up to pitch twice. Why do this? More strikeouts, two shots to get a quality start. 2 opportunities to notch a win. And for pitchers with good ERA’s and WHIP’s an opportunity to nail down two ratio innings. All of this seems perfectly reasonable and logical. And yet I am going to tell you, it is one of the hardest things to do in fantasy baseball. Look at Michael Kopech’s 7 walks from Tuesday night. And it comes back to the title of this article. Are you Maverick or are you Iceman?

The 1986 movie “Top Gun” profiled (2) F-14 pilots with vastly different styles. The flamboyant, risk taking, dangerous “Maverick” and the cold, calculating, take no chances “IceMan” who waits for you to make a mistake because of his patience and icy cold demeanor and fortitude. Fantasy baseball can give you an addictive rush when your Maverick hunches pay off, but the game demands you display IceMan patience. It takes guts to throw Michael Kopech out there when there is a chance he will walk 7 batters. But there is also the opportunity he will throw 10 strikeouts and thus compile 13 strikeouts for the week. The chances of him getting 13 strikeouts in any single start are low, but his chances of netting 13 strikeouts in any two performances are much better. It’s those 3 strikeouts above 10 that are your opportunity to be the IceMan. After 25 weeks of playing this way, you will come out ahead with more strikeouts. To me. It is one of the easiest counting categories to walk away with. But you need patience and some internal fortitude. Nothing worth winning ever comes easy.

There has been a revolving door of starting pitchers shuttling back and forth between the majors and Triple AAA. If you have held any Tampa Bay Devil Rays you are familiar with this. Logan Allen of the White Sox found himself demoted this week. This move took some players by surprise as Allen had compiled a 3.47 ERA, a reasonably low figure. However, Allen needed 98 pitches to get through the 3rd inning in his previous start, and hadn’t gone past the 4th inning in any of his previous 4 starts, which his 1.44 WHIP hinted at. In short, he was taxing their bullpen and so they sent him down to work on some things. Keep an eye on how long your starters are lasting at this time of year. Teams can’t burn out their bullpens in July. The young starters for the Dodgers should also be monitored closely.