Grey Matter

One team's junk can be another team's treasure

For now, Keith Foulke will work in late innings, but not with the game on the line. Otto Greule/Getty Images

By Jason Grey, Special to CNNSI.com

Normally in this space at this point in the week, there would be an AL Report. Sometimes, if the mood strikes me, I have the leeway to alter that format and do what we have been calling "Grey Matter" columns, if I feel there are a couple of non-league specific items that may be worthy of your attention.

This column originally started out as an AL Report. I was in my office looking at my research on what I was going to include in my column today, and I came across my note on Keith Foulke of the White Sox, and that got me to thinking about something, which was readily obvious due to the smoke coming from my ears. (Thank you. Try the veal.) Horrific lounge singer humor aside, I noticed another notation I had made regarding a transaction in the National League (more on that in a moment), and putting the two together, I felt a "Grey Matter" was warranted.

As most are probably aware, Foulke admitted he has been at least temporarily demoted from the closer role in Chicago. Sure, he has been struggling a little bit lately, but the fact is he has blown just two saves all year and has been as bankable a closer as any in recent years. One would think that would have given him a greater margin for error. I am not a Foulke owner in any of my leagues, but I am sure his owners are scratching their heads right now and maybe are a little furious with Sox skipper Jerry Manuel.

That NL transaction I spoke of: The Padres sent Jeremy Fikac down to their AA affiliate after he had struggled recently, despite the fact that he was probably San Diego's best option in the late innings other than Trevor Hoffman for a good portion of the year, and while struggling, certainly hadn't imploded. On top of that, they bust him all the way down to AA ball.

Which brings me to the main subject of this column ...

It has long been said by fantasy "experts" to always remember that no matter how good or bad you think a particular player may be, remember that he is at the whims of the manager and the organization who make the decisions that ultimately control his playing time and role. To put it into simpler terms, if you think that the recently recalled Juan Diaz of the Reds Sox is a prodigious power threat, and could hit 50 homers given 500 at bats, that's great. The fantasy mantra always has been that production is based on playing time, so unless the manager thinks the same thing it doesn't matter what you think, it's not going to happen. This may seem obvious, but I remember plenty of people touting Bubba Trammell as a source of lots of production for their fantasy team earlier in his career, when he wound up receiving more sporadic playing time, and produced a lot less than people thought he would. In retrospect, it was actually quite forseeable that would be the case, due to playing time, not talent.

We've all had players and situations where you're just scratching your head wondering what a manager is thinking, and you are cursing his name because "he's killing my fantasy team!"

That said, I would like to add something to the mantra above. Talent generally wins out eventually. There is no question that Foulke is the best reliever that the White Sox have to close games. There is probably no question that Jeremy Fikac could still do a better job in the Padres pen than say, Rodney Myers.

Short-term shakeups often happen, and they can happen for various reasons that often don't quite make a lot of sense. Just because major league teams make moves that are kneejerk reactions, does not necessarily mean that you should be very concerned and certainly not that you need to make moves correspondingly. We've all been in siutations where things are not going well for one of our guys in terms of playing time or role, and in the space of one game, an injury or some other circumstance can make things right again. Don't buy into those that tell you "well, they know more than you do about it, because that's their job." You know what? Sometimes they don't. Trading Jermaine Dye for Neifi Perez or trading Ben Broussard for Russ Branyan is proof enough of that. Have patience that eventually the people that should be playing will be playing and in roles best suited for them.

In most cases, it works out that way.

Sure sometimes you get the Roberto Petagines of the world that no one ever gives a fair chance to, and don't realize what they had. (For those unaware, Petagine would have been a production machine if either the Mets or Reds had stuck him in the lineup and kept him there, but after being stymied at AAA he had to go kill Japanese pitching.) But eventually, talent will rise to the top more often than not. The Boston Red Sox released David Eckstein at the AA level, thinking that he would never make it, and kept Donnie Sadler instead. The funny thing is all Eckstein had ever done in the minors was hit. So while the Sox were trying to find a second baseman last year to replace Jose Offerman after releasing Sadler as well, Eckstein was getting on base and stealing for the Angels. One team's junk can be another team's treasure.

It comes down to a trait that successful fantasy players have that is overlooked far too often: Patience.

Jason Grey is the publisher of The Masters of Fantasy Baseball at www.mastersball.com, a free daily source for news, analysis, insight, and opinion. Their 2002 annual featuring strategy and player profiles as well as their 2002 projections for various game formats are available now. Mastersball.com is a member of the Tout Wars and Major League Baseball's experts leagues.

 

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