injury prone players

[farrock1]

I am tempted to draft injury prone players with good bats; i.e. great averages, high OBP's & Big HR's but afraid they will spend most of the season on the bench.. What is the thought process on this and what do you do? Have back ups for each of their positions. Just Curious

[geekor]

I used to never use them, but as TSN has priced them better I have used them more and more. Escobar is one of my favs, just expect 400-450 ab's only form him and get a decent Bench to take his spot (Denoforia/Winn)

[J-Pav]

Are you talking about a [i:18b068cdbc]team[/i:18b068cdbc] of injury guys or just one or two injury guys?

If it's a team:

I haven't tried this in a real long time, but my guess would be to consider your pool of players you are zeroing in on to best exploit their contributions.

First off, I've never seen injury teams win that had the usual serving of pitching. The point of injury players is the reduced salary, so I would dramatically overspend on pitching ($37-39 mil). Build your autodraft card with the top five (or even six) starting pitchers listed first (keep the best three or four you get) and be sure to end up with at least one [b:18b068cdbc]stud[/b:18b068cdbc] set-up reliever when it's all said and done (there are always plenty left after the draft, so unless you want Shields or Zumaya, you don't even need to card one on the draft list).

Then you have to calculate how the injury players best work offensively (pitcher's park guys, or hitter's park guys (lots of bp homers)) so you can select a ballpark that they will most benefit from.

Lastly, you should try and be mindful of guys who play lots of positions so HAL can fill holes when the inevitable injuries occur.

If it's just one or two guys:

Consider low dollar, mid to high injury backups.

GL,

J

[durantjerry]

Some injury guys can be very productive. A little planning beforehand can really help out IMO. Starting players who play multiple positions are helpful if they can move over and you have a better backup at their spot. Target cheap, effective backups like Ross and I have found having your DH play the same position as your injury prone guy is good, as its easier to fill the DH spot than a fielding spot. Lastly, a guy like Gonzalez is good as your last guy to fill in at multiple positions when more than one guy goes down.