by Outta Leftfield » Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:08 am
One thing about that lingering red "I" bug is that when you're looking for replacement players, that red "I" can alert you to any FA's who were dropped due to injury, even if they're no longer injured. Often such players are dropped because a bad year was revealed, but surprisingly often, there's no proof of a bad year, so the injury can really be worth checking out. Since you know the team he played for and the number of games he played, it's usually not hard to go through the box scores and find the specific injury. This can lead to some real discoveries.
For example, in a recent league Kent Hrbek was dropped after a long injury. His injury (lo max vs RHP) plus its length showed that he was in a good year, either 82, 87 or 88. I picked Hrbek up based on this info, and since then he's had 100 AB and hit 14 HR, posting a 1.046 OPS. My team, which was off to a dismal 24-39, has with Hrbek's help since gone 23-7. We're now over .500 and in the thick of the wildcard race.
So using the red I bug to one's own advantage can really pay off.