The Fontenot experiment that failed

I get bored with this game unless I do dumb experiments, which after five years (of playing online) are more interesting to me than winning ...

I have a team that faces righties three times as much as lefties, which was obvious pre-season. Against RHP I've got Sandoval with his 3 injury rating. For fun, I took Fontenot (1.01m) and started him at third against lefties (to spell Sandoval and reduce his injuries), with Janish as a late-inning replacement for the terrible fielding. Fontenot is a lefty (L/3L) with 40 on-base chances vs LHP (plus 2 BPHR and the usual 5 BP singles, which together in my division equals another 4.5 on-base chances), plus "B" stealing. Figured he'd get on base and maybe steal (again, the main thing was to experiment by having a lefty start against LHP, and also reduce Sandoval's injuries).

Result -- His OBP against LHP after 84 AB: .269, 2 SB

Dropped him after 120 games and picked up Jed Lowrie (S/3L) and some cash ...

The team's in first place as of now -- another detail: I don't have a center fielder! I leave it blank in the line-up, with Zobrist at 2B, and Stanton, Markakis, and Gordon as the only other OF on the roster. HAL almost always puts Stanton in center, sometimes Markakis.

If you concluded Fontenot's good card qualities didn't justify his weakness, that is one thing. But why would you drop someone just because of poor performance? His card hasn't changed since the day you drafted him; he's just been unlucky.

I dropped him because I was wrong -- his card wasn't good enough to make up for the advantage when the roll was on the LHP's card, at least in THIS league. And I needed the 0.088m I picked up to make another change. I don't buy the theory that you should never make roster changes. Also, Fontenot got an 8-game injury in game 120, so he lost 8/42 of his value anyway.

I dropped him because I was wrong -- his card wasn't good enough to make up for the advantage when the roll was on the LHP's card, at least in THIS league. And I needed the 0.088m I picked up to make another change. I don't buy the theory that you should never make roster changes. Also, Fontenot got an 8-game injury in game 120, so he lost 8/42 of his value anyway.

I made a faulty assumption (that you dropped him just because he was doing poorly). Good luck in the home stretch!