What I've Learned by Zeus

What I've learned this half

Since it's only my 2nd year playing BBC, this half taught me a lot of things I should have applied to my game last year. I'm not sure how well it will hold up in the 2nd half or in future years, but so far it isn't doing too bad, as I finished 8th overall in the rankings. These lessons may very well contradict your past experiences as most of you have probably played for a longer time than I, so think of it more as fairy BBC tales rather than hard and fast laws.

-Don't change your initial lineup other than for injuries, potential DNP, and/or weather.

I'm not saying you can't go back 10 minutes later and swap someone out because of a gut feeling, but if you set your lineup at 6 pm and change it at 1 pm just for the sake of it, I would advise against that. It will burn you more often than it helps.

-Don't pick soft hitters too often.

I like to pick guys that can potentially jack it out of the park twice or three times a game. I'm pretty sure at some point in his career, Carl Crawford will hit three out in one game. But I can't expect a monster game out of him unless he gets 5 good at bats. Luke Scott or Mike Napoli that can make your day in just 1 or 2 ABs.

-When in doubt, go with the majority pick.All things being equal, the majority pick is more favorable because it hurts you less by everyone else having him. This came into play for me more than you would think.

-Don't ignore your Perennial All-Stars.

Well it was hard to ignore too many of them this half because the prices allowed you to have 5 or 6 of them every night. But I have once or twice this half had a lineup like this and ended up with 18 or so hitting:

Napoli
Albert
F. Lopez
Reynolds
Zobrist
Bay
Mclouth
Upton
Scott

Not a bad lineup but there's only one perennial all-star in there. These are the guys that can really rip up pitching. Don't ignore them, and definitely have more than one of them every night.

-Home/Away pitching splits rarely lie

In my opinion, one of the most reliable stats in baseball.

and finally...

-THE BUM RULE DOES EXIST!...

you just have to know how and when to use it, and I'm not quite ready to share my theory on it (partly because it doesn't work all the time )