I have a bit of a conundrum: I need new starting pitching. My fantasy team is loaded with pitchers, having just recently made Barry Zito the eighth starting pitcher on my team, but several of them are struggling of late. Now, it should be noted that there are good starters still available in our league, so that's not the problem. The problem is in deciding which of my current starters to send packing to open up roster space.

I had been leaning toward waiving Brett Myers about a month ago, but ever since he has been my best pitcher, so it's a good thing I didn't offload him.

Livan Hernandez has only one win since July 1, but his lack of wins stems from lack of run support, not from poor pitching. Although he's not racking up wins, he is racking up innings and keeping the ERA down, so it's hard to part with him.

Bartolo Colon is allowing a lot baserunners and a lot of runs, but he tends to be streaky, and with Oakland putting pressure on the Angels, he's going to have to step up if they're to still win the division.

Jeremy Bonderman is another inconsistent one. He got smacked around again on Saturday by Cleveland, but overall he's been one of my best on the season. Do I risk letting him go and having him get hot again?

Jake Peavy, Dontrelle Willis, and Jason Schmidt are definitely going nowhere. Peavy and Willis are on the "Can't Cut List", so I couldn't offload them if I wanted to, while Jason Schmidt seems to have rediscovered his form as of late. Smitty would have won 4 of his last 5, but he had two no-decisions because his bullpen blew leads.

So, basically it's down to Hernandez, Colon, and Bonderman. One of those three is likely to get the axe in the next few days. On top of it, Todd Helton is set to return possibly the end of the week from the DL, and I may have to offload another of them to open up a roster spot for Helton. It's not like I really need 8 starters anyway, because the team with the second-most in the league has only 6, and after Sunday I'm unlikely to meet that team again until the championship game (assuming, of course, we both make it that far).

12:34 AM | (0)
file under: fantasy baseball