Fantasy Baseball

When working the fantasy baseball waiver wire, it's better to strike a week early than wait too long.

Injured players and prospects often get highlighted around these parts before MLB clubs activate them. By then, it's usually too late, especially for a weekly column where all players must remain available in over half of Yahoo Sports leagues. 

The effort to make baseball fun again took a violent turn on Sunday—one that will hurt fantasy managers nearly as much as Jose Bautista.

Feeling gloomy about an underachieving fantasy baseball squad buried down the standings? Hopefully Saturday night reminded everyone that miracles do happen.

Bartolo Colon—a 42-year-old pitcher whose at-bats have become public viewing for their comedic value—hit his first career home run. As SNY play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen joyfully shrieked, "The impossible has happened!"

A wise fantasy baseball manager knows not to rock the boat too much in April, but will that patience extend into May?

Enough stats are accumulating to start fretting the ace with the ERA over 5.00 and the star hitter batting below the Mendoza Line. As gamers wait on their established picks to wake up, lesser players are delivering to nobody's benefit on the waiver wire.

Many of 2015's quietly strong finishers have stayed hot this April, demanding attention from fantasy baseball managers.

A majority of this week's top 10 free agents, available in over half of Yahoo Sports leagues, ran roughshod late last season. They also, however, either started poorly or in the minor leagues, burying their late progress as brief blips.

Two weeks is too soon to panic. At least that's what worried fantasy baseball managers tucked down the standings will try to remember before blowtorching their rosters.

It's human nature to fret when things go poorly. When a lineup that seemed perfect before Opening Day can't buy a hit, even an experienced player will get antsy. The savvy gamer, however, will ultimately stay calm and instead test his or her peers' nerves.

Two weeks into 2016's MLB season, fantasy baseball managers will struggle to resist adding players with deceivingly gaudy stat lines.

Eduardo Nunez won't compete for a batting title, and Mat Latos won't win every start with a sub-1.00 ERA. These sample sizes will quickly change with little notice, and it's up to fantasy players to sniff out the fluky starts from the telling successes.

One week after MLB's first pitch, the 2016 season received a major shake-up to the fantasy landscape.

Most teams aren't in a hurry to promote prospects, instead delaying their arbitration clocks while giving veterans the first stabs at sticking in a lineup. Over the weekend, however, two injuries opened a window for a pair of young guns.

Let the overreactions begin.

Fantasy baseball fiends who spent months waiting for Opening Day will let the excitement of MLB's return get the best of them. After a grueling process of projecting 2016 stats, they now have a week's worth of numbers to scrutinize.

Welcome to the waiver-wire jungle, where fantasy baseball championships are won and lost.