“You always get a special kick on Opening Day, no matter how many you go through. You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.” - Joe DiMaggio

Opening Day is here, my friends. Everything counts from here on out. Our little hobby is simple.  It is our job as the fantasy GM of our fantasy team to win a fantasy championship.  Our fantasy fans will not be satisfied with anything less. To do this, we must continue to make our team better each and every day.  Hopefully, we have put our team in the best position to succeed with our draft. <plug> Which you  did if you read my Target Percentages series</plug>

But there is so much more than the draft, hoss.  So. Much. More.

We must work the waiver wire to fix the mistakes we made in the draft… and we will discover some mistakes.  Just don’t discover them too late. My personal rule of thumb is to cut an underachiever loose after X number of weeks.  Where X equals 24 minus the round that the player was drafted.  For example, if you drafted your corner infielder in the 18^th round.  Come week six (24-18) and he hasn’t turned it around, I drop him off a high cliff into the free agent pool. This is just a very rough guideline.  Some players we might know immediately that they are toast and need to be dropped immediately and any player drafted after the 24^th round can be cut at any time.

When we cut a player, we must become the Jacques Cousteau of our free agent pool to find productive players to fill in for an injured or underperforming player and fill in on those travel days (Monday & Thursday).  Just relying on our drafted players is not enough. When looking for a player to pick up off the wire, I find it very useful to set the filter to only show you the stats from the last 15-days for hitters and last 30-days for pitchers.  This shows me who is “hot” and who is “cold.”

Last year in my 2010 opening day article, I wrote the following and even though the numbers may have changed, the point still rings true.

• 561 homeruns.
• 2,558 RBI.
• 2,793 runs.
• 401 stolen bases.
• 5660 hits in 20,558 at-bats for a .2705 batting average.
• 359 wins.
• 224 saves.
• 4,663 strikeouts.
• 6026 innings of 4.277 ERA and 1.366 WHIP.

Those are the stats from last year’s 12-team 5x5 vanilla league that were found on the wire.  The ratio stats probably aren’t going to help you… but the counting stats?  Think about this: the difference between first and last place in homeruns was 108.  There were 561 homeruns to be had out on the wire.  Do the math.

Outside of the wire, the only way we can improve our team is with trades.  My best trade advice is to always look at the offer from both sides.  Ask yourself if the other owner would make the trade.  How does it help them?  The best trades are the ones that help both teams. Don’t offer three players that can be found on the wire for one stud player.  Would you trade away one of your studs for three guys that you could find on the wire?  Why would you expect anyone else to, if you wouldn’t?

The point of this article is that we have to constantly be looking to improve our fantasy team. Two years ago I was sitting in last place on June 1^st with 46 measly points (46.5 points out of first).  For the final four months of the season I worked the waiver wire and made a few trades to get my team into second place (8.5 points out of first).

So even if we fall into the deepest of holes… there is hope.

And Opening Day is all about hope.

Play ball, indeed.