I have to admit, I never figured I would have to ask this question as I'm usually pretty good at it but last season caught me out a bit and wondering if there's an efficient way of doing it.

Last season we had a 70 game limit and I found myself sitting players too early and then come the end of the season I was actually short of games, given the settings (below). This season we have a 43 game limit (73 games over full season) per positional slot, so obviously short of 5 games that we need to adjust for. Here are the settings:

Roto, one-year, daily lineups/transactions, 43/48 games limit
2C,2L,2R,1W,2F,5D,1G,1BN,3IR
G,A,+/-,PIM,PPP,SHP,SH%,FOW,Hits,BS,W,GAA,SA,SV%,SHO

The context is that it's a franchise league where we can only own current or former players of your team. I am the Flames (yeah I know, not great). Here's my current roster:

C: O.Jokinen, Backlund
L: Cammelleri (C), Hudler
R: Iginla, St. Louis
W: Baertschi
F: Jackman, Lombardi
D: Phaneuf, Wideman, Giordano, Bouwmeester, Butler
G: Kiprusoff
BN: Stajan

It should be easy enough to decide who to sit when I need to but the difficulty is how to manage these games so that come the end of the season I will have maximised the number of games played. Obviously I intend for my better players to play the entire season, so will need to shift them to other slots at times. Plus, injuries will factor it as well. This is the challenge - how often and when?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

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All I've got...all I've got is insane!

Would appreciate any advice, thanks.

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All I've got...all I've got is insane!

Does anyone have experience in reduced game limits?

Or perhaps you just don't care haha.

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All I've got...all I've got is insane!

I prefer to play my players AHEAD of the GP-pace.
I want my best players to get their games in... knowing that if they go down, I'm not getting better value from waiver players.

I'll also yank my players out of my line-up with 1 GP left... and then roster a full team on the final Saturday night to get the extra games - since Yahoo! allows this. You will see me do this in RHRS this year. This can be especially valuable at a higher-quantity position like defense. You can whittle down your defensemen GP to 1GP (don't go past) and then start 5D on some-day to get an extra +4 games in.

On the flip side, you DO also want to scout other team's positions in the standings so you know what to chase. You may be down 10 Blocked Shots on the final day and decide to roster a full "Blocked Shot Squad".


You may still want to sit players (since you have 5 games to spare), but I would STILL stay ahead of the GP pace for the bulk of the season.

I think we tend to underestimate the impact of injuries and assume our guys will be there for the full season. Don't sit anyone. Play your studs. A few of them will miss games. That will help bring you down from 48 to 43 per player.

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Twitter:@DH_EricDaoust.

Thanks Pengwin. Yeah that strategy is in my plan in terms of targeting close categories and I'm aware of the 1 game left in Yahoo. However, since this league has less than the full season's slate of games, my questions are more related to timing. The main questions are (assuming I'm still ahead of pace):

- When do I start sitting my worse players?
- When do I start moving my better players into other positions so I maximise their production, but also keeping in mind the games pace at their original positions?
- At what point of my games played pace should I realise that in multiple positions - C,L,R,W,F - I will have to do a fair bit of shifting around?

I don't think it's a simple as keeping on or ahead of pace and start sitting players. It's timing it so that once I start sitting e.g. Lombardi in my F slot, when do I move Jokinen there? Or when I start to sit Jackman, when do I put Iginla there? Etc.

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All I've got...all I've got is insane!

Yeah I agree with that. But in the case that I'm getting close - how best should I manage it? I'm the type of person that likes to track games played, especially as we get later in the season. So, I don't want to just assume there will be injuries, nor do I want to rely on Yahoo's pace and projections. That last point is key - sometimes it's not easy to know exactly where you stand.

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All I've got...all I've got is insane!

Play them ahead of the games pace - that's what I always tried to do - especially with goalies and wingers since it's harder to quickly fill games in these positions with quality starts. Better to hit your limit early than not hit it at all. Injuries are unpredictable.

Just because you maxed out early doesn't mean you did anything wrong... who's to say the result would have been any better if you saved those games till the very end? Many teams bench their stars towards the end after they've locked up a desirable playoff position as well.

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2013 Bay Street CBS Playoff Cash Pool - $100 buyin
12 Teams, Points Only (G/A = 1, DG = 2, W = 2, SO = 1)

The Motherpuckers (5 NYR, 2 PIT, 3 VAN)
Forwards: Neal / Iginla / Nash / Richards / Stepan / Roy / Higgins
Defense: Del Zotto / Garrison
Goalies: Lundqvist

OK... I sort of understand where you are going.

1. For Jan/Feb/Mar I'd go with every single possible start. If you have the option, I'd fill up your C/L/R first. You obviously have most flexibility in W/F.

2. In April, that's when I'd start considering benching your crappier players and ONLY playing your better players (Iginla). Hopefully you have your C/L/R mostly filled up and then you have that flexibility with using your W/F slots.

3. Also, with April... fights start slowing down a bit because guys are more run down and penalties (& games & penalties) become more critical. So, less PIM in April... I think.


As you said, you are missing about 5 games of the 48.
So, by April 1, you may be 4 games over pace for each of your two RW (say)... that's +8 at the position. From there, you may just play your better wing (Iginla) to fill up the RW GP-amount and then shift his playing into your W/F slots.

If I understand it... that's how I'd do it.

That's some good advice, thanks man. Obviously a lot can happen from now until then, but it seems sensible. In terms of filling slots, I won't have to do much given that I only have one bench slot. So essentially my starters will remain for now as long as they are producing (better than replacement) and healthy. On D, it seems apparent that in the latter part of the season (if all remains the same) I'd be rolling with 3 D (Phaneuf, Giordano and Wideman) to get the games back to pace, and then start them all on the final day.

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All I've got...all I've got is insane!