Jobu tells a cautionary tale of what happens when even too much isn’t enough…

I haven’t given much fantasy baseball advice this season (we did lots of strategy advice posts last year, you can read them all here), but there’s something I find myself struggling with in my current season. I’m not sure if it’s the ever living drive for perfection or just sheer boredom, but I always want to make that one last pickup or tweak that will put my team over the top, even though my team is already in first place. I am here to tell you guys not to do this, because it could ruin everything.

This is a mistake a lot of people make. I justify it by saying that I’m only adding/dropping the last man on my bench, and my pitchers until my real guy gets off the DL, but I think it goes beyond that. Being on top of a fantasy league is pretty nerve-wracking. I Imagine it’s kind of like being Longshanks in Braveheart. Yeah you’re King now, and you have all the power, but you know Mel Gibson and the Blue Man Group are relentlessly coming for you, and they won’t stop until your severed head is on a spike in the center of town.

This leads many owners, myself included, to seek out trades with other teams in order to stay on top of the game. “I have so much offense, that I can afford to give up one of my good hitters for one last ‘defining’ pitcher.” This led me to search up and down for a one of my league members willing to take Carlos Quentin and/or Brett Lawrie for a good pitcher. Meanwhile, I’m sitting pretty at the top of the league. Why mess with that dynamic? Because I’m I have a blood thirst that won’t stop until I crush all of my friends and/or coworkers and win my league. It’s a sickness I share with many a fantasy sports enthusiast (aka freak).

The trade/add/drop desire is a slippery slope too. Once your brain opens up to trading a batter for pitching, and that doesn’t work out, why not upgrade your offense even more! Then you’ll surely be unbeatable! That logic led me to heavily consider trading Matt Garza for Adam Dunn last week. That’s right. I was going to possibly trade a pitcher who might soon be traded to a contender for a guy that hits .200, just because he also has nearly 30 homers and over 60 RBI. To put this in perspective, my team is second in runs, first in home runs, second in RBI, and first in AVG and OPS. Would Adam Dunn really have made that big of a difference for me? No! At least not big enough to make up for losing Garza.

Here’s when you should make deals: If your team is a borderline playoff contender, you should make a trade. If your team is 4th, 5th or 6th place, and you think one big player will swing you into the top three, you should make a trade. If your team is in first place, unless someone gets injured, leave it alone!

If not, where do you stop? When is enough enough? How many scalps will satisfy your lust for fantasy baseball prowess? I liken it to dictators that try to take over the world. Sure, you might have Germany, Spain and the Netherlands under your belt, but you need that big score to make you a real conqueror of men. Next thing you know, you invade Russia, your entire army freezes and starves to death and you end up all alone on St. Helena without internet. I don’t want that to be my life. Do you??

Let ye be warned… If it ain’t broke, don’t screw it up… I think that’s how that goes.