There are many fantasy baseball leagues and players across the country. Recruiting and analyzing players on a day-to-day basis is an excellent tool for disrupting baseball games. Fantasy players should examine each player’s stats and injury status to see if they should be in the lineup or not. Players get depressed, hurt, or don’t necessarily take on a particular opponent well on any given day, therefore the fantasy manager may drop them out of the lineup.

Keeping up with the players in the fantasy leagues gives the manager excellent insight into individual players and how to best utilize them. A player like Johnny Damon, for example, has changed teams, going from Boston to New York. Keep in mind that Damon hasn’t lost any of his offensive prowess this young season, hitting .400. Simply put, he still seems to be a catalyst at the top of the order. Damon’s teammate Bernie Williams, on the other hand, has picked up right where he left off last season: Playing poorly! Williams is hitting .154 this young season, with a poor .214 on-base percentage.

The fantasy player keeps daily records on player performance, but that can carry over and help him at his daily handicap. If a player has a lingering injury, such as a pulled hamstring, the fantasy player will often know it because he’s tracking his small circle of players. Then it might be time for the coach to rest that player and bring someone normally to the bench. Again, this helps the fantasy handicap manager because it better explains the reasons why a particular player is slumping or ineffective.

So when you look at games from the handicap perspective, you can better understand why a team is on a losing streak. If a great leadoff hitter like Damon is hurt, maybe the Yankees’ offense will slow down for a few games, going 3 in a row under total, for example. Or if a pitching staff is forced to use Triple AAA pitching relievers as starters due to a doubleheader, anyone tracking those players in a fantasy league would have an advantage over most handicaps.

Another area where this can come into play is the ballpark. With so many new stadiums in baseball in recent years, it is imperative to keep a daily record of how hitters and pitchers are doing in these parks. We’ve seen new stadiums in Seattle and San Diego with large gardens that have become excellent parks for pitchers. When fantasy offensive players enter those parks for 3 games, for example, their offensive production may drop. Or, a pitcher who makes the jump from a good pitcher’s park to a friendly home run field, like Arlington Ballpark, Coors Field or the new parks in Cincy and Philadelphia, will probably fare much differently.

For example, Randy Johnson moved from the National League to the American League a year ago, and his production dropped considerably in the first half of the 2005 season. Time spent in fantasy leagues can be very productive for handicap purposes. , as long as you know what to look for and how to use it.