Roto Strategy: Using Your Games Wisely

This post is in response to a question a reader posed regarding the "games played" strategy in roto leagues. For those who may not be familiar with what I'm talking about, most standard roto leagues mandate an 82 game 'cap' at each position. Which means, you are only allowed to have an active player in your point guard position for 82 games. You can use the games whenever you want, with whichever player you choose. But, once you hit the 82-game mark, be it in February or April, you can no longer start a player at the point guard position.

This rule is put in place to keep owners from 'streaming' -- this means keeping owners honest and not having them add and drop a handful of players each night just to accumulate stats. Certain head-to-head leagues use an add/drop cap, usually at five moves per week.

Simple enough, right? But the question remains, what's the best strategy for using your games played? How do you manage the totals? Some people have different ways of approaching the games played strategy, but I'll give you some tips that I feel work best -- at least for me.

Use All 82 Games

This is about as basic as it gets. The worst thing you can do is finish the season with a few extra games in your bank. This obviously gives your competitors an advantage. So make sure you finish the season with each position maxed out. The only case you could make for leaving extra games at a position is if you know you've got the blocks or rebounds strategy wrapped up in the final game of the season and you're up by mere percentage points in free-throws. In this instance, you could make the case for sitting Dwight Howard. His negative FT% will hurt you more than the blocks or rebounds you already have wrapped up.

Leave Your Stars Alone

In this case you ignore matchups and leave your top players in, period. I don't think I need to explain why it's better to get 82 games out of LeBron James as opposed to 65 games out of James and 17 out of Ryan Gomes. In roto you don't have to worry about games played each week or team/defensive matchups. If LeBron plays just twice this week and Gomes plays four times, don't worry. It all evens out in the end.

Stay Within +2/-2 Games, Give or Take

Don't get ahead of yourself. Or behind, for that matter. It's never worth chasing the stats early on. Pace yourself and don't make rash decisions on starting a fringe player just to chase a block or a steal. It's too early in the season. There will be plenty of opportunties later on to chase stats. I know that many try to compensate early on for the innevitable games missed by your stars, but there are a few misconceptions out there. Last season, LeBron James played 81 games, Drirk Nowitzki played 81, Dwyane Wade played 79 and Chris Paul played 78 games. So yes, you'll more than likely have to make up those extra games. But for every Marcus Thornton -- who scored 20-plus points in two straight in week four -- there are enough Brandon Rush's out there who make the most of the final three weeks of the season. And while you may want to make up for LeBron's 'missed game', who's to say that he doesn't play all 82. Don't fall behind early, but don't get too far ahead of yourself. Afterall, an opportunity may arise later on in the season. It's still too early.

Take Advantage of a Impatient Owner

When you're playing in a roto league, use your bench slots wisely. In one of my experts leagues we have three bench spots. Two of my three slots are taken up by Eric Gordon and Tyrus Thomas. Luckily I drafted Gordon and O.J. Mayo, so I have the shooting guard position covered while Gordon is out. But I also refused to drop Thomas, even though there were a few attractive short-term adds out there. Will you be able to find a blocks specialist like Tyrus Thomas anywhere else on the wires in January? No, it's not likely. Given that it's not in your best interest to stream early on, you won't need to shift players in and out, so you can save your injured stars or add the ones who are dropped in haste. I grabbed Kevin Martin in another roto league the day after he went down for two months. It's about accumulating stats, so it matters less to me that he's not available now and matters more that I get a second-round talent down the stretch.

Please feel free to add to your personal strategy below. There's no exact science to it, just a few approaches that work better than others.