A key piece of strategy in this year’s RotoHog game is managing your starting pitchers. The new 5-day waiver lock on SPs has had a pretty significant effect on which strategies are viable and which are not. Let’s take a look at the 3 best strategies as I see them, and the pros and cons of each.

The first option is the simple buy-and-hold. By having 5 starters on your roster and making sure each one is in your starting lineup for their start you will easily reach your IP limit and hopefully you can afford to have a decent rotation as well. The upside of this strategy is mostly in its simplicity; it doesn’t require much management at all. Also, since you are holding pitchers longer you will rarely have the 5-day lock come into play. This means you can switch guys to avoid a bad match-up at virtually any time. The downside is that it generally won’t gain you much money and carrying 5 pitchers can be tough on your budget.

The second option is like the first, but with a little twist; you always buy your pitchers 5 days in advance of their start. While the effect is not as dramatic as last year, you will notice that SPs usually see a drop in their price the morning after their start followed by a slow steady rise until their next appearance. Buying 5 days in advance will allow you to capture those gains and ensure your pitcher will be unlocked in time to sell the day after his start. It is basically the same as the first strategy, but you should be able to net $5+ in profits per pitcher per start (minus transaction fees of course). The downside is that it requires you to be on the trading floor pretty regularly and to plan well in advance for your starts.

The third option is a little more complicated. You buy a pitcher on the day he is starting, hold him until his next start after that, and then sell the following morning. After you sell that pitcher you start over by picking up a pitcher who is playing that day. By doing this you basically get 2 starts every 6-7 days per pitcher that you’re holding. This is opposed to the usual 1 start every 5-6 days. The big upside of this is that you can get by with carrying just 2-3 pitchers at any given time because you’re getting so many more starts out of them. This, of course, allows you to use more expensive starters or spread that extra cash around to other positions.

There are a few downsides though. You won’t get to cherry pick matchups as easily since you will always be using a guy for two consecutive starts. Also, to really do this well requires some planning to figure out which pitchers will be starting the day after you pitchers’ 2nd starts (remember whenever you sell a pitcher you immediately pick up another one who is starting that day). However, if you are willing to do a little extra work, and you don’t need really need the dollar gains from option 2 then this is probably the way to go.

Hopefully I was able to show you some ways to improve your rotation. Of course, these aren’t the only three ways to manage your pitchers, so if you have some good ideas that I haven’t mentioned be sure to post them here.