My fantasy team sucks

This is the first of what might be too many posts about my fantasy teams. I play in three money leagues and three free leagues. Two of the money leagues are the AL-only and NL-only versions of the Chesapeake Bay League. I've been playing in the AL-CBL since 1989 and the this is the inaugural season for the NL-CBL.

I won the AL-CBL last year for the very first time. I've had a couple of close calls but not until last year did it all come together. I'm fairly confident that I will be competitive again this year, but the NL-CBL I'm just not so sure about. I kind of have a "stars and scrubs" thing going, having spent much of my budget on four players: Jimmy Rollins, Hanley Ramirez and Brandon Webb are the first three. It's the last of the four that's the problem.

See, I'm one of the unfortunates that drafted Brett Myers. Well, not drafted him. The CBLs are auction leagues. So I spent $22 on Mr. Myers, which by the way I was pretty darn happy about. His opening day start was perfectly acceptable. Even his two bad starts were mostly bad luck. He's struck out 20 in 16.1 innings so he's still got his good stuff. He's the ace of the Phillies staff. Except now Charlie Manuel, in all his baseball wisdom, decides since the Phils' pen is so bad (overall 4.00 era, so it's not really all that bad) he's gotta move Myers to the pen and put Jon Leiber back in the starting row. Don't get me wrong, Leiber is a serviceable starter, but he's not even close to Myers skill level. But not only is Myers in the pen, but he's going to be a 6th-7th inning guy, not even the set-up. Simply incredible. This is the biggest head-scratcher out of an MLB manager I've seen in a long time.

What does this mean for fantasy? A couple of things. First, don't waive Myers. He'll have some value while he dominates in the 6th and 7th innings, and he won't stay in the pen for ever. Moyer is 80, Garcia just got off the DL, and Hamels is like a Waterford Goblet, ready to crack at the mere hint of damage. Second, go pick up Leiber if you need a starter. Now that he's starting he'll have some decent value.

It's just tough to take when you think you're getting one thing and the MLB team goes in a radically different direction.