Full Disclosure: Time to think outside the box

This is getting ugly.

The season didn't start as well as it could have, but I had some reason for optimism -- no runaway teams, but a few within striking distance of the league lead. It wasn't an ideal situation, but it was workable, and I wasn't embarrassed to tell you about it.

But now I am.

Because in just one week, everything has gone to hell in a handbasket. I now rank in the bottom half of every league but one, and even in that one, my point total suggests I don't deserve to have the record I have. So instead of playing the role of eternal optimist and feigning some sense of security that doesn't exist, I should just admit this year is shaping up to be a bad one -- certainly for someone who has grown accustomed to winning.

Great time to debut this column, huh?

But enough about my own misery. Knowing of a problem isn't as important as understanding it. Only then can I have an idea how to proceed.

Because I can promise you one thing: I won't go down without a fight. And in the case of my 20-team Head-to-Head league -- the one that uses standard scoring -- I might just change my entire approach.

12-team mixed Rotisserie (7th; 5x5 Score: 69.5)

Yup, the bottom fell out. I went from within spitting distance of the league lead to seventh place, dropping four places in the standings.

It sounds outrageous, but when you think about everything that went wrong for this team this week, it makes sense. Jose B. Reyes, Kevin Youkilis, Ryan Ludwick, Pat Burrell and Jesus Flores all started for me, and all missed at least half the week with injuries, with everyone but Reyes going on the DL. That's a lot of zeroes.

And the problem only continues into this week. As you can imagine, I had to put together somewhat of a patchwork starting lineup. We only have two DL slots in this league and no bench, forcing me to make some difficult and unorthodox decisions. Let's see how quickly I can rattle them off for you.

Fortunately, John Lackey just so happened to come off the DL this week, so I no longer had to reserve one of my slots for him. To make room in my starting lineup, I dumped John Maine, who hasn't been terrible but is clearly the worst of my other pitchers. I also dumped Flores. I already have a catcher on the DL, a better one in Jorge Posada, and Flores might not have made the cut when Posada returned anyway. With all the injured players, I had to move Posada into my active lineup even though I don't expect him to return this week. It's not like the waiver wire was overflowing with viable catchers anyway.

Youkilis should return this week, so I went ahead and kept him active. I might have considered sending him to my injured reserve if I didn't already have two injured players -- Ludwick and Burrell -- who clearly won't return this week. I signed Jack Cust and Jeremy Hermida to take their lineup spots -- Cust because he's due for a hot streak and Hermida because he looks on the verge of one. I also decided to stop waiting for Dexter Fowler, who has done nothing since his five-steal game, cutting him for -- here's a surprise -- Gary Sheffield. Sheffield has taken over as the Mets' cleanup hitter and had a string of four straight multi-hit games. I have my doubts he'll continue playing this way, but I don't want to ignore the possibility if I have a free roster spot.

I don't expect any miracles with all these roster changes. How could I? Really, I just hope to maintain my place in the standings until I return to full strength.

10-team mixed Head-to-Head (6th; Record: 3-3)

What the heck happened? I started 3-0!

I was in first place. I was king. Where did it all go wrong?

I still rank fourth in points, so luck deserves some small amount of blame. But luck had nothing to do with last week's loss. I scored lower than anyone else in the league, and by almost 40 points.

Clearly, I've had some problems, most of them with my offense. Kevin Youkilis got hurt. Carlos Quentin stopped hitting. Nick Swisher slowed down right when I decided to put him in my lineup.

But no one player embodies the rise and fall of my team more than Andre Ethier. Over the first three weeks, he had 80 points, looking like one of the top breakout candidates in Fantasy. Over the last three weeks, he has 32 points, looking like a complete waste of a lineup spot.

I don't want to think his slump has anything to do with the suspension of Manny Ramirez, but the timing of it sure gives that impression. I have to stick with him now and hope for the best, at least until Quentin puts his bruised heel behind him.

Yes, I took the cautious approach and benched Quentin. Fortunately, B.J. Upton finally began playing up to his abilities, so I had a built-in replacement. I also took the cautious approach with Youkilis, benching him one more week for Pablo Sandoval, who I added in favor of last week's replacement, Mark Teahen.

Given its struggles, I sought to bolster my offense, but not by making some blockbuster trade for an established superstar. I targeted two undervalued guys who are performing -- and should keep performing -- better than their ownership rates would suggest, Shin-Soo Choo and Coco Crisp.

I offered Nick Swisher, who my opponent could use to replace Carlos Delgado, Denard Span, who I knew my opponent wanted on Draft Day, and a soon-to-return Chien-Ming Wang for Choo and Crisp. The response was laughter.

Well, at least I know somebody appreciates those guys as much as I do.

I made one change to my pitching staff. I can't afford to keep Wandy Rodriguez on my bench -- certainly not when he pitches at home -- so I substituted him for, believe it or not, Jon Lester. If James Shields wasn't making two starts, I probably would have benched him instead.

12-team AL-only Rotisserie (12th; 5x5 Score: 47.0)

Well, Alex Rodriguez has returned and hit three home runs, and so far ... I'm still in last place.

These things take time, I know, but I only have 4 1/2 months to make up all that ground. I still aim to win, baby.

Plus, Rich J. Hill came off the DL last week, and Daisuke Matsuzaka will this week. If I thought I had too much pitching before, I have an embarrassing amount now. I have so much that I opted -- in a league where every major-league player should be rostered, remember -- to leave Daisuke Matsuzaka in my DL slot rather than activate him. I couldn't bring myself to cut anybody.

I'm in last place. I shouldn't have that problem.

Clearly, a trade is so beyond necessary that I absolutely have to make one this week. So on Sunday, I made a crazy one-day sales pitch, hoping I might finally spring some people to action.

"Hitters needed. Edwin Jackson, Kevin Slowey, Tim Wakefield and Koji Uehara available. If you need a pitcher or two, make me an offer. Best by the end of the day wins."

I saw a friend try this same stunt in another league a few years back, and it certainly had an effect on me. I didn't want to see someone else beat me to a potentially good deal, so I made sure to make an offer. He took someone else's and, from what I gathered, had plenty of options.

Me? I got a whole two offers: Marcus Thames and Ramon Santiago for Slowey and Placido Polanco for Jackson.

The best part of that one-day sales pitch is the fine print: "assuming I like any of them." I didn't. Thames and Santiago are both part-time players, and I'm overloaded with those already. As for Polanco, he doesn't hit homers or steal bases, and I specifically asked for one or the other. I haven't officially rejected that deal, and I have a feeling I'll end up taking it. Polanco can still help me in three offensive categories, and I'm practically at the bottom in all of them. Still, I feel like I should be able to get more for Jackson. In a vacuum, I'd prefer to be the one trading Polanco for him.

As far as lineup changes go, I didn't make any major ones. I activated Hill, benching the highly risky Sean Gallagher for him. I also activated Aaron Cunningham, hoping the Athletics choose to take advantage of his stint in the majors and start him a few times. Gabe Kapler went to the bench for the first time this season. In activating Hill, I had to cut a player, and I opted for Chris C. Carter. I had hoped the Red Sox would turn to him if David Ortiz struggled enough, but they didn't.

12-team NL-only Rotisserie (7th; 5x5 Score: 67.0)

Wow, trading Ryan Franklin for Jayson Werth and Emilio Bonifacio sure paid immediate dividends. I went from the cellar to within shouting distance of third place in only one week.

In fairness, my two new acquisitions didn't make all the difference. Jorge De La Rosa followed up his 12-strikeout performance against Florida with a 10-strikeout performance at Pittsburgh. Needless to say, I cleared out any of my standing trade offers involving him. The guy's value has shot through the roof over the past couple weeks -- to the point he's now a viable option in mixed leagues -- and I want to see where he settles before I consider trading him.

Well ... unless someone blows me away with an offer, obviously.

I made only one transaction, dropping Peter Moylan for Ryan Roberts, who got an odd start at third base for the Diamondbacks early last week. I was desperate for a third baseman with Aramis Ramirez on the DL, but the Reds solved that problem by playing Jerry Hairston there. The added eligibility allowed me to move Micah Hoffpauir back to the outfield, which allowed me to move Chad A. Tracy back into the starting the lineup. What fun.

Kip Wells looked awful last week, but he did earn me a save. I'll replace him eventually -- I don't want a full season of his ERA and WHIP, after all -- but I want to squeeze as many saves as I can out of him first.

20-team mixed Head-to-Head (3rd (NL-only side) Record: 4-2)
(10 teams NL-only, 10 teams AL-only)

I can't get too excited about my latest victory. I'm actually sixth in scoring even if my record places me third.

The blame clearly falls on my pitching staff. I rank second in the NL in hitting, fourth of all 20 teams. But pitching? Well, just check out my starting pitchers' contributions on a week-to-week basis: 90 points, 45, 20, minus-13, 63 and 23.

That's it? Geez, I should start taking bets each week. Which will score more points: my pitching staff or Brandon Phillips?

Let's break it down even further, because the source of the low scoring is obviously negative points. Ryan Dempster and Brett Myers have combined for only two negative scoring periods out of a possible 12. They're reliable. I can trust them. The rest of my starting pitchers have combined for nine negative scoring periods out of a possible 18, which means half the time, I'm better off not starting them at all.

That's depressing. It's also reason enough to look into another approach. I can't have my pitching staff waste all the fine work of my offense, which it seems to do more often than not.

So instead of benching those back-end starters, what if I opted to use middle relievers -- ones that qualify as starting pitchers -- instead? Assuming I nabbed some of the more effective ones, they wouldn't pitch long enough to rack up big negatives. They wouldn't rack up big positives either, but they'd at least pick up some fluke wins here and there.

With such an approach, I could forget about Todd Wellemeyer completely, bench Chris R. Young whenever he starts on the road and pick my spots carefully with Randy Johnson. Granted, I'd limit my team's ceiling in the process, but I'd rather have an assured 5-10 points from a reliever than a possible minus-15 from a starter.

It wouldn't work in a shallower league. It just wouldn't. Too many good starting pitchers out there. It also wouldn't work if I didn't have a dominant offense, the kind that could potentially lead the league. By resorting to middle relievers, I'd forfeit my pitching staff as a weapon in its own right and use it as simply a tool to supplement my offense. I'd sacrifice potential for security, which is normally the wrong approach to take in a mixed league. But when you play in a 20-team league and have the lineup of someone in a 10-team league, you can probably get it to work.

I'm still hesitant to do it, though, which is why I haven't yet. Really, I just don't have anyone to cut. Too bad Elijah Dukes' hamstring injury didn't force him to the DL. If it had, you'd see Dan L. Meyer in my starting lineup instead of Braden Looper.

Yes, I started Looper again even though I said I never would. He makes two starts, which might just mean two negatives, but I'll take any excuse right now to get Todd Wellemeyer out of my lineup. Looper actually has the better numbers so far.

Not only is Lance Berkman's wrist injury now a distant memory, but he's coming off his best week of the season. He was an easy choice to activate, but his replacement, Nick Johnson, played well enough in his absence that I wanted to keep him in the lineup. I decided to bump an equally hot Randy Winn for him, mostly because of matchups. Johnson has the advantage of seven games to Winn's six, if nothing else.

I actually had a third option, having added Gary Sheffield to my roster in place of Jonathon Niese. I don't know how long the 40-year-old can keep it going -- especially since he seemed to fall off a cliff last year -- but in a league this deep, I want to make sure I'm the one who finds out.

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