Pitching Philosophies- Quality vs. Quantity

One of the greatest questions in the world of fantasy baseball comes from looking at your pitching staff. Do I go after quantity stats, Wins and K's, or quality stats, ERA and WHIP? While every manager hopes to win all four, the fact remains that there is not enough SP to go around these days to make that happen. Very rarely do I see a team in any league with quality starters 5 or 6 deep. SP is gold.

The greatest problem I see among managers with their Starting Pitching rotations is their inability to take on the question of quality vs. quantity. Those who favor quality, get four or five top notch starters and stick with them to gain the valuable WHIP and ERA categories, while quantity enthusiasts pick up anyone and everyone who will rack up innings and K's and hope that some Wins and Quality Starts follow. But then you have your tweeners, those guys that don't really have an identifiable strategy. These guys have staff aces like Johan, Shilling and Peavy but round out their rotations with seventh and eighth starters like Tony Armas and Livan Hernandez. In this way, these managers dilute what could be a phenomenal staff by employing WHIP killers to eat up innings. For these managers, no pitching stat is safe at the beginning of each week. These managers might be sucessful in the regular season but in the playoffs this strategy has serious limitations.

Now having said all this, you might think that I never look at the waiver wire for pitching help and believe you shouldn't take any chances on SP. However, I believe the opposite. The regular season is a trial period for your staff, it is a time to evaluate players and decide who's good and who's bad. I recommend taking chances not on solid seventh starters like a Livan but on high ceiling potential guys that can turn into solid number three fantasy starters. For instance, I just picked up a pair of rookies in Zach Minor and Jaime Shields. They've pitched great so far this year and if they continue they will turn my staff from not so good to very good. Granted if they show their rookie colors, the waiver wire will be calling their name. These are the guys you take chances on during the season and evaluate. Cause when playoff time comes, you better have the pretenders off your roster if you hope in winning it all.