There is nothing more irritating...

Originally posted by Mark Leff on Apr 23rd, 2008 at 1:00 PM.

...than having the guys you left on your bench produce. Both Hunter Pence and Evan Longoria were on cold streaks, so I left them on the bench figuring I wouldn’t get much out of them. After all, I have stronger players at their position anyway.

Pence and Longoria went a combined 2-for-7, 3 runs, 2 homers, 3 RBI.

It always reminds you that cold streaks end, and that all the pitcher-batter matchups or splits in the world are not an absolute predictor. No matter how much we may study the game, there’s a luck element to fantasy baseball. Even if you can pinpoint the odds of every action, you still don’t know for sure which way the chips will fall. I have long been a supporter of playing hot-streak players until they cool off. It usually pays off for me. Sometimes it is costly.

Still, even if you acknowledge that, it drives you nuts when your bench players produce and your starters don’t. I’ll be kicking myself for days for losing two home runs.