Building a Championship team

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How do you build a championship team? Is it pitching? Is it the sluggers? This is a tuff question. There are many different opinions on this subject. It can be argued either way. The philosophy I used to be pitching in the past. I was a firm believer in the fact that you needed one of the top 5 pitchers in your rotation if you wanted to win. The last few years has changed my opinion of this. I always loaded up on the top pitchers and ended up with average hitters. The problem with that philosophy is that pitching is one of the most unpredictable positions of them all. Jake Peavy is a prime example of this unpredictability. In 2007 Peavy won 19 games, pitched 223 innings and 240 strike outs and last year he had 10 wins, pitched 173 innings and had 166 strike outs. I would call that inconsistent. If you drafted Peavy last year in the first or second round you were sadly disappointed. Take a look at Tim Wakefield’s numbers from last year he won 10 games, pitched 181 innings and had 117 strike outs. Would you ever draft Wakefeild before Jake Peavy? No way. Wakefeild is ranked around 122 and Peavy is ranked in the top 6. My point is why take that big risk of using your first or second pick on a pitcher that has the possibility of posting the same production as the guy that is ranked 122? Most hitters are consistent and you can see in their numbers when they are starting to go bad. A pitcher has to rely on his team as well as his self. A hitter steps up to the plate and controls his own fate. Every year there are pitchers that don’t get drafted and put up better numbers than some Aces. The reason I bring this up is if you tie yourself to pitching it’s hard to get away from them in the middle of the season when they are doing worse than the guys on the waiver wire. It’s tuff when you have to decide wither or not to start your ace because he is playing so bad. If you had Tim Wakefeild it wouldn’t be so hard to ditch him and pick up the hot pitcher on the waiver wire. If your ace only pitches one time for you during the week he doesn’t get a chance to make up for a poor performance, but a hitter will play 4-6 games in a week and can bust out of a slump in the same week. Most of the time you can find a pitcher on the waiver wire that has 2 games in a week, or you can pick up a few pitchers during the week and take some chances. Now I go back to the Peavy – Wakefield argument. Can you ditch Peavy and work the waiver wire? Using a pitch and ditch type of strategy takes a lot of time and effort, but can be very affective in head to head leagues. It’s all about risk. Most people don’t feel confident if they don’t have a dominant staff, but in head to head you may only get 6 pitching starts but your sluggers will play 4-6 times a week.