Print this page  |  Close Window

By Brett Avery
The Fantasy Insider
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

Are you ready for a stretch run to the championship?

Might seem strange to think in that direction what with shirtsleeve weather finally arriving for folks living in the upper half of North America. But make no mistake: The winner of this week's Memorial Tournament will cradle the trophy in June.

That sound you hear in the background is the clock ticking down the weeks to the end of the League Championship season.

Now, there's still plenty of action remaining with three major championships, a World Golf Championships event (Bridgestone Invitational) and the four-week FedExCup playoff run still on the horizon.

There are 14 weeks remaining in the match play format before we say ta-ta to the four lowest-ranked teams and 16 weeks left until THE TOUR Championship marks the end of the rotisserie season, too.

To some people that may seem like an eternity, allowing plenty of time to lollygag at the beach or slip out a few times a week for a quick nine before sundown instead of taking 30 minutes each week studying the gene pool.

But as any NBA or baseball general manager worth his cell phone will tell you, it's never too early to think about positioning your team for a run at the playoffs.

That's why the best thing you can do for yourself this week is spend some quality time with the player listing function in your league's site. Click on the "Players" button and then "Find player" and start doing some serious hunting.

The Fantasy Insider screened players this week with an eye toward packing his lineup with another player who is likely to have enough FedExCup points to make it through to the top 70 competing during the third week, at the BMW Championship.

In both the rotisserie and match-play formats, he swapped out the lowest-ranked player in the FedExCup point standings for one of the highest-ranked players available.

That meant Mark Calcavecchia in the roto league: 10th in points, 56th in the Official World Ranking so he's close to the magic top-50 exemption level for selected events.

On the match-play side he dropped Anders Hansen and picked up Nick Watney, who despite missing the cut in three of the four starts since his Zurich Classic of New Orleans victory is 19th in FedExCup points and 99th in the world. Given a few more weeks to decompress from that victory he'll be rarin' to go for the playoffs.

There are two other factors to keep in mind when contemplating your selections -- The lists of fully exempted players for the U.S. Open and British Open. If your guy has locked up a pass to those, too, that's all the better.

Swap out one player a week under this philosophy the rest of the season and you'll be ideally positioned right into the playoffs. Of course, there will be the occasional week when many of your players will rest up and you might get caught without the minimum number of players for a selected event.

No sweat. It's a lot easier to snap up a hot player lower down the pecking order than it is to take anyone at the top of the food chain. Think playoffs now and your August and September are bound to be a lot happier.

Three players TFI might pick up/trade for to get onto his roster this week:

•Tiger Woods. So he tied for 37th in THE PLAYERS Championship his last time out. Big deal. The last time he played that badly was missing the cut in the U.S. Open last summer at Winged Foot GC. And we all know what happened after that little bump, huh?

• Carl Pettersson. The defending champion at the Memorial has been gliding along since a season-best tie for eighth in the Verizon Heritage. That 122nd ranking in the all-around stat is problematic but this week could prove the antidote to the blahs.

• Justin Rose. Always shaky to take a guy coming off back problems but the way he played in the European Tour's BMW PGA Championship last week (losing a playoff), this seems an easy selection. This is only his eighth start of the season but he's got four top-five finishes with a third at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and ties for third in both The Masters and the WGC-Accenture World Match Play.

One player TFI might waive/drop/trade away to get off his roster this week:

• Chris DiMarco. After his horrid first two rounds at the AT&T Classic that makes three missed cuts his last six starts. At this rate it's tough to see how he stays in the world top 50 for much longer (40th going into the Memorial).

Rotisserie results for Expert League at Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial: 58.5 points (second, 0.5 points behind S. Alexander of rotoworld.com). First in stroke average, second in birdies and sand saves. Nice to see Dr. Alexander back in the fold! He's been having a tough season but he's beginning to show signs of making a second-half charge. Overall: 59.0 points (second, 1.0 behind Greg Vara of rotowire.com).

Rotisserie lineup for Expert League at the Memorial Tournament: Paul Casey, Tim Clark, Geoff Ogilvy, Steve Stricker. Active but not in lineup: Mark Calcavecchia, K.J. Choi, Ken Duke, Bubba Watson. Alternate: Ryan Palmer. Not in field: Anders Hansen, Padraig Harrington, David Toms. Roster move: Dropped Shigeki Maruyama, added Mark Calcavecchia.

Match-play results for Public League 3359 at Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial: Danny G's Bad Boys 11, TFI 7. Overall: 11-7-1 (first in West Division by two games). Good first day, going 3-1, but crumbled the last three. And that win could have made a huge difference in the way things played out leading up to the playoffs.

Match-play lineup for Public League 3359 at the Memorial Tournament: Nick O'Hern, Zach Johnson, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els. Reserves: Davis Love III, Daniel Chopra, Mark Calcavecchia, Frank Lickliter II, Jonathan Byrd, Nick Watney, Jose Coceres.
Not in lineup: Troy Matteson.
Roster move: Dropped Anders Hansen, added Nick Watney.

Salary Cap Cup results for Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial: The main lineup of Steve Stricker (208 FedExCup points, tied 24th), David Toms (315 points, tied 18th), Jonathan Byrd (0 points, missed cut), Bo Van Pelt (68 points, tied 46th) and Kenny Perry (0 points, missed cut) earned 591 points and placed 20,593rd. Through Week 20 it totaled 11,683 points and ranked 22,877th. For the season it totaled 53,592 points and ranked 4,341st overall.

The "Hey, buddy" backup lineup of Scott Verplank (728 FedExCup points, tied seventh), Rod Pampling (475 points, tied 12th), John Senden (0 points, missed cut), Peter Lonard (315 points, tied 18th) and Matt Kuchar (105 points, tied 36th) earned 2,125 points and placed 12,759th. Through Week 20 it totaled 30,579th points and ranked 1,301st. For the season it totaled 48,283 points and ranked 7,056th overall.

Week 20 winner: In a bunker again! 11,856 points.
Segment 2 leader: Horrible Hookers 47,007 points.
Overall: Outrankin' Rankin 91,153 points.

Salary Cap Cup lineup for the Memorial Tournament: Main lineup, Tiger Woods $300,000, Vaughn Taylor $218,750, Carl Pettersson $209,000, Sean O'Hair $157,000, Ted Purdy $82,250. Total: $967,000. "Hey, buddy" backup lineup, Jim Furyk $293,500, Zach Johnson $270,750, Nick O'Hern $254,500, Ryuji Imada $98,500, Kenny Perry $75,000. Total: $992,250.

Have a question or comment for TFI? Send it to him at brettavery@aol.com. Please be sure to include your name, where you're from, the name of your team and, if it relates to League Championship, the name of your league and whether you're competing in the rotisserie or match-play format.