Different owners from the Tout Wars expert league will be submitting a guest Fantasy Baseball column to CBSSports.com each week. This week's columnist, John Hoyos, writes for RotoJunkie.com, and he has been in the Tout Wars Mixed league since 2005.

By John Hoyos

Memorial Day Weekend is a wonderful time of year for just about everyone. There's lots of baseball to be played, whether you're referring to the professional game or your kid's Little League game. If the weather's bad, there's always the NBA Conference Finals or the Stanley Cup Finals (if you actually get Versus). It's also a great trading weekend in Fantasy Baseball, especially in keeper leagues, as a lot of teams take a look at where they are in the standings and decide whether to go for the gold or go home. While I personally feel it's a mistake to give up on a team so early in the season, there are many players who feel that if they can't win the whole ball of wax, they shouldn't even try.

This sentiment is particularly well-timed for me as I sit mired in dead last in Tout Wars Mixed. It's really not for lack of trying. I've been active with my FAAB bidding and set my lineup each week. I even managed to make a trade to boost my woeful pitching staff; not easy to do in a league where the ideas of player values are relatively similar. (I gave up Adrian Beltre and Dana Eveland to Paul Petera from Baseball HQ for Aaron Harang and $10 FAAB.) And yet, going into week nine, not only am I dead last, I'm 10 points out of 11th place.

But that's my own burden to bear. I can sit here and whine all day about sticking with Brad Penny and Derek Lowe too long this year or about losing Curtis Granderson and Alfonso Soriano to injury. Rather than look back at the first eight weeks in disgust, I'm looking toward the next eight weeks with a mix of hope and fear; hope that I do better and fear that I won't.

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When last we heard from a mixed league participant in this space, His Majesty, Lord Zola, Ruler of the Fantasy Baseball Universe, was discussing the importance of impatience and how that strategy differs from "-Only" leagues. I talked earlier about being active with my FAAB bidding and this is another strategy that should be considered when you're managing a Mixed League team.

Typically in "-Only" leagues, many participants will horde their FAAB money like a small-market team owner hordes revenues from MLB's profit-sharing. They'll wait until the trading deadline at the end of July and see what stud players switch leagues and spend accordingly. In mixed leagues, the player that changes leagues is already on a roster. What happens as a result is that mixed leaguers spend their FAAB money relatively evenly over the course of the season, buying the players they need as they need them or if a role changes at the drop of a hat. This is a mistake.

Considering my standing in this league currently, I don't know how much weight this will count for, but I've already spent more than half my FAAB budget for the year. Guys like Ryan Dempster, Angel Pagan, Nick Blackburn, Dana Eveland, Manny Acosta, Clint Barmes, Emil Brown, Greg Smith, David Murphy and Blake DeWitt have all made it into my lineup this year because I actively spent my FAAB money early. Not all of these have panned out, but these are players whose roles were uncertain coming into the season. Full-time at bats or innings have made these players valuable.

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The important distinction here is that most of these players are going to get a full season of playing time and are going to have an effect on your Fantasy team for the whole year. Clint Barmes is my starting shortstop and producing better than J.J. Hardy, Luis Castillo, Jeff Kent and Orlando Hudson -- all players I took away from the draft in March. If Barmes' role didn't come to fruition until August, his stats wouldn't mean nearly as much to my overall numbers. So what's the use of FAAB-ing Barmes in August? In Tout Wars Mixed, with both Vickery and $0 bids permitted, FAAB spending should be very loose and free. Even if you spend all your FAAB money, you can still plug in a weekly hole with a $0 bid.

Unfortunately for me, this secret is clearly out in this league. Look at some of the players bought this past Friday:

  • Player: Owner that bid on him and how much -- Winning bidder and final price
  • Salomon Torres: Regan $37 - Regan $1
  • Bartolo Colon: Gonos $25, Hoyos $8, Cushing $4 - Gonos $9
  • David Murphy: Gonos $25, Petera $20, Schechter $17, Ma $13, Regan $9, Kastner $8 - Gonos $21
  • Blake DeWitt: Hoyos $16 - Hoyos $1
  • Frank Thomas: Roberts $13, Ma $10, Kastner $4 - Roberts $11
  • Lyle Overbay: Regan $10 - Regan $1
  • Luis Castillo: Roberts $9 - Roberts $1
  • Andrew Miller: Ma $5, Hoyos $0 - Ma $1
  • Jorge Campillo: Hoyos $0
  • Jesse Litsch: Cushing $3, Hoyos $0 - Cushing $1
  • Darrell Rasner: Cushing $3 - Cushing $1
  • Ronny Paulino: Schechter $2 - Schechter $1
  • Skip Schumaker: Schecther $7, Kastner $0 - Schechter $1
  • Brian Giles: Kastner $0
  • Jose Contreras: Petera $5, Hoyos $0 - Petera $1

It's bad enough that I dropped Murphy and Thomas earlier in the year, but not being able to get Litsch or even Contreras is disappointing. Guess I should have listened to my own advice and spent some money.

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One other strategy that I employ is directly related to FAAB. It has to do with the players I bid on and how it will allow you to make up ground in one category very quickly. I have one spot in my pitching lineup that I rotate weekly. This is reserved for a replacement-level pitcher who has a favorable match-up in the coming Fantasy week. Since our Fantasy week goes from Saturday to Friday, I take a look at the pitching match-ups for the coming week and see which free agent is getting a favorable double-start. Campillo, Litsch and Contreras should all get two favorable starts in Fantasy Week 9. By rotating that one double-start pitcher into my lineup, I'm in a position to get more wins and strikeouts than I would if I left one pitcher in that spot the whole season.

There's clearly a risk involved here as there's little way of knowing whether you're going to get two good starts out of the pitcher. Generally speaking, if one start is a complete disaster, the next start tends to balance it out. But every pitcher has a bad start from time to time and the pitcher you have in that slot would have their fair share of bad starts as well. The extra three to four starts you get per month will translate to about 20 extra starts over the course of a season. Even if you only get an average of two strikeouts for each of those starts, that's an extra 40 strikeouts -- it could be good enough for a couple extra standings points. And because luck has a fair amount to do with wins, you'll get 20 extra chances for a win. Even if you only get five extra wins out of that, wins tend to be very tight in most leagues and those five wins could make a difference.

Armed with these two strategies, perhaps you can make a difference in this Fantasy season. Maybe your team is not all lost. Maybe you can gain some ground and make a run for a money spot. Maybe, just maybe, I can get my RotoJunkie.com team out of last place before the All-Star Break. Maybe.

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So, check your pitching matchups and go spend that FAAB! The player you buy this week just might save your Fantasy season.

You can e-mail John Hoyos a question or a comment about this column to DMFantasyBaseball@cbs.com. Be sure to put "Attn:Tout Wars" in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state. Be aware, due to the large volume of submissions received, we cannot guarantee personal responses to all questions.