Just realized I have 5 guys who have blanks next week - so I may be forced to use my Wild Card at last. Game week 18 was pretty lousy for me - Zusi captain was a big bust... Sucks because the Summer Wild Card starts gw 20.
Yeah, taking a -8 hit would be tough to swallow. Picking the right players to make up the points would be tough, as it would pretty much take a clean sheet defender or a goal scored. And sure things don't always work out, like Keane in the LA vs Chivas game. I have a lousy track record when taking hits. I've taken 5 single hits so far, netting -7pts overall, so my current policy is "for emergency use only". Though I think having 5 players out would constitute an emergency.
I took a -8 hit last week and got some players I wanted on my team leading up to the GW 21-25 wild card and before their prices went up. These players were Camilo, Bernier, Collin and Zusi. I had to drop Donovan and Higuain to free up cap space. I also dropped Will Johnson and Michael Harrington from Portland who had two byes coming up. Anyway, the -8 (along with some, utilizing their wild card) caused me to drop 25 places overall. The good news is that I have a very solid team now. I might offer that figuring out how a hit affects one's team that particular week is ok but the positive impact of being able to utilize the player you took the hit for ongoingly on your team is really the payoff. This payoff ordinarily lasts more than one week, is what I am suggesting. One additional advantage of taking a -4 hit is that you can get rid of players whose value might drop and add players whose value is probably going to increase. Camilo has increased in value .6 since I added him, Johnson has dropped .5, Donovan has dropped .2 this week and will continue to drop. My team value is now 109.2, it's like having an extra good player in my lineup. Some teams have a value as high as 114 or 115, they pretty much can select whomever they want to be on their squad regardless of the price. A huge positive. There is also an advantage gained by having players that you can use this particular game week as opposed to taking two or three weeks to cull them out, and having to make decisions around not being able to utilize some players on your team. The big question for me, this week, is who to captain. Keane had a huge week last week and San Jose is decimated. Donovan is away. I am still leaning toward Keano.
Wow - that is huge - my team value is under 100. I was really confused - I don't have to take a hit to field a team this week so I'm going to hold off until the WC next week. I'm also going to try the caparoo with Kamara as my Vice captain and Ferreira as the backup.
I've been fortunate to just stay ahead of all of these Gold Cup call-ups, bye weeks, double game weeks, etc. I turned in an okay 81 points in GW19 and I have all but one sub (Morales) playing in GW20. I may take a risk for the following GW, 21, and sit all of my 3 Rapids players on the bench (Colorado has a bye) and hope no one else on my team gets hurt, since they have a DGW the following week. This is like a chess game. The more steps/moves one can plan ahead, the better. Decisions, decisions . . .