Handcuffing.
I assume that most of these fellas are talking about 10 and 12 team leagues. In a 15 team league, the task of handcuffing becomes a lot more difficult. Any publication says to handcuff Craig Kimbrel with Jonny Venters. At our level that is harder than it looks. The fellow who took Kimbrel in an early round, also probably took another closer later. To take Venters in the 22nd would give that drafter piece of mind. But, he is also robbing Peter (his lineup) to pay Paul (handcuffing of relievers).
In this case, he could not wait till the end of the draft to get Venters, because another team will look at Venters as a 'closer in waiting' and desire him as much as Kimbrel's drafter.
Unless I can get a player at the end of the draft, I usually forego the thought of handcuffing. Besides, if we did take Venters, it'll probably be our secondary closer who loses his job, we'd just be lucky that way.
There is another form of handcuffing I do that isn't mentioned much by writers. Positional handcuffing.
I don't handcuff players by their team, rather by their skills.
Say for instance, I miss out on the top third basemen. I begrudgingly take Mark Reynolds. Mark Reynolds is the new Adam Dunn. We know what we'll get in each category. And we know that our average takes a hit. Reynolds must be handcuffed down the line.
Even if we take the best avg hitter in baseball last year, Miguel Cabrera, and put him together with Reynolds putrid .221 average, we only get a .284 batting average. The hit that Reynolds gives to the team batting avg is insurmountable unless taking three or possibly four other really good batting for avg hitters.
A handcuff for Reynolds could be Chipper Jones.
Hey! The pickins are slim at the bottom of the third base pole!
Based on last years stats, Chipper props up Reynolds .221 average to a more tolerable .246 and gives us 55/156/140 between two third basemen that are not highly regarded, which is not bad for a short position.
Another player that can be picked instead of Chipper is James Loney.
There, I just became the first poster in three years to say it's ok to take James Loney
Loney does not provide insurance at third base, but does prop up Reynolds as well at the corner position. With Loney, the duo has a .255 average with a 49/151/140. Still, not bad counting stats when considering where these players were drafted.
Our drafts are not gonna go the way we want. At least I've never had a draft where I got every player I wanted.
When that draft hands us Loney, we have to make Loneyade. Handcuffing, at the least, makes that Loneyade paletable.
