It may have been 25 years ago, but the pain and the angst still haunt me as if it just happened yesterday. I’m in college, it’s Friday night and I walked into my dorm to find my roommate and some friends sitting in a circle playing a drinking game. I was invited to join and, though a little beat up from my night, I took them up on it. What a jackass! Me, that is.

The name of the game is One Up, One Down and if you’ve never played it, consider yourself lucky.  It goes around the circle and everyone says either “one up, one down,” “two-up” or “two-down.” If you say the wrong one, you drink. It seemed harmless enough until it got to me and I got it wrong. Then I got it wrong again. And again. And again.

Now I was totally fine taking the drink each time but what was gnawing at me was that I was the only one getting it wrong and they were all laughing their asses off. I tried to find the pattern and I studied people’s faces when it was their turn. I just couldn’t pick it up. When the frustration really got to me and I was visibly annoyed, one of my friends explained it to me.

It’s not the faces you watch and there was no pattern. It was where your stupid hands were placed. If they were above your head, it was two-up. If they were both below the waist or in this case, on the floor, it was two down. I could blame it on the night’s festivities from earlier, but it was just me being an idiot and not picking up on the obvious.

Such a jackass.

Fast forward to today and this feeling of stupidity continues to haunt me. I try and I try, only to fail miserably, as the fantasy Gods just sit there and laugh. Streaming starters in and out of your active lineup is a viable strategy countless fantasy owners have used to win their leagues. Sometimes you have to protect yourself and sit a guy who has a bad match-up and sometimes you can find some really sweet pitching gems on the waiver wire. Leagues with daily roster moves might keep you on your toes at times, but it allows you to really focus in and micro-manage that rotation.

Unfortunately, it seems like every decision I make is wrong.

I was concerned that Hector Santiago was going to have a tough time with the Tigers earlier in the week, so I sat him. He tossed 6.1 innings and allowed just two runs so I missed the quality start. Antonio Senzatela had a nice debut, but I was afraid he wouldn’t go deep into the game again which means no quality start and he probably wasn’t going to help me enough in strikeouts to be worthwhile. On my bench sat seven innings with just two runs allowed and five strikeouts. Well then I looked into the Padres numbers and figured well this makes for a VERY opportune time to stream in Kyle Freeland. He’s a lefty and the Padres struggled against lefties last year, plus, he has a better strikeout rate than Senzatela.

All week long it was the same freakin’ thing. Sit Gio Gonzalez. Start Dylan Bundy. Sit Luis Severino. Start Ivan Nova. What am I missing here? Is it the hands again? Am I missing the hands still? Is it the match-up? It can’t be the match-up. I don’t like to dive too deep into the numbers this early in the season, but you can tell. You can just look at the lineup and know exactly what you’re up against.

But then how come every time I start a guy he’s gets lit up and when I bench him he’s the next Cy Young? It’s got to be the fantasy gods. Has to be.

Streaming starters is a tough thing, man. You have to get real lucky sometimes and apparently that’s just not my thing. But I just can’t sit by and do nothing. I can’t just leave a bunch of guys in there and not try. Who sits on their hands and just let’s guys play? Where’s the fun in that?  Let me just take one last look before lineups lock here and see if I can get it. Yup, there it is. He looks like he could pitch well tonight. One up, one down.