The Saber's Edge: How to use a Swiss Army Knife

Just a few season's back, Ben Zobrist seemed to be the Swiss Army knife for position eligibility. Depending on league settings, he has been eligible at every position except catcher. For 2016, he is only eligible at second base and outfield. Some owners covet players who can be plugged into different positions and put a premium price on them. Others completely ignore them. Today, I am going to give my take on these multi-position players and when they should be overvalued.

There are two main instances when having players with multi-eligibility is an advantage: 1) when injuries hit a team and 2) daily lineup leagues.

Let me start with injuries. This instance is pretty straight forward. A team will lose several players over the course of the season due to injuries. Instead of going to the waiver wire, a team with multi-eligible players handles the injury internally.

I used to target these multi-position players, as they made injuries easier to manage. If a player gets hurt, I just manipulate my roster around a bit. Put on outfielder from my bench in. Move an outfielder to first base. Reposition the infielders and all is right. The more I have played fantasy baseball, this easy approach is far from being the right approach. The correct choice is probably to go to the waiver wire and pick up a better player to plug in. Just because the choice was easy does not make it right.

The second time to use these players in daily lineup leagues on Mondays and Thursdays when teams take a day off. On these days, it is a good time to empty your bench and get as many players in your lineup as possible. On these thin-schedule days, players are placed wherever they can be used, and having a few cross-position options helps a ton to fill out the roster.

With these two instances quickly explained, here is how I approach multi-position players in different league types. It is tough to come up with one general rule, so each league must have its own approach.

Weekly Lineup Leagues: The only use for these players is to fill in for injuries. To determine value in these leagues is to look at league depth. If an outfielder goes down, is it better to move Ben Zobrist off second base to the outfield or get a player off waivers? I would not be surprised if the 10- and 12-team outfield free-agent pool is better than the numbers Zobrist would produce. As the league size increases and the quality of the replacement pool diminishes, I would give the multi-position players a small bump in value.

Daily Lineup Leagues: The key variable in daily lineup leagues is bench size. In some leagues, most of the bench spots may belong to streaming pitchers. On Monday-Thursday games, the flexibility to move players around could be nice. A team may not have room to add a hitter or two and are stuck with just a few bench options. As bench size increases, less and less flexibility is needed and talent rules the game.

Shallow Leagues: In a shallow league, make sure the position being used is not replaceable with a more talented player. Brian McCann has first-base eligibility on top of catcher. Under all circumstances, try to keep him at catcher where he has the most value and look for other first basemen on waivers. The combination of McCann and a first baseman on waivers is better than McCann and just about any catcher. I would never reach for hitters with multiple positions in shallow leagues.

If you still want a player with multiple positions, make sure he has a positive value at each of his positions. The best case is Chris Davis, who will have both outfield and first-base eligibility. In any league, he is a decent play at either position. On the other hand, Logan Forsythe has first and second-base eligibility. If a team, fantasy or real, has Forsythe at first base, they are messing up and are probably losing.

Deep leagues: As leagues increase in either the number of teams and/or rosterable players, the multiple positions come in handier. Maybe the above Forsythe example is the correct play if Darin Ruf is the best first baseman on waivers.

One issue I find sometimes is that there are no players on waivers because each team has a huge bench. Instead of players being on waivers, they are on everyone's bench. In these leagues, I like to fill up all starting positions and then start to piece together my backups. Since few players will be on waivers, make sure you have a reserve at each position.

Besides the value multi-position players have in different leagues, different positions seem to get combined together. Here is how I deal with them.

Catcher and any other position: I am always amazed at the number of questions I get asking where Buster Posey fits at first base. He shouldn't ever be considered a first baseman, only a catcher. Any catcher's value is maximized at the position, and once he is moved off catcher, his value shrinks. Catchers stay at catcher and moving them off the position should be only a weekly move as other options are explored.

Utility: If there ever was a position teams hate to fill, it is the utility position. The utility position can be where teams look for more position flexibility. In my opinion, they should look at taking the best player available, which is usually David Ortiz -- 30-homer talent is hard to find, and Ortiz fits this bill perfectly.

One move I have pulled off this year in drafts is to get two of the seven first-base studs in the first three rounds. This move sends teams scrambling immediately with only a half dozen teams getting top-end first basemen; the other teams start grasping right away. I would have no problem taking Cabrera-Davis at the end of round one and beginning of round two.

Outfield and any other position: If any position is going to need a replacement, it is outfield. Whether it is a three- or five-outfielder league, the odds are that an outfielder (and utility) will be the player injured. An outfielder should probably be the first player on a team's bench. If the player has any other position eligibility (like first base), he can fill in for eight of the 14 spots on a deep roster (1B, CI, UT, 5 OF). One player I like taking later in drafts who has 30-HR potential is Mark Trumbo. Trumbo is qualified at outfield and first base, which can fill in for eight players.

Second base/third base/shortstop: Players with two of the preceding eligibilities can really help to fill out a team. The offensive replacement level qualifications are similar here so the replacement level doesn't need to be scrutinized as much. One issue I seem to notice is less and less players are qualified with these positions, especially shortstop. The top two names with two position qualifications are Addison Russell and Jung-Ho Kang.