The Midas touch

Well, so far so bad. I'm in eighth place in our league, which wouldn't be so bad if it weren't a eight-team league.

I performed miserably the first week against The Maniacal Manager, a colleague and the guy in our league who's known as a crazed add-and-dropper. He's actually the reason we have a move limit, and even as generous as the limit is, he'll blow through it by the All-Star break, yet always manages to be near the top of our league and even proved victorious a few years in a row, as I recall.

Is the secret just to play whatever hand's hot, not waiting for the slow starters to warm up, taking a chance that you're throwing away gold and picking up crap? I don't really think so, but it certainly has worked for him in the past.

The Maniacal Manager says shuffling and reshuffling his team like that helps him relax. He has a strange way of relaxing.

Here's his lineup for tonight. Let's see what it looks like in a few months:

Starters

• Brandon Inge (Det - C,3B,OF)
• Carlos Peña (TB - 1B)
• Dustin Pedroia (Bos - 2B)
• Kevin Youkilis (Bos - 1B,3B)
• José Reyes (NYM - SS)
• Jacoby Ellsbury (Bos - OF)
• Curtis Granderson (Det - OF)
• Ryan Ludwick (StL - OF)
• Lance Berkman (Hou - 1B)

Bench

• Russell Martin (LAD - C,3B)
• Adam Jones (Bal - OF)
• Felipe López (Ari - 2B,3B,SS,OF)
• Jorge Cantú (Fla - 1B,3B)
• Ryan Theriot (ChC - SS)

DL

• Troy Glaus (StL - 3B)

Starting pitchers

• Ryan Dempster (ChC - SP)
• Josh Johnson (Fla - SP)
  

Relief pitchers

• Brad Lidge (Phi - RP)
• Jonathan Broxton (LAD - RP)

Pitchers

• Joba Chamberlain (NYY - SP,RP)
• Erik Bedard (Sea - SP)

Bench

• John Danks (CWS - SP)