What Do I Need to Get Into and Stay in 1st!!!!!!

[zimbaloo]

OK, I have never had my team rated. I am in a 10 team H2H Yahoo League with the following categories for statistics:
H, HR, RBI, R, BB, SB, CS, AVG., W, L, SV, K, BB, ERA, WHIP, HLD

I am currently in 3rd place and only 2 games out of first. I have been in first but never for two weeks in a row and never by mor than 2 games.

Here is my team, please tell me what I can do to succeed.

C- Jason Varitek
1B- Derek Lee
2B- Alfonso Soriano
3B- Aramis Ramirez
SS- Edgar Renteria and Carlos Guillen
RF- Miguel Cabrerra
CF- Jim Edmonds
LF- Carlos Lee
Util- Hideki Matsui
DL- Javy Lopez and Chipper Jones

SP- Jake Peavy, Jon Garland, Carl Pavano, Wade Miller, Odalis Perez, Oliver Perez, Carlos Silva, Mark Redman

RP- B.J. Ryan, Joe Nathan, Ryan Dempster, Juan Rincon, Jesse Crain

Any help will be greatly appreciated and if you leave me a link I will respond to your to the best of my ability.

Thanks

[zimbaloo]

I would also like to let you know some of the trades I made this season:

Trade 1:
I gave: Manny Ramirez
I got: Miguel Cabrerra

Trade 2:
I gave: Jose Guillen and Rafael Betancourt
I got: Josh Beckett

Trade 3:
I gave: Ichiro Suzuki and Tim Hudson
I got: David Ortiz and Hideki Matsui

Trade 4:
I gave: David Ortiz, Shea Hillenbrand, Josh Beckett, and Jason Marquis
I got: Javy López, Alfonso Soriano, Jake Peavy, and Wade Miller

Trade 5:
I gave: Barry Zito
I got: Jason Varitek

I picked up Derek Lee off Free agent pool. Same goes for Silva and Dempster and Garland

[pooryorick10]

Really like your team- very solid everywhere. Picking up derek lee is awesome!
I'm guessing you probably need more SBs, although it's not a bad tactic to sacrifice one category for others. Oh wait, you don't have slugging or OPS.. Since your outfield is stocked with power guys you may look to trade one of them for SBs. With Soriano, Ramirez and Lee, you have tons of power anyways. Since your league only keeps track of power with RBIs and HRs, you're probably killing people in those categories.
Pitchers- you have two studs, although Garland may fall off a bit. Still, he's pretty good. The rest of your staff is very shaky outside of maybe Ollie P. who at this point is still a mystery. Keep him but entertain any intriguing offers. The rest of your starters are very expendable. Also look to trade a power guy or package one to get better starters.
Your closers are good, but do you really need every Minnesota reliever? Granted they are all really good, but it is usually better to diversify your portfolio!

Ok, let's rank trades:
1: Trade an older Manny for a younger version. If you are playing keepers, awesome trade! Even so, you still got the better end of the bargain so far.

5: Good trade- struggling pitcher for #1 catcher

Let's add up your other trades:
Guillen, Bettancourt, Ichiro, Hudson, Hillenbrand, Marquis FOR
Lopez, Soriano, Peavy, Miller, Matsui

Overall, you got some real studs although you did give up some quality. You didn't really need Ortiz anyways. Miller and Marquis are a wash. Peavy has been much better than Hudson and that should stay so. Soriano is a major steal. I guess added up you totally got better. But you still have need areas as outlined above. You may want to deal Varitek or Lopez unless you want to keep them both for insurance. You have had great luck with waivers! Maybe you can strike gold again. Is N. Logan available? He could solve your SB issues and with your luck be awesome.