should i trade all of my closers?

[j_d_mcnugent]

i am in a head to head league (10 teams) where the points are set up so that saves are equal to holds. i have been doing fairly well in both categories with these guys: rivera, urbina, politte, dotel, and rhodes. i recently had to give politte the boot because he stunk and i didnt have enough room on my DL to keep him. if urbina stays as a closer, i should be able to get enough saves to win both categories most weeks. if urbina gets traded and becomes a set up man his value drops and i wont win saves. i have made some preliminary inquiries and julio and sasaki are about the only guys that arent complete garbage that i could acquire without taking too much of a hit.

my outfield was pretty strong but recently it is taking some hits. kearns - shoulder, leg
gonzalez - possible decreased playing time
drew - everything

my other guys are larry walker, byrnes, dmitri young, and jay payton.

the worst case scenario is urbina goes to the yanks and gonzalez loses a bunch of playing time. i can still trade rivera and get a decent bat to replace gonz. but i get nothing out of urbina.

the best case scenario is urbina stays a closer and gonzo gets playing time for the rangers or another AL team.

so i have been contemplating packaging guys like gonzalez and urbina for some big outfield bats while i still can and just forgetting about the saves category altogether. i would basically lose one pitching category a week but i might win more hitting categories and i protect myself from a possible bigger hit should urbina become a yankee, gonz. go to the bench, or drew get yet another injury.

any comments?

thanks,

j_d_mcnugent

[Super GM]

No, don't do that. Packaging one of you closers with Juan Gone makes sense, but don't giv'em all away... If you trade one of your closers and Gonzo for a bigger bat, for example Andruw Jones or so, you can improve in the offensive category, without neglecting your saves....

[j_d_mcnugent]

sorry, i didnt explain well enough. its a head to head league where the team with the most saves in that week gets a point. rivera by himself wont be able to get me a point in 9 out of 10 weeks because most teams have two or three closers. so its trade'em all or keep'em all.

[j_d_mcnugent]

anyone else have an opinion?

[Madison]

I'm from the school of never punt a catagory. You can't win a catagory if you don't play. Just like the lotto, you can't win if you don't buy a ticket.

[j_d_mcnugent]

thats true, but i think head to head leagues are a little different. you dont have to win all of the categories, you just need to win most of them. so if you trade away a closer who impacts only one category for an outfielder that impacts all hitting categories (10 in my case) you would think i might be better off. and being close doesnt count for anything. if you have five saves in one week and the other guy has six, you dont get any points. roto is different. punting categories in roto is risky business.

i probably wont do it because i dont think urbina will go to the yankees. in which case i should still be fine with rivera/urbina and the occasional save from dotel and rhodes.