Trades that made a difference

[Bwanna]

In one of my leagues...

* April 22: Franky Cordero for Carlos Zambrano. - Seemed like a lopsided trade at the time. But, I still had a stable of closers after dealing Cordero, and Zambrano was stinking it up. Seemed even more like a bad deal when Zambrano had his meltdown on Barrett. Turned out to help me in W's and K's quite significantly, and I was able to maintain 2nd place in saves due to picking up Corpas. Grade: B

* April 28: Gary Sheffield for Ramone Hernandez and Orlando Hudson - Suffering badly with Adam LaRoche at first, the Perfectos gambled on a hot-headed, underachieving Gary Sheffield. The angry man was hitting a buck-ninety at the time. Realizing that Shef was simply too good to hit this poorly especially on such an offensive juggernaut of a team, we offered a decent catcher Ramone Hernandez and a top-tier 2nd baseman, Orlando Hudson. The pickup of phenom 2nd baseman, BJ Upton had relegated O to the bench, so we could afford to deal him. Shef started raking, and also set a career high in steals. Grade: A

* July 13: Dan Haren and Brendan Harris for Hanley Ramirez - Although enjoying ex-Cardinal Danny Heron's success with Billy Beane's club, we figured he was due for a letdown, and thought it best to sell high. Found a Cardinal fan that was still in love with Danny and bemoaning the trade to Oakland, and packaged a hot-hitting Brendan Harris for Hanley. I was very surprised this deal was accepted so quickly, even though Haren had an insane ERA and WHIP at the time. Hanley almost single-handedly shot my team to the top of the rankings in homers, runs, and bags. Haren, although still recording a few wins for the A's, never regained his first-half form. Grade: A+

* July 13: Hunter Pence and Salty for Russell Martin - Fantasy gods were with me on this one. Pence went down days after this trade. Salty never took off like I thought he might in Texas. Martin also cooled off as most catchers do, but still continued to be a reliable source of pop and bags. Grade: B.

* August 12: Johnny Damon and Jose Valverdes for Kelvim Escobar - Trading deadline. Frustrated with the constantly injured Damon's lack of playing time in the big apple, and seeing Melky taking Johnny's PT, we decided to go after what continued to be our biggest weakness, starting pitching. Having a healthy lead in saves, we packaged Valverdes with Damon to obtain Kelvim Escobar. Escobar was playing for an offensive machine, so we figured wins would come even when he didn't have his best stuff on the mound. He performed decently, putting up 5 W's and 41 K's the rest of the season. Grade: B+.

[Grouperman941]

June 25 -- traded Jeter, Hafner, and Scott Olsen for Johan -- My hitting was killing, my pitching needed a lift, and I had Tulo and Hermida who I though were ready to rake. Turned out OK. I ended up going +22 roto points for the second half but still came in second by 8.5. The difference was Ws, where I got only 2 roto points. Next year's looking good, though.

14-team 5x5 roto, TB in place of HR
0-8 Keepers
Phish Heads

C: Paulino
1B: Berkman/C Jackson
2B: A Cabrera/Hudson
3B: ARod
SS: Tulo
OF: Beltran
OF: Kearns
OF: Abreu
OF: Hermida
DH: Logan/Redman
U: Bay/Griffey

SP: Smoltz
SP: Kazmir
P: Cain
P: Santana
P: Nathan
RP: Corpas
RP: Soria