did i hose myself with these trades>?!@

[sinicalypse]

alrighty, last night before i left my high-bandwith paradise i had one of those overzealous fantasy baseball evenings where i went around and proposed a bunch of trades to try and shore up my yahoo public league teams. basically, i have a plethora of starting pitching in all of these leagues with only bobby jenks +1 in two out of the three leagues (in another, it's bobby jenks and the hopes of a marmol/chris-ray/etc cuz my dumb ass in early-mid march had carlos marmol slotted as one of the top relievers, and thusly i ended up with him in all 4 leagues figuring him to be the obvious closer, however lou wanted to stay with his blankey he ended up with kevin gregg and i ended up desperate for saves.

so here's a few leagues with my teams and herewegoooooo

c - jorge posada
1B - hank blalock (who i got off of the FA list when the season started. undrafted.)
2B - jose lopez
SS - derek jeter
3B - adrian beltre
OF - jermaine dye
OF - johnny damon
OF - lastings milledge
util - jim thome
bench/OF - justin upton
bench/1B - derrek lee
bench/3b - mark reynolds (another FA pickup)
bench/2b - kaz matsui

SP - johan santana, tim lincecum, roy halladay, dan haren, brandon webb
RP - francisco rodriguez, bobby jenks, fernando rodney, joel zumaya (DL)

i gave up hank blalock, adrian beltre, and mark reynolds along with brandon webb for alex rodriguez, jhonny peralta, and i think the guy tossed in paul konerko... either that or i was stupid drunk and put him in there... regardless, it's middling.

i'm betting on a-rod being the a-rod that we know and love when he comes back, and if he is, this allows me to clear some of the clutter around the corners, although i'd prefer hank blalock to derrek lee, i figure that injury concerns are always a blalockian thing and i know people who have been burned with him before. adrian beltre is nothing fantastic and a .265/25/75 machine since he got his big paper deal heading into 2005. mark reynolds was a FA pickup who i never really thought of.

obviously, a-rod would go at 1B and then i've got jose lopez with 1B/2B eligibility, and with kaz matsui looking like a decent shot at 30 steals, i've got that going. pitching wise, i'm obviously very deep on my starting rotation and whilst brandon webb seems to be a lock for 17+ wins and a sub-3.5 ERA, i could afford to let him go, and for some odd reason he's never been one of my fantasy baseball "guys" and basically, barring some sort of horrendous injury plagued year where a-rod comes back and finds out he needs that year-ending surgery after three horrible weeks, i figure i'll have top-flight 3B production to push my team over the hump, although i should've prolly tried to get a closer in a deal for b-webb, cuz after trading him whilst in theory i could trade another if i get a bigtime closer and a lesser-known/lesser-tier pitcher in return of the package (say a joe saunders type) then i can make up for it.

so yeah that's that and let's move onwards.

trade #2 in a diff league. in this one it's the same ish different story. i'm super-desperate for saves and i figured i could use some stolen bases, take a look at this team:

c - saltalamacchia
1B - joey votto
2B - kelly johnson
SS - miguel tejada
3B - felipe lopez
OF - ryan braun
OF - vladimir guerrero
OF - brad hawpe
util/1B - paul konerko
bench/2b/3b - ian stewart
bench/OF - justin upton
bench/OF - elijah dukes
bench/2B - kaz matsui

SP - tim lincecum, cole hamels, dan haren, carlos zambrano, daisuke matsuzaka
RP - bobby jenks, ryan franklin, chris ray, joel zumaya (DL)

so in this trade i gave up daisuke matsuzaka and brad hawps for willy(mo) taveras and brad lidge. this guy has bigtime saves lined up, with mariano rivera joe nathan brad lidge bj ryan and trevor hoffman on the DL, so i proposed a series of trades to him with various grades of my SPs offered for better closers/packages. the one he took basically gives me a top-flight steals guy to put in the OF with braun and vlad, and it gives me a closer who isn't quite the 100.0% sure thing as is nathan or rivera, but i'd take before BJ ryan and trevor hoffman for sure. you figure the phillies will be a 85-95 win team in a competitive division with close games, so basically i should be able to nick 40 more saves with bobby "sashage" jenks and then hope that zumaya becomes the closer when he comes off of the DL, because if he does that means my 3 publeague teams will all get a much-needed closer, as after the drafts i ended up with jenks and marmol on every team, then one other team had k-rod and another huston street, and thats it.

i basically try to go for 4 solid closers with the prospect of a 5th looming when someone gets injured/demoted, so i figure this move will really help me.

ok and i've been proposed the following trade in yet another league:

c - aj pierzynski
1B - adam dunn
2B - rickie weeks
SS - jhonny peralta
3B - david wright
OF - carlos lee
OF - andre ethier
OF - cameron maybin
util/3B - evan longoria
bench/2B/3B - ian stewart
bench/1B - james loney
bench/2B - kelly johnson
bench/OF - justin upton
bench/OF - michael bourn

SP (the thinnest SP in all 4 of my leagues) - carlos zambrano, scott kazmir, daisuke matsuzaka, dan haren
RP - bobby jenks, huston street, ryan franklin, joel zumaya (DL)

the trade proposed would be straightup: carlos lee for mariano rivera. do you think i have enough offense to pull this off?! i've been uncertain about the dodgers young guns for years, as this trade proposal came to me from me tryin'ta dump off a dodger or two with a justin upton for a solid closer.

see if i knew that michael bourn was basically going to be .250/40+ steals and consequently ~80+ runs, or if i knew that justin upton was good for .275/25/85+/anything or hell even if james loney could have a year like last year where the average (~.310ish) and RBIs (~94) were proper, just with those 14 homeruns, i could swing dunn to the outfield and put loney at 2B.

obviously i need saves, so is it worth giving up the basically-guaranteed bonafide-2nd-tier production of a carlos lee to gamble with people whose stats aren't as fo-sho as carlos' to get the nearly-guaranteed 35-40+ saves and quality ERA/WHIP numbers of a mariano rivera?!@

so yeah those are the terrible three and i'll be happy to weigh in on your questions/posts/whatever... just drop a link to them in your reply, as i'm gonna be around this comptuerlab for at least an hour or so. oh yeah, with those other leagues, if you think i should make other trades let me know which people you'd dangle as bait.

peace

# james

[WyldStallyn]

admittedly i just skimmed through, but you seem to way overvalue saves. cancel the carlos lee for mo right now. that is a huge overpayment. first trade is pretty even. second trade, not so good. should have kept hawpe over tavaras, and dasikuke should have been good for a solid closer on his own.

[Rance Mulliniks]

Trade 1 is basically Webb/Beltre (plus WW pickups) for ARod. I think this is a decent trade for you, though you might have been able to do better than Perralta. You definitely get the best player in the trade. You say ARod goes to 1B, I assume you mean 3B? Lee becomes your 1B. My question is who plays 3B until ARod is back?

Trade 2 I like Dice-K for Lidge. I think Lidge will be a top flight closer, so you traded a strength for a weakness. I'm not a fan of Tavares as he's entirely one dimensional. Still, I think you helped your team here.

Trade 3 I think you're definitely giving up too much. Lee could get you way more than Rivera straight up. I wouldn't call Lee's production 2nd tier.

Hope that helps a bit.

[Neboguy]

Team 1:
Good trade! I believe this will benefit you in the future, you are stacked at SP.

Team 2:
Another good trade! Lidge for Dice-K give you a great advantage.

Team 3:
Keep Lee, drop Dukes or trade him to an owner who still thinks he will break out. Package him with Maybin for another SP. Get Loney in your starting lineup!

[sinicalypse]

welp basically in trade #2 i dont have any SBs really so i'm counting on willy-mo to be one dimensional and have a shot at 50+ stolen bases to basically make up for the lack of 20/20 type guys in my lineup, figuring having one stealsmonger in there will be aight. with hawpe, i figure that i can manage to roto some guys in the OF who get me near those numbers, cuz whilst they're good i dont think they're untouchable.

[sinicalypse]

would you do carlos lee for mariano rivera and a nelson cruz type?!@

i figure if i can get those saves, which i need (rivera would give me three, two very solid with janks and mariano, and then i have huston street there for the time being and i spose people will let manny corpas go if street holds it, then if injury or suckage comes i can back him up)

if i got a potential-laden bat back like a nelson cruz or an adam jones or even a hank blalock, would that make it worth it, or would you count on c-lee to be an offensive cornerstone of my team?!@

[Neboguy]

Keep Lee, he is a stud. You can always grab saves off of the waiver wire . . . just be QUICK about it!

[WyldStallyn]

would you do carlos lee for mariano rivera and a nelson cruz type?!@

i figure if i can get those saves, which i need (rivera would give me three, two very solid with janks and mariano, and then i have huston street there for the time being and i spose people will let manny corpas go if street holds it, then if injury or suckage comes i can back him up)

if i got a potential-laden bat back like a nelson cruz or an adam jones or even a hank blalock, would that make it worth it, or would you count on c-lee to be an offensive cornerstone of my team?!@

think of it this way: would you trade the 27th pick in the draft for the 70th and 162nd? (these are their mdp) i sure wouldnt. you can get mariano for less than carlos lee

[sinicalypse]

yeah i'm sitting on ryan franklin scott downs and chris ray as my "please get me saves" peoples.

i have/had marmol in all 4 of my leagues, i'm keeping him where i can as a luxury, tho in my main league it pains my loins cuz these guys put a 75 move limit on the league, then have all of these extra bench spots (8 total, this complements a 4th OF position and MI and CI nicely) but then break down pitching to 4 SPs, 2 RPs, and then 2 Ps, almost as if they wanted to force people to have only 4 closers or less, unless you get a guy like seattle's closer who has SP/RP ability, you're stuck with having only 4 slots.

believe you me if i had another RP slot i'd use marmol for his ERA/WHIP/K numbers, as i think he led all relievers with something like 117k last year in his ~80something IP.

oh well, these guys in the main league insist they're good commisioners who care and ask "what kind of leagues have you played in for these ~9 years without having a moves limit!?@" and i'm like man wtf i just dont get this, it's like you have these goofy rosters with all of these benchspots and extra positions and then turn around and make it 75 moves and then start talking about strategy this and strategy that, when last i checked playing teh FA market and waiver wire if you've got crap for a position is where the strategy comes, adn i think being able to have a frankenstein platoon position do something solid and comprable to a low-level permastarter is something noteworthy, esp when you're on the way to leading the league in wins/ERA/WHIP/K and, god willing, have a shot at saves =D