First Competitive Fantasy Team

[vincentvega722]

I understand the statistics involve with baseball but I don't follow it closely like diehards or even some regular baseball fans do. I've been in maybe 1 or 2 public leagues in the past but haven't been really active in them. Now I'm playing in a work league and its pretty competitive. Its a 12 team roto league. I was wondering if anyone can look at my roster and see where my strengths and weaknesses are at.

C Bengie Molina
1B Miguel Cabrera
2B Alexei Ramirez
3B Chris Davis
SS Miquel Tejada
OF Carl Crawford
OF Bobby Abreu
OF Jacoby Ellsbury
UTIL Aubrey Huff
B Aaron Hill
B Endy Chavez
B Marco Scutaro

SP Johan Santana
SP Scott Kazmir
RP George Sherill
RP Jose Valverde
P Joe Saunders
P Josh Johnson
P Kyle Lohse
B Brad Ziegler
B Mike Gonzalez

[thernkworks]

I'd say this is a pretty solid team all things considered. You have a pretty good offensive balance, but I think a couple trades could strengthen your team a lot. Here are some things I would do:

-You have three good 3B. Third base is a really shallow position in fantasy this year, so I would try to trade away two of your third basemen for help elsewhere.
-Tejada really does not deserve to be starting for your team. I'd start Aaron Hill and Alexei Ramirez over Tejada. Try to package Tejada in a trade if you can.
- Drop Endy Chavez, he won't help your team.
- I'm assuming you set your lineup daily and not weekly. If this is the case, I would keep only one bench player on offense (probably scutaro) and add a couple Starting Pitchers, either through trades or out of the free agent pool.
- Make sure Brad Ziegler and Mike Gonzalez are on your starting roster every day. They won't help you pick up saves on your bench. Also, you can afford to trade away one closer; four is too many for a 12 team league.

Basically, I'd recommend that you trade for starting pitchers and get rid of 3rd basemen, Tejada, and one closer. If you're not sure if you're getting a good trade, you can always ask people here.
Keep in mind that I'm assuming you set your lineup daily, not weekly. If you only set your lineup weekly, that kind of changes things.

Hope this helps!

[vincentvega722]

Thanks this help a lot since I'm practically new to this. I tried your advice and waited a week to see how it went and now I'm currently second in my league and looking real strong. I added 1 more starting pitcher and 1 more reliever though. I dropped Chavez and Scutaro so I have just 1 guy on bench on offense and the rest of the roster occupied on pitching. I was down on K's and SV's early on now I'm respectable in those stats. Like I said earlier, thanks.