Trades you've made this year that..

[A Fleshner Fantasy]

I guess you don't know my roster, so I can see where your assumptions are coming from.

1) no, I am not one that thinks Lince is done. at all. he would be the second pitcher I would draft if there was a draft today.

2) my pitching staff already includes Lester and Josh Johnson to anchor the staff with J. Sanchez, Billingsley, Morrow, Cahill.

I had the best pitching staff in the league before I moved Ubaldo and I think between Strasburg, Hellickson and Webb they can fill in what I lost with Ubaldo.

(Webb is on my DL and Hellickson is on my minor league roster, so they don't need to take roster spots until they are actually pitching for me.)

3) I am clearly thinking about this year because I am preparing for the fact that Soriano, Manny, Quentin or Ortiz will be on the DL or struggling come playoff time, so Heyward is there to have their backs.

You are preparing to deal with injuries by trading for a player that's on the DL??? Also, how many keepers do you get? Because between Strasburg, Lester, Johnson, and likely a hitter or two that you already have, are you really going to be able to keep Heyward?

[lastingsgriller]

I guess you don't know my roster, so I can see where your assumptions are coming from.

1) no, I am not one that thinks Lince is done. at all. he would be the second pitcher I would draft if there was a draft today.

2) my pitching staff already includes Lester and Josh Johnson to anchor the staff with J. Sanchez, Billingsley, Morrow, Cahill.

I had the best pitching staff in the league before I moved Ubaldo and I think between Strasburg, Hellickson and Webb they can fill in what I lost with Ubaldo.

(Webb is on my DL and Hellickson is on my minor league roster, so they don't need to take roster spots until they are actually pitching for me.)

3) I am clearly thinking about this year because I am preparing for the fact that Soriano, Manny, Quentin or Ortiz will be on the DL or struggling come playoff time, so Heyward is there to have their backs.

You are preparing to deal with injuries by trading for a player that's on the DL??? Also, how many keepers do you get? Because between Strasburg, Lester, Johnson, and likely a hitter or two that you already have, are you really going to be able to keep Heyward?

I didn't really have the intention of hijacking this entire thread with this, so if this conversation should be moved, maybe thats best. but I do think this is a very good conversation.

I think for the most part keeping too many pitchers is too risky. This year I kept 1 pitcher (lester) and then drafted Ubaldo and Josh Johnson together at the turn.

kept Longoria, Prince, B. Phillips, Reyes and Lester.

my pitching staff (not to mention my offense) has been significantly better than the team that kept 3 pitchers (Halladay, Greinke, and Hanson).

I am not saying this will always happen, but it just seems that pitchers are much more unpredictable so you feel less confident with the pitchers you keep and it seems easier to find studs later in the draft.

This year I will keep Strasburg, Prince, Longoria, Reyes, Heyward. and try to move Lester and Johnson for draft picks. It just seems more safe to me.

[A Fleshner Fantasy]

I guess you don't know my roster, so I can see where your assumptions are coming from.

1) no, I am not one that thinks Lince is done. at all. he would be the second pitcher I would draft if there was a draft today.

2) my pitching staff already includes Lester and Josh Johnson to anchor the staff with J. Sanchez, Billingsley, Morrow, Cahill.

I had the best pitching staff in the league before I moved Ubaldo and I think between Strasburg, Hellickson and Webb they can fill in what I lost with Ubaldo.

(Webb is on my DL and Hellickson is on my minor league roster, so they don't need to take roster spots until they are actually pitching for me.)

3) I am clearly thinking about this year because I am preparing for the fact that Soriano, Manny, Quentin or Ortiz will be on the DL or struggling come playoff time, so Heyward is there to have their backs.

You are preparing to deal with injuries by trading for a player that's on the DL??? Also, how many keepers do you get? Because between Strasburg, Lester, Johnson, and likely a hitter or two that you already have, are you really going to be able to keep Heyward?

I didn't really have the intention of hijacking this entire thread with this, so if this conversation should be moved, maybe thats best. but I do think this is a very good conversation.

I think for the most part keeping too many pitchers is too risky. This year I kept 1 pitcher (lester) and then drafted Ubaldo and Josh Johnson together at the turn.

kept Longoria, Prince, B. Phillips, Reyes and Lester.

my pitching staff (not to mention my offense) has been significantly better than the team that kept 3 pitchers (Halladay, Greinke, and Hanson).

I am not saying this will always happen, but it just seems that pitchers are much more unpredictable so you feel less confident with the pitchers you keep and it seems easier to find studs later in the draft.

This year I will keep Strasburg, Prince, Longoria, Reyes, Heyward. and try to move Lester and Johnson for draft picks. It just seems more safe to me.

You're right that we shouldn't hijack this thread, so I'll make one more comment, and if you wish to continue it after that, feel free to pm me and I'll be happy to do so.

Anyway, while keeping a lot of pitchers can be risky, I think that that is one of the reasons why Ubaldo would be so valuable: if you can keep him, you can have a great start to your pitching staff without having to keep many more (other than Strasburg). Accordingly, I think it would have been a better idea to try to trade Lester or Johnson if possible. Following this season, I personally would keep at least one of Johnson/Lester, but that's a different discussion. That said, the way that you support seems to have worked for you this year, so I'm certainly not saying it's wrong, just different from what I would do.

Anyway, I personally am a fan of proven consistency over unproven players with huge potential for the sake of keepers/dynasties, so that's a big part of the reason why I'm not a fan of giving up so much for Heyward. Based on this trade, I'm assuming that you would prefer to have the player with a high ceiling. Finally, based on your current OF situation, I agree that you needed to get younger: I just don't think this was the best way to go about doing so.

[dmattingly23]

Have to agree with Lastings. In 2 years, you're not going to believe you got Heyward for Ubaldo alone. Ideal buy low, sell high.

And it sounds like you will be fine for this year too.

[thejusman1]

Heyward is still a work in progress. Look at the hype which surrounded Justin Upton last year, and how much he's struggled this year. Calling Heyward the next Braun or Pujols is just so premature right now. I agree that Ubaldo would be a much better asset to keep for this year. I personally feel like the OF is one of the easiest positions to fill in fantasy, whereas ace stud pitchers are very few.

[silentjim]

I've had a couple of good moves in my mind, all in the same keeper league:

1. On April 29th I traded Grady Sizemore and Clay Buchholz for Nick Markakis, Josh Johnson, and Francisco Rodriguez.

2. On May 3rd I traded Francisco Cordero for Vernon Wells, who on June 25th I just traded for Andrew Bailey.

3. On June 12th I traded Buster Posey and Jason Bay for Matt Holliday.

4. On June 23rd I traded Aramis and Manny Ramirez for Chone Figgins and Scott Rolen.

5. On June 23rd I traded Albert Pujols for Joey Votto, Felix Hernandez, and Brain Fuentes.

My current pitching staff is Ubaldo Jimenez, Josh Johnson, David Price, Felix Hernandez, and Chad Billingsley (who's pending in a current trade for Rafael Furcal).

[T-Bone Costanza]

I gave up Rauch for Pierre and so far have accomplished exactly what I wanted. Since the deal it's worked out that I traded 9 Saves for 12 Steals. Still kept my lead in SVs and have gained 3 spots in SBs.

[bobnerns]

In my 10-man, 5x5 H2H most categories, non-keeper league,

On April 25th, I traded Brett Gardner and Jose Lopez for Josh Hamilton and Yunel Escobar. At the time, Hamilton had 1 HR, 9 RBIs, and was batting below the Mendoza Line. Since then, he's given me 20 HRs, 53 RBIs and a .371 average in 61 games. And I dropped Escobar immediately after the trade.

Josh Hamilton and Miguel Cabrera (who somehow fell to me at 14 in our draft) have carried my team to a 10-1-2 record and a large first place lead of 3 games.

[Nerfherders]

In my 30-team league I traded Chase Utley for Stephen Strasburg, Bret Cecil, and Akinori Iwamura.

Ive had to scramble for 2B since, but I would have had to anyways.

In my keeper I traded McCann, Sizemore, and Sabathia for Miggy, Russ Martin, and Dan Haren

[Seatownfavorite]

10 Team Dynasty I:

Gave ~ Matt Cain

Received ~ Felix Hernandez

Timing is everything!