Trade discussion for keeper league WHIR

[silverlionlb]

I know this is pretty long, but I will give you as much effort as you give me if you leave a link! I’m in a 12 team keeper league with some friends, 5x5 H2H on yahoo with the standard roster. Each year we keep 7 players, no strings attached. Money payout is for the top 2 teams in the regular season and playoffs, and the draft order is by end of the season standings. Anyway, I’m sitting in 2nd place, 10 games behind and 7 games ahead of the pack and this is my roster:

C John Buck
1B Joey Votto
2B Robinson Cano
3B Kevin Youkilis
SS Jimmy Rollins
OF Ryan Braun
OF Nelson Cruz
OF Adam Dunn
Util Delmon Young
BN Aubrey Huff
BN Adam Jones

SP Josh Johnson
SP Jared Weaver
RP Ryan Franklin
RP Brandon Morrow
P Colby Lewis
P Shaun Marcum
P Jair Jurrjens
BN John Lackey
BN Clayton Richard
BN Joel Pineiro
DL Kerry Wood

My number one goal is to win this year. The future is secondary, but still worth consideration, which means to try and build a strong core of 7 keepers. As the roster stands now, my keepers would probably be Votto, Cano, Youkilis, Braun, Johnson, and Weaver, and then the last spot up between Cruz/Dunn/Rollins, which means a lot of talent gets left out.

I have just over 2 weeks until the trade deadline and am willing to trade anyone. Although, Votto/Cano might be a bit too sexy to give up. There is a chance I could get good value for Braun, too, since there are a bunch of Brewer fan owners in the league. I guess the question is, which players do you look to ship on my offensive heavy team? I’d obviously like to bring in some upgrades at P, but am not sure how to approach it. Here’s a few situations I’ve thought up involved owners who have expressed trade interest. They are all pretty huge in scope, I’m terrible with over thinking things:

Situation A) I was thinking something like Braun/Marcum for Torii Hunter/Wainwright, but I’m not sure if that’s quite what I’m looking for with my already deep OF that Hunter might get lost in. Maybe something like Braun/Huff/Marcum/Jurrjens/Lackey for Hunter/Wainwright/Cliff Lee/Broxton? This owner also has Lincecum/Howard/Pujols on the table.

Situation B) My Braun/Rollins/Dunn/Huff/Richard for his Tulo/Texeira/Carlos Gonzalez/Billy Wagner, which would flesh out his OF while giving consolidating some good players for me. However, I doubt the owner would accept this, as he is the first place team and it’s probably a bit one sided in my favor for a keeper league.

Situation C) My Braun/Dunn/Huff/Morrow/Marcum/Richard for his Justin Upton/Adrian Gonzalez/Soto/Nolasco/Huston Street/Jon Rauch. This owner has lots of extra RP but little depth at SP. Maybe try something like Braun/Marcum for Upton/Nolasco, that wouldn’t be much of a downgrade with Braun but nice SP gain—it depends if this other owner is a Braun fan or not ha.

Or, lastly, am I over-thinking things? Should I just keep it as is with good OF/Util backups to fill in for slumps and playing the WW for SPs?

Anyway I WHIR leave your link. This was a pretty long post, but I’ve been thinking about this a lot in my free time, and with the trade deadline nearing I decided to finally do something. Thanks for your time!