Roster and potential trade advice please?

[pman555]

My fantasy baseball team was autodrafted this weekend and I need some advice.

Its a typical 5x5 scoring, head-to-head league.

In case you can view my team, here is the link: http://games.espn.go.com/flb/clubhouse? ... 9&teamId=3


C - Chris Ianetta
1B - Aubry Huff
2B - Chase Utley (will need to replace him since he'll be injured to start the season)
3B - Adrian Beltre
SS - Elvis Andrus
2B/SS - Rickie Weeks
1B/3B - Derek Lee
OF - Carl Crawford
OF - Matt Kemp
OF - Jason Heyward
OF - Colby Rasmus
OF - Drew Stubbs
UTIL - Rajai Davis
Bench - Jim Thome (DH)
Bench - Raul Ibanez (OF)

SP - Tim Lincecum
SP - Matt Cain
SP - Daniel Hudson
SP - Ricky Nolasco
SP - Madison Bumgarner (No idea why I was autodrafted 3 Giants pitchers)
SP - Trevor Cahill
SP - Johnny Cueto
RP - Johnathon Broxton (my only solid closer)
RP - Jake McGee (picked up off of waivers, hoping he can provide some saves)
RP - Frank Francisco (bench)

Where do you think I need to improve?

I know I need another solid closer. A guy in my league was autodrafted SIX closers so he is trying to get rid of some.
He said he was willing to give up Mariano Rivera and he needs OF. Any trade ideas? I wouldnt mind giving up one of my Giants starters like Cain or Bumgarner in a trade. I could probably improve at C and 1B too, right?

Here is his team:

C - Geovany Soto
1B - Miguel Cabrera
2B - Dan Uggla
3B - Alex Rodriquez
SS - Miguel Tejada
2B/SS - Ben Zobrist
1B/3B - Jose Bautista
OF - Jason Bay
OF - Denard Span
OF - Ryan Raburn
OF - Chris Coghlan
OF - Jason Kubel
UTIL - Tsuyoshi Nishioka
Bench - Kendry Morales (1B)
Bench - Carlos Beltran (OF)
Bench - Kurt Suzuki (C)

SP - Justin Verlander
SP - Yovani Gallardo
SP - Shaun Marcum
RP - Brian Wilson
RP - Mariano Rivera
RP - Jonathon Papelbon
RP - Joe Nathan
RP - JJ Putz
RP - John Axford

Your help is always appreciated! And I'll help in return.

[pman555]

Any help would really be appreciated.

[BlackBocks]

Ok Here goes nothing.

Being that the other guy is loaded up on closers with a weakness in SP...

He may be in love with Rivera...Try to get Axford...you can get him for a lot less with similar results.

Cain and Rasmus for Axford and Bautista. if he doesnt want bautista then counter with uggla.

This way when utley comes back you have a surplus in 2b and you can make another trade.

At catcher...is Arrencibia available? If he is I would pick him up.

Maybe Im insane that you could get bautista there but you can always say that you cant bet on another career year from him.

[pman555]

Ok Here goes nothing.

Being that the other guy is loaded up on closers with a weakness in SP...

He may be in love with Rivera...Try to get Axford...you can get him for a lot less with similar results.

Cain and Rasmus for Axford and Bautista. if he doesnt want bautista then counter with uggla.

This way when utley comes back you have a surplus in 2b and you can make another trade.

At catcher...is Arrencibia available? If he is I would pick him up.

Maybe Im insane that you could get bautista there but you can always say that you cant bet on another career year from him.

Awesome feedback. Thanks!
Currently, I have a proposal in to him that he hasnt responded to: Stubbs or Davis and Bumgarner for Nathan and Zobrist. He is slow to respond so we'll see.

I definitely like your trade ideas here, if he doesnt like the one I asked him about already, I'll definitely counter with one of these.

Arrencibia is available. Do I drop Iannetta for him?

[BlackBocks]

Ok Here goes nothing.

Being that the other guy is loaded up on closers with a weakness in SP...

He may be in love with Rivera...Try to get Axford...you can get him for a lot less with similar results.

Cain and Rasmus for Axford and Bautista. if he doesnt want bautista then counter with uggla.

This way when utley comes back you have a surplus in 2b and you can make another trade.

At catcher...is Arrencibia available? If he is I would pick him up.

Maybe Im insane that you could get bautista there but you can always say that you cant bet on another career year from him.

Awesome feedback. Thanks!
Currently, I have a proposal in to him that he hasnt responded to: Stubbs or Davis and Bumgarner for Nathan and Zobrist. He is slow to respond so we'll see.

I definitely like your trade ideas here, if he doesnt like the one I asked him about already, I'll definitely counter with one of these.

Arrencibia is available. Do I drop Iannetta for him?

I would pick up arrencibia...Iannetta is shaky at best and Jose Morales had a great spring and they will probably share time.

Arrencibia is a boom or bust guy...He should start over Jose Molina. Power guy with potential for 20 HR. Catcher is a position where you arent going to get much anyways unless you have the top 2-3 guys. I would take a flyer on Arrencibia on upside alone and if he struggles out of the gate you can always drop him. People arent going to be banging on Iannetta's door so you could probably get him back if that is the case.

Also...reminder that Nathan is going to probably share closer duties to start...im not big on zobrist without help in that lineup.

viewtopic.php?t=425453

[pman555]

Ok Here goes nothing.

Being that the other guy is loaded up on closers with a weakness in SP...

He may be in love with Rivera...Try to get Axford...you can get him for a lot less with similar results.

Cain and Rasmus for Axford and Bautista. if he doesnt want bautista then counter with uggla.

This way when utley comes back you have a surplus in 2b and you can make another trade.

At catcher...is Arrencibia available? If he is I would pick him up.

Maybe Im insane that you could get bautista there but you can always say that you cant bet on another career year from him.

Awesome feedback. Thanks!
Currently, I have a proposal in to him that he hasnt responded to: Stubbs or Davis and Bumgarner for Nathan and Zobrist. He is slow to respond so we'll see.

I definitely like your trade ideas here, if he doesnt like the one I asked him about already, I'll definitely counter with one of these.

Arrencibia is available. Do I drop Iannetta for him?

I would pick up arrencibia...Iannetta is shaky at best and Jose Morales had a great spring and they will probably share time.

Arrencibia is a boom or bust guy...He should start over Jose Molina. Power guy with potential for 20 HR. Catcher is a position where you arent going to get much anyways unless you have the top 2-3 guys. I would take a flyer on Arrencibia on upside alone and if he struggles out of the gate you can always drop him. People arent going to be banging on Iannetta's door so you could probably get him back if that is the case.

Also...reminder that Nathan is going to probably share closer duties to start...im not big on zobrist without help in that lineup.

viewtopic.php?t=425453

He seems reluctant to give up much in terms of batting. Apparently he believes his batters stink more than his starting pitchers. I offered him Rasmus and Cain for Rivera and Uggla bc i believed he would be more agreeable to Uggla than Bautista.

He did offer me Nathan for Stubbs straight up. Would you do that?

[BlackBocks]

I would be very reluctant to get Nathan for anything right now. Im a twins fan and I just see this year as a decent year but not great.

If he doesnt like the Rivera deal counter and just replace rivera with axford.

[pman555]

I would be very reluctant to get Nathan for anything right now. Im a twins fan and I just see this year as a decent year but not great.

If he doesnt like the Rivera deal counter and just replace rivera with axford.

You really think Axford and Rivera will have similar numbers this year?
He isnt in love with Rivera (he's a twins fan too) so I dont think he'll ask too much for him. If I replace Rivera with Axford, I think I would want to replace Cain with Bumgarner.

[BlackBocks]

I would be very reluctant to get Nathan for anything right now. Im a twins fan and I just see this year as a decent year but not great.

If he doesnt like the Rivera deal counter and just replace rivera with axford.

You really think Axford and Rivera will have similar numbers this year?
He isnt in love with Rivera (he's a twins fan too) so I dont think he'll ask too much for him. If I replace Rivera with Axford, I think I would want to replace Cain with Bumgarner.

That sounds fine...Rivera is always a consistant person but with soriano behind him they might take a bit of workload off him until the post season. His numbers wont change much and he will be real solid. Dont get me wrong i love Mo Rivera. I just find that some people fall in love with him.

Axford should be solid...his era wont be as good as Rivera but he might get the same amount of saves. He is a tier below in value so you could get more from less in trade which is why i say it.

Bumgarner swap with cain makes a lot of sense as well.