BJ Upton or Desmond Jennings?

[sclyon3]

I drafted Jennings. Upton's owner cut him loose last night. Do I hold tight with Desmond or drop him for BJ? My team has a trade pending, but when it's done it will look like this:

c santana, 1b craig, 2b phillips, ss reyes, 3b lawrie, if plouffe, util Ortiz, of jennings, of Kemp, of heyward, of crawford, DL/Bench Longoria, Gardner
sp verlander, kershaw, hernandez, bumgarner, wainwright, latos, halladay
rp kimbrel, chapman, jansen

It is a 10 team h2h non-keeper league. I pretty much have playoffs locked up now, if that is any factor. I am curious who will provide the greater long-term value for my team.

Thanks!!

[Cream]

Can you drop Gardner? or is he eating a DL spot.. that's the way I'd go if possible.

[WaCougMBS]

Can you drop Gardner? or is he eating a DL spot.. that's the way I'd go if possible.

Yeah, I think this is right. No way I'd cut Jennings for B.J., but I'd seriously consider dropping Gardner if he's taking up a bench spot ...

[Element]

Upton/Jennings is more or less a wash with Upton being the safer pick. Unless you can dump Gardner I would stand pat.

[sclyon3]

Thanks for the advice guys. Just put in a claim to drop Gardner and pick up Upton. I don't know why I didn't thin of that. Gardner is 1-dimensional. I like that move.

Thanks again!

[Largentium]

I agree with everyone above, but I want to know how you got Verlander, Kershaw, Felix and Halladay all in the same rotation and still have Kemp, Longoria and Reyes! Totally jealous.

[sclyon3]

haha I've been a waiver wire hawk and have proposed many a trade this season. I originally drafted Miggy, Kershaw, Felix 1-2-3 in the draft. When Roy got hurt his owner ditched him and I used my waiver on him. I traded Reddick and Edwin Encarnacion for Verlander. I traded JJ Hardy and Henry Rodriguez for Reyes. I traded Miggy for Andrew McCutchen, Jim Johnson, and Longoria just this week and then dealt McCutchen and Johnson for Kemp just 2 days ago (so Miggy for Kemp and Longoria). (My team is 16 1/2 games above the 4th place team, meaning I have a huge cushion before I fell out of the playoff picture. I am okay to wait for a while for my team to get healthy.

All season I've picked up players from the waiver wire that were trending upwards, played them for a week or two while they were hot, then packaged players together to net more quality long-term players. It is how I also got Carlos Santana (not working out so far though... lol), Phillips, Lawrie, Heyward, Bumgarner, Wainwright, Chapman, Jansen, etc. Let's just say I am a fan of selling high and buying low... haha

I always use the ESPN Player Rater when proposing a deal to make it sound better for the other person. For example, I dealt Aaron Hill (4th overall 2b at the time), De Aza (25th OF at the time) and Johan (who was my lowest rated pitcher but I needed to clear a roster spot) for Phillips (6th 2b at the time) and Heyward (23rd OF at the time). Hill and De Aza in my mind will probably be borderline rosterable players before too long once they cool off (De Aza has already started to), so packaging them with a big-name veteran (whose name is probably bigger than his true value) landed me 2 solid players that should be good for the rest of the year. It's not necessarily a bad deal for either of us, but that's the kind of deal I have done all year to get the players I've wanted. So far, my team is shaping up pretty well with almost all players drafted in the top 100. We'll see how the season plays out.

Not to forget that the fine folks on this site also gave me ideas and advice to pull off some of these miraculous trades that helped bolster my team to what it is now! This blog rocks. Make the most of it!