Lance Berkman for Kendrys Morales?

[cmm1285]

It's a 12-team, H2H, keeper league. 10x10 format (R, H, 2B, HR, RBI, SB, BB, K, TB, AVG). My team has been screwed by injuries this season, don't know if I can trust Berkman to be healthy again.

My team is as follows:

C - JP Arencibia
1B - Justin Morneau
2B - Ian Kinsler
SS - Alcides Escobar
3B - Miguel Cabrera
OF - Colby Rasmus
OF - Jason Kubel
OF - Nick Markakis
UT - Kevin Youkilis
BN - Carlos Lee
BN - Torii Hunter
BN - Dustin Ackley
DL - Troy Tulowitzki
DL - Evan Longoria
DL - Lance Berkman

SP - Yu Darvish, Josh Beckett, Roy Oswalt, Francisco Liriano, Ubaldo Jimenez, Jarrod Parker
RP - Casey Janssen, Bobby Parnell, Glen Perkins
DL - Roy Halladay, Brandon Morrow, Clay Buchholz
NA - Gerrit Cole

[cmm1285]

Note: Keeper league is keep full team, and every fourth season we keep only 4 batters and 2 pitchers. We are in year 2 since the last partial redraft, so I'd have two years to go with the full squad before being cut down to keeping on 6 players.

[dssguy99]

KM's numbers arent all that much better then Hunters, and you have him on the bench. In the short time that berkman has played his numbers are good...I dont think I would bother with this as your not really upgrading anywhere. You are only potentialy getting rid of someone who has a chance of making an impact.

[mkultra]

I would absolutely do that deal.

There's no question in my mind that Morales is better than Torii Hunter, whose counting stats are inflated by one hot week in the beginning of June. Morales has showed us that he's healthy, and I think his power will come around. His only question mark is playing time, which I expect to see increase in the second half. It's close, but I'd start him over Youk at your Util spot.

Berkman, on the other hand, is more of a question mark to me. He's 7 years older than Morales, and could just as easily lose AB's to Allen Craig's breakout season. And remember, it wasn't so long ago that Berkman's injury seemed bad enough to take him out of baseball forever. Avoiding surgery is getting him back on the field sooner, but there's a small-but-real risk he's just postponing the inevitable.

[jruffus1]

It seems like a wash deal to me. Having Morales, the only thing I hate is that they bench him every time the team faces a lefty. Meaning he sits out at least twice a week. If you teams been doing good without Berkman, I say go for it.

[kaiser]

I think I would have to consider which player will serve you better beyond this year. For me, that would have to be Morales. However, I think they aren't much different in terms of current value.