Frustrating Pitching Staff

[tacoach]

I am in a mixed league 5x5 standard scoring roto league with 13 total teams It is a non-keeper league. We have 22 active players with 13 hitters (C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, MI, CI, U, 5 OF's) and 9 pitchers (4 SP's, 2 RP's, 3 SP/RP's). I am currently tied for 2nd place with another team (6.5 points behind the leader) and there are 2 other teams within 12 points of the lead. I currently have a huge advantage in the hitting catagories (BA, HR, R, RBI, SB) with 57 total points. The next closest team has 47.5 points. I am currently in 9th place in the pitching categories (ERA, Kd9, W, S, WHIP) with 34 points. The leader has 52.5 points. I am doing well in the saves category, where I am in first place, and the Kd9 category, where I am in 4th place. I am struggling in the other three categories (ERA - 9th Place, Wins - 11th Place, Whip - 11th Place).

I already made one trade a few weeks back and traded Danny Graves and Eric Milton for Brad Penny. I have been starting Oswalt, Penny, Lee, Webb, Cordero, and Hoffman every week and been using the others in what I feel are good match-ups. My question is, do you think my staff has a chance improving or have I over-estimated some of these pitchers? What are some trades you might pursue? Also, if you could give me your feelings on some of these pitchers and how you see them performing the rest of the year, it would be greatly appreciated.

My team is made up of the the following players.

Hitters:
C - Mike Piazza
1B - Erubiel Durazo
CI - Nick Johnson
2B - Junior Spivey
3B - Melvin Mora
SS - Arod
MI - Adam Everett
U - Corey Koskie
OF - Bobby Abreu
OF - Jermaine Dye
OF - Cliff Floyd
OF - Geoff Jenkins
OF - Milton Bradley

Pitchers:

SP - A.J. Burnett
SP - Adam Eaton
SP - Brett Myers
SP - Roy Oswalt
SP/RP - Brad Penny
SP/RP - Bradon Webb
SP/RP - Francisco Cordero
RP - Jeremy Affledt
RP - Trevor Hoffman

Reserves / DL:
Res - Cliff Lee
Res - Jason Frasor
Res - Jose Lima
Res - Tim Redding
Res - Kip Wells
DL - Marcus Giles
DL - Vernon Wells
DL - Vincente Padilla

[Victor]

Get rid of Kip Wells; the Ks are not worth the damage he does to your WHIP and ERA. If you can't trade him, just cut him.

AJ Burnett and Roy Oswalt should improve as the year progresses, and Penny should continue to put up great numbers. Lima, Redding, and Kip Wells are not worth having on your team. You're better off using your waiver wire to do the spot start things, rather than stashing these guys on your bench.

[FantasyFreak]

one thing I would never do is drop kip wells. the guy is a stud. hes been playing hurt, you might have to stash him on the DL soon, but DO NOT DROP HIM

[Sturgeon]

Lets start with your batters:

Adam Everett stinks! (get rid of him)
Milton Bradley blows! (get rid of him)
Melvin Mora is coming back to earth. (try to package him with one of the bums above for a better player)
Junior Spivey? (I guess he'll do till Giles gets back)
Nick Johnson is a Kleenex! (can you do better than him?)

Now your pitching:

I agree with Victor, and I also would suggest trying to move Webb & Myers.

[George_Foreman]

gues, look at the size of the league. it's 13 teams with HUGE rosters.

basically, the top 52 batters in your standard yahoo (12 team, 9 active batters) waiver wire are owned in this league, so people like spivey and johnson are REALLY valuable. heck, even kip wells isn't too awful to have around...

that said, i would stop playing webb immediately, and as you have a pretty good leade in k/9, perhaps bench wells or try to trade him.

my suggestion would be middle relievers if they're around. guys like lidge and krod (although he closing now) can substantially lower your whip/era if played over the course of a season. if you can get any of these guys off of waivers, i'd suggest trying it at least. just don't settle for mediocre middle relief; that'll just get you ruined.