Well we're almost 2 months into the season and my roto team is looking decent (12 teams, 5x5). My offense started slow while my pitching dominated (Peavy, Carmona, Wandy all started hot), but as I began to make some trades, the trends flip-flopped (good thing I did cause that original staff slowed down a good deal). Most of those trades are looking pretty good or at worst fair; however, now my pitching is pretty weak and as it stands now, I don't think I'll be able to obtain the points I'll need from the pitching categories in order to finish at the top.
C - Navarro
C - Salty
1b - M. Cabrera
2b - K. Matsui
3b - Braun
SS - S. Drew
CI - Giambi
MI - O. Cabrera
OF - Dunn
OF - Bruce
OF - Abreu
OF - Ichiro
OF - Pence
Util - Kouzmanoff
BN - D. Young
DL - Kendrick
DL - Blalock
P - F. Hernandez
P - Maddux
P - Penny
P - Beckett
P - Cain
P - Borowski
P - Valverde
P - Hoffman
P - Acosta
BN - Colon
BN - S. Olsen
Here's how I currently rank:
Runs - 10
HR - 12
RBI - 5
SB - 11
AVG - 8.5
Wins - 2
Saves - 7
Ks - 4
ERA - 6
WHIP- 2
It seems that pitching is much harder to project than hitting. Guys like Dempster, Marcum, Lincecum, Volquez, Cliff Lee, Cook, and Saunders (to name a few) were all picked in the later rounds but make up the group of pitchers carrying teams pitching stats. Nevertheless, there are still the Webb's, Zambrano's, and Daisuke's that were projected to be decent/solid, but are also putting up the good numbers. How do you recommend going about building a pitching staff?
I've been thinking about Verlander, Cueto, Snell, Ollie Perez, or Peavy as possible buy lows; but giving up a legitimate hitter like a Pence, Braun, or Dunn just seems too risky. Should I not be afraid to send a guy like Pence or Abreu for a solid pitching option like Harang? Or part with a Ryan Braun to bring in Webb, Haren, or Santana?
I dunno. Let me hear your input and some pitchers I should look into acquiring.
Also here's a list of FA pitchers that I'd consider dropping Acosta for:
Arroyo
Campillo
Rasner
Westbrook
Nolasco
E. Jackson
Chris Perez - should I not even wait until he's put into the closer role considering Acosta is no longer getting saves?
We have a max moves of 60 and I've used 17.
Thanks for reading and I appreciate your input.