Fantasy Baseball Keeper Advice (Braun, Prince, Pujols, etc...)

[Prince James]

Hi All,

 

I am in a keeper league with 12 teams (head to head). SB's have a minimal impact, and we do penalize players for K's and Errors. We can keep 4 players from the previous year and I had a pretty good team last year. I was hoping for a little advice. I already traded Miguel Cabrera and Magglio Ordonez (and low round draft picks) for significantly higher round draft picks. I still have Pujols, Fielder (we have one DH), Braun, Webb. All of which I plan to protect.

 

I was considering pulling another deal where I might send any of the above 4 players to another team for another high draft pick, and then protect BJ Upton. There is a lot of Brewer love in our league, so dealing a Brewer might realize a pretty high return. Thoughts about Upton or any of my 4 targetted protected players?

 

Also, I have Weeks, Hart, Hall, Coco, and Valverde on my team, but I do not consider any of these guys "protectable.

[TooLiveBrew]

There is a lot of Brewer love in our league, so dealing a Brewer might realize a pretty high return.

 

That's the essence of Moneyball right there - take advantage of what's undervalued... in this case, non-Brewers. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Big Reed]

that's a very tough spot to be in. From your post, it appears you are keeping pujols, fielder, braun and Webb. and you have upton to either keep or trade. is this right? and you say steals are minimized?

 

one thing to consider is that every team is keeping 4 players, so if you trade a player away, you are basically trading that player for a 5th round pick in a normal draft because the first 4 rounds already are kept. All 4 of your keepers are worth a lot more than just a 5th round pick.

 

if you kept Upton, who would you trade? braun or Webb? Something to consider is if braun or Upton will maintain their previous year's position. does upton still qualify at second? Does braun still qualify at third? Upton is a lot more valuable as a second baseman than braun is at third. there are lots of third baseman. I have a keeper league where I kept Gordon, Braun and cabrera. I plan to play gordon at first and braun in the outfield. I have Upton in another league and will play him at Second for as long as he qualifies.

 

I cant see keeping upton and trading braun or fielder for a draft pick. But, I could see trading braun or fielder for another keeper such as reyes or wright or howard or AROD. I think if you have a lot of brewer fans in your league, you could probably trade Fielder or braun for AROD.

 

another idea is to keep upton if he has second base status and then trade Webb for a draft pick. This leaves you with no pitching keepers, but there are always a lot of unprotected pitchers who come out of nowhere and have great seasons- just like ben Sheets will. in most other leagues, a guy like gagne would go in the late rounds because people will remember his Bo Sox days. it's also my experience that you can trade an above average position player for an all star pitcher. after your draft, you could easily trade fielder or Braun for Santana. you may want to do that now.

 

you're in a very nice position to deal from. just some food for thought.

[Prince James]

I cant see keeping upton and trading braun or fielder for a draft pick. But, I could see trading braun or fielder for another keeper such as reyes or wright or howard or AROD. I think if you have a lot of brewer fans in your league, you could probably trade Fielder or braun for AROD.

That's funny, I actually traded AROD for Weeks last year before the season began. I still ended up winning the league, but the trade was less than optimal.

 

I think I am going to end up keeping Webb, Braun (eligible at 3rd and OF this year), Fielder, and Pujols, hoping that I can get BJ Upton (eligible at 2nd and OF) with some of the higher draft picks I already traded for. I sure hope I didn't miss the boat when I traded away Cabrera.

 

Thanks for the advice guys. It hurts saying goodbye to guys like Dunn, Chris Young (ARI), Hunter Pence, CoCo, etc., but that's part of the fun.

[ccbrew]

General fantasy baseball question (not keeper) - I've always been an advocate for not having too many players from the same team on my squad. I suppose it's not as bad of a problem in 5x5 leagues compared to weekly head-to-head, but my reasons to avoid teammates include sharing of RBIs, tough matchups on the same day, etc.

 

Keeping in mind that I already have Prince Fielder and Corey Hart in my starting roster and Bill Hall on the bench, the following trade has fallen in my lap:

 

Brian Roberts

Jason Isringhausen

 

for

 

Ryan Braun

Kevin Gregg

 

I cringed when picking Isringhausen because he's bound to get hurt and the Cardinals arn't going to give him many opps this season. I'm covered in the SB category with a specialist in Willy Taveras and others. I know it's hard to judge a trade in a vacuum, but would you ever decline a trade simply for the sake of diversification?

[Big Reed]

I'm thinking braun probably still qualifies as a third baseman for this year.

 

 

Here are all the negatives i can think of.

 

i wouldn't expect too much from tavaras this year. he seemed to lose favor with the rockies during the play-offs and the rockies have several other outfielders who could platoon with him. So hopefully he's not your starter. gregg turned in a nice year las t year, but he was their 4th choice as a closer. they may go back to plan A for this year and gregg goes back to being a nice set-up man. isringhausen isn't going to get many saves this year as the Cardinals will not be a very good team. Roberts is still rumored to be heading to the Cubs. As a cub, he may not steal as many bases.

 

on a positive side,

 

Look at what Fielder did his second year. braun will not duplicate what he did last year, but he's hitting in the #3 slot which will mean hitting over .300, with 35+ homers, 100 runs, 100 BI and a nice slugging average. he may continue to steal bases as well. braun is a guy who is going in the first round of every draft. if you are not sure you want braun, I can guarantee you will receive 25+ offers for him. braun is a must have!

 

I would do this trade. But I would trade gregg off for another closer before the season starts. perhaps for gagne or one of the Corderos or Arizona's lyons. m y expectations for gregg this year are low. I expect tankersley to be given another shot at closing.

[ccbrew]

Thanks for the insight. I had actually already accepted the trade but was feeling a case of 'buyer's remorse' and needed confirmation that I made an ok decision http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif. I have mixed feelings about Gregg as well..it's hard to ignore how the closer's job became his by default last season, but he did get the job done..

 

Gagne has to be one of the lowest drafted closer-on-a-winning-team in recent memory. Some of the names going before him were surprising - I guess people are quite scared/scarred by his Boston tenure.