As the MLB regular season is quickly approaching us, it's almost time for the start of the glorious game of fantasy baseball. Over the course of the season, I'll posting some notes about my teams and some of the strategies that I use. Maybe it'll help, and maybe it won't. Either way, it will still be a fun way to write/read about one of the greatest sports known to mankind.
Today's post will be about my trade of the season (even though we haven't even experienced the thrill of Opening Day yet). It was proposed over the weekend by a team in one of my leagues. First, a little background information: the league is a 12-team, Roto-style. Scoring is for hitters: runs, home runs, RBIs, stolen bases and batting average. For pitchers: wins, saves, strikeouts, earned run average and WHIP.
The person who proposed the trade was wanting to acquire Nationals' ace Max Scherzer from my team in exchange for Cardinals' closer Trevor Rosenthall and Boston's closer Craig Kimbrel. I always try to give myself at least 24 hours before evaluating the trade just to make sure I don't rush the decision.
I waited my allotted time frame and started to weigh the pros and cons of the trade. I would be dealing away the pitcher that I paid the most money for (auction style draft), but saves was a category that I had somewhat neglected in the draft because I went with a strategy where I spent much more of my fake cash on hitters because I wanted to make sure that I could compete in the offensive categories due to there being more of them versus pitching.
I ended up accepting the trade for a couple of reasons. The first being that Rosenthal and Kimbrel both have legitimate security of remaining their respective team's closer. Boston and St. Louis will turn to these guys every chance they can because they have them both slate in closing roles. Basically, neither the Red Sox or Cardinals will be using a committee to save games, and that security is a bonus for a roster like mine, who's got Minnesota reliever Glen Perkins as my top dog for saves.
The second reason for accepting this trade was that I feel pretty good about my starting pitching. Barring injury, Dallas Keuchel and Johnny Cueto are pretty secure picks. I know Cueto got lit up in his Spring Training debut, but I'm not putting much stock into it. I really liked him this season because AT&T Park is a good place for a pitcher, and I felt like I couldn't go wrong with last year's AL Cy Young winner in snatching Keuchel. I'm hoping for a bounce back year from Justin Verlander, and I also drafted Taijuan Walker of the Mariners because he's showed a lot of upside and was cheap.
Nothing better than a cheap pitcher with upside....right?
Besides Perkins, I was depending on Cleveland's Cody Allen to get my saves. I had to drop my last pick, which was Darren O'Day from Baltimore, due to my roster's size limit. I wasn't expecting O'Day to get me saves, he was going to help me protect my WHIP and ERA categories, and there was ZERO starting pitching left on the board going into that pick.
Lastly, the insurance of the trade is that it's a two-for-one deal. Instead of solely depending on Scherzer to pitch well, I now have two players to lean on. Sure, there are going to be some bad outings, and every major league pitcher has them. With this trade, however, there's a more slim chance that two pitchers are going to fail me versus just Scherzer.
I might sound like this was an easy trade for me to make, but it really wasn't. I just think that I could dominate the saves category in my league versus competing in the wins stat. Usually, I punt saves and try to make my team more efficient in other areas, but with this deal I think I can honestly put trust in those four players to put me in first place in that category night-in and night-out. That being said, it was still tough ways to part with a pitcher that threw two no-hitters last season, but you got to go with your gut. This felt like the more productive thing to do.
As always, thanks for reading. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @griffaldo.
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