Wednesday, June 09, 2010

My Boring Fantasy Team #1

Last week I made two fantasy trades that sent a couple tremors through the rest of the league. First, I sent 2B Daniel Cooley Uggla and 1B Paul Konerko to my friend Kyle in exchange for 2B Brandon Phillips, OF Michael Bourn and Zack fucking Greinke, arguably one of the top three pitchers in the game right now. It stings to give up Uggla when I've had middle infield problems but Phillips is probably a net upgrade when you consider his stolen bases and I have not pointed out to my trading partner that Phillips doesn't have such a drop-off in the power counting stats. Kyle is sorely in need of power, and Konerko is a better CI than any of the guys he's been playing there so far. And he's frustrated enough with Greinke's winless ways that he's willing to offer him for an otherwise replaceable CI. Power is hard to come by on the wire, but I plucked Konerko off waivers and I can play Justin Smoak or Chipper Jones or Daric Barton until I find a stable solution. I'll lose a bit in power, but gain serious stolen bases and upgrade to an ace starter when I'm in the middle of the pack in ERA/WHIP. 

What I'm betting on is Kyle not realizing the damage he will do by giving me so many stolen bases. I'm next-to-last in SB, and he's third from the top, but there's only 5 stolen bases separating us in the standings. With Phillips, Bourn and Jimmy Rollins soon coming off the DL for me, I expect to race up the charts. I also expect to take Kyle down a notch in ERA/WHIP, now that he's lost a key source. Kyle is so far behind me in power that what I've given him will hurt others more than it will hurt me. Greinke got bitch-slapped for 6 runs last night, so his tenure on my team is not off to a good start.

My other trading partner was The Guy We Don't Know. I flipped C Gerald Demp "Buster" Posey for closer Brian Wilson. With Bill and Andy nipping at my heels in saves, my 2nd placing in the category is getting precarious. What better way to fix that problem by trading a surplus catcher to the only guy ahead of me in saves? In a two-catcher league, the position is at a premium and I had scooped up Buster when an extra roster spot presented itself. I was already playing Joe Mauer and Miguel Olivo (to replace Jorge Posada and his hairline-fractured foot) so I looked around for teams hurting for catchers. The Guy We Don't Know was employing Dioner Navarro, he of the putrid 46 OPS+. He was quick to pounce the chance to upgrade his catcher, even at the expense of losing ground to his biggest competition in saves. 

The season will tell who wins these trades. I'm sitting in 2nd with competition, but I think I've systematically eliminated Kyle from the five or so contenders. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Smith - This is your great-grandaughter writing. Sorry I never got to meet you. They buried you three years before I arrived on planet Earth. Anyway, thought you should know that you look very similar to my father (that would be your grandson, Bobby; your daughter Anne's son; remember the time you lost him near Fenway Park?). Anyway, sorry we never got to meet you in person. Strange finding you here on blogger. You might be interested to know that this branch of your family still loves baseball - we're all Detroit Tiger fans (yeah, sorry about that).