Fantasy Baseball 2016

Got offered a trade:
Acquire: Joe Ross (12th round), Vince Velasquez (25th round), Miguel Sano (23rd round)
Trade: Sale (can't keep)

I'm tempted. I'm currently in 10th place, 12 games out of a playoff spot. Not insurmountable, but this trade may actually improve me for this season and the future. Sale is filthy, but he's good for one or two starts a week. Ross/Velasquez will give me 2-4 starts per week and I'm not sacrificing that much in ERA (it may improve my ERA by virtue of dropping my worst pitcher).

I may counter back and try to get Gerritt Cole instead of Ross.

I don't really need Sano (I have Franco at 3B and an OF with Cespedes, Zobrist, Conforto and Beltran), but he's a solid keeper and will hopefully play better as the season progresses. Maybe I can flip him.

 

I can't imagine the guy would give you Cole in place of Ross. I guess it depends on which two players you are dropping, but this isn't bad. I don't trust Ross and Velazquez the way I trust Sale, but that is still a lot of value and potential keeper help.

 

Counter got rejected. Trying to get him to add Alex Reyes to the deal. The Cardinals' rotation is a bit of a mess, so I could see Reyes getting the call pretty soon.

 

Deal done:
Acquired: Sano, Ross, Velazquez and Reyes
Dealt: Sale, Neil Walker, A-Rod, Ryan Buchter

 

An inauspicious start for Urias - 3 ER and not out of the first inning.

 

My team is absolute shit in my big money league, so I'm starting to sell of in hopes of reloading for next year. One trade possibility:

I give up Max Scherzer ($39)

I get in return: Vince Velazsquez ($2), Jose Quintana ($14) and A.J. Pollock ($7).

I'm inclined to do it, because if I keep Max, it'll be at $44 next season, which is really, really pricey. Velasquez is young and has a high ceiling. Pollock has already come back OK from one fluke injury. Quintana gives me a solid starting option, at least. No, he's not Scherzer. But he's steady enough ... though his walk rate, WHIP and BABIP are so much lower than his career averages that I wonder if a regression is coming. Thoughts?

 

I'd make that move in a heartbeat.

 

We are already seeing the regression with Velasquez and I think it will come with Quintana, though he is still a solid pitcher. The real question is Pollock. I have him in a keeper league and what I've read about the elbow does not inspire confidence for the long term. Basically, the bone never healed from his injury in 2010. That put stress on a screw that was inserted during the first surgery, broke. The broken screw was what caused the elbow pain in March.

Doctors were concerned enough about doing the surgery that they decided to try to let him play with it, but the bone that hadn't fully healed broke again April 1. This year's surgery included screwing a new plate into the elbow and
taking bone tissue from his hip to help with the healing of the bone in the elbow. Here is the story that is the source of most of my information regarding the injury.

A.J. Pollock's broken elbow related to unhealed 2010 injury

I don't have much choice but to hold on to him and hope it works. Nobody in my league wants to deal for the guy and he's too talented to cut. That said, I certainly won't be keeping him with confidence.

 

But, frankly, none of that matters when it comes to a deal like this when your team is already in the shitter. Scherzer isn't going to help him this season and he's not going to keep him behind this years. Maybe Velazquez and Quintana regress and maybe Pollock never faces another pitch, but the upside is far too great to pass up in a lost season, unless there are other suitors making better offers.

 

I see your point, but mine was just that I wouldn't trade for Pollock given the information available right now.

 

Fair enough, but even if you think of Pollock as a throw-in, I like Quintana and Velazquez as keepers quite a bit at $16. Also, not sure what the scoring is in his league, but in mine, my team would significantly improve for this season by trading Scherzer (117 points) for Quintana (129) and Velazquez (105), without even factoring in the salary savings for next season.

 

Also fair enough. I was just throwing out evaluations of the players. From what I know about your league, it is closer to Cosmo's than the one I've done, so you probably have a better handle on what to do regarding the dollar values.