This was covered a bit in the Chone Figgins blurb in Friday’s Buy/Sell, but it’s worth giving it its own post. Fantasy baseball trading deadlines are right around the corner, time is slipping…slipping…slipping into the future and your fantasy baseball teams need to lose yesterday’s lunch or get off the pot. The worst feeling is coming within a few points of winning and pulling up short because you held on too tightly to your players. In October, there won’t be an award for being 50 steals greater than everyone else, but losing the championship by 1 point because you didn’t trade for power.
If you have a sizable lead anywhere, strengthen weak spots. For instance, you have a 15 save lead over your nearest competitor, but a 25 save lead over the pack. You see a trade partner for your Papelbon, but they’re only willing to give you Mark DeRosa. You try to convince yourself to do the trade for the symmetry of owning DeRosa and de la Rosa, but decide Papelbon is worth more. So in the end you fall 5 homers short of 1st place, but you’re 35 saves up on everyone. A Papelbon in the hand is not worth two points in the standings. In one year leagues, now is not the time to be worrying about the intrinsic value of a player. Only worry about the value they are to your team.
Excess saves – chuck ’em for what you need. Have Bourn, Figgins and Taveras — well, I’m not sure how you’re even competing — but trade them for some power. You need to start acting now. There’s no time like the present… The present is a gift… Sleep with scratchy rear, wake with smelly finger… Fill-in your own cliché. Just git r done!
