Trading On Up

How do you make your team better without giving up the farm? Trade up. It is a little more fun if you sing “We’re tradin’ on up. To the top…” to the tune of “We’re Movin’ On Up” but that part is optional.

I haven’t had any luck yet in my money league or my keeper league, but I’ve already completed two in Yahoo H2H leagues. Since I’m maxed out on Yahoo leagues (4 teams is all they let you have), I have many opportunities. Let’s analyze both deals for my teams:

The first one is a deal I briefly discussed in a blog earlier this week: Carlos Pena and Rafael Furcal for Hanley Ramirez. Han-Ram is likely to go 30-50 again this season and all I had to do to upgrade at SS was give up an overrated 1Bman (I’m not a believer that Pena has finally figured out how to use his potential). By trading 2-for-1, I open up a roster spot for a waiver wire pickup which I used on Jason Giambi. I think that Giambi will have a good year now that the Yanks will play him at 1B with regularity. So, in essence, the trade is Furcal and Pena for Ramirez and Giambi. That’s a very one-sided deal in my favor.

In the second deal, I was dealing shortstops from a point of depth. Somehow, I ended up with Carlos Guillen, Julio Lugo, Miguel Tejada and Jimmy Rollins in the automated draft. So I decided to keep Rollins (the best of the bunch) and trade the two that will most likely bring me the best returns. Since Lugo had an off year last season, Tejada and Guillen should have the most trade value. I offered Guillen and Howie Kendrick (I also have Placido Polanco) for Mark Teixeira. I really needed an upgrade at 1B, so Big Tex fit the bill. With all my SS’s I was low on pitchers so I used the open roster spot to grab another closer, Troy Percival. I think he’ll eventually hurt my ratios, but I need saves and the Rays should provide a fair number of those this season. So in the end, the trade was Guillen and Kendrick for Teixeira and Percival. Another big win for me.

Why does this type of trade work? Many owners are willing to turn their one superstar into two good pieces if they have multiple holes to fill. Also, these owners rarely look at the fact that they have to drop a player in this deal to open up a roster spot. I usually make these deals with a free agent in mind, but I never let that be the reason that I don’t make the offer to get a superstar in return for two lesser players.

The moral of this story is quality is always better than quantity in fantasy baseball. You win titles with the superstars, not a bunch of “good” players.