Ask Nash: Do I need to Shake my team up?

Nash —  June 22, 2012 — 4 Comments

Troy Tulowitzki

 

10 Team H2H Mixed – 8 make playoffs. 1 DL slot

C – Matt Wieters
1B – Mark Teixeira
2B – Jason Kipnis
3B – Mike Moustakas
SS – Hanley Ramirez
OF – Curtis Granderson/Allen Craig/Bryce Harper/Alejandro De Aza
UTIL – Jose Altuve
BN – Desmond Jennings/Angel Pagan
DL – Troy Tulowitzki

SP – Zack Greinke/Madison Bumgarner
RP – Santiago Casilla/Ernesto Frieri
P – Rafael Soriano/Matt Moore/Ryan Dempster/Yovani Gallardo
BN – Brandon Morrow

My team is a bit bi polar in the standings, as yesterday (6/17) my team nearly out produced the totals for the rest of the week. Right now I am in 2nd (top of my division) but I’m anywhere from 2nd to 5th depending on the week.

How concerned should I be with my team at this point? Do I look to make some trades and target some avg upgrades and/or bats who can help in both SB and power categories? Or since so many make playoffs do I just stay pat?

With Pagan,De Aza and Jennings struggling as of late (4 R, 1 SB ,0 HR combined last 7 days) who do you like in the 4 of slots and utl slot in a daily league? Should I look for another power of bat on wire, or another speedy OF if I am able to get another RP with Altuve?

With so many teams making the playoffs (80% of league), I don’t have to do too much. Maybe a bat with some pop for a decent average (Tulo if he comes back?), and a SP who can get W’s/ K’s/Whip (Dempster, Morrow when coming back?) But I feel like I need to make some moves because I now have three guys on the DL.
Jay-

Hey Jay,

Great Email, really appreciate the thoroughness! Team looks good, I don’t think you need to wildly shake things up or anything. With Tulo in your DL spot for approximately eight more weeks you may…will…struggle a bit BUT he is worth the wait of course! It does hurt you pretty bad in a head-to head-league to have three guys on the DL and some pretty good players.

I think that overall you can make do by dropping Altuve (he is probably your least valuable hitter) or maybe De Aza as you have a bunch of OFs and adding a starting pitcher. If you are comfortable with streaming pitchers then I would suggest doing that for the time being (be sure to check out Dixon’s picks every Monday! He does a terrific job of mapping out starters for the weeks that are available in just about every league.

Overall, I think this team should be able to compete once you make the playoffs, I suppose if you really want the top seed, you could go totally drastic but I feel you’d end up worse in the long run. I’ve seen it happen in all sorts of formats and it isn’t pretty. In head-to-head leagues if everyone is pretty active you will see plenty of swings week to week, but it is important to not hit the panic button and end up one of those teams that don’t make the playoffs.

If anything I would hold onto Tulo, Dempster and Morrow at all costs and sacrifice some of your bench hitters to add pitchers because you are going to end up not getting much from hitters on your bench and you can make sure to rotate in pitchers. If you can trade Altuve, De Aza or Jennings for some pitching help, that would be awesome!

Hope this helps!

Nash

In Ask Nash, Miscellany, Strategy, Trades
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Nash

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Nash is an avid sports fan who hails from the East Bay Area and now lives in the great Midwest. Nash has been playing fantasy sports for years, his favorite being fantasy baseball. Probably because it remains the only fantasy sport in which he has not won a league championship...yet.
  • Joe

    Hey guys I have yet another trade question this trade just got offered to me today in my fairly deep ROTO holds league

    - Michael Cuddyer
    - Vinny Pestano ( I would be trading these guys away )
    for
    - Adam Dunn ( who I would be getting )

    I am really thinking about pulling the trigger on this trade as I am getting crushed in the power Cats , and Dunn can hit HR’s by the truck load , Pestano is a stud as far as holds but I can most likely nab a decent HOLDS guy on the waiver.

    My only concern is do you think this trade will kill by Batting Avg to much as Dunn’s average usually isnt very good
    I do have Pence , Sandoval , & M. young who are usually decent average guys

    thanks again

    • Nash

      I agree that Pestano (although a hold stud) is replaceable, so it really comes down to Cuddyer straight up for Dunn, and if you are losing ground in power categories I think you should pull the trigger.

      • Joe

        ok cool , you dont this will destroy my batting avg ?

  • Nash

    No I don’t in fact, prepare yourself, it may even help you a tiny bit. Hear me out, the odds are that Dunn finishes a little closer to his career .240 average so he should see a good up swing the rest of the way. However, as Clave has told me time and time again, the numbers show that the shift REALLY makes a difference defensively(something like .040 lower AVGs against) so teams may just hold him to his .225 mark…but I doubt he goes much lower than that.