Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Trade Review

So I made my first significant trade of the year last Thursday. It was in one of my H2H 7x7 leagues.

I shipped out Garrett Atkins and I received Josh Beckett

My roster had a logjam at the corners. I have David Ortiz (1B), Conor Jackson, Chipper Jones and Evan Longoria for four slots. With Atkins on my roster, one of these five hitters were on my bench every night. I have always been a big believer in filling your bench with pitchers rather than hitters, and the way I had constructed this team to date went against that principle.

Garrett Atkins is having a great start to the season. At the time of the trade he was batting .335 with 7 homers. He was the most valuable chip for me to use in trade discussions because he was playing well and he had a track record. Chipper has the injury tag, Ortiz had the slow start, and C-Jax and Longoria are unproven. I'm a believer in all five of these guys for this season so I didn't have an issue with dealing any one of them in particular.

Josh Beckett started the year on the DL and that greatly affected his ADP. Many owners were scared of Beckett this year because of the early back trouble and also because, as fantasy owners, we've become skeptical of pitchers who derive value from lofty win totals. But buying Beckett at this stage of the season was intriguing because he already spent time on the DL. Now, this does not preclude him from having further injury troubles this season. It does, however, mean that I am now the owner of a top 20 SP and I did not have to waste a roster spot or draft pick on him while he was injured.

Do you think this was a good trade? Do you think either owner made received far superior value?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Given your roster needs, I would say that you made a good deal. Not a fleecing at all, mind you, but both parties got strong value.

The only problem you might run in to is WHEN Chipper goes down with some minor injury. Better hope Longoria is ready for prime-time by then.

It was a good time to pick up Beckett though. Only his ERA is high, the rest of his stats and his peripherals are all strong. You're likely to get a shutout here and there along the way.

Chris said...

Trajan - thanks for the input. Yeah, it was definitely not an outright steal. You are correct on Longoria, and my guess is that he'll have a good second half.