Making Moves

The last couple weeks have been a bit quiet, both here in the UPL Blog, and in the UPL. Really, the one move of note was a trade that's worked out well for both parties to this point, and probably will be good for both of us. Dan Haren for Carlos Quentin. I move some offense over to Greg, in return for a good starting pitcher. Quentin's already hit 2 HR's since the break, and Haren tossed a gem in his first start after the break.

And in order to back fill my OF, I accepted a trade that Westy had offered, Aaron Harang for Matt Kemp. There had been rumblings about Harang going on the DL for a few days, and he was finally placed on the DL the Sunday before the All-Star break. There was a little controversy, since Westy had offered the trade before Harang had gone on the DL, so we're keeping the trade tentative - if Harang doesn't come off the DL on July 23rd, as scheduled, Westy can undo the trade.

So that's all well and good. But what's interesting is how rosters evolve over the course of a season. Earlier in the season, the concern with my roster was my starting pitching. However, at this point, the starting pitching appears to be a strength of my roster, as I have traded for Ben Sheets and Dan Haren, picked up Edinson Volquez, Manny Parra, Ricky Nolasco, and Jered Weaver off of free agency. None of my starters were drafted by me. I've been fortunate with my closers (Francisco Cordero since the break, notwithstanding), as they've been rocks all season. I was able to trade away the closer off of a winning team (Kevin Gregg), and I'm still competing for the lead in saves.

As it stands, I think that my pitching will pick up points down the road, my offense should cruise back to the top of the league, and I've got a good chance of heading into football season looking for a Roland Slam. Of course, that's happened before, with only one Roland Slam to show for it. But I digress.

The point of this post is to talk about how the composition of a roster evolves. Most teams start with some noticeable holes at the start of a season. But smart moves can shore up a lot of holes. What's the secret? A few things come to mind. Obviously, you have to get luck w/ your free agent pickups. I got real lucky w/ Volquez. No one expected a Cy Young type season, but that's what he's put up so far. Pure luck. But, I did my homework with Parra, Weaver, and Nolasco. Weaver's always had the stuff - you just need to wait for him to get his control in line, and he'd be a stud. Add on that he's playing for a good defensive team, and you're in business. Parra had worse peripheral numbers (lots of walks, really), but had incredible home/away splits. I picked him up planning to only play him in home games, but he's been a stud since I got him, so he's become a regular starter. And Nolasco's been solid for the Fish all year, and I was trying to figure out how good he was based on his stats. Oddly enough, what pushed it over the top was later the same day, Peter Gammons raving about how he's got #1 starter stuff. And he's been pretty good since I've picked him up. So, you have to get lucky and do your homework with free agents. But this year, I've swung more trades than usual. What's worked differently? I've take a few approaches.

First of all, take smart bets on proven commodities. One of my most important trades was trading Aramis Ramirez for a nicked up Ben Sheets. How can you just move one of the best 3B in the game? You have backup plans. At that point, I had Troy Glaus and Scott Rolen. I assumed that at least one of them was going to have a good season, though Rolen was coming off injury, and Glaus started terribly. Based on historical numbers, that was a safe bet, as Rolen has quietly put together a career w/ an outside shot at the HOF, and Glaus has been almost as good, but even more unnoticed. Since the trade, Glaus has been a stud at 3B, and currently has stats about the same as A-Ram.

Next, stockpile with the intent to move other pieces. The more I think about it, how the A-Ram trade was able to happen was partially influenced by a different factor. I had offense to spare. There's no doubting that I lucked out w/ the Pujols trade. At the time, I wasn't convinced that the trade was going to be that overwhelming of a deal for me, particularly given my lack of starting pitching. Brett Myers has been awful this year, and Konerko has been hurt quite a bit. As a complete aside, look at my predicted HR, OBP and SLG numbers w/ Pujols. Just about dead on after 60% of the season... sick, and my R and RBI numbers are off because of the injuries at C and SS. The SB numbers are much better, though, based on my moves.

In any case, one thing that this allowed me to do was to have a known quantity at 1B, as well as a stud at UTIL (Teixeira), and know that my offense was going to be good. This let me take some chances in free agency at C (hello, Ryan Doumit), which worked out, but I also knew that it wouldn't kill me if it didn't. And just as importantly, it let me pick up Juan Pierre (and Wily Tavaras), knowing that I could have a guy who couldn't hit worth a lick actually help out my team, if he stole bases. But more to the point, it let me deal Pat Burrell (who's put up a stud season) for Alex Rios (who's picked it up quite a bit lately), and get back in contention in SB.

Another example of stockpiling was with closers. Early on, I had 4 closers, and was high up in the standings in saves. But, I traded for Kevin Gregg, anyway (part of the A-Ram deal). Why? Because I knew that a closer could be moved. I wasn't sure which one, but I knew that if I had 5 out of 30 closers, then there'd be at least one team looking to trade with me. That worked itself out rather quickly in the Burrell-Rios trade, which also included Kevin Gregg for Carlos Quentin.

And I think the most important factor is to look for teams that you can trade your strengths to, in return for areas that you're weak in. That's sort of obvious. But it's also important to give value to get value. One of the things that seems to annoy UPL folks are the garbage trade offers for players that are about to be dropped because of lack of production. I try to avoid that (though at some points, I may overvalue my players), and give quality for different quality. This was the Quentin for Haren trade. And the Burrell/Gregg for Rios/Quentin trade. And the A-Ram/Oilver Perez for Kevin Gregg/Ben Sheets trade. And really, the Konerko/Myers for Pujols trade was too (that one just hasn't worked out great for CJ, though I expected both Konerko and Myers to play better).

So the three tactics for trading? Bet on proven quantities whether it's who you're acquiring, or who you're backfilling. Stockpile to trade. Trade value for value. Also, I'd say that it helps to have a sense of what you want your roster to eventually look like. I knew that I needed starting pitching. Starting pitching can be hard to get. I had to get enough talent in other scarce areas (or other elite talent) so that I could get after pitching later. If you can combine this with some smart/lucky free agent pickups, you'll have a shot at the W.

Will I get the W? Beats me. But I think that the Roland slam is looking like a reasonable 15-1 shot, a little off from my initial 10-1 guess (which is still pretty good, if you really think about it).

-Chairman (aka O.N. Thugs)