fresh draft OBP league - help?

General Manager Joined: Feb 24, 2004 Posts: 203

Hey, the league is 12 team 5x5 w/OBP instead of AVG. I need to make some trades so I can start all the players, and I definately need RP help. Love to have some advice. One of my main questions is would you deal Thome or Aramis Ramirez?

C - Jason Varitek
1B - Adam LaRoche
2B - Marcus Giles
3B - Miguel Cabrera
SS - Rafael Furcal
OF - Manny Ramirez
OF - Michael Cuddyer
OF - Juan Pierre
Utl - Aramis Ramirez
BN - Jim Thome
BN - Kevin Youkilis
BN - Dave Roberts

SP - John Smoltz, Scott Kazmir, Rich Harden, Derek Lowe, Brad Penny, Freddy Garcia
RP - Brad Lidge, Joel Pineiro, Rafael Soriano

any help would be very much appreciated -- maybe some ideas for trades? Thanks in advance!

Manager Joined: Mar 15, 2007 Posts: 87

I'm guessing you had around the 8-10 pick, had Cabrera/Manny as your first wraparound and Thome/A-Ram as the second? Taking two 3B guys and a DH that early cramped you quite a bit.

First off, you have two pretty much one-trick ponies on your roster, Pierre and Roberts. Both of them are on weak-hitting teams so probably aren't going to see huge run totals and neither of them has any power. Pierre is a nightmare at OBP, but Roberts getting even 500 plate appearances is a big risk. If you can make up the steals somewhere else through trades, by all means do so.

If you can't, and are stuck with Pierre, I'd say keep Thome over A-Ram. He's a better OBP guy by a good margin. Unfortunately, depending on how sophisticated your opponents are, you might be able to get better trade value for Thome because of name recognition.

As far as people to target for trades, it's hard to give advice wthout knowing anything about the other owners/rosters, just because nailing people with a bias towards particular teams is always great fun. Assuming they'll make semi-intelligent decisions...Ian Kinsler might be a good target for a 2B, he rates to be a solid improvement over Giles and you can probably get him easily enough as a throw-in on a deal. Perhaps A-Ram/Cuddyer/Giles for a good 5-tool outfielder, an upgrade at 2nd, and a good closer? Anything along those lines would depend on what people have available and what their apparent needs are, though.

General Manager Joined: Feb 24, 2004 Posts: 203

thanks...that's really helpful. Actually -- I had 12th pick, and Thome happened to fall to my 7th/8th round pick, so I couldn't really pass him up. I like your trade idea. I will look into that.

General Manager Joined: Feb 24, 2004 Posts: 203

well, I traded Derek Lowe for Chad Cordero. One out of the way---still trying to deal Ramirez or Thome

Manager Joined: Jun 22, 2006 Posts: 77

Twosteppingyanks wrote:

well, I traded Derek Lowe for Chad Cordero. One out of the way---still trying to deal Ramirez or Thome

Wow, you nailed him there.

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:41 am

I would also look at 2B depth. Giles is injured too often and you'll need a capable bat to fill in or possibly even start over him. Take a look at trying to get someone like Lugo who can fill many positions for you (2B, 3B, SS) which is very nice to have with so few offensive bench spots.

Personally I think your OF is weak. Pierre, Cuddyer, and Roberts are nice bench OF's in an OBP league, but not starters with this shallow a league. I'd try nabbing Holiday off someone, his value seems to be a bit lower than the other elite OF options.

Manager Joined: Mar 15, 2007 Posts: 87

Holliday is an excellent choice, I have him in every league I've been able to snag him in. Solid production across the board, and not as drooled over by most by a long shot as most of the other big producing outfielders. Another possibility would be to try to snag someone like Rios or Markakis in the outfield, guys that rate to produce average+ production in most all categories and could give more, along with a solid upgrade at 1B. This might be a way to go if people are reluctant to part with their early draft picks, looking for guys that rate to balance out your production and provide overall improvements.