Conor Jackson is enjoying a breakout season and is an excellent player to target in keeper leagues for next season too.
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It’s the beginning of June, which can be an exciting time as far as trading in fantasy leagues is concerned. I’ve found over the years that many teams use free agent pick-ups as stopgaps until about June. It’s then they realize they can’t patch the hole in their team with what is available on the wire. By June, there is usually enough of a sample available to start noting some statistical trends in certain players, especially rookies, imported players and even the odd player that was called up last June. It is also a fantastic time to inquire about players that have thus far disappointed owners.
Give your own team a hard look and note its deficiencies. If you are in a keeper league, it is likely time to start playing to win, or playing to win next year. If you’re in the latter half, the sooner you recognize this, the better. There will be similar teams to yours that still feel they have a chance (and actually don’t), which will be looking to get your older more expensive players while you take the cheaper upside players in return. If you’re part of the former, you should be trying everything you can to win. The nature of the keeper league insists that if you have a chance to compete, you should. Next year could bring injuries or poor performance from a generally steady player. Think of how Jake Peavy’s injury no doubt de-railed a few teams’ league championship dreams. If you are in the running now, it is time to cement that title run.
If you’re playing in a one-year league, you have nothing to lose but the championship, or being ‘in the money’, which is generally 3rd place and up. Its time to look at what your team will need this year to compete for 3rd at the least. This may seem a daunting task, but look closely at your team. See if there are pitchers that are just hurting you in ERA and WHIP and try dumping them for the ‘hot pickup’. Pay close attention to pitcher match ups. A mediocre pitcher against a poor hitting team makes for a greater percentage chance of above average stats. In other words, if Ubaldo Jimenez is on your free agent wire, and he’s playing San Francisco, give him a shot.
Are you low in saves? You will likely have to look to trade for a closer, as it’s rare to find one on the waiver wire. Although, please don’t trade your best hitter or pitcher for either of Joe Nathan or Francisco Rodriguez. Jon Rauch will do just fine and will come at a cheaper price. If this fails, I would dump a starting pitcher for a relief pitcher who may have a shot at saves if the current closer goes down. A lot of fantasy managers are pretty astute to this now, with all of the information available to them via the Internet. However, bear in mind as the season plays on, fantasy players often pay less attention to the day-to-day changes of baseball teams. Just like in fantasy football, where you want to own quality running back handcuffs, make sure you know each closer’s handcuff. To that same end, if a set up man goes down, make sure you grab the new set up man. Saves are a strange animal, which usually rewards the diligent. Just remember, Salomon Torres was the 3rd or 4th reliever in the Milwaukee bullpen at the beginning of the year, now he’s the closer.
If you’re hurting in batting average at this point, try and play your bench hitters over your regulars when they have a good match up. Don’t try and trade for batting average. You compile a ton of at bats over a year, and it becomes more unlikely as the year goes on that you will improve this category dramatically. When I’m looking to improve my team at this point in the year, that is one stat I tend to avoid. Mind you, I don’t try to run myself out of contention with it either. The point I’m trying to make here is that you shouldn’t overvalue high batting average players in a trade because you need batting average to gain points. It takes a lot of hits to improve your team batting average now that two months of at bats have been accumulated.
Another reason for being diligent at this point in the season; even if I’m in last place, I’m trying to move up somehow. Most of you shouldn’t be surprised to see a few teams that are less cared for in the bottom half of the standings. This creates an opportunity for you and is what makes June so great. If managers are bailing, it makes it harder to trade, but easier to make good pick ups. Just keeping a healthy, full line up can do wonders for your teams’ standing. People tend to undervalue runs and RBI, and you need active players to generate these statistics.
In the end, there is actually no better time to start proposing trades than right now. You’ve managed to acquire some assets over the last two months, but it’s now time to be gaining in categories. If your team needs a category, don’t be afraid to give away the better player to get the deal done. You will need these categories to compete. Now, get out there and start offering some trades!
C.C. Sabathia had complete game shutout Tuesday night, walking none, and striking out five. Also tossing a complete game was Dustin McGowan, who had one earned run, with seven strikeouts over nine innings pitched. He walked two, and allowed five hits. Both of these guys came out of the gate a little slow. At the beginning of the season McGowan was a heavy favourite to be a top sleeper for this year. Now he makes for a sneaky ‘buy low’ candidate as he has pitched well, but not up to his preseason hype. A little tip, I wouldn’t offer a trade for him right after his complete game performance.
National’s catcher Jesus Flores is hitting .318 for the season, and now he has three home runs as well after Tuesday night. Last week it was Rod Barajas, I recommended as a decent second catcher option. This week give Flores a try. He’s only 23 years old and Washington’s other options at catcher (Paul Lo Duca and Johnny Estrada) are both currently on the DL. With Washington still in a re-building mode, I would expect to see a lot of at bats for the younger Flores going forward.
Brad Wilkerson is hitting .308 with a home run and 2 stolen bases over his last few games. He makes a good deep league play right now. Don’t expect a sexy batting average, but he provides a bit of pop complimented by a nudge of speed. He’s currently in a platoon with Kevin Mench.
Conor Jackson continued his tearing up of MLB pitching this season with a home run last night. His on base percentage for the year stands at a robust .405. Jackson was a highly touted prospect and after being stuck in a platoon the last few years is having a legit break out season. Keeper league owners, as mentioned above, if you’re out of contention CoJack (Can I call him that?) makes a great trade target.
Micah Owings got blasted again only lasting 4 and 1/3 innings last night, while giving up four earned runs, striking out only two and walking three. The Mets are a powerful team, but Owings has been just plain bad this month. I’m not selling, as I think he will still be a good source of strikeouts and wins for the rest of the year. He’s going to have some bad nights like this, as he’s still relatively young. Keep in mind, he had an outstanding second half last year.
