Rob

I got three hours of sleep last night and had a test this morning... so I am completely freaking drained. I'll be happy if I make it through the entire game.

It took most of my energy just to be as excited reading this as you were writing it. I'm all tapped out now. Sorry.

To answer all the questions about how I managed to get this team... I traded: Kelly Johnson and Gary Sheffield for Dan Uggla and Lance Berkman Carlos Guillen and Jered Weaver for Bill Hall (bad trade, I know... but I had to get Bill Hall to set up the next trade) Alex Gordon, Bill Hall, Jake Peavy, Ben Sheets, and Trevor Hoffman for Alex Rodriguez, Felipe Lopez, Scott Kazmir, and Matt Cain Dan Uggla, Lance Berkman, and Scott Kazmir for BJ Upton, Carlos Beltran, and Cole Hamels Mike Napoli, Carlos Beltran, Josh Hamilton and Roger Clemens for Vladimir Guerrero, Nick Swisher, and AJ Pierzynski AJ Pierzynski, Nick Swisher, and Jhonny Peralta for Joe Mauer and Julio Lugo Adam Dunn and Cole Hamels for Manny Ramirez, Bill Hall, and Andrew Miller I've been doing a real good job of grabbing guys off the waiver wire and flipping them for good value. But the whole chain of events started when I got Berkman while his value was low. I've essentially traded from him up to Vlad by way of Beltran. And since none of the people in my league understand pitching prospects, I'm able to grab those guys off the wire to restock my pitching at will. (Hence why I was able to trade so much for ARod). The only guys on my team that were there after the draft are Pujols, Hafner, King Felix, Rich Hill, and JJ Putz. I guess you could count Howie Kendrick, but I dropped him after his injury and he slowly made his way back around the league to me. Everybody else I've nabbed off waivers or through trades.

:lol: seriously. 3 of his best consecutive power years were his ages 38-40 seasons. He's also dramatically altered his swing to try and drop flyballs into the crawford boxes. His power certainly isn't showing up away from Houston.

12 team standard h2h league with IP and OBP added. In addition, we get four keepers. I've been offered Johan Santana, Jake Peavy, and Carl Crawford for Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, and Matt Cain. This is my team right now. C - Joe Mauer 1B - Albert Pujols 2B - Howie Kendrick 3B - Alex Rodriguez SS - Bill Hall LF - Manny Ramirez CF - Vernon Wells RF - Vladamir Guerrero UTIL - Travis Hafner SP - Felix Hernandez SP - Rich Hill SP - Matt Cain P - Chien-Ming Wang P - Jeremy Accardo RP - J.J. Putz Bench - Tim Lincecum Bench - Andrew Miller DL - BJ Upton If I were to do the trade, I could slide Travis Hafner to 1B and put Crawford or Manny at UTIL. And Ramon Hernandez is available on the waiver wire to be my new catcher. I'm fairly confidant that this makes my team better this season. But if you haven't guessed from looking at my team, I'm already in first place. And I worry that all it does is slightly degrade my keepers next season. So I have two questions I need help with. 1. Do you make this trade if you're in my shoes? 2. Who on earth would you keep?

Yeah, I'm down to 285.

Just for fun, I've decided to make a team that wouldn't be FA eligible at the end of this season, even though we aren't paying attention to the contracts. Joe Mauer Hanley Ramirez Miguel Cabrera Jake Peavy Felix Hernandez (real surprised at the lack of love for him)

oh for crying out loud....did you even read the article. Yes, absolutely. He makes a point to note that the Cubs waited until Barret's value was at his lowest to trade him, which is completely a hindsight argument. In the offseason, when his value was high, there was no need or desire to trade him. Trading him at his highest value wasn't in anyone's thoughts. So its a nonsensical argument. The other notable names in his article (aside from Sosa) are people who have bounced around baseball, playing for numerous teams, and not sticking with any of them for more than 2 years. How much value do these career journeyman have anyway? Has any team received real value in trading for guys like Walker or Bellhorn? Barrett is a catcher on the wrong side of 30. Given that, there was quite a risk of offensive implosion. While I probably wouldn't have traded Barrett in Hendry's shoes, I would have certainly thought about packaging him with Jacque and Eyre (whose values were certainly about to crash, as they had shown no ability to keep that level of performance up) to see if I could get an upgrade at SS or RF. At any rate, Bellhorn was an extremely valuable part of the Red Sox in 2004. He hit .264/.373/.444 for the team that won the WS. I'd say he has pretty decent value.

Yeah... Pujols is younger and has a lead of 166 HR right now. I'd say Howard has to be ranked well behind him.

Who is the other? It's understood to be me.

My vote has officially been bought.

Meh. Are you kidding me? What? Those girls are classic examples of "Butterface" syndrome.

Colour me skeptical after this long...

I know DFAing a player clears their 25 man roster spot... does it clear the 40 man too?

There are a very few experiences in my life that I thoroughly regret. When I'm by myself and the thoughts happen to wander to those experiences, I always find myself screaming curse words. Thankfully, this doesn't happen often... but I always wonder if the neighbors have ever wondered if there's a guy with tourettes next door.

While it's not surprising, it's quite disheartening that Hendry doesn't just cut Izzy or Jones already.

http://www.fangraphs.com/lgraphs/270625116_Rockies_Cubs_21764476_lbig.png

chat/flashchat.php

wow that 6 through 9 sure inspires a lot of confidence. DeRosa's .776 OPS hitting #5 isn't exactly up to snuff either.

My Lineup Prediction: Soriano, LF Pagan, CF Lee, 1B Aramis, 3B DeRosa, RF Bowen, C Theriot, 2B Izturis, SS Marquis, P

I'd still rather see if he could stick in the rotation than get 3-4 IP out of him a week.

Good god. Z is looking fantastic. I, for my part, regret ever doubting the man when his velocity was down.

Be careful. His six kids with five different women seem to indicate he doesn't like to play safe.

One could argue that's what the Barrett trade was. That was tossing deck chairs off the titanic, because they thought the deck chairs were weighing the thing down. Very true. Unfortunately, we may have tossed off the wrong chairs. We got rid of the boat anchor, unfortunately the ship has already run aground. Which anchor did we get rid of? Izturis, Jones, and Eyre are all getting paid more than Barrett was, for half the production... combined.

It's on Fox Sports now.