Roster Doctor - 6/11/09
by Paul SingmanJune 11, 2009
Welcome to THT Fantasy's Roster Doctor. If you'd like your team to be analyzed by one of our fantasy baseball experts, please send your full roster to this address. Also be sure to include your league's player pool (mixed, AL-only, NL-only), number of teams, scoring format (roto, head-to-head, points, etc.), categories, whether or not it's a keeper league, and any other pertinent information. If your roster is selected it will be analyzed in a future Roster Doctor column.
Player Pool: Mixed
No. of Teams: 12
Categories: Traditional 5x5
Scoring Type: Roto
Other Notes: Daily updates
Roster:
C - Matt Wieters
1B - Mark Teixeira
2B - Ian Kinsler
3B - Alex Rodriguez
SS - J.J. Hardy
OF - B.J. Upton
OF - Curtis Granderson
OF - Adam Jones
Util - Hank Blalock
BN - Ben Francisco
Bn - Elvis Andrus
BN - Nick Swisher
BN - Jarrod Saltalamacchia
DL - Grady Sizemore
P - Dan Haren
P - Josh Johnson
P - Chris Carpenter
P - Ryan Franklin
P - Andrew Bailey
P - J.P. Howell
P - C.J. Wilson
B - Derek Lowe
B - Ricky Nolasco
DL - Justin Duchscherer
It is a shame this is not a keeper league because otherwise your catching tandem of Salty and Wieters would be incredible. Instead, both are mediocre catchers for this season but who knows how good Wieters will be when he settles into the majors.
Your infield is flawless besides Hardy but as I've said to previous Hardy owners in this column, you are better off holding onto him than expecting to get anytihng back in a trade. I do still expect him to have a significantly better second 3/5ths of the season than his first 2/5ths. And Andrus is a worthy replacement if I am wrong about Hardy.
As it should be in a three-OF league, your outfield is very good and will only get better when Sizemore returns, which is looking like it will happen sooner rather than later. Swisher is a great backup who should be plugged in during his periodic hot streaks.
Considering the depth of your outfield, Francisco should be cut because I do not see him fulfilling any role or purpose for your team. He does provide some steals but your team is solid enough with steals with Kinsler, Upton, Granderson, Sizemore (when he returns), and Andrus (who I would consider starting over Hardy while he continues to slump).
This certainly is a top half stolen base team—you would have to trade for another speedster to rise to the elite level—but I feel you will place well enough in steals that it is unnecessary to make a trade that would possibly sacrifice your other hitting categories for the sake of gaining two or three points in stolen bases.
Moving to your pitching, it is clearly dominant. You lucked out so far with Carpenter and Johnson but in general I would say it is not the best of ideas to select pitchers coming off Tommy John surgery (advice for next year). Lowe is also solid and Nolasco is worth holding onto for his potential. With the roster spot freed up from cutting Francisco, I would take an early stab at one of the potential closers Derek mentioned in this Buy on the Rumor post.
Therefore if one of them pans out, you can continue your process of trading closers to bolster your team elsewhere. A strategy that requires some dedication; I think it beneficial for the other readers to see how you put it:
I am always chasing saves because I constantly trade away my closers in packaged deals to acquire other players. It has helped me put together trades that have netted most of the big names on my roster.
Being first to jump on newly anointed closers has its place in fantasy baseball. For all of you too proud owners (a category I fall into sometimes) there is no shame in joining the digging through the rummage of free agency to find the next closer, especially when it leads to you winning hardware in September.
Paul has been managing fantasy baseball teams for many seasons and writing for THT Fantasy over the past three years. He is currently a student at UPenn welcomes readers' thoughts at his email here or in the comments below.
<< Return to Article