Roster Doctor – 4/10/09

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Player pool: Mixed
No. of teams: 10
Categories: Traditional 5×5
Scoring Type: Roto
Roster:

C – Victor Martinez
C – Ramon Hernandez
1B – Carlos Pena
2B – Alexei Ramirez
SS – Jimmy Rollins
3B – David Wright
CI – Adrian Beltre
MI – Robinson Cano
OF – Manny Ramirez
OF – Nick Markakis
OF – Alex Rios
OF – Adam Dunn
OF – Lastings Milledge
UT – Adam LaRoche

P – Javier Vazquez
P – Yovani Gallardo
P – Joba Chamberlain
P – Zack Greinke
P – Aaron Harang
P – Ted Lilly
P – Chad Qualls
P – Joel Hanrahan
P – Matt Lindstrom

BN – Kevin Slowey
BN – Scott Baker
BN – Jason Motte
BN – George Sherrill
BN – J.J. Putz
BN – Hong-Chih Kuo

This is a team that I like a lot. The pitching is very strong with eight very good starting pitchers and a mix of risks and safer players. The team has five closers and the two best setup men in the game.

The only real move I would recommend here would be to offer Matt Lindstrom around. If he pitches like he did last year, he’s not a good bet to finish the year closing games. Heath Bell would be a great return, but I’d also trade him for Frank Francisco, Brandon Morrow, Mike Gonzalez, Huston Street, probably Brad Ziegler, and maybe even Kevin Gregg. Sherrill could be traded for any of them as well, but you’d be unlikely to get any bites. Carlos Marmol might be a good target for him, depending upon the savvyness of his owner.

On offense, you have some good players, but I definitely think you could upgrade. Wright and Rollins are a terrific foundation for your team, and you have a very good outfield. I am big on guys like Carlos Lee, Matt Kemp, and Nate McLouth, however, and I think it would be worth offering Manny, Markakis, and Dunn around. Dunn for Curtis Granderson would also be an upgrade. I could also stand trading Dunn for Raul Ibanez if it means getting a good upgrade elsewhere.

I’d also consider trading Alexei Ramirez. He’s a good player, but Kelly Johnson is a very underrated second baseman this year, and you would only take a small hit at 2B while likely picking up a significant upgrade elsewhere. I like Robinson Cano a lot.

Beltre is a guy who may be in for a power decline this year, although it’s possible his peripheral drop last year was injury-related. If this is the case and he is healthy this year he could be fine, but he’s a little too risky for my taste when there are safer guys who are similarly valued. James Loney would be a good choice. Nelson Cruz would be nice if you moved LaRoche to CI.

I’d also offer Victor Martinez around. I’m not as big on him as some, and I’d rather have guys like Ryan Doumit, Chris Iannetta, or even Mike Napoli or Matt Wieters. Wieters would actually make a good target as he’s likely undervalued, and then you could pick up someone like Kenji Johjima to start until he is called up. As Victor generally goes higher than all of these guys, you could also leverage an upgrade elsewhere. Something like Victor/Pena for catcher/Kevin Youkilis might be a solid deal. Or Victor/Milledge for catcher/Nelson Cruz. Just a few random ideas.

Adam Lind might be gone by now, but if not, I’d probably pick him up to play over LaRoche.


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