Roster Doctor

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: 14
Categories: R, RBI, SB, OBP, SLG; W, K, SV, ERA, WHIP
Scoring: Head-to-Head
Other notes: A keeper auction league, team is in fourth
Roster:

C- Miguel Montero
1B- Adrian Gonzalez
2B- Alberto Callaspo
3B- Michael Young
SS- Reid Brignac
MI- Gordon Beckham
CI- Joey Votto
OF- Alex Rios
OF- Corey Hart
OF- Carlos Quentin
OF- Carlos Lee
UT- Seth Smith
B- Jimmy Rollins
B- Chris Snyder
DL- Brian Roberts

P- Jonathan Broxton
P- Heath Bell
P- Carlos Villanueva
P- Evan Meek
P- Jose Contreras
P- Luke Gregerson
P- Jason Motte
P- Adam Wainwright
B- James Shields
B- Justin Verlander
B- Jaime Garcia
B- Brett Cecil
DL- Brandon Webb
DL- Chad Billingsley

With only looking at this team I would have guessed it was in a 12-team league, not a 14-team one, so the depth of your roster is what impressed me initially. Especially the pitching staff, which is virtually not improvable. Wainwright, Shields and Verlander are all near-ace types and I would not let Shields’ recent struggles make you think otherwise. Though Garcia and Cecil likely won’t maintain their performance levels thus far, at least you have owned them while they are playing well and I would consider them the perfect trade bait for hitting.

Your hitting lineup is composed of plenty of solid pieces but unfortunately they are being weighed down by the albatrosses of Lee and Quentin. You will probably have to stick it out with Quentin and Lee though I would see if any owner is interested in buying low on one of them. Yes, I do suggest making a push for the championship this season—enough of your players are performing that your holes are small enough to be plugged.

Acquiring stolen0base and run players is ideal for your team and cheap solutions could be Tyler Colvin, Jose Tabata or Coco Crisp when he returns from the DL in a little over a week. An example trade that would be beneficial to your team could look like Hart for Brett Gardner.

Although you stated that you “don’t really believe in offensive benches” I urge you to reconsider that belief as someone who once also never kept bench hitters. Now, however in most of my leagues I frequently have bench hitters to platoon with each other so I only play my fringe starters in favorable match-ups. Your corral of relief pitchers is impressive but I feel you certainly can part with one of two of them to shore up your hitters and find someone to platoon with Seth Smith.

Despite all of the advanced metrics we have, it is nearly impossible to know how a hitter will perform over the next month so oftentimes I find it worth it to simply own both hitters you are deciding between. And then, if one of them plays significantly better over a stretch, you drop the under performer and go back to owning the Clay Hensleys and Andrew Cashners of the world. But while your lineup is in limbo, there is no shame is using some of your bench spots on hitters until you straighten things out.

Overall I like your team and think you are only a couple of hitting upgrades in your outfield away from making a strong bid for the championship. And one last thing, go pick Alcides Escobar back up immediately. He is certainly worth owning, especially in a keeper league.