Roster Doctor

Izzy writes in: My team started well but has fallen down in the standings into seventh place. I’ve had some bad luck with injuries as I traded Matt Holliday for Troy Tulowitzki just days before his injury and now must also deal with Chase Utley’s injury. My biggest weaknesses are at MI and in stolen bases. I could also use help in saves. At second base Clint Barmes has done a good job filling in since Utley went down but I don’t have confidence in him to maintain for much longer and am looking for a replacement. Free agents at 2B include: David Eckstein, Ryan Theriot, Adam Rosales, Carlos Guillen, Bill Hall and Freddy Sanchez. Free agents that could help with stolen bases are: Dexter Fowler, Alcides Escobar, Theriot, Tony Gwynn, Will Venable, and Carlos Gomez. Thanks.

Yahoo! league
Player Pool: Mixed
No. of Teams: 12
Categories: 5×5, daily, Public, Keeper
Scoring: Roto
C: Jorge Posada
C: Matt Wieters
1B: Kevin Youkilis
2B: Clint Barmes
3B: Ryan Zimmerman
SS: Yunel Escobar
CI: Adrian Beltre
MI: Jason Bartlett
OF: Vladimir Guerrero
OF: Shin-Soo Choo
OF: Carlos Gonzalez
OF: Jay Bruce
OF: Fred Lewis
UT: Lance Berkman
BN: Pedro Alvarez
BN: Marco Scutaro
BN: Chipper Jones
DL: Chase Utley
DL: Troy Tulowitzki

SP: Roy Halladay
SP: Felix Hernandez
SP: Francisco Liriano
SP: Javier Vazquez
RP: Joakim Soria
RP: John Axford
P: Gavin Floyd
P: Joel Pineiro
BN: Jason Hammel
BN: Jair Jurrjens
DL: Brett Anderson

Izzy, you’ve had some bad luck with Utley and Tulowitzki suffering injuries. But you’re luck will hopefully be starting to turn with Tulo coming back shortly and Escobar perhaps finding his feet in his new Canadian home. Once Tulo comes back you’ll obviously have some freedom to choose but until then, I would do the following:

Pick up Theriot. He’s a solid performer, though he has been struggling recently. He’s also a good speed bet and has some position flexibility. Then, I would check matchups and play either Barmes or Bartlett and drop the other. When Tulo comes back you can put Escobar in the MI spot and Theriot at second base. At the very least, I’d probably start Scuturo over Bartlett unless the matchups really favored the latter.

Meanwhile, what is Choo doing in your lineup? He should be on your bench this week– though he will be ready for next week. In your position I would ditch Alvarez in favor of some upside speed players like Fowler or maybe Venable. Alvarez isn’t likely to help you this season given who you already have at the corner positions.