Please take a look and give me your opinion! Grey or anyone else....

Friday's the trade deadline for the 16-team team below. I'm narrowly in 1st (unfamiliar territory for me) but with two teams within 7 points and a total of 5 teams within 22 points. Obviously, I'd like to improve the team in some way before the deadline. Any ideas where I should look to improve?

My standings by category: R 6th, HR 1st, RBI 1st, SB 5th, AVE 8th, OPS 5th .... W 1st, SV 3rd, K 5th, ERA 2nd, WHIP 3rd. I'm about 15 innings over pace but should be OK there.

Obviously, AVE is weakest and I'm in good shape with power ... how about trading a low average power guy like Bruce for AVE help? If so, where? Or dropping, say, Rasmus for SB/AVE help like EY2 (Rasmus doesn't seem tradable)? Jon Jay is usually a guy to pick up and drop, but seeing as how I need AVE he's hard to drop. Does the pitching look OK? I've got a lot o mediocre RPs but they seem to be getting the job done.

Any advice is welcome! Thanks.

Just a heads up, you posted in the Football section.

Not sure if Grey will see it.

I moved it... I could see dropping Rasmus for Young, but as discussed in the comments on the blog, it's not a move that's going to save things probably... Revere's a better average guy... Sure, try and trade Bruce... Not sure what you can get though.... Your pitching looks great...

Many thanks Grey -- for the answer and for moving the question (don't know how I ended up in the football section ... I don't even like pro football).

Anyway, I realize that AVE is hard to improve upon in a short time and by only changing a player or two. I have since made the Rasmus-EY2 move (reflected in the signature now) but I was thinking there might be some other idea out there.

I also tried to trade away Bruce for Matt Holliday or Adam Jones (throwing in one of my mediocre relievers) ... let's see what happens.

Yeah, I love my pitching staff for a 16-teamer, at least the starters ... I'm really liking Medlen and was pleased to unload FrankFrank and Anibal in return for Fister. I guess I'll be alright there. And the top guys have been good all year (I focused on Bum and Gio thanks to Razzball)....

One last question: with Desmond coming back, who should I drop? And what are the risks of a bold strategy of keeping Rutledge and trading Desmond based on his name recognition and performance so far? What level hitter could I expect in return?

Trade Desmond for a #2 OF or #2 SP... But do it quickly before he returns...