Cookie's Monsters needs to choose 7 of....

C - Brian McCann
1B - Adrian Gonzalez
2B - Robinson Cano
3B - Garrett Atkins
SS - Jimmy Rollins
OF - Josh Hamilton
OF - Nick Markakis
OF/2B/3B - Chone Figgins
SP - Josh Beckett
RP - Joe Nathan
OF - Lastings Milledge
SS - Miguel Tejada


I just traded Sheets, Bedard and Volquez for McCann, Milledge and Tejada.
I think I want to keep the top 7 listed.....I'm trying to upgrade 3rd by trading Atkins with Beckett and Nathan but no dice so far....plus I like Atkins and the only conceivable trade upgrade in my mind would be for Aramis Ramirez...thoughts?

youve got some good players in there. if it were me i wouldnt have traded away pitching for McCann. the ones i would keep would be:
McCann, Gonzalez, Rollins, Hamilton, Markakis, Beckett, and Atkins

Atkins is a 17/80 player outside of Coors and he could get traded. There's lots of third basemen that would be an upgrade over him even if he stays in Coors. He's more the player he was in 2008 than he was in 2006.

Also, I think you gave up too much for McCann, but that's a done deal already, so I won't dwell on it.

The seven guys I would keep (assuming there's no penalties for keeping guys and you can keep them forever) are:

McCann
Gonzalez
Cano
Rollins
Hamilton
Markakis
Beckett

thanks for the advice....i traded away pitching because i'm convinced i can pick up/draft decent enough pitchers in this league to contend....last year i did very well in offence....in pitching i rocked SVs and Ks but my ERA and WHIP were disgusting thanks to guys like Verlander (drafted him in the 5th round as a "keeper")......my saviours were FA pickups like Volquez and Nolasco

the team i traded with is keeping Peavy, Billingsley, Joba, Volquez, Sheets and 2 of Danks, Kershaw, Bedard and Soria.....he's going all pitching and i'm going all offence...I don't think he's realized you only need 5 mayyyyybe 6 Starters max.

there's going to be plenty of quality pitchers available in the draft....one team has Kazmir, Lincecum and F. Hernandez and he's not keeping Felix.....another has Zambrano, Halladay, E. Santana, Cain and Garza - he's probably keeping 2 maybe 3.......another has Lee, Dice-K, Johan, Lester and Papelbon....He might not keep Dice-K and Lee........i could go on......but I don't think I'm looking too bad at all next season


Can you give me some 3B names worth targeting in a trade?

Offense is totally the way to go with keepers. I only told you to keep Beckett over Atkins because you are stacked already with hitters and Beckett is a solid arm on a team that should win 90 games. Those are hard to come by. He could easily out perform Dice-K next year as Dice-K outperformed him this year. With that said, I'd trade Atkins, Nathan and Beckett away for a top 3rd basemen if you can find any takers. There's no reason to hold any of them if you're not keeping them anyway. Who's better than Atkins? Lots of guys -- Youk, Miggy, Aramis and Longoria. (Others that you won't get include, Wright, Arod and Braun.) I'd see if I could finagle any of those guys. Let me know if you have other questions or how it goes.

ok but don't Youk and Miggy now play 1st? they'll both qualify at 3rd next year but what about the future....

It's good to look ahead, but I'd worry about 2010 after 2009. Let's first play to get you the championship next year.

I just talked to my buddy about Miggy, not gonna happen.....I tried for Arod a few weeks ago, those talks died quickly....Longoria's owner has a man crush on him and I know he won't have any of this....I emailed the guy with Aramis a few weeks ago and he never replied, maybe its time to send him another one.....I just don't think I like Youkilis....not only because I'm a Jays fan and hate the Red Sox.....but can we really go on his 1 great year after 2 mediocre years?

Youkilis
Batting
Year TeamG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
2004 BOS 72 208 38 54 11 0 7 35 33 45 0 1 .260 .367 .413 .780
2005 BOS 44 79 11 22 7 0 1 9 14 19 0 1 .278 .400 .405 .805
2006 BOS 147 569 100 159 42 2 13 72 91 120 5 2 .279 .381 .429 .810
2007 BOS 145 528 85 152 35 2 16 83 77 105 4 2 .288 .390 .453 .843
2008 BOS 145 538 91 168 43 4 29 115 62 108 3 5 .312 .390 .569 .958

Atkins
Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
2003 COL 25 69 6 11 2 0 0 4 3 14 0 0 .159 .205 .188 .394
2004 COL 15 28 3 10 2 0 1 8 4 3 0 0 .357 .424 .536 .960
2005 COL 138 519 62 149 31 1 13 89 45 72 0 2 .287 .347 .426 .773
2006 COL 157 602 117 198 48 1 29 120 79 76 4 0 .329 .409 .556 .965
2007 COL 157 605 83 182 35 1 25 111 67 96 3 1 .301 .367 .486 .853
2008 COL 155 611 86 175 32 3 21 99 40 100 1 1 .286 .328 .452 .780

I dunno what the point of posting those were....but they seem pretty similar to me
If Atkins stays in Colorado he's gotta be better than last season.

I'm definately going after Aramis Ramirez.

Atkins is near 930 OPS at Coors and near 750 OPS away. Will Atkins definitely get traded? No. Are the Rockies trying? Yes -- aggressively.

From the numbers you posted -- the most important thing I see is a hitter (Youkilis) who is getting progressively better in OPS over the last three years. I also see a hitter (Atkins) who has an outlier in 2006 and has struggled the last two years. Youkilis is a better hitter than Atkins, even if Atkins stays in Coors but there's a chance he may not stay, so that makes things even worse. Of course, Aramis is better than both guys.

ok so where does dallas mcpherson fit into all this, do you have any 3 yr predictions? i'm gonna start looking into his minor league #s, hopefully he's not a .250 kinda hitter with pop.... if I can't pull a trade maybe I'll keep Beckett and target him in the draft.