It’s another Sunday, Grey’s buy/sell is already out, but you’re comping at the bit and checking Razzball, and now, here you are. Welcome! I’ve often found, after the first week or two, people are ready to trade. Sometimes people get jumpy, they have that post draft hangover and want to keep tinkering with their teams, or they just love trading (I’m that guy). Always be open to any trade, and what’s a better time to start than the present?
Don’t just look for the hot guys, the en fuego guys, because no one is trading them, at least not for anything reasonable. However…look at the guys that start off slow. Except Justin Upton. Never again, J Up. But who else is starting slow? Mookie Betts to start. Same with Anthony Rizzo, Carlos Correa, Xander Boegarts, Kris Bryant. Those are top names so won’t be cheap but maybe youhave one of those hot guys, and can trade them for the more established guys. If the top guys continue to slump early, make an offer. You never know what the other owners are thinking. Let me say that again; people are just people, they have their own thoughts, and you’ll never know what another is thinking. So make the offer and see what comes.
If you have a great closer and decent Outfielder, make that offer. Do it today even. If those top guys prove too tough to get, look at the next tier. Nelson Cruz, Edwin Encarnacion, Mark Trumbo in OPS leagues; see if their owners are willing to move them. I always recommend offering closers, especially early in the season (then go add a set-up guy and wait until he becomes closer).
It’s a bit too early to look at trends in statistics, not when Matt Kemp is leading the league with a 1.654 OPS (as of this writing) and a BABIP of .545 or #2 in OPS is Matt Davidson with a 1.611 OPS and .750 BABIP. Only 26, Davidson is interesting story; a guy who was traded from the Snakes to the White Sox for Addison Reed back in 2013; then spent 2014 and 2015 half of 2016 in the minors before coming up to make his White Sox debut, breaking his foot and ending his season in his debut game. Man, that sucks. You figure if he never played in the bigs again and they re-made Field of Dreams (they better never do that…or since I’ve written it now it’s definitely going to happen because I have that kind of power, shoot) Matt Davidson would be Doc Graham.
Ol’ Doc Davidson hit 20+ homers in the minors five times and while never being an OPS monster in the minors, can produce an OPS in the .820s if opportunity and slight improvement take hold. The opportunity is key as he’s not playing every day, but if keeps hitting when he does play the White Sox have nothing to lose giving him all the at-bats he can handle.
I’m not saying to add him right away (because at 0% owned in Yahoo! and 1.2% ESPN no one, or only those who are his family members, are adding him at the moment) but at the very least add him to your watch list, and I’ll add him to mine, and I’ll keep an eye on him for you, but if he goes on a tear from Saturday to Thursday, I won’t be able to let you in on it until Friday. You’ve been warned.
More shocking to me is the low ownership of Joey Gallo. 11% in ESPN and Yahoo!, he’s the post-post-post-post hype bopper with big boy power and appears to be following the Chris Davis career path from playing third base and outfield to first base and DH, and eventually wind up going from Texas to Baltimore. Joey Gallo needs to be owned in 100% of OPS leagues and a lot more average leagues too.
I don’t usually recommend pitchers, and by the time this posts it may be old news, but I recommend checking out Amir Garrett. Dude can dunk, he’s looked good in his two starts, the Reds don’t have a reason to send him to the bullpen (unless he stinks, but he hasn’t so far). He might not get the wins, but he could be sneaky good for 20 of his 30 starts.
I’ll continue touting the young guys, Ryon Healy and Josh Bell and Tommy Joseph. Healy and Joseph have both been dropped (and subsequently picked up) in two money leagues I’m in, which kind of, but really doesn’t, shock me. I dropped Jonathan Schoop in a league; and I’m a big Schoop guy but I had Odor already (yeah I did!) and was chasing saves.
So I understand dropping guys you took for your bench. It’s good to be fluid with those guys, really. Go after the hot hitter or pitcher or do some saves chasing. You were watching a game and saw a guy go 3 for 4 and no one has added him; that’s cool, go get him and take him for a spin, see if he’s good enough to keep. If not, back to the free agent pool he goes. I’ve added some guys and kept them the whole season, and I’ve dropped guys I’ve watched other teams hold onto for the whole season. Lesson here is don’t get too attached to your bench, eh? Now pull up your team, see what you need, and go pick another team to trade with. Doesn’t matter which. Just pick one, send the offer, and do it again. See? It’s fun. I’m going to go make some trade offers (I hope the Razzball Writers League is ready for the flood of emails letting them know “A trade has been proposed”). Until next week, Razzballers and Razzballettes!
