Scott White

I'll depart from The Observations for at least one night -- hopefully more -- to try my hand at a little trade analysis. And I figured why not look at some of my own? My point here isn't to make you care about any of my leagues, but to demonstrate what kind of trades I like to make and explain my incentive for making them.

12-team, AL-only Rotisserie:
I got:                                 I gave:
Eric Hinske                     Kevin Millwood

League formats don't get much deeper than this one, so you can pretty much eliminate free agency as a way to improve your team. Tired of my mediocre starting pitchers dragging down my WHIP and ERA, I decided to embrace the use of middle relievers and deal some of those mediocre starting pitchers for help on offense. An opponent advertised a need for starting pitching, so I pounced when Millwood still had a relatively low ERA, nabbing Hinske to replace Willie Bloomquist as my fifth outfielder (again, deep league). I wouldn't call this trade the most exciting in the world, but it got the ball rolling for me and fit into my altered strategy.

12-team, mixed Rotisserie:
I got:                                 I gave:
Vladimir Guerrero         John Maine
                                         Jermaine Dye
                                         Chad Gaudin

This kind of trade is my trademark -- one not made out of need, but simply for the gratuitous betterment of my team. When a lesser man would rest on his laurels while in a position of strength -- with a comfortable lead and an overkill of talent on his bench -- I swoop in for the deathblow. I had too many pitchers and thought Maine might end up doing more harm than good for my WHIP, so I used him to upgrade from Dye to Guerrero. Simple as that. Gaudin was a last-minute throw-in and probably not a deal-breaker either way.

10-team, mixed Head-to-Head:
I got:                                I gave:
Justin Verlander           Micah Owings
                                         Dustin McGowan

I made this trade with the same fundamental approach as the previous one, but with the added wrinkle of buying low on Verlander and selling high on Owings. It wasn't the easiest deal to make emotionally because I liked Owings as a sleeper going into the season. And you know how it is with sleepers. When you get one right, you feel bonded to him somehow. But you can't let that emotional investment get in the way of improving your team, and I didn't here. Owings had a 4-0 record at the time but had only once lasted seven innings and only once struck out more than a batter per inning. Since then, he has an ERA of 9.28 in two starts. I only wish I could have coupled him with someone other than McGowan, who has since gone crazy.

10-team, AL-only Head-to-Head:
I got:                                 I gave:
Justin Verlander            B.J. Ryan
Carlos Guillen               Julio Lugo
Joba Chamberlain       Gil Meche
                                         Kevin Millwood

You can tell I have faith in Verlander, can't you? Before the season, Emack, Gonos and I all picked him to win the AL Cy Young, and we did so in separate, soundproof rooms without conferring beforehand. You can also tell I wanted to sell high on Millwood. No way this trade goes through if I made it after his start Monday, when he allowed seven earned runs in three innings. Otherwise, I wanted to build the best offense in the league and felt like my only hole was at shortstop, where Guillen represents a vast improvement over Lugo (for good measure, I was dealing with a Red Sox fan). I also wanted to buy low on Chamberlain before he becomes a starting pitcher, which I predict will happen about a month from now.

10-team, mixed Head-to-Head:
I got:                                 I gave:
Brian Fuentes                Jermaine Dye

I don't often make one-for-one trades, so when I do, I usually have a specific need to fill and can't worry so much about getting a competitive advantage. In this league -- one where all the teams start two closers -- I had the bad fortune of drafting both Rafael Soriano and Manny Corpas. And then I compounded the problem by putting my chips in Rafael Betancourt instead of Fuentes. My hands were tied. But I feel like I controlled the damage by targeting an owner who had stashed five closers -- probably to take advantage of a sucker like me -- and I didn't consider Dye too much of a loss in a shallow league that rewards walks and penalizes strikeouts.

That's all for now.