You can e-mail your Fantasy Baseball questions to DMFantasyBaseball@cbs.com. Be sure to put Dear Mr. Fantasy in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state. Be aware, due to the large volume of submissions received, we do not guarantee personal responses or answers to all questions.
We're seven weeks into the season, and everybody wants to sell high.
Nate McLouth? He's a bum. Lance Berkman? Who needs him? Geovany Soto? Fuhgetaboutit.
So fine, get rid of all your best players. It's not like I don't understand the merits of such an approach. But if you do it, just remember why you're doing it. You want to improve your team, not rid yourself of a player. So if you settle for anything less than a stud in exchange for someone playing like a stud, you're not selling high. You're just selling scared.
And now, the e-mails ...
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B.J. Ryan's remarkable recovery from Tommy John surgery has him back among the elite closers.
(US Presswire)
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I have four very good closers: B.J. Ryan, J.J. Putz, George Sherrill and Francisco Cordero. People are offering trades for them. How would you rank them going forward? -- Steve Salomon SW: Apparently, I'll take any excuse to rip on Sherrill, one of the more popular closers in Fantasy these days. Because of the way you phrased your question -- specifically, going forward -- I actually rank him last of the bunch. Sorry, I just think his rate of saves will fall with the Orioles' .535 winning percentage. I still have to rank Putz first, just because of his track record, though I worry about the state of the Mariners right now. That concern makes Ryan a close second. His recovery from Tommy John surgery has quickly become a non-issue, and the Blue Jays have no problem using him on back-to-back days anymore. I rank Cordero third because I like his stuff better than Sherrill's, but I think he plays for an equally mediocre team.
I have Eric Byrnes, Carlos Beltran and Josh Hamilton starting, but I have Carlos Quentin and Jacoby Ellsbury on my bench. Who should I start? -- T.J. Randall
SW: Anyone who hasn't boarded the Quentin bandwagon yet needs to wake up and smell the laundry. The power, the patience, the pedigree -- he is the best hitter in his division. Yeah, I said it. OK, I wouldn't rank him ahead of Miguel Cabrera just yet, and I'd waffle if you mentioned Justin Morneau, but otherwise, I want Quentin. Start him over Byrnes. Oh, and don't hesitate to sit a struggling Beltran either. Just don't expect to keep him out of the lineup for long.
I'm pretty healthy in the outfield and have been riding Aaron Hill at second base. I've been offered Robinson Cano and Huston Street for Hunter Pence and Dontrelle Willis. I wouldn't mind dealing the risky Willis, and the improvement at second would help, but am I selling Pence short? -- Sylvester Vasquez, San Antonio
SW: I don't know how heavily your league rewards saves, but my initial reaction says to pull the trigger. I have nothing against Pence, who looks like a nice hitter and has started to heat up lately, but he probably played a bit over his head as a rookie last year. Cano, meanwhile, plays a weaker position, has a better track record, and if he follows his pattern from previous seasons, is about to go crazy at the plate. The potential upgrade from Hill to Cano is too big to ignore, especially since you talk like you won't lose much in the outfield by trading Pence. If Willis still qualified as a Fantasy ace, I might think twice, but you can probably find pitchers just as good on waivers these days, depending on the depth of your league.
I am in a Head-to-Head league. I have Conor Jackson at first base and Miguel Cabrera at third. I was thinking of moving Cabrera to first and picking up another third baseman for now while Jackson is slumping. The best third basemen available in my league are Akinori Iwamura and Troy Glaus. Which one should I go with, or should I just stay with Jackson and Cabrera? -- Linda Baker
SW: Players don't get much more vanilla than Iwamura, who has nice versatility and an everyday role, but that's about it. I still think Glaus has 30-homer potential, even if he hasn't shown it yet, but if you think Jackson is cold now, you obviously haven't met the dark side of Glaus, a notoriously streaky player. Personally, I'd just stick with what you have.
I drafted Prince Fielder in the first round (10th overall pick). When will his power return? Should I consider trading him for a No. 2 or No. 3 pitcher and a productive bat? Or should I just hang on to him and wait for the power numbers to come? I need help in pitching and power categories. Please help. -- Kyle Hodgkinson, Alexandria, La.
SW: If you need help in the power categories, then you'd only hurt yourself by trading Fielder now. His slow start puts him on pace for only 22 long balls this season, but he can only decline by so many after hitting 50 last year. We're not talking about Brady Anderson here. Fielder is a beast, and when the power comes, it'll likely make up for lost time. Don't be surprised to see a 10- or 12-homer month for Fielder soon -- he had two last season -- which would help you more in the power categories than any trade would.
OK, what is the deal with Kelly Johnson? He has dropped in the order and now seems to be platooning. Is it time to bench him and activate Kazuo Matsui? -- Gordon Harmon, Phoenix
SW: I say this as a guy who has a photo of Johnson hanging in his cubicle: I have some concerns. He tends to streak during a season -- and I don't think we've seen him on a hot streak just yet -- but his walks are down, and like you said, he's losing at-bats against left-handed pitchers. That said, he doesn't deserve to -- he has almost the same batting average against lefties and righties -- so I think manager Bobby Cox just wants to give him the occasional day off and figures he might as well do so against tough left-handers. I would only consider starting Matsui over Johnson if Johnson did wind up in a true platoon, and even then, only in Head-to-Head leagues. So to sum up, I still like Johnson's power and potential, but from what I've seen, I don't think he takes that next step into elite company this year.
I drafted Lance Berkman, and he has been extremely valuable to me. I know he won't stay hot forever, so should I trade him off with a ridiculously high price tag while I can? -- Derek Phillips, Harpers Ferry, W.Va.
SW: Yeah, Berkman probably won't sustain quite this pace, but I won't say he can't hit .330 with 50 home runs considering his track record and this kind of head start. Would I trade him? Well, I guess that depends on just how "ridiculously high" his price tag has gone. If you could get a sure-fire stud -- a Hanley Ramirez or David Wright, let's say -- and maybe something else to go along with it, go for it. Otherwise, I'd think long and hard about dealing the top player in Fantasy so far.
Now that Ryan Doumit is on the DL, should I make a roster move? Russell Martin is my primary catcher, not Doumit. Someone dropped Jorge Posada and he is available, as is Chris Iannetta. Who is the best option moving forward? -- Eddie Brener, Chicago
SW: You have to add Posada. That's just a no-brainer. He might not help you right away, but he's ahead of the timetable in rehabbing his shoulder and one of the best-hitting catchers in baseball when healthy. I have nothing against Iannetta and feel like he's making good strides in his second season, but he doesn't yet have everyday at-bats and probably wouldn't match Posada even if he did.
I am getting unexpectedly great production from five guys who I picked up late in my draft: Rafael Furcal, Josh Hamilton, Rick Ankiel, Jair Jurrjens and Geovany Soto. Do you think any one of these players is due for a fall? Should I sell high on any of them? -- John Hampton
SW: Not gonna lie to you, John -- assuming you didn't blow your early-round picks, you have a pretty dang awesome team. I don't know that I'd predict a significant downfall for any of those players. Hamilton, Soto and Furcal in particular look like studs. If I had to pick the player most likely to fall, I guess I'd choose Furcal, based on his season highs to date, but in his defense, I've gone on record to say he'll finish the year as an MVP candidate. So unless you're trading Hamilton, Soto and Furcal for studs and Jurrjens and Ankiel for above-average players, I wouldn't deal any of them.
I thought I'd struck gold when I was watching the Orioles play the Rays and found out Evan Longoria had just been called up. I went around to every one of my leagues, picked him up, and was thrilled with myself for being quick on the draw. I thought I was going to get a Ryan Braun or Hunter Pence -type impact player. After a solid start, he's sunk to a batting average in the mid-.200s and is striking out at a pace that would put him in the mid 100s for a full season. Is he just getting adjusted to the major-league game, or is he just not the super Fantasy stud that everyone thought he would be? -- Demetrius, Chester, Va.
SW: Well, you present those two questions as an either/or scenario, Demetrius, but I wouldn't necessarily look at them that way. Pretty much every prospect needs to adjust to the major-league game before becoming a Fantasy stud. The Brauns and Pences of the world are the exceptions. So Longoria's struggles now don't at all mean he won't become a Fantasy stud eventually. Will he this year? I don't think so, but I never did. Rookies don't usually start out as world beaters. Longoria's current pace still makes him worth owning in plenty of leagues, but don't feel like you have to stick with him if you see another appealing option, such as Milton Bradley or Ryan Ludwick, on waivers.
You can e-mail your Fantasy Baseball questions to DMFantasyBaseball@cbs.com. Be sure to put Dear Mr. Fantasy in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state. Be aware, due to the large volume of submissions received, we do not guarantee personal responses or answers to all questions.
