Fantasy Baseball Trades

I have not spoken much of the Bazooka Kazoos, my Yahoo team. It is still not in first place, though it has gotten closer over the past few days. Evan Longoria (10 HR, 38 RBI, .368) leads the team, and all hitters, except maybe Pujols. Chone Figgins, somewhat quietly, has 12 SB, and was bait, with Frank Francisco to get a slumping Mark Teixeira in a trade today, which pushes David Ortiz to the bench, just as Ortiz takes days off for a sore neck. The pitching has been solid-- 3.07 ERA, 1.21 WHIP-- more of a group performance than any one individual. New adds include Juan Pierre, as fourth outfielder, since he plays with Manny Ramirez suspended, Asdrubel Cabrera, since I traded away Figgins and dropped Ian Stewart (who does not play every day) and Chris Carpenter, returning from this year's minor injury.

The Asakusabashi Bazookas, my CBS team, with real people who I actually meet, continues to exceed all expectations. Albert Pujols, Johan Santana, and to a lesser extent Miguel Cabrera (7HR, 22 rbi, .390) are the primary reasons. Santana (4W, 54 K, 0.91 ERA, 0.91 WHIP) is the top fantasy player over-all and Pujols (11 HR, 32 rbi, .356) with Longoria are the 1-2 of top hitters.

I just traded away strong starters Nick Swisher and Jeff Francouer for a slumping Alexi Ramirez. Ramirez was benched yesterday, but I am counting on him returning to 2008 form, and actually his 2008 April was no better than his 2009 April. Asdrubal Cabrera has been a solid fill-in at middle infield as Jed Lowrie and Khalil Greene both have had injury plagued slow starts.

Micah Hoffpauir was not playing every day and Derrek Lee returned to the Cubs with a grand slam homerun, so Hoffpauir is dropped. I picked up comeback player of the year candidate, Andruw Jones, who also has not been playing every day. I also picked up two-start pitcher Doug Davis to fill in for Carlos Zambrano, on the DL for a baserunning injury. Start one of Davis was poor, and he will be dropped regardless of start two. Jorge Posada also hit the DL, so he will require a replacement next week.

Can a first year team with no protections win in an established league? I can not say odds are good, though the start certainly has been solid.