Trading for Pitching

If you have followed this blog for a short period of time you will surely notice that I have a bias towards hitters and how important they are to a fantasy roster. This is because pitchers are too volatile and usually end up wasting your fantasy year if you end up drafting them too high. But with only 70 games or so left in the season fantasy owners need to realize that this is the time to start making that charge for a fantasy championship and where plenty of people seem to have a problem is realizing that with 70 games left in the season starting pitchers will only be pitching 10-13 more starts. This sounds like a huge number but as I mentioned before, once you start adding up all the innings pitched it almost impossible to move the ERA/WHIP categories in significant ways. This is the time to use the remaining innings WISELY.

Take a look at your team and to see where you are particularly strong. If you are one of the individuals who draft extremely heavy on hitters, like myself, this is the time of year where you can really cash in with a trade that can boost your pitching staff. For example, I am leading in R/HR/RBI by a fair amount and I traded Manny for CC Sabathia (this was maybe a month ago) and it has only started to really show in the standings. At the time of the trade I was at the bottom in almost all my pitching categories and I was sitting in 11th out of 12 spots. Today, I have a lock on 3rd and slowly moving up into 2nd and have an outside shot at the championship. All this due to a move for ONE pitcher. But as I said, it took over a month and a bit just to find myself where I am now.

The lesson here is you need to go out and try and find a pitcher that can make a fantasy impact. Pitchers like Johan, CC, Halladay, Haren, Webb, and even Harden are the ones you need to target because they are the guys that can strong together 8-10 starts that will turn your fantasy pitching rotation from a glorified AAA team to a fantasy contender.

By making a trade right now, it gives you the time to slowly move up in the standings because with pitching it takes time. Your stud pitchers only pitch every 5 days compared to your stud hitters who contribute every single day.

Go back to your fantasy team and see who you can part with. See if you can trade a Pujols for a Santana and a respectable hitter. Maybe Beltran for a Harden. Even Carlos Lee for Webb. Make sure to go out and see who can help you and remember DO NOT WASTE anymore time by sitting and hoping your current crop of pitchers can turn things around and bring you a fantasy championship. The more time you sit there and hope the more quality starts are wasted and calculated for other fantasy owners.