Evan Longoria or Jonathan Papelbon?

Question

1 on 1 trade that got propsed to me, my relivant team:

c: Iannetta

1b: Berkman

2b: Roberts

3b: Wright

ss: Hariston jr

of: Abreau

of: Nady

of: Votto

util: Longoria

bn: chris coung (d-backs), chase headley, marcus thames,

dl: hideki matsui

-

rp: f cordero

rp: b morrow

As of right now Longoria is on my util slot and has been on fire (go gamble draft picks) and I got an offer for him for papelbon. Morrow has been my snag replacment for percival who I dropped after his 2nd DL stint. On his 1st one I tried to make a trade for papelbon because I was in a situation with having wheeler and an unsure status over him. Now I'm thinking I could put Thames in the UTIL but Longoria is just so awsome.

Answer 1

It depends on the type of scoring your fantasy league features. If you're doing fantasy points, you should calculate how many points each player will give you for the rest of the season and simply go with the one that will get you more points. If you're doing categorical scoring, always stick with position players over relievers, especially ones like Evan Longoria. There are typically more position player stat categories than relieving ones.

The most valuable fantasy players are great strikeout starting pitchers and power-hitting first basemen. Relief pitchers are at the bottom of my fantasy spectrum simply because they don't pitch often and only get you two or three special categories like SV, HLD, and BS.

Answer 2

You don't want to get into the playoffs and have to concede a category, so the trade could make sense (and having Wright offers flexibility) . However, best to wait to see how Putz's rehab goes, it is an elbow afterall-- and Morrow has been very good. You may also want to note that rookies tend to cool at the end of the season.

Exception-- if you're in a keeper league, hold on to Longoria (or trade for a front-line starter)