Fantasy baseball ? I'm in a 12 team keeper league and trying to decide if I should make a move.?

Question

We keep 4 offensive players into next year, and the 4 I am thinking about are M. Teixeira, B. McCann, B. Roberts, and M. Holliday. This trade ? is for this year and next. If I were to offer M. Lowell(who is playing well, but am worried he will break down in the 2nd half) and B. Abreu(I will take a hit at OF but I can find someone who can help fill in, even if it's a slight downgrade), for Longoria, would it be a good idea? Would it help me this year enough, and would he be a better keeper than B. Roberts for next year?

P.S. I currently have the best record in the league by 2 games in a H2H ESPN league. Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

Well, let's take two points into consideration: you are in first place in your league, and you are only allowed to keep 4 players.  If you are in first place, and it seems reasonable that you might remain there, then you should only be looking to make a trade that allows you to both win this year, and improve at least moderately for next year.  If you are starting both Lowell and Abreu, and I assume you are, then you can't look at Longoria as an upgrade for this year.  

That leaves me thinking that unless you are going to get a significant upgrade in coming years from the trade, then this deal doesn't make sense.  Is Longoria an improvement over Roberts in the long term?  Considering his pedigree, I'd be predisposed towards saying yes, but for now, Roberts is still a top-5 2B and that's pretty darn valuable.  I don't make this trade from the top spot in a league...

Answer 2

longoria is a beast and plays in a very productive offense, but this deal would hurt you way too much this year... and may put you out of winning... unless you can replace Abreu with a guy with 50 rbis and a decent average....

Answer 3

I would make the deal.  I really like Longoria and he will only get better.