Welcome to a new feature here on Vigilante Sports. It’s called Making the Trade. I’ll be going over potential trades, trades sent in from readers and trades that are proposed to me in my various fantasy leagues. If you have a trade that you’d like advice on, email makingthetrade@vigilante-sports.com and I’ll give you my opinion.

I’m in an ESPN Standard 5×5 Head-to-Head Roto league. I got this proposal from a fellow owner after I had proposed a similar trade that he didn’t go for. I needed to change up my pitching staff (I waited until the 10th round of the draft to start drafting pitchers – and my stats were starting to show it). My pitching stats have been terrible, so I decided that I needed to make a change to my pitching roster philosophy. I decided I needed to start going after Saves, WHIP and ERA and to do so, I needed to stock up on closers. My current staff of closers was a little thin. I recently picked up Scott Downs who is filling in for injured BJ Ryan. I have George Sherrill and Francisco Rodriguez was my star pitcher. I knew I was going to have to give up value to get value.

When the other owner proposed the trade, I was really hesitant to give up Frankie (as he now prefers, over KRod) and Chipper Jones. Chipper has been a long time favorite and has been a consistent fantasy player pretty much his whole career. But Chipper is 37 years old and has been in and out of the lineup already this season. I worry about his ability to stay healthy. Not to mention I have some depth at 3B. I have Garret Atkins, Mike Lowell and Melvin Mora when he comes off the DL. Carrying 4 3B is too many, even though we do have a corner infielder slot in the starting lineup. For me, Scott Downs is a throw in. It is possible that he keeps the closer role after BJ Ryan comes off the DL, but the Blue Jays are paying Ryan an awful lot. I think he’ll get every opportunity to close games when he gets healthy.

In my mind, this trade came down to giving up Frankie and two guys that are not long term contributors on my team for 3 quality closers. The age and injury question is definitely there for Mariano Rivera (I think he’s been closing games since Billy Martin managed the Yankees). Troy Percival does not have the healthiest track record either, but he’s on a quality team that will have it’s share of save chances. For me, the jewel of this trade is Heath Bell. Granted, the Padres are not going to win very many games. But when they do, they’ll probably be close. That means a lot of save opportunities for Bell. And he’ll be closing half of his games in Petco which is a  very pitcher-friendly ballpark. Bell has already been really solid for the Padres already this year (7 saves, 0 earned runs and a 0.65 WHIP).

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Gonna try something new this year. We’ll be doing a free ESPN Roto league with just the power categories. For hitters it’ll just be home runs and for pitchers we’ll be tracking strikeouts. Each team will have 4 hitters and 4 pitchers. Daily roster changes, no bench. Pretty simple stuff. We’ll also be doing an auction draft. Should go by very quickly.

To top it all off, the winner will get a new iPod Shuffle out of the deal. We’re looking for 11 other brave souls to jump into this with us. If you’re interested, leave a comment and we’ll invite you to the league.

One of the Fantasy Football leagues that I run has seen a lot of turnover this year and we’re needing to fill a few spots. If there is anyone out there that’s interested, comment on this post and I can get you set up.

This week I promise I’ll listen to the result of this poll. And if I don’t I’m sure that whoever I don’t pick will have a career day just like Kevin Curtis did last week.

This week it’s a running back question. I have Jamal Lewis and Brandon Jackson. Lewis is going up against the Ravens defense. One plus for him would be that he wants to prove himself against his old mates. However, he still plays for the Browns.

For Brandon Jackson, he’s on the Packers who are having a great year. They’re going up against the Vikings defense. I’m not sure who to pick. Please help. Also, it would be great if you would post in the comments about why you picked who you picked. Thanks.

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I apologize. There were 3 people who responded to my poll about who I should start last week at wide receiver. One of them was me. In a total bonehead move, I didn’t check this site when I was setting my lineup, and unfortunately I went with Bernard Berrian. Ooops.

So please forgive me.

Berrian didn’t have a terrible night (10pts), except for his slew of dropped passes. But Curtis went off. He scored 45.5 points. I throw myself at your mercy and I promise I’ll heed your guidance this week.

I will post the poll on Wednesday and would love to hear not only who I should play by responding to the poll, but also why in the comments. I can obviously stand to learn some from you folks.

Here is my dilemma of the week, and I’d like some help. I mentioned before that I wanted to give you some input into who I should start every week on my fantasy football team.

This week the decision is at WR. My league is a points and yardage league that also gives WR 1 pt. per reception.

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I would like to open up one roster decision every week to the readers of Vigilante Sports. Every Wednesday I will post a poll asking you the reader a roster decision. I will then wait until the roster deadline for my league, count the votes, and report back.

Time has come for our annual installment of “Second Half Fantasy Sleepers”. To use the overused cliche, who should you buy low? And who should you sell high?

Sell High

• Mark Buerhle – He’s pitching well right now, but last year he faded badly down the stretch. The White Sox don’t have anything to play for and with Buerhle’s new contract, he’s staying put in Chicago.
• Prince Fielder – It’s possible that he could keep up his torrid pace, but more likely he, and his team will slow down. I think his performance in the Home Run Derby and the error in the All Star game will haunt him. He’s young. If you’re in a keep league… disregard what I just wrote. Keep this fella.
• Curtis Granderson – This guy has benefited by being a part of the best hitting team in baseball. That won’t change, but don’t look for him to hit 12 HR in the second half, or score 62 runs.
• Daisuke Matsuzaka – He’s now been around the league. The book is being written about him. He’ll get pounded a few times. Get good value for him while you can.

Buy Low

• Ryan Braun – While I think Milwaukee will fade, picking up a youngster like Braun could solidify your infield at a very low price.
• Garrett Adkins – He started off slowly, but has been clubbing the ball lately. It’s also always good to hit at Coors Field.
• Jeff Weaver – Weaver looks like he has regained some confidence and has definitely regained his stuff. Look for Weaver to have a solid second half.
• Javier Vasquez – Possibly on the trading block so he will probably get dealt to a contender. He will give you innings, Ks, and with a new team in the hunt hopefully wins.

Starting pitchers vs. Relief pitchers
In your standard roto league there are 5 pitching categories (strikeouts, wins, saves, earned run average – ERA and walks and hits per inning pitched – WHIP)

Traditionally starting pitchers have the advantage in wins and strikeouts. relief pitchers obviuously have the advantage in the save category. Now is when it gets interesting. ERA and WHIP are up for grabs. Depending on your point of view, managers usually stock their teams with either starters or relievers.

I come from a points based-system that rewards starters more than relievers, so I skew to the starters. I think your best pitchers are your starters, so go with the best. In our league you can have up to 2 starts a day (this is to limit “streaming” – more on that in a later post), so you can rack up some good stats if you have a decent pitching staff. Another good thing about starters is that you know they’re going to get in the game. You obviously don’t know whether they’re going to pull a one-hit shutout out of their ass, or implode and give up 6 in the first inning, but you know they’re gonna have the chance.

With relievers, you never know what you’re going to get. Are they going to even get in the game? If they do get in the game, they have just as likely a chance to give up a ton of hits and runs. That’s pretty much why I like to limit my relief pitchers. I am currently carrying 2 relievers (Jeremy Accardo and Dan Wheeler). Obviously not top shelf relievers, but they’re getting the job done. Other than that I stick with my starters.

What do you do when a fantasy stud you were counting on gets injured? How long do you stay with him? Do you pick up the player who took his spot in the lineup?

This year I’ve encountered this dilemma in a few ways. I drafted Rich Harden in the 14th round. It was late because of his past injuries, but I needed him in my rotation. Of course, he went on the DL shortly after the season began (19 innings to be exact). I not only lost Harden to injury, but more recently Joe Mauer went to the DL. This was a bigger deal. He was my second round pick. Before you get on me too much about selecting Mauer (a catcher) in the 2nd round, let me tell you that he is the best hitting catcher in the league, and I like having the best at any position on my team. I already had Jose Reyes and picked up the best player at his position. But I digress.

The league I’m in has 1 DL spot. I have 2 guys on the DL and still need to field a productive team. In the case of Harden, I threw him in the DL spot and checked the waiver wire for a replacement. There were a lot of middle of the road starters out there, but none that really tempted me. I had a need for some relief pitching (at the time I had no relievers), so I picked up Dan Wheeler. He had recently replaced Brad Lidge as the closer for the Astros. I figured he was on a decent team and had the closers job in his hands. It turns out he has pitched really well for me. Now as some time has gone by, Rich Harden’s return keeps getting pushed back and his prognosis keeps getting worse. This scares me. Similarly a thigh contusion for Mauer has landed him on the 15 day DL. It seems severe for a contusion. How did I deal with having my 2nd round pick on the shelf for at least 2 weeks? I dropped under-performing SS Kahlil Greene, and picked up one of my least favorite baseball players, AJ Pierzynski. He was available and he can provide some good HR and RBI numbers.

I think this is what it comes to when evaluating what to do with an injured player. Is this player going to be able to give me the greater impact long term, or will his absence from my lineup hurt me more in the short term? Of course, if your team sucks, and you’ve stock-piled a bunch of broken players, or don’t have any valid replacements, by all means keep them around. I have decided that Rich Harden and Joe Mauer (Mauer especially) have so much value long term that I will hold onto them, until I get news that they’ll be out for over a month. I’m not even sure if that would prompt me to drop Mauer. He is just such a special player.

A whole other angle of injuries in fantasy baseball is coming back from an injury. When you know a player is coming off an injury, how early do you pick them up? The Roger Clemens situation is not an injury issue but it’s a similar dilemma. When is it too early to pick him up? And more importantly, when do other people think it’s too early to pick him up. All of those questions apply to guys coming off the DL too.

What kinds of policies do you have about injured players?