Ottoneu Trinkets And Assorted Gobbledygooks
Are you ready to be shocked? I’m having trouble selling my $3 Alex Rodriguez. Also my $7 Billy Hamilton, $5 Shane Victorino, $4 Jesse Chavez, and $4 Neftali Feliz to name a few. Unsurprisingly, nobody is busting down my door to own my collection of down-roster bench fodder. Yet I’m pretty sure a guy like Victorino will go for more than $5 on draft day. Somebody will pony up for the latest shot at a Hamilton breakout. My inability to find back end starters has me ready to keep Chavez for myself. Essentially, I’m confident there is cause for somebody to keep these players, even if they possess a second order sort of value.
This puts me in a bit of a pickle. My latest roster tinker session has me at 29 roster spots (of 40) and $286 (of $400) committed to players I consider to be my core. I need a starting third baseman, some kind of middle infielder, and a couple starting pitchers. And then there are the gobbledygooks. I have something like 13 of them. Nine of them, like Victorino, are on what I consider keepable prices – in a fringy sort of sense. The others might still be somebody else’s keeper.
With a little over a month before cuts are due, I’m starting to fret. What should I do with these players? For the most part, they’re all some form of upside play. Several of them may be cut by the end of May. However, if you were to consolidate the list into an index and adjust for draft inflation, they’re a decent bet to outperform their cost. However, that’s a game plan best suited to a rebuilding roster. I’m very much poised to contend.
Now here’s the twist…and there is a twist. I’m going to end the post right here. What would you do with my ottoneu trinkets? Or your own if you prefer.
We’ll discuss what I’m doing about it next week.
You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam
I’m at a similar point with own roster. I say cut em if you need the money for other roster spots. If you can’t get those players back in the auction, you can probably find someone of similar value for a similar price. I’ve gotta figure there’s an outfielder or four available that you’ll be able and willing to roster for $3 at the auction if you cut Victorino and Hamilton.
The obvious answer is to find a team with plentiful holes and try to work out a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1, unloading your guys for an obvious upgrade. But that’s usually better in theory than practice. No one’s likely to give you a $15 player for Hamilton/Victorino/Chavez.
And it’s tough to sell them individually for singular assets because, well… if someone thinks they might spend $9 or $10 for Victorino, why would they (a) give up an asset instead of just spending the extra dough, and (b) how are they going to incentivize you to do a deal? If you traded Victorino for a single player, you’re likely going to get a comparable guy at a comparable price.
Exactly. There are also teams in my league trying to sell players I’d keep, but I don’t think the value is worth trading anything they want from my roster. E.g. I might be willing to roster $5 Victorino, but since I think that price is right on or close to it, I’m not willing to trade anyone with any surplus value for him. I’ll see if he gets cut and then move on to someone else in the draft, if not.
I think that’s the problem Brad’s experiencing.
One other alternative is to trade one or two of these guys for a worse player with a similar cost at a position of need. For example, try flipingp Hamilton to someone for a 3B like Juan Uribe or Conor Gillaspie. Neither guy is sexy, but you’re better off with the extra option at third than in the outfield, and because Uribe’s old as dirt, you can probably get him cheap.
Already flipped Zach Walters for Gillaspie (both $3). 🙂
Keep Hamilton (is this 5×5?) and Feliz. Chavez doesnt even have a role now. A-rod will not go for more than 3$ in a draft.
It’s FG points. Hamilton is about replacement level. Feliz was below replacement level, but his late season surge would have been worth more than $4 over a full season.
Chavez still seems like a candidate to open the year in the rotation. Seems like Gray, Kaz, and Hahn 1-3 with Chavez and Pomeranz 4-5 and Bassitt as the main depth piece. Griffin and Parker won’t be around for awhile yet.
How do you feel about going into the draft with only 25$ to spend on 9 roster spots (mostly bench players or RPs), if I am returning most of my core from a winning team?
Do you have any open positions? Feel free to link to your team page and I can comment more specifically.
Im pretty full, I just need a 2-3 non-closer relievers, maybe a couple of 1-3$ SP fliers and then OF depth. I figure that breaks down to about 3$ per roster spot. If I can get 4 of those spots for 1$ each, then I can go up to 5$ on some bench OFs or an SP
Hamilton will have some value at $7, but otherwise those players are so non-exciting that I can’t imagine you will get any meaningful return in a trade.
Steamer projects ARod as essentially worthless in 2015; he only qualifies at “until” for now and probably won’t qualify at 3B, so I don’t see any value there. I am not sure Victorino will get much playing time with Castillo, Betts, Craig, Nava and Bradley in the mix. Chavez and Feliz are replaceable for a dollar or two.
I would cut ARod, Victorino, Feliz and Chavez, and I would try to trade Hamilton for a 3Bman whom somebody may be thinking of cutting as an over-pay. If somebody has an overpriced David Wright and they think he is hurt and/or declining quickly, they might trade him for a $7 sliding Billy Hamilton.
Ha, I have the overpriced David Wright ($30).
I seem to have put my foot in my mouth on that one. Sorry.
haha, no worries. It is one of the paths I’m exploring – specifically Longoria and Davis (both $28 if memory serves).
I think you need to look at these players value to your team as opposed to their actual value. No one wants to give up value, but its very hard to convert fringe value of undesirable players into something.
At this point I would trade them for anything that makes your team better.
I think A-Rod is a must keep for your 3rd baseman needs and his upside. Maybe keep 1 other player. Then cut the rest.
You may have to dig deep here, at low prices value can fluctuate wildly so I wouldn’t put too much stock into projections for any of these players besides hamilton.
With that said, maybe you can acquire brad miller, reynesdorf, maybe the cleveland 2b ramirez? Just a few thoughts, I would think about who might get playing time and be valuable, knowing you can always cut them later.
Sorry to say, but sometimes other players don’t want your crappy players. Good on ya if you find a buyer, but you might just have to cut them all.
Perhaps you can include one of those trinket players in a deal that would close a challenge trade or allow for a minor upgrade? For example, maybe combine your Chavez with someone like Doug Fister and turn those two into Chris Archer. Maybe that Chavez could get you to close the deal, assuming you prefer Archer to Fister and the owner wouldn’t do it straight up.
I did something similar when I traded $9 James Paxton and $9 Glen Perkins for a $10 Michael Wacha. The deal is a no-brainer for the rival owner since he gets what he views as a free player with some value. For me, I get who I view to be the better player at the cost of a player I intended to cut heading into the auction. (As an aside, only propose deals that offer tangible upside for the other owner. Make it easy for he/she to accept.)
Don’t try to extract 100 percent value on trinket players or you’ll never get anything done. You’ll cut the players anyway and end up disappointed. Use them as incentive to make slight upgrades or use them to force challenge trades. I have no problem trading away Shane Victorino for 40 cents on the dollar so long as I’m getting some benefit out of the deal. Whatever benefit that is would never be there should I have cut him outright.
The problem is that the value these guys offer can’t be extracted because they’ll mostly be on a teams bench.