Slumping Players you may get on the Cheap

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Bannister, Shelton force questions

April 18, 2006 David Gonos Senior Fantasy Writer Tell David your opinion Remember when you first starting dating your wife or current girlfriend (or purchased a pet)? Everything was great for the first few weeks then the idiosyncrasies came to life. Like how she uses the wrong big words ("That bird flu is becoming an epidermis!") Or how she says "eckspecially" and "nukular." Or how she has to sniff the crotch of everyone that walks in the door. (That's for those that recently purchased a pet.) Do you stick with them or move on to bigger and better things? With only a couple weeks into the Fantasy season, owners are being forced to make those same types of decisions: Do I cut a floundering player that I swore was ready for a breakout season? Do I trade my unexpected home run leader for a No. 2 starter because I only have five wins so far? Not only do you have to figure out those answers for your team, but you have to make the same assessments of the players on other teams or those recently placed on the waiver wire. And what if your fifth-round pick asks if he looks fat in this dress, do you tell him the truth? Wait. ... I'm mixing metaphors again. Keeping it all in perspective Brian Bannister has won two of his three Mets starts. (Getty Images) One great Fantasy tool to use on our site is the consensus opinion of your peers, which can be found under the "Players" tab, by clicking on "Roster Trends." But you have to be able to decipher which players are dropped for which reasons. For instance, under the "Most Dropped" column, you'll find that the top six listed are all players that were recently injured. The reason for that isn't because everyone thinks these players won't come back from injury, but instead, many leagues on CBS SportsLine do not use any reserve slots. So if they didn't cut these injured players, they'd have to start them and receive zeros. In that same manner, in a few weeks, you'll begin to find a number of the "Most Added" players are those coming off of the DL. For instance, Ben Sheets is currently ninth on that list. Again, it's because many owners were unable to reserve him once he started the season on the mend. Here are a few items that we'd probably chat about if we were splitting 50 wings and a couple pitchers at your local pub. Hey Gonos, Which players should I consider moving on without? There are way too many decent No. 2 catchers out there for you to wait on Jason Kendall to produce. His best Fantasy assets were his speed (he hasn't stolen more than 11 bases since 2002), his batting average (which fell off almost 50 points when he came to Oakland) and the fact that he can get you 600 at-bats (he's only on pace for 411 right now). Casey Kotchman is still a solid young prospect, but he is mostly a contact hitter (and right now, there's not even much of that (.162 BA) on a team that desperately needs some power (only the Royals and A's have scored fewer runs in the AL). There are a ton of first baseman out there that can fill your corner infield spot better than Kotchman right now. Find the prospect hound in your league and offer Kotchman to him in trade. Once again, the Nationals are having a tough time scoring runs and now their ace, Livan Hernandez, is giving up seven runs every nine-innings. Sure, he's an innings-eater in a pitcher's park, but he hasn't been able to make it past the sixth inning yet this season and he's giving up three times as many hits/walks to hitters as he is strikeouts, and that's killing his mixed league Rotisserie owners. Which players should I look to pick up off of the Most Dropped list? If you can afford to reserve him, Dan Johnson is an excellent slugger dealing with a tough April. The A's team, as a whole, usually struggles in the early months of every season. His 1-for-32 slump has officially gotten into his head, but the A's no longer have Scott Hatteberg and Erubiel Durazo to share at-bats with him at first base. Nick Swisher will see time there, but the club is firmly behind Johnson, who has power to all fields. Only five A's have fewer strikeouts, so he's a solid contact hitter who's just not finding the holes. Expect that to change sooner than later. Kevin Mench has been dealing with a toe injury that has obviously affected his swing. He has hits in his past three games and his power should follow soon after. The entire Rangers' squad seems to be struggling to score runs, but we know that will change. So will Mench's ownership numbers. Take advantage of other owners exciting weekends. While they were out on a boat with beautiful women Sunday, you were tuned into the MLB package watching Chien-Ming Wang strike out eight Twins batters and allow only one run in seven innings for his first win of the season. Wang had shoulder problems last year and a bruised knee this spring, but when he's healthy, the Yankees are certainly able to score enough runs for him to earn a win. A healthy Wang is a good thing to have. My buddy is a Yankees fan. Should I delete his phone number from my cell phone? No, keep his number. But keep your contact with him to a minimum except for when they play the Devil Rays or blow a playoff series. What should I make of Jonathan Papelbon's hot start in the bullpen? Without question, Papelbon has emerged into a solid Fantasy closer in all formats. He has allowed only two hits and zero earned runs in seven appearances this season. No pitcher has more than his six saves at this point. Some have been concerned that he could end up back in the Red Sox rotation if an injury befalls a starter. Boston converted him from a college reliever to a starter to get him innings but at this point, with Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett healthy and dealing, Boston would rather have security in the bullpen rather than doubt. What's not known yet about Papelbon is how he will react after giving up a game-winning homer. If he responds favorably, that's one more step toward top-five closer status. Should I be concerned that my girlfriend hung out with her handsome male workmate while I watched the Devil Rays-Royals series because I needed Toby Hall to explode? Nah, don't worry about it. As a matter of fact, slip the guy a fifty bucks to take her dancing or something this weekend so you can concentrate on the Reds-Brewers series. When should I trade Chris Shelton? Shelton and Albert Pujols have hit nine homers, which is second only to Mike Schmidt for homers in the first 13 games of the season. There are several reasons to trade him in mixed leagues -- here are a few: You likely drafted him as a corner infielder or as a reserve since he lost his catcher eligibility and entered spring in a battle for a starting spot with now departed Carlos Pena. That means you probably have a stud first baseman ahead of him and you can take advantage of your depth by sending Shelton to another team for an upper-echelon starting pitcher (Mark Buehrle?) or a good starter and a decent corner infielder. If you aren't in a keeper league, you should feel better about trading him. Obviously he's going to level off at some point and, to be honest, 40 homers is still an unlikely mark for him to reach this season. He's an excellent hitter that is now displaying an exorbitant amount of power, but it will level off. Be the guy that took advantage of his hot start to make your yearly team better. He still has only played in 147 games in three years. That's less than a full season of major-league at-bats. He's had three years of watching and learning about major league pitchers, while they have had less than one year of learning about him. I have the need for speed! ... Are there any fleet-of-feet fellows that I should pick up?? Last year at this time, Willy Taveras had four steals on five attempts. This year, he has been caught on both attempts. But what's important to note is that he is hitting over .300 and has a 10-game hitting streak. His steals will certainly come, but since he's hitting second instead of first (like last year), he's being asked to do more at the plate than on the bases. Your Rotisserie opponents are likely just looking at the donut under his steals column, so you might be able to get him cheap, if not free on the wire. The Rockies are not a station-to-station team, so steals aren't always a concern. But if leadoff man Cory Sullivan can start getting on base a little more often, he has ridiculous speed that the team will have to take advantage of. He hit two triples in one inning last week. I have this growth on my shoulder. Should I get it looked at? Nah. I'm sure it's just some built-up calcium or something. You must be taking too many vitamins. Rub some grape jelly on it and play some Trivia Tower to take your mind off of it. What should I make of Brian Bannister's start to the season? It's tough to recommend starting a rookie pitcher in mixed leagues because of their inconsistency and I'm definitely in awe of what Bannister has done both in spring training and in his first few starts with the Mets (2-0, 2.50 ERA). The scary part of Bannister's starts happens to be the fact that he lets so many batters get on base before he shuts the inning down. The New York Post details how much trouble he has gotten into before performing his Houdini escapes. Start No. 1 -- vs. Washington at Shea Stadium. He hits two batters and walks four -- yet he has a no-hitter entering the seventh inning. He leaves the game after giving up a homer and gets a no decision. Start No. 2 -- at Washington. He reached three balls to seven batters -- and finished with no walks issued. Start No. 3 -- vs. Milwaukee at Shea Stadium. Bannister strands eight Brewers in the first two innings and escapes the game after five innings with one earned run and a win. Tom Glavine, a winner of 277 games in his career, gave him good advice. "If, when in trouble, you are doing something different, you want to use it sooner to avoid trouble," said Glavine. Well, yeah, that kinda makes sense. If you get a nice trade offer for Bannister, take it. But meanwhile, stick with him while he continues to walk the tightrope. If Jay Gibbons is rounding second, traveling at 24 mph and Vlad Guerrero is throwing a ball from right field that is going 80 mph, what will get to third base first? The answer is Miguel Tejada, because he wasn't paying attention and drifted off thinking about how his girlfriend says "eckspecially." Who do you think is red hot about to go ice cold? Send me a brief note about it. Go up to the top of this page and click on the link next to my name that says, "Tell David your opinion," and fill out the form with your story. I'll post a few worthy ones in next week's column. Last week, I asked you to send me your stories about the best or worst trades you've ever made in Fantasy Baseball. I received a ton of responses and had to whittle them down to a handful. Sadly, one common theme was the tragedy surrounding Darryl Kile's death in 2002. Obviously, there are more tragic events than a bad trade, and we're not making light of it by any means. J. Eger: A few years ago I got Craig Biggio and Darryl Kyle for a guy I picked up a few weeks prior off the waiver wire -- Albert Pujols. We have a 16-year keeper league. OUCH! Rob Walden: Last season, I managed to convince my buddy Richard that Sammy Sosa was going to put up better numbers in Baltimore's lineup, and that Derrek Lee had reached his maximum potential. Lee led my team to the regular season championship, while my buddy finished next-to-last and had dropped Sosa by mid-June. Only problem is, now he won't have anything to do with me when I try to start a deal. Todd Downey: The year was 1986, the first year of a league I joined that is now in its 21st season. It was mid-July and while my team was doing fairly well in the power categories, I needed SB points. I traded a Wilson for a Wilson -- Glenn for Mookie. This minor transaction cost me the pennant. I lost the league by a point and a half. The owner that dealt me Mookie finished just behind the champion in SBs. Had I left well enough alone, I would have won by a half point. Back in the pre-Internet days, we had to wait a week to get stats from The Sporting News. Times have changed, progress is good and I have won the league in later years, but the Wilson-for-Wilson deal lives in infamy in our league lore. Jimmy: In the first week of the 2001 season and I was carrying four All-Star outfielders. I needed help in the bullpen, so I traded Barry Bonds for Trevor Hoffman and Ray Lankford. I thought the aging Bonds was bound to break down during the season. I was quite wrong. Bonds went on to hit 73 HR and knock in 137 RBI! It is easily the most embarrassing trade ever made in Fantasy sports history! Rick Powers: A few years ago when Johan Santana was a rookie, I sent out to the league that I was willing to trade Frank Thomas to a team that needs power and would give up a young pitching prospect in a keeper league. One guy told me Thomas was only worth a ham sandwich. Well, needless to say, this owner did need power and at the trade deadline I traded him Thomas for Santana and a ham sandwich. Our league talks about that trade at the draft every year now. At the draft the next year after the trade I made the guy a ham sandwich, but he said he did not want it, but it did not go to waste -- his brother ate it. (He wants roast beef next year if I make another trade like that!) Jeff Hyland: My memorable trade happened in 1993. My first year out of college and I'm in the running at the top of a league at my new job. I'm hurting in ERA/Whip so I trade Mark Whiten for some help in pitching. The very next night he has his four HR-12 RBI game. Even though I ended up winning our league that year, I still get grief about that trade 13 years later. Karl Wietlisbach: It was mid-August of 1995. The third place team was only a few points out of first and could make up substantial ground in the saves category. Sensing my rival owner's plight I offered him Heathcliff Slocumb for a recently called-up minor leaguer. My rival won the league that season but the minor leaguer I obtained turned out to be pretty good. A shortstop from Seattle named Alex Rodriguez. Slocumb has since faded into obscurity and, well, we all know about A-Rod. My best trade ever! Right up there with Mike Lieberthal for Bobby Abreu. Chad Lowery: This story involves my first Fantasy team and Barry Bonds, so in light of the subjects, you can't get more topical than this! It was the first round of the playoffs, and I was losing to my brother-in-law going into the last day. Now my brother-in-law had Bonds on his roster and, both of us being Braves fans, he was never among our list of favorite players (rivalries with the Pirates and Giants). Anyway, on that last day, with my brother-in-law leading, Barry decided he didn't want to be on the field when another team clinched again, so he refused to play. Ivan Rodriguez went on to hit a grand slam for me that day, and I won by one point. We all know Barry would have gotten at least one point for him, so I went on to win the league, and Barry's reputation with us got that much worse. (Though his attitude didn't bother me as much that year as it would have!)