As the second half of the season gets underway, I’m going to give an update on my fantasy team and what I’ve been up to. I’ve been making moves in preparation for the future, and did a trade that was more forward thinking, but it didn’t make my team worse either. It’s still a trade I would not have done if not for the keeper potential, but I traded away Jose Ramirez for James Wood and Alec Bohm. I had been trying to acquire Wood for a while but also keep Ramirez at the same time, but I knew what I must do even before I was offered Wood straight up for Ramirez. To be completely honest, I would have already done the trade without Bohm but needed a 3rd baseman in return or my lineup would have been illegal. It’s important in a fab league like mine to keep everything in mind, like the fact I didn’t have another third baseman on my roster and had no way of adding one before games started back up on Friday. To get to the end of my thinking here, Wood will only cost two points to keep due to the fact he was drafted in the 9th round, but he has as much upside as any young player and I loved the idea of being able to keep both Judge and Wood going into next season. With the keeper options I could potentially get, I saw Wood as the most valuable two point keeper. To put this in proper context, I would not have been able to keep both Judge and Ramirez based on the keeper rules in my league. Those rules are that players taken in the first 5 rounds cost 3 points to keep, but you only get 5 points total to spend on keepers. I have no clue if the owner of Wood had thought about the keeper potential or he may not have done this trade. Regardless, it’s why being ahead of the curve and thinking of something nobody else was, I was able to execute my plan.

Another reason I love the trade is that for this season it doesn’t make my team any worse or take me out of contention. I only decided to make this change after losing last week, but it may have been the right move regardless of how this season is going. You may remember a few weeks back in one of my posts, where I talked about Wood and how impressed I was with his skillset and physical tools. I remember pointing out how Wood was the one player in my mind that is the closest thing to Judge or Ohtani, and more than anything this trade shows how much I believe that and am willing to buy in. He can hit for easy power to all fields, and while he already had 24 home runs at the all star break, there is room for even more power potential here. It would already be a given to assume more power potential when this is only his first full season in the major leagues, but when you look at his hitting profile it’s easy to see how he could tap into more power simply by pulling more fly balls. The way I see it, there are very obvious ways Wood can get even better, and his elite power and speed combo is a lot like Shohei Ohtani and Ronald Acuna Jr. With all that in mind, in my efficiency metric Wood is actually slightly in front of Ramirez, and they are rated right next to each other at 10th and 11th overall among all hitters. I have to admit the entire strategy couldn’t have worked out better. I waited to do this trade because I played the owner of James Wood last week and preferred Ramirez for that week and didn’t want to play against him. It appeared to be the right move, as I’d envisioned a big week from Ramirez, having 7 games in favorable parks in Houston and in Chicago against the White Sox. Ramirez ended up scoring 60 points last week and Wood only scored 4. That may make the trade sound crazy, but having a long-term view has to stay the most important thing, and even after that week Wood was still ahead of Ramirez in my metric. I see it as the best of both worlds when I get the 60 point week then get Wood as the better keeper option. At third base there has also been more depth this season than anyone expected, and there are great replacement options that made this trade make sense. I already plan to drop Bohm in favor of Addison Barger, who is a clear breakout candidate with immense upside as well. He’s been on and off my team this season, as well as Noelvi Marte, and both are great options at third. Based on my metric, third base actually has the best depth out of any infield position. So third base has more depth than anyone expected, and while Ramirez is clearly the best at the position, this is the one rare scenario where I felt trading him was the smartest thing to do.

When you consider the next trade I was able to make after getting Wood, it makes the idea of trading for Wood even better. Looking at my roster for this season you could actually argue this trade didn’t make sense, but it definitely does now that I was able to flip an extra outfielder to buy low on Dylan Cease. It’s an upgrade I needed at starting pitcher, where I traded Randy Arozarena, Lucas Giolito, and Drew Rasmussen for Cease. It’s a trade I love for many reasons, like the fact I enjoy these trades when I then get to add two players to my roster for free. There is even a worthy replacement for Arozarena on the wire in Kyle Stowers. I had Stowers on my team and dropped him last week mainly because he wasn’t playing every day since he was sitting against lefties. Since then he has proceeded to hit 5 home runs in two games since then, which is just how it goes sometimes. So I’m hoping to be able to get him back when fab runs this weekend, and it also makes me question why someone would trade for Arozarena when Stowers is sitting on the wire. Based on the Points League Efficiency Index (PLEI) Stowers is actually ahead of Arozarena, ranked 11th out of all outfielders while Arozarena is 14th. I saw Giolito as a prime sell high candidate, with his schedule getting tougher to begin the second half. I really wanted Cease before games started so I could start him in his favorable matchups instead of Giolito. In the short-term it’s proven to be beneficial already, as Cease struck out 10 and didn’t allow a run. To me Rasmussen was a clear throw-in to sweeten the deal, and is a player I had just picked up last weekend and was likely going to drop anyway. With his innings restriction and only being allowed to pitch 5 innings a start, he wasn’t going to be very useful in a points league anyway. 

I must admit I missed out on getting Stowers back, but I realized Austin Hays had become available, and he’s a great option based on his production and my metric. He’s right around 200 plate appearances as well, so I’m buying what he’s done and sustained at this point. The only concern with him is health, but I love him as a depth option for my team. I was also relieved to get Barger back, because he is a great option at third base, and also added Noelvi Marte as an upside play for another third baseman I like. I felt that having both him and Barger as options was a good idea, and considering Hays and Marte both have all their games at Cincinnati next week, they are both great streaming options.