First time to play Fantasy Baseball.

Here's my team. Any advice?

C- Victor Martinez
1B- Carlos Pena
2B- Chase Utley
3B- Ryan Braun
SS- Michael Young
OF- Hunter Pence
OF- Jason Bay
OF- Shane Victorino
UT- Russell Martin
BN- Kevin Youkilis
BN- Michael Cuddyer
BN- Mike Cameron

SP- Kelvim Escobar
SP- Matt Cain
RP- Chad Cordero
RP- Todd Jones
P- Ian Snell
P- Phil Hughes
P- Troy Percival
BN- Tom Gorzelanny
BN- Gil Meche

Should I drop Escobar or wait and DL him? I have a feeling he may not pitch at all this year.

I'm not high on Percival. Was thinking of dropping him and adding Heath Bell.

Number of teams/scoring categories? It'll make it a lot easier to judge your team knowing those things.

I'm not big on your pitching, to be honest. Snell is good, he'll contribute across the board (with the exception of wins, seeing as how he plays for Pittsburgh) and Hughes should be ok, but like every young pitcher, expect some growing pains, and the innings limit on him might hurt, especially later in the season.

Not only might Escobar not pitch at all this year, there are talks that his career may be in jeopardy. Any contribution he makes this season would be minimal.

I hope you didn't overpay for Carlos Pena, the way I see it, there's a reason the Tigers, Red Sox and Yankees all gave up on him. It's pretty unusual for someone to all of a sudden put it all together at 29. He may have a decent season, but I wouldn't expect much better than .270 and 30 homers.

You have a pretty fierce lineup, but I agree, the pitching could use a little work. I would try trading some hitting for some pitching. Specifically, being that you have two of the most valuable catchers in fantasy baseball at an otherwise thin position, see if you can deal one of them to a team with a bad catching situation and get back a nice top-of-the-line SP. With the potency of your lineup, Youkilis or Cuddyer could move into the vacated UTIL spot and it wouldn't really hurt you that much.

Overall though, I would say you had a very successful draft for a first-timer. Your team looks better than those of some people that I have been playing with for years!

The Core of the team is pretty good I think but agree Pena I don't think will do what he did last year but there is always that chance. Some bright spots in your pitching staff in Hughes, Meche, Snell, and Cain. Other then that it's avg staff. The good part about fantasy is there is always a few pitchers to pick up each month as they go through their hot streaks.

It's a 12 team league.

Scoring categories are R, HR, RBI, SB, AVG, W, SV, K, ERA, WHIP


I looked over the other teams rosters with the possibility of moving Martin.
Here's some names I've come up with that I may can get. Give me your suggestions

Team A has Geovany Soto as the catcher.
Felix Hernandez is their #1 but they also have Matt Garza and Jeff Francis.

Team B has Bengie Molina
Erik Bedard and Jon Garland. This team has Peavey and Zambrano as their top 2.

Team C has Jason Varitek
Dan Haren #1, Roy Halliday #2 and John Lackey.

Team D has A.J. Pierzynski
Chris Young and Brad Penny.

Team E has Paul LoDuca
Brandon Webb #2, Aaron Harang and C.C Sabathia

Team F has Ramon Hernandez
Mark Buehrle

Out of the pitchers you mentioned, here's the order I would put them in:

Jake Peavy
Brandon Webb
Erik Bedard
Dan Haren
C.C. Sabathia
Aaron Harang
Felix Hernandez
Roy Halladay
Chris Young
Jeff Francis
Carlos Zambrano
Brad Penny
Matt Garza
Mark Buehrle
Jon Garland

I left John Lackey off this list because he's hurt, and no one seems to know exactly how much time he's going to miss.

Now obviously, you're not going to get some of these guys straight up for V-Mart or Martin, and some of these guys aren't worth trading one of the top-tiered catchers for. I figure you won't get anyone in my list Sabathia or higher (I'm not big on Sabathia anyway, he threw over 250 innings last year, if you count the playoffs,) and I really don't think anyone Chris Young or worse is worth trading for, at least straight up. So now that leaves me with just a couple options, Aaron Harang, Felix Hernandez or Roy Halladay. Halladay won't get you a lot of strikeouts, so he's definitely #3 on that list. In fact, now that I look at my lists, Halladay isn't even in my top 100 overall, so forget him, unless you get desperate, and then I'd suggest getting the other guy to throw in someone else, maybe you can find a good sleeper. But anyway, Martin seems to be worth right around the 55th pick or so. Harang seems to be going just a couple picks after him, and Hernandez just a couple picks behind him, so they all seem to have pretty comparable value on draft day.

I'd probably try trading him to Team E, because not only is Harang slightly more vauled on draft day, but he seems to have enough pitching behind to afford the loss of Harang.

Thanks Texas Flats. Harang was one of my first choices when I started looking at the list.

I have a chance to claim Micah Owens off waivers.

What's everyone's thoughts of taking Owens and dropping Gil Meche?

I would advise trading either victor martinez or Martin and get someone solid for your util spot that plays everyday...not a big fan of cathers in that spot...

You can probably get someone like Carlos Lee or Adam Dunn for Martin straight up...if u can get a big time bat back pull the trigger

I'm 7th in the league but only 7 points behind the leader. I'm either 1st or 2nd in all offensive categories, except stolen bases. In pitching categories I lead in strikeouts but am near the bottom in all others, dead last in saves.

Here's my pitching staff, advice please.
Matt Cain
Ian Snell
Kerry Wood- picked up about 2 weeks ago
Todd Jones
Aaron Harang
Greg Maddox
Vicente Padilla
Micah Owings
Brian Wilson- picked up tonight, dropped Heath Bell

I'm not big on Padilla, but he's pitched reasonably well as of late. I wouldn't hold onto him for too long, but ride him out while you can.

Cain should give you just about everything, except for wins. But he'll post solid ERA, WHIP and K's.

I've pretty much given up on Snell right now. He's pitching terribly, and he plays on a bad team, so it's not like he can get bailed out by his offense. I dunno who's on your FA/WA list, but there has to be someone who's performing better than him. You can keep an eye on him, and if he puts a couple good starts together, you can think about bringing him back, but he's a safe bet to drop.

Wood's been performing really well, much better than I thought he'd be, so there's no worries there. Jones is your problem, when it comes to closers. The Tigers are struggling right now, and even when he gets a save opp., it's never a shut door. He likes to keep things interesting, which hurts ERA and WHIP a bit, and he doesn't strike anyone out. I dunno if there are better closers out there, and if you're really desperate for saves, you can hold on to him for the time being, but I'd try to grab a different closer, either via trade or FA. Same with Brian Wilson. But unlike Jones and the Tigers, the Giants aren't going to give him too many save opportunities the rest of the year, they're just not good enough of a team. The Tiugers can still turn it around, but the Giants are pretty much playing their best baseball right now. Ride him while you can, but don't expect any great things from him.

Owings is solid, no worries there. And Harang will start winning soon, eventually that team will score some runs for him. He's only 2-7, but his ERA is a respectable 3.81 and his K/BB ratio is 74/18, which is darn good. Maddux is ok, but he won't give you a lot of innings anymore, his offense sucks, and his bullpen can't hold a lead. He's a big name, so maybe there's some trade value there.

As for what you can do, I can't really tell you, since I don't know who's available. Some of the guys (Harang, Jones, Cain) you should be able to wait them out, and others (Padilla, Wilson,) you can ride them out for a while. But guys like Snell and Maddux should be expendable, so if there's someone better available, either through trade (check if your league has a trading block feature) or FA, I'd go that route.

I dropped Snell, after todays outing, and picked up Chad Billingsley.

The only relievers available with at least 5 saves are Brian Fuentes, Ryan Franklin and Scott Downs.

Starters available are Gavin Floyd, Dana Eveland and Daniel Cabrera. Jair Jurrjens is on waivers.

I checked the trading block but no one is looking to get rid of pitching. There's not been much trade activity in our league this year.