The Dynasty Guru Experts LeagueUncategorized

#TDGX Transaction Report: Koji and Marcell Get #Hugs

You’ve been following TDGX. You love TDGX. We all love TDGX.  And every week here at The Dynasty Guru, I am going to be bringing you commentary from our flagship experts’ league, directly from the participants themselves. Today we’re going to cover all of the transactions made post-draft, including a few trades–one involving an elite prospect and another involving a potential high-end starting pitcher.

The goal here is to give you insight into the moves made by our group of experts so that you can use this information the next time you need to make a trade or prominent FA move in your league. So let’s not mess around with too much longer of an introduction. We’re going to break this up into three sections: trades, major league additions, minor league additions.

TRADES

J.P. Breen trades Marcell Ozuna, John Jaso, Zack Cozart and Edwin Diaz to Chris Crawford for Matt Wieters, Eddie Butler and a second rounder

J.P.: “I’m not a huge fan of Marcell Ozuna, so the opportunity to trade him and a trio of spare parts for a top-10 catcher and a top pitching prospect was a no-brainer for me. The draft pick was just icing on the cake. Wieters’ injury certainly clouds the picture a bit for me, but I’m playing for 2015. I’m willing to take the chance and wait, as I believe I got the two best players in the deal.”

Chris: “It was very hard to give up on Butler, but if I’m going to win this year, I had to address the holes in my lineup, and I think I did that for the most part (thought seeing a “hitter” like Cozart in my lineup hurts). It’s far from perfect, but I think I have a far more complete lineup now than I did two weeks ago, and I still have a quality system to help in the future.”

Nick Doran trades Koji Uehara and a fifth rounder to Wilson Karaman for Dan Haren, a third rounder and a fourth rounder.

Nick: “Losing Uehara stings but the trade helps balance out my team across the 5 pitching stat categories and should allow me to gain several points in the standings as the season moves along. My team is well out in front of the pack in saves, so I was able to trade from my strength to help fix my weakness, which is starting pitching. I was trying to get Corey Kluber but had to settle for Dan Haren, but I like Haren a lot too. I wrote this article Targeting Dan Haren, the Once and Future Ace recommending him in the preseason and I was finally able to snag him for my TDGX team. In addition to upgrading my starting rotation I was also able to improve my position in next year’s draft.”

Wilson: “There was some unfortunate timing in one regard here, as I agreed in principle to this deal pretty simultaneous to the news that Cliff Lee had just gone down to an elbow strain. So I lost a good chunk of starting pitcher depth in one swoop. On the flip side, I had (and assuming a relatively short DL stint for Lee stil have) the depth to handle that kind of a short-term hit if I stream smartly. And in terms of raw value I think this is a fairly even swap. Koji was a 15th round pick, Haren a 19th. Per ESPN’s Player Rater Koji’s been the 92nd most valuable player in standard 5×5 leagues so far this season, and Haren checks in at 135. And I see both continuing to produce similar ballpark value the rest of the way this year, health providing. There are durability and health question marks around both, though moreso with Koji.

In the realm of longer term value Haren’s got an edge given his relative youth and a profile that figures to age reasonably well. But I’m comfortable enough with my rotation depth beyond this season, and this deal was pretty strictly geared towards the current season (and to a lesser extent next) from my end. The value of the swapped draft picks more or less evens this one out in my opinion, and I think we both get what we wanted out of the deal, at least on paper. Koji gives me the elite closer I needed to make up some quick ground in Saves, and there are some cheap points to be gained in short order with a burst of accumulation in that category. The additional ratio support is the cherry on top, as even in limited reliever innings the kind of numbers Koji puts up in ERA and WHIP support will have value over the four+ full months of the season to come.”

MAJOR LEAGUE FA PICKUPS

Bret Sayre adds Nick Tepesch for $9

“Frankly, I was pretty surprised to see Tepesch sitting out there on the wire. His first two starts of the season were strong (four earned runs and  12 strikeouts in 11 2/3 innings), and although he doensn’t project as anything more than a back-end guy, back-end guys on pretty good teams are rather valuable. Add to that, he had a two start week with the first one coming in Minnesota and you get a guy I can add to the rotation I currently have for my last two pitching spots, along with Edwin Jackson, Miguel Gonzalez and Jason Motte.”

Ian Kahn adds J.A. Happ for $6

“I have always been a fan of of Happ as a dynasty pitcher. He’s just lowbrow enough that he always seems to be available, and always feels like a good bet to grow. His start to the year after his pouty demotion to the bullpen has been excellent. Was pleased to get him for $6. I can only hope that a great player in our league like Wilson Karaman bid as high as $5. Wanted the handcuff for Kimbrel in Carpenter, but the shoulder seems okay, and my wife does like watching the guy who does that weird back thing after rubbing the ball for 9 seconds. Carpenter was expendable.”

Mike Buttil adds Erisbel Arruebarrena for $4

“Alexander Guerrero could miss up to five weeks doing his best Holyfield impression, and Hanley Ramirez will most likely land on the DL this week as well. This opens an opportunity for Arruebarrena. The Cuban infielder does more with his glove than his bat, but he’ll fill the hole left in our lineup by Nolan Arenado until we find a more permanent replacement.”

Wilson Karaman adds Juan Carlos Oviedo for $0

“Balfour’s been scuffling at the back of the Rays’ bullpen of late, while Oviedo saved 92 games during his Leo Nunez phase and has been solid as they come. A speculative add in case Balfour blows up a couple more times.”

Jason Hunt adds Eric Campbell for $0

“Campbell has been playing every couple days for the Mets at first base and in the outfield, which is more than we can say for the player I dropped to grab him in Johnny Giavotella. For a $0 add, two to three starts a week would be very nice.”

Wilson Karaman adds Josh Harrison for $0

“I got a lot of millage out of Collin Cowgill, but it appears the sand has drained through that hourglass, as he pummeled my bottom line to the tune of a .118 AVG, no homers or steals, and but one solitary RBI and Run apiece last week. Harrison has officially seized the Pirate RF job while the Bucs screw with Polanco’s service time, and he’s been a hot hitter of late with a .304/.385/4.35 line over his last seven. He’s hitting leadoff for the ‘Burgh, and tat gives me nice short-term upside for Runs at no cost.”

Wilson Karaman adds Andre Rienzo for $0

“With Lee hitting the DL for Jah knows how long and Peacock also missing a turn due to a sore elbow my starting pitching depth is a little light. Rienzo boasts a solid off-speed arsenal to compliment a decidedly not solid fastball, but the combo’s worked out decently enough for him of late as he’s put up a nice 19:6 K:BB tally over his last three starts (17 1/3 innings) in some tough match-ups. He gets to face the worst offense in the majors by a whole bunch of metrics this week when San Diego visits town, and I like him as a streaming option.”

MINOR LEAGUE FA PICKUPS

Craig Glaser/Tom Trudeau add Francelis Montas for $2

“Pitching prospect Frank Montas missed April while recovering from a torn meniscus, but he absolutely dominated in May with a 26:4 K:BB ratio. Montas is the type of high-upside power arm that could potentially unseat more highly touted prospects on the keeper depth chart if his breaking stuff has begun to catch up to his fastball.”

Follow me on Twitter at @dynastyguru.

The Author

The Dynasty Guru

The Dynasty Guru

2 Comments

  1. May 29, 2014 at 9:10 pm

    For those who would like to see the updated standings for this #TDGX experts league you can see them here: http://www.blazingfastball.com/the-dynasty-guru-experts-league-update-may-29th-2014/

    You can also suggest some ways for me to improve my team. I need any edge I can get!

  2. […] taken the most aggressive steps towards addressing in the early going, as I recently consummated a trade for Koji Uehara on top of blowing a full two-thirds of my annual FAAB budget on anointed second division closers. […]

Previous post

Trader's Corner: Introducing The Mookie Scale

Next post

Going Deep: Recap of a 20-team Dynasty MiLB Draft: Picks 41-50