Fantasy Mailbag: Matt-for-Matt?

Question: I've been offered a simple trade in my 14-team redraft H2H 5×5 league.

I get: Matt Cain

I give: Matt Moore

I'm not one to put too much stock in early-season performances, but it's hard to ignore what Moore has been doing thus far. He was a big target of mine this year, and I landed him in most of my leagues. So it's hard to trade him away at this point in the season, but can I pass up this deal?

Answer: Cain is the safer play as he has a very low floor but Moore has the higher ceiling while carrying more risk. I don't see a clear winner, or loser, in this deal.

Question:  After seeing Jose Quintana’s seven-strikeout night last night, I saw somewhere that Doug Eddings was the ump behind the plate, and he had a 15-plus K/9 last year in games he was behind the plate. Would you guys happen to know where to find data like this? For all I know he could have called a bunch of Max Scherzer and Yu Darvish games, but it does seem like something that may be worth exploring for those of us who stream pitchers and love the tastiness of strikeouts. What are your takes on this—something worth looking into, or ultimately something that doesn’t make too much difference?

Answer: http://brooksbaseball.net/umpire_cards/ump_Search.php has all of their cards. Eddings does have a bit of a favorable zone for LHP http://www.brooksbaseball.net/bucket/umpire_cards/card_imgs/62.LHH.png.

Question: I play in a 12-teamer mixed (keep six) with 25-man rosters. We use Tristan Cockcroft’s 6×6 (GS, K/9, WHIP, IP, ERA, SV). I know it's way too early and all that, but I think maybe the advice I paid attention to with pitching was geared to deeper leagues, and now I have a bunch of guys that are off to slow starts. My starters: Cliff Lee, Matt Moore, Max Scherzer, Jake Peavy, Homer Bailey, Jonathon Niese, Chris Tillman, Edwin Jackson, and Jason Hammel. Obviously I'm moreunsure about the second half of that list. Are these guys that I should even be owning? And can I believe in them enough to sell off one of my better guys to help me deal with injuries (Jose Reyes, Aaron Hill, Giancarlo Stanton)? We're only in week three but I'm off to a slow/demoralizing start, in part thanks to injuries, and I could use some help keeping my sanity.

Answer: Hammel is ahead of Jackson and teammate Chris Tillman. But to answer the question, it really depends who is available.

Question: Would you drop Carlos Quentin for Matt Adams in a 10-team, NL-only 6×6 h2h league? Categories include OPS, HR, RBI, R, K, and SB, and in this case, their positional eligibility doesn't matter to me. This is a non-starting role on my team, so I would try to plug Adams into my lineup whenever he gets the start. I would like to hold on to Quentin, but I may not be able to clear space before Adams disappears in the auction tomorrow

Answer: I don't think you can outright cut Quentin. It's only eight games. I love Adams, but the playing time isn't there to justify it.

Question: I'm desperate for some SP help and was wondering if you guys could play a Name Game™ (property of the Fantasy Focus) of the available starters in my 12-team mixed league (I can pick up two).

• Chris Tillman
• Chris Capuano
• Chad Billingsley
• Eric Stults
• Mike Fiers
• Erik Bedard
• Zach McAllister

Answer:

Paul Sporer: I'd go Billingsley, Capuano, Tillman, Fiers

Jason Collette: I'd go Billingsley and McCallister as he's one of my pet projects

Question: Wil Myers was just dropped and I'm wondering if I should put a waiver claim in for him.  Here's my current roster:

• C – VMart
• 1B – Pujols
• 2B – Kendrick
• 3B – Prado
• SS – Tulo
• MI – Drew
• CI – Hosmer
• OF – Bruce, Craig, Choo, Swisher, Markakis
• Utility – Bonifacio
• SP – Latos, Moore, Halladay, Hanson, Estrada, S.Miller
• RP – Veras, Herrera, Mujica
• Bench – Jose Fernandez, Profar, spot open for streaming starter
• DL – Hanley Ramirez, David Ortiz

To bore you with some planning details, I'll probably be dropping Bonifacio when Ortiz returns. I really like having an open roster spot to stream starters (daily league, we get seven adds each week).  I frankly hate wasting a bench spot on a minor-leaguer, but I think Profar will be worth it.

So is Wil Myers worth my streaming bench spot?  If he's called up before the end of May, I think he's worth it.  Do you think that will happen?  And this league consists of a Rangers fan and a Rays fan, so I think trading the two prospects upon their MLB arrivals would be fairly easy (assuming I don't need them myself).

Answer: I don't see how you can carry both Profar and Myers on your bench at this time, since that’s two dead spots.

Question: Unfortunately, I got Jose Reyes in the third round of my 10-team, mixed 6×6 roto league (added slugging and OBP instead of average)  Pre-injury, my only other source of speed was Carlos Gomez. I have a great hitting team and feel that, absent steals, I should be able to compete strongly there. I should be good-to-very-good in the pitching categories, which include IP and QS instead of wins.

My current plan is to roll Stephen Drew out at short. Am I crazy to punt steals?  If I am dumping steals, do I dump Gomez, either through trade or to pick up Paul Maholm or Kelvin Herrera?  If I were to try to keep pace at steals, should I drop Drew and grab Eduardo Nunez?

Answer:  We think it's okay to ease off SBs for now and just use Drew, but hang on to Gomez for now. Steals are easy to fix later in the year, but don't completely bury yourself by ridding your team of all potential SB guys.