Explain it to them.
That’s the message this week: If you want to make a trade, you need to explain the benefits to the other fantasy baseball manager. Make sure you explain to them (briefly…no one wants to read a novel when they’re reviewing their roster) how the proposed deal can immediately improve their team.
The process begins by looking at your ranking. This is especially true in roto leagues, where each category tells its own story. Your goal should be to find a group of coaches in a chosen category and offer some of them the opportunity to stand out by acquiring one of your players. For example, Steven Kwan appears in this week’s article. As a Kwan manager with some leeway in batting average, my goal would be to find the group of teams in that category and offer it to at least a couple of members of that group. My pitch will start with: “I realized that with a small improvement in batting average, you could surpass several other teams. Kwan could make that happen for you.” And then, you can finish your proposal by explaining why the player the other coach is giving up is less vital to his success than Kwan.
This is not rocket science. Spending some time analyzing your league standings can lead to sensible offers where you improve the overall value, but your league mate gets someone who fits their roster. And now, let’s take a look at some men who are candidates for selling big for a variety of reasons.
Sell high
Steven Kwan (OF, Cleveland Guardians)
Kwan should be very attractive to those in a tight batting average race, as his .385 mark would make him baseball’s undisputed leader if he had enough plate appearances to qualify. There’s no doubt that the career .297 hitter is effective at getting base hits, but he’ll still experience notable regression when his .395 BABIP drops to a reasonable level. Kwan, who is useful but not special in the cumulative categories, has recently been part of some big trades on Yahoo Trade Market, and smart managers will try to move him while his value is at its peak.
Anthony Santander (OF, Baltimore Orioles)
Those who have escaped the mid-tier of the home run category in their league might try to move Santander based on him being a power producer who can help another team move up several spots in that category. While the slugger ranks fourth in baseball with 21 long balls, the 62-point gap between his SLG and xSLG suggests he may be due for some power regression in the coming weeks. Camden Yards is definitely not a launching pad for right-handed hitters like Santander, and the slow, career .246 hitter is hitting .232, making him a marginal producer when he’s not blasting round-trippers. Like Kwan, Santander should be plenty valuable the rest of the way, but we may have already seen the best of both players in terms of production by 2024.
Garrett Crochet (SP/RP, Chicago White Sox)
Crochet has become the jewel of this year’s waiver wire, as he currently ranks second in baseball in strikeouts and sixth in WHIP. Heck, Crochet has pitched so well that he even managed to claim six of the White Sox’s 21 wins. But this seems like the best time to move the southpaw for a king’s ransom, as his innings count is already trending dangerously high. Crochet did not pitch more than 65 innings in any NCAA season at Tennessee, and his season-high as a pro entering 2024 was 54.1 frames in 2021. He already has 94.1 innings this year, and would be It would be prudent to conclude that the last-place White Sox will slow down in the second half or shut it down entirely. An early end to Crochet’s season would be devastating for coaches who would have to cut him during their playoff weeks. And while the situation is less dire in broken formats, there are still good reasons to trade Crochet for a player who has fared worse up to this point in 2024, but who has greater potential to maintain stable value throughout the summer. .
Luis Gil (SP, New York Yankees)
Gil got off to a disastrous start against the Orioles on June 20, but most managers will write off a brutal outing as bad luck in a tough matchup, especially when it comes to a pitcher who has been outstanding this year. But Gil’s walk rate does offer some cause for concern. The right-hander ranks third in baseball with 41 walks, and the only player who has similar ratios and an inflated walk total is Tyler Anderson, who is the current poster child for the regression to come. Gil has plenty of value on the trade market for being an exciting young pitcher working for arguably the most iconic franchise in baseball. Plus, he’s backed by an outstanding Yankees roster, which has helped him rank fourth in baseball with nine wins. And like Crochet, there are innings concerns regarding Gil, who returned from 2022 Tommy John surgery and pitched fewer than 30 total innings during the 2022-23 seasons.
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