Pull out the stops?

[onejayhawk]

With the season over, the annual league meeting is coming up. Normally very little trading is done, but seeds are planted. I just missed the playoffs, partly because I stacked the bench with MiLB players. This is my team now, including all the clear option players.

16 team H2H, Holds and OBA

C Carson Kelley
1B Paul Goldschmidt
2B Kevin Newman
3B Matt Chapman
SS Adalberto Mondesi
CI Yandy Diaz
MI Amed Rosario
OF Ronald Acuna
OF Christian Yelich
OF Victor Robles
OF
Util

SP Charlie Morton
SP Shohei Ohtani
SP Anrew Heaney
SP Lance Lynn
RP
RP
RP
P Kolby Allard (?)
P
P

BN Luis Robert
BN Jo Adell
BN Clint Frazier
BN Wander Franco
BN Royce Lewis

3/4 keepers. Acuna, Yelich, Goldschmidt and Chapman are out of options. Mondesi, Rosario, and Heaney are on their last option. Trading two or more for an elite player makes long term sense. I will get to add one player in the 100-150 range but the rest will come in the last third of the draft. Offense is very good as is. The best value for the one pick is likely a RP. The real question is SP.

Do I absolutely have to get a SP with my one player?
Would a SP along the lines of Mike Soroka or Brandon Woodruff be enough?
Can I afford to trade Goldschmidt AND Chapman for an ace SP?
Do I need to make deals?

J

[Gregg]

I haven't played a lot of head to head so take this with a grain of salt. It looks to me that you do not have nearly enough pitching to compete.

I think I would be trying to trade Goldy and one of your rookies not named Adell or Robert to get an ace.

[Ken]

My offseason is never about filling a particular hole. It's about finding the best values. If that means your draft ends up focused on pitchers, fine. But get the best values now.

[mjl]

My offseason is never about filling a particular hole. It's about finding the best values. If that means your draft ends up focused on pitchers, fine. But get the best values now.

I agree most of the time, but if the keeper lists are so extensive that you're really only going to get one shot at a guy who would normally go around round 10 in a 12-team draft, and after that you're taking worse players... yeah, I think you should at least be trying to get a pitcher unless trading is liquid enough that you can take the best deal now with confidence that you can work it out later. But you've posted enough times about this league that that doesn't seem to be the case.

[onejayhawk]

That's about right. Between keepers and options, the draft functionally starts 100 picks in, with a third of 100-200 missing from the pool. It plays more like a short roster dynasty league.

I have won the league multiple times and every time I did so with pitching I picked up cheap or acquired prior years and waited to develop. Once Grienke won Cy Young and I had a killer bullpen. Once I drafted Jose Fernandez in the 21st round. Once it was Carlos Carrasco having his breakout season. In none of those years was I really expecting to win. This team is different. It's the first time I will expect to have the best roster going into the draft.

All that said, I have to throw Yu Darvish and Robby Ray back. One of them would bump either Goldschmidt or Chapman. I doubt if they will get back to me, but someone like Severino or Glasnow might, depending on the doctor's reports. Also, there is usually someone like Soroka or Sonny Gray. The flip side of all this is that I can get serviceable depth late, because of players doing what I did to acquire Roberts, Adell and Franco. The only play I have of that sort is McKenzie Gore plus two option years.

So, the plan is take the best SP available for the early pick and try to find the next Jack Flaherty or Shane Bieber in the mid rounds.