who is more valuable going forward:

Hunter Pence or Cliff Lee. this is a keeper league, they are the same salary.

on my team Pence would be replaced by Milledge. Lee would slot in with Sabathia, Vazquez, Wandy, Carpenter, and probably replace a Campillo/Bergmann type

I know this question would have been crazy a few month ago, but Pence doesn't look good, and it looks like Lee has become a true #1

I may also try to include $5 Wandy and have him include a $6 Jay Bruce

Lincecum, Sheets, Harden and Lee, in that order. Lee is a very distant fourth though -- I just really don't buy into his success this year. Lincecum should be the clear favorite. I put Timmy above Sheets (fall of the Brewers that started with the recent Cubs series) and Harden (injury risk) for the reasons mentioned in the brackets.

Don't be a homer, grab Rios if you have the chance. Don't waste your time with Taveras or Ellsbury.

Need to know who your other closers are to assess the Guillen-Sherrill trade... overall I feel as though you could really appreciate the 1B/3B/SS flexibility of Guillen if, just in case, one of your players decides to shut it down for the year at the beginning of September.

I would take Lee over Pence. You only have two good starters (CC and Javier), your other two are questionable at best. Average outfielders like Pence should be a dime a dozen. Although FWIW, Milledge is god awful.

#1-I'd probably try and move Lee. Lincecum is clearly the best, and the other two, while health risks, are going to get more wins. If you don't need wins or don't want to risk injury, then probably move Sheets. You might be able to get one of those speedsters for the Unit, so thy that first.

#2-Now is the time to go for needs, not value or flexibilty. If you need saves, take Sherrill.

Generally I go for the position player, but this is such a beating right now that you probably have to jump on Lee. The problem is, their percieved value is so far apart, I can't see why your adversary would make that deal. If Lee can help you out at all this year, it becomes the proverbial "no brainer".

yeah, thanks. the thing is, Pence really hasn't been that much worse than expected. here are his on pace #'s vs PFM projection

HR R RBI SB BA KO
On Pace 21 72 80 10 0.2736 121
PFM 25 91 89 14 0.286 122

so yeah he's been worse than expected...but this isn't CB Young here. isn't he close enough to projected that from here on out it's reasonable to think he'll be the $22 ish player I thought he was going to be?

The drop in HR, RBI, R, and SB is worth ~$6-7 in my league, plus whatever on the BA. Where he's really getting hurt is his .344/.495 projection that's turned out to be .310/.448.

Stat, Projected, Actual
K%, 20.4%, 18.5%
BB%, 7.7%, 5.1%
HR/AB, 22.3, 29
ISO, .210, .175
ISOBA, .059, .037

That player is clearly not as good as the projection. He's between his 10th and 25th percentile PECOTA. The league as a whole is down, but not as much as Pence. I could see him coming in at $15 projection next season and being a good buy low gamble. I doubt he'd go for that much without a big finish to the season. Of course if he's kept it's all moot.

My league uses OBP and SLG and he only projected at $17 to begin with. My guess is he's above the line in my league, but not worth more than $5 so far this year. He'll probably project at $8-$12 in my format heading into next season.

I still have Fukudome & Swisher on my team and they're each getting a few starts a week because my offense has fallen apart.

Should I drop them for any of these guys for the remainder of this season. 7 X 7 league (+OPS & K's) AVG is my biggest need, followed by R, RBI & K avoidance.

Huff
Cantu
Lind
Nady
Kouzmanoff
Dejesus

I think you could drop *** for Huff, maybe Swish for Nady.

Offered Felix Hernandez and Michael Bourn for BJ Upton

I'm in a solid 1st place in a 16 team OBP/SLG 5x5 league. We use all the positions plus a MI, CI, and UTIL. Still in great shape in every hitting category but could dip in OBP or steals if I trade Upton. Pitching I'm in the middle of the pack in K's and wins and slightly above average in ERA and WHIP. A little behind on my IP's but have Carpenter, Chris Young, and Wainwright coming back so not too worried about not reaching the maximum ip threshold.

On the surface Felix is give me a pretty nice boost in k's and ERA but his schedule looks like crap the next 3 starts so I doubt he'll help much in wins. Also, his walks have been increasing so I'm a little afraid he might be wearing down. Ian Stewart is currently my Util guy and could be moved to 2nd base if need be. I feel like if I wasn't in 1st the deal would've already been done but don't want to rock the boat since I'm in 1st.

Michael Bourn isn't getting steals any more due to playing time and injuries. This trade sucks!

Given Bob Geren's mentioning of Ziegler and Blevins as potential closer options, which one should I grab if I can only get one?

Blevins was the one available in my league so I got him. though, closer by committee is obv a huge cluster **** for fantasy purposes. at least the options here are guys with good K/ERA/WHIP, so even if they're not getting saves they're not hurting.

I have both Casilla and Blevins, someone else has Street, someone else has Ziegler, someone else has Embree. awesome.

so I am trying to turn Wright or Sizemore + an SP for Hanley. Hanley would replace Keppinger, and I would use Milledge to replace Sizmore/Wright, so I think that works out. question is which SP is worth it?

CC - no way
$7 Carpenter - has too much keeper value I think?
Wandy - maybe?
Campillo - yes?...good sell high
Vazquez...man I dont know
Bergmann...of course
Gallagher...of course

I also have Phil Hughes coming back who is a decent replacement for any of those low end guys. and Brad Penny, who actually looked good in AAA! and David Price if he ends up starting

note that we have an innings cap so I can only about 5 sp "at a time"

Like you said, I would try to sell high on Campillo.

I actually ended up grabbing both, dropping Todd Jones and Eveland. Closer by committee is annoying, but I can just put Ziegler and Blevins in my lineup every day and hope for the best.

Keeper League, can only keep 4 hitters.

Current roster:
Molina, Huff, B. Roberts, O Cabrera, D Wright, Braun, Sizemore, Vlad, A Ramirez, Granderson, Butler

Trading Vlad/BRob for B Phillips/McLouth, how am I doing?

Wright, Braun, Sizemore, Phillips easy choices for next year?

Whats the deal with Volquez lately? He seems to be fading, has he ever pitched this many innings before? Is Cincy going to shut him down early?

Mussina for Wagner and Capps when i only have Hoffman closing after Todd Jones went down in flames. Yay or nay.

If the rest of your staff is half decent or better, I think this is a no brainer...

tonight I'm starting:

Campillo @ Arizona
CC vs Washington
Ian Kennedy @ Anaheim (??)

and prob not

Penny @ SF

Kennedy has been excellent at AAA, and the matchup is average.
Penny only had 1 mediocre rehab start (?) but the matchup doesn't get much better than @ SF.

Belated ***** to the Mets bullpen.

I didn't spend 1/5 of my draft budget on Johan Santana in 3 leagues for him to get screwed out of several wins after leaving with the lead!

PLEASE HELP

I get: J. Peavy, Adrian Gonzalez
I lose: Pujols

my sp's are:

-javier vazquez
-gavin floyd
-edinson volquez
-fausto carmona
-hiroki kuroda
-ubaldo jiminez
(also jorge campillo)

this is some sick variance imo

any glaring leaks that need to be plugged w/ this roster??

14 Team League....v v active owners

C- Soto
C- Saltalamacchia
1B- D. Lee
2B- Utley
3B- Cantu
SS- Cabrera
MI- B.J. Upton
CI- Blake
OF- C. Lee, Beltran, Magglio, Ludwick, Edmonds
UT- Francisco

SP- Zambrano, Harden, Halladay, E. Santana, Floyd (rotate 6th starter from Penny, E. Jackson, Wellemeyer, G. Smith)
RP- Percival, Izzy, Rivera

Keeper league fwiw...15 keepers from year to year

Just had an insane finish to the week...

Teams typically score 300-400 points a week in our league. Heading into tonight's game, I was up 5.5 points and had Pujols going against Aramis and Soriano. Before Dempster got yanked, I went down 3.5...but Pujols hit the RBI double to bring me within half a point. Then, as clutch as clutch gets, both Soriano and A-Ram struck out (-0.5 points per K). Barring a scoring change or mistake, I just won this week's matchup by one half of a point.

The best part? Those two seemingly unimportant strikeouts probably knocked the other guy out of the playoffs.

i won by a point this week too, ship ship!

two more potential trades...neither of these have gone through yet so please send your thoughts

Trade A: I send BJ Upton/Mo Rivera/Mike Moustakas.....I receive Cole Hamels/Corey Hart

Trade B: I send Chase Utley/Carlos Beltran/Gavin Floyd.....I receive David Wright/Chad Billingsley/Dustin Pedroia

This is a 14 Team Keeper League....6x6 (OBP/H)

15 Keepers