huff for votto

[QStar]

Is Huff for real?

In a keeper league requiring a DH, would Huff and Ellsbury be worth Mauer, Votto and Kershaw?

We can only keep players for 2 years max, so votto and kershaw aren\'t likely to peak in the next 2 years.

[J Status]

I\'d have to take Huff if it was those two straight up. Kershaw is the best player in there probably though. Mauer is nice to have at C as well if you need that.

Ellsbury has fallen off the table and Huff, although I like him since he has done this a lot in the past, isn\'t a youngster.

In a normal keeper, I would want Mauer, Votto and Kershaw. Since you can only keep players two years... then maybe you are right. That is a variable that really changes things. It is unlikely Kershaw or Votto will peak that soon although Kershaw is capable.

This is difficult with that limitation. Who would you play at catcher then?

[J Status]

I saw you had some other catcher options in your other post. Still, they aren\'t worth keeping to me. They could be easily picked up in FA.

So you are essentially giving away Mauer for nothing cuz you can\'t retain him? Why not trade him for another catcher or other player that is unretainable for someone else? Then their values will be on par. Perhaps you could even get a deal like Martin for Mauer if it was a similar situation because they will just want to get someone good in return that they can sign.

[QStar]

The contract situation with Mauer (and Hill) on my team is that they are both on terminating contracts.

That is, when we keep a player, we essentially sign them for 1 or 2 year extensions - next year before our auction, I will decide who I want to sign to an extension and also whether it will be for 1 or 2 years.

When the extension runs out, the player (Mauer/Hill) must be returned to the auction pool - regardless of who\'s team he is on. So the maximum we can keep someone is 3 years (initial auction year + 2 years extension).

I am not in contention this year, so I\'m not overly concerned about my remaining catcher options, just trying to get some value from an expiring contract on Mauer.

Based on my valuations of my roster, I have more than our maximum number of keepers, so I\'m trying to upgrade by giving 2 keepers (Votto+kershaw)for 1 (huff) since we require a DH and huff would be a cheap DH/1B/3B next year and I think that I already have solid pitching keepers in Billingsley, Gallardo, Broxton, Ryan and Mcgowan with only Hamilton and Ankiel as my position players.

Mauer is thrown in as a sweetener to the deal.

Actually, I think what I really want to do is trade Mcgowan (injury recovery uncertainty) and Broxton (uncertainty if he\'ll close in 09), but I don\'t think those 2 + Mauer would be enough to land me Huff or even ellsbury for that matter.

[J Status]

It is always important to consolidate as a basic rule in almost any keeper setup (unless you have a dead team with one mega star and nothing else on the team or FA to use). So I think you are on the right track with trying to get Huff or Ellsbury. Still, I\'d prefer Broxton over Ryan personally. I like the upside on Broxton with his K/9. He could be a superstar, but he is a risk in the short term. Still, Saito is pretty old when he returns. I just think Broxton would be the more exciting gamble but that is how I roll.

[QStar]

Yeah, I thought it was a tough call on Broxton vs. Ryan.

But I\'m not sure whether LAD will have Broxton closing next year or not. He \"supposed\" to take over when Saito calls it quits...but who knows who they might sign in the off-season?

Ryan while not even close to being as dominant as he once was, is the unequivocal closer as long as he\'s healthy.

Thanks for letting me bounce all of these ideas off you, I think I\'ve changed my course of action and won\'t be offering Votto OR Kershaw for Huff any more....despite the topic name..heh.