Should I play for 2008 or 2009?

by faketeams on Jul 25, 2008 10:16 PM EDT Comment 3 comments

As I depart for the green mountains of Vermont, I am balancing on the precipice of playing for this season in my AL-Only 4x4 keeper league or focusing on 2009. I am currently 20 points out of 5th place (the lowest money spot).

That seems far enough away to make the decision easy, but I look at the stats categories and do not see it as obviously so. In addition to the top five being separated by a total of seven points (getting there is as good as getting into the run for 1st place!), the individual categories are much closer than they appear from a look at the standings.

Here is a run down of my positioning (total and points):

AVG: .2659, 6 points: .0006 from an additional point
HR: 113, 7 points: with 11 points just 8 HRs away and three of the four ahead of me are bailing/have bailed. I have David Ortiz coming back.
RBI: 541, 11 points: 12 pts is 41 RBIs ahead but that team is in the process of bailing.
SB: 65, 6 points: I am six bags away from one more point and 14 from two.
Wins: 44, 5 points: 12 points in 9 Wins ahead of me. 11 points is 5 away.
SVs: 8, 2 points: I am 14 saves behind 3 points and two ahead of last place.
ERA: 4.290, four points: I am .305 away from the middle of the pack.
WHIP: 1.3621, five points: 11 points is at 1.2412

The question is whether I can get enough points to get to the 60 range and be in the hunt for any of the top five finishes. Over the course of my vacation, I'll be pondering it.

Here are three trades I have been offered (my players are the second portion of each.) Two are clearly for next season (players have three years starting with A and ending with C at which point the player goes back in the draft). One is for this year.

$26A Roy Halladay and $10A Ryan Sweeney for $10A Ben Francisco, AA OF Austin Jackson, High A 1B Chris Carter and $8A C/3b Brnadon Inge
$21B Josh Beckett and $3A Brad Wilkerson for $13C Joba Chamberlain and $31 Nick Swisher
$10A Sean Gallagher for $13C Joba Chamberlain

What would you do? And which trade would you accept?

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