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I has the distinct luck in drafting Mets ace Matt Harvey in two of my NL-only leagues this season. One is a keeper league where I won the bidding at $18 for his services. That price looks like a bargain through a quarter of the season. I also drafted him in the 11th round of the NL-only non-keeper league, and again, he looks like a huge bargain.
About a month ago, I traded Shin-Soo Choo and Edward Mujica for Stephen Strasburg and Cliff Pennington. Yeah, including Mujica in the deal wasn't the smartest of ideas at this point, but I own Trevor Rosenthal, and did not think Mujica would be THIS dominant. Anyway, I made the deal because I needed another starter and trading Choo got me one of the best starters in the National League. Strasburg hasn't been Strasburg this season, but I wonder if his 8 inning performance last week in San Diego was a turning point in the season for him. Time will tell.
That deal left me with four very good starters: Strasburg, Harvey, Mat Latos and Kris Medlen. Owning four starters in a 5 x 5 league is probably not the smartest idea, but I won the league last year with just four starters, then picking up a starter here and there to make sure I meet the 1,100 innings requirement.
With that said, I wanted to test the waters by offering Harvey to other owners in search of another bat. I shot high with my offers, and here are the offers I made. There were other players in the offers to make the deal even, but I will not include them since they were not deal breakers.
Harvey for Carlos Gonzalez - Rejected
Harvey for Paul Goldschmidt - Rejected
Harvey for Justin Upton - Rejected
Harvey for David Wright - Rejected
Harvey for Andrew McCutchen - waiting on response
In a 5 x 5 league where strikeouts matter, I felt that Harvey had enough value to get me a solid bat in return, as he is the #1 ranked player in NL leagues right now, according to CBS Sports. But, just like most other leagues, hitters are protected like they are gold. The hitters I targeted are fantasy gold right now, but Harvey is fantasy gold as well, as he is currently 5-0 with a 1.56 ERA, 0.72 WHIP and a 68-14 strikeout to walk rate in 63.2 innings thus far.
Am I crazy for reaching high in my offers to deal Harvey? I don't see him as a nine start fluke here. He has dominated hitters going back to last season.
With that said, what kind of hitter should one get in return for Harvey in a 5 x 5 NL only league?