Buy Low and Sell High: Trade and Waiver Targets for Week 5

Click here to get RotoBaller's fantasy baseball advice on early-season trade and waiver wire targets. Exercise the buy-low sell-high strategy with our advice!

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Are you looking to make some fantasy trades?  If your answer is “Yes”, then the RotoBaller.com Buy/Sell Weekly Article is where to find five players of the week to Sell High and five players to Buy Low.

You trade for one of two reasons:

1. You need a shortstop, have an extra third baseman and someone has an extra shortstop.  You trade a third baseman for a shortstop.  Done.
2. You have a player who is exceeding expectations.  He is unlikely to keep it up, so you trade him for a position you need. Done

In this week’s edition of Buy/Sell we are looking at players have started the season in fairly sustained hot streaks, who you should consider placing on your trading block:

Sell ‘em –

1. Coco Crisp – He may have won you a week or two, and you absolutely love his 5 HR and 7 SB, but the production WILL slow down.  He is on a hot streak, and you may be able to sell his production as a veteran player hitting his peak at 34.
2. Austin Jackson – Jackson will get you a ton of runs, and though it would appear that he's in line for a ton of steals, the reality is that his steal pace will steadily decline as time progresses.  Right now he has yet to be caught stealing but the second he gets caught, expect this pace to slow up because there is no reason with Fielder and Cabrera following that A-Jacks needs to risk running himself into an out.  If you have a plethora of runs and can trade him for RBI and HR, do it.
3. J.P. Arencibia – Find someone who needs a catcher and get some value for J.P., especially if you have catcher on your bench.  He will not keep up this home run  pace and will likely drag your batting average down.
4. Travis Hafner – Hafner can be solid in the Yankee lineup, with RBI/HR potential, but you should sell him due to health risk potential to struggle at some point in the season.  You picked him off waivers; go get some value while you still can.
5. Lucas Duda – He was in the 4-hole last night with a few chances for RBI, but he will NOT stay there, and Terry Collins has explicitly confirmed that.  The strikeouts are plentiful, too, so there's some BA risk.  TRADE HIM!

Buy ‘em –

1. Giancarlo Stanton – 0 HR… Still.  But he will heat up soon and his concerns at the plate are at an all-time high.
2. Matt Cain – Talk about a good time to pay for a player!  Cain has zero wins on the season and sports a 6.59 ERA.  His velocity is down, too.  Cain owners could be concerned that he caught the Lincecum disease, or even worse, the Mark Prior/Kerry Wood Syndrome.  That is just not the case-- it’s April people, buy Cain NOW before he goes out and pitches a complete game shutout.
3. Max Scherzer – If you can somehow scoop Scherzer from someone, do it.  Scherzer is NOT in midseason form.  He is striking out batters at an absurd rate, 13.5 K/9.  In his two “bad” games he ended up getting wins.  He will end up with 18 W and well over 200 K.
4. Dan Haren – Haren is struggling.  Struggling so much he is being dropped.  While I wouldn't go trade just anyone for Haren, you might be able to get him relatively cheap and I think he could be worth a stash.  He could bounce back in the second half of the season and offer late-season help.
5. J.J. Putz – Putz has looked like he might lose his closing gig, and his owners may be worried.  His owners may even see people picking up Hernandez, his backup.  Putz has a long leash though, and he did this last season, too.  In deep leagues he is worth owning, he will have many save opportunities even with early seasons struggles.

Do you have someone going on the DL?  Did you do a 2-for-1 trade?  Do you have someone you need to drop?  And are looking for someone to pick up? Check out the Rotoballer.com Ultimate Waiver Wire Watch List. The Waiver Wire Watch List provides in depth analysis on players that may currently be available for you to pick up free of charge.  One of the best fantasy baseball features currently on the world wide web!