Early-season Buy or Sell: Trade and Waiver Targets

April 2, 2013

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!

Now that the fantasy baseball season has started, we can immediately shift from all the ADP / sleeper banter to Waiver Wire and Trade talk.  Trades are perhaps the most exciting part of fantasy baseball aside from seeing your team hit 10 HR in one night!  Trades get the adrenaline flowing and let you practice your jedi mind tricks over unsuspecting fantasy GM's.  They give you the opportunity to improve your team and weaken your competition at the same time.  What's not to like? You trade for one of two reasons:

1. Balance Your Roster - 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. Sell High - You have a player who is exceeding expectations.  He is unlikely to keep it up, so you trade him for a position you need or a player who's about to pop off. Done.

If you're looking to make a trade, 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.  In this week’s edition of Buy/Sell we will look at players that could start the season hot that you might consider placing on your trading block: Sell ‘em–

1. Roy Halladay – Halladay had a rough 2012 in which he missed all of June and much of July.  If he somehow comes out of the gate pitching well, trade him.
2. R.A. Dickey – Dickey was fantastic in New York during a magical Cy-Young season.  As dominant as he was, a sub 3.00 ERA in his switch to the AL will not hold up.   If, like Halladay, he can start out hot and you can spare the pitching, move the aging knuckleballer.
3. Josh Reddick – He hit 32 HR last season, including a monster May during which he hit 10 HR.  Reddick will not hit for average, and he'll likely have moderate-to-low RBI and Run totals that you should be able to replace on the waiver wire.
4. Nelson Cruz – Cruz is interesting because he can be extremely valuable.  Getting 20-30 HR for where Cruz was being drafted is solid, but we expect that number to be lower in addition to seeing his BA take another hit, as it has been over the past 3 seasons.  Add in injury concerns, and he is not the kind of risk you want to take if you can avoid it.
5. Marco Scutaro – The 2013 season will be the year we find out what the remainder of Scutaro’s career will be like.  He could easily find himself on the Buy ‘em side of this article.  He was amazing since joining the Giants, knocking in 44 RBI in 61 games including a .362 batting average.  I would be wary of him sustaining a hot streak of that caliber for an entire season, though, especially if he begins the season strong.

Buy ‘em –

1. Trevor Cahill – Cahill is being drafted extremely low coming off a relatively productive season.  We have seen flashes and we have seen flames from him including flashes in 2010 that featured 18 W and a 2.97 ERA, and a flame in 2011 with a record of 12-14 and a 4.16 ERA.  You can trade for Cahill cheap right now, or even snag him off the wire, and it could pay off immensely.
2. Cameron Maybin – He is not even owned in very many leagues so he is someone you can target on the waiver wire.  Maybin is on the verge of having a breakout year.  The question is, can he do it?  He will be a .250 hitter; he has solidified his status as such over the last few seasons.  The question mark is that we do not know what his power ceiling will be.  He could hit 20 HR and steal over 30 bases which would make him an extraordinarily valuable fantasy option.
3. Carlos Gomez – Gomez got his money, so his 2013 “contract year” is out the window.  That doesn’t mean that he can’t top his 19-HR total of 2012 or his 37 SB.  Only one player had more home runs that Gomez that stole at least 37 bases, and that was Mike Trout.
4. Billy Butler – Butler is going to cost you some pieces because he is extremely valuable, but if he should somehow start off slow and you can pry him away on the cheap he is well worth it.  He will surely hit for average and knock in RBI off his 60+ extra-base hits.
5. Julio Teheran – Teheran has a lot of potential to do well in the majors.  His trade value, however, will be determined more so by how well he performs in April than most players because of his minimal time in the majors.  We won’t be seeing Teheran pitch till Saturday against the Cubbies, but if he struggles you may be able to pull a trade cheaply.

Do you have someone going on the DL?  Did you do a two-for-one 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. which provides in-depth analysis on players that may currently be available for you to pick up free of charge.  It's one of the best fantasy baseball features currently available on the web!