Keeper trade question

6x6 rotis league (batting BBs and holds being the extra categories) with no
salaries. We can only keep 6 players and I have at least 8 worthy players:

Jason Giambi, Pujols, Tejada, Vlad, Ichiro, Zito, Pedro, Wagner

At the moment, I'm probably looking at cutting Ichiro and Wagner (I don't
need to make that decision until next season's draft). I've been offered
this trade:

I give Pujols/Tejada/Wagner/Mondesi
I get A-Rod/Berkman/Mantei/A-Sanchez (latter 2 I really have no interest in)

Rather than just releasing Ichiro and Wagner, I do think I should try to
trade them if I can. There aren't that many players I'm interested in, but
A-Rod is one of them. The other guy had indicated that A-Rod would never
leave his team (he's had him for 3 seasons), but he is struggling to find
worthy keepers and out of the blue he made this offer. As I'm leading the
league by a slim margin (top 2 teams have been swapping positions
practically every 2 or 3 days), he has given me the option to make the deal
at the end of the season. I'm pretty certain he won't take anything less, so
should I take it?

Also, which other players should I consider going after? I know that
Prior/Mulder (the owner of these 2 is the same guy who offered me the above
deal) and Soriano aren't leaving their current owners (I guess unless I made
a ridiculous offer like Pujols/Vlad/Zito). Beltran maybe (with a
Berkman/Ichiro offer, assuming I made the above deal)?

Thanks in advance.

"xyz" <xyz.RemoveThis@xyz.com> wrote in message news:<bjnek3$mdn1@imsp212.netvigator.com>...
> 6x6 rotis league (batting BBs and holds being the extra categories) with no
> salaries. We can only keep 6 players and I have at least 8 worthy players:
>
> Jason Giambi, Pujols, Tejada, Vlad, Ichiro, Zito, Pedro, Wagner
>
>
> I give Pujols/Tejada/Wagner/Mondesi
> I get A-Rod/Berkman/Mantei/A-Sanchez (latter 2 I really have no interest in)
>
> The other guy had indicated that A-Rod would never leave his team
(he's had him for 3 seasons), but he is struggling to find worthy
keepers and out of the blue he made this offer. As I'm leading the
league by a slim margin (top 2 teams have been swapping positions
practically every 2 or 3 days), he has given me the option to make the
deal at the end of the season. I'm pretty certain he won't take
anything less, so > should I take it?
>
> Also, which other players should I consider going after? I know that
> Prior/Mulder (the owner of these 2 is the same guy who offered me the above
> deal) and Soriano aren't leaving their current owners (I guess unless I made
> a ridiculous offer like Pujols/Vlad/Zito). Beltran maybe (with a
> Berkman/Ichiro offer, assuming I made the above deal)?
>
> Thanks in advance.

Interesting deal - allow me to offer my take;

Pujols/ARod - arguably the two best players in the game right now and
both with pretty potent offensive lineups surrounding them. Flip a
coin or let's call this a wash - depends on what you like.

Wagner/Mantei - Wags has been lights out since his arm problems in
2000 were dealt with - Mantei, on the other hand, is not a poster boy
for Good Reliever Health. Also consider that the Arizona staff is
starting to show signs of wear and tear (as is Houston, for that
matter) but the Houston staff is younger. How valuable is Mantei if
the Unit and Schilling are starting to fade? Advantage - Wagner.

Mondesi/Alex Sanchez - One tremendous waste of talent - one tremendous
waste. Sanchez appears to be a one dimensional player who has worn out
his welcome in one city due to his "approach" to the game (and may be
wearing it out in a second city) - he's been caught stealing 22 times
in 62 attempts. Notice A-Rod isn't promoting him much anymore? You
weren't going to keep Mondesi any way so if you gate a bag of used
balls for him, consider yourself ahead.

Tejada/Berkman - This is the key to the deal IMHO. Your pal may have
noticed that Mr. Tejada has picked the pace up quite a bit since his
well publicized poor start to the season. If most people are still
under the impression that this was a write-off season for Tejada, they
won't bother to look that he's quietly been .320 10-36 with a .543
slugging and a .927 OPS since the All Star break. Berkman on the other
hand seems to be having a bit of a power outage since the break.

I'd wait on this deal until I saw where Tejada winds up playing next
year. If he winds up in someplace like Camden with a big, new
contract, he might be happy enough to match his 2002 numbers.

One other point : Your comment (latter 2 I really have no interest in)
makes this a 4 for 2 deal. Why take Mantei and Sanchez then? Would you
do a Tejada/Wagner/Mondesi for Berkman deal by itself? I would not -
especially if you've announced your intentions to unload Berkman
before you even get him - hope no one in your league reads this group.
Mulder's hip problem may make him available now. See if he has anyone
else you'd like rather than the two you intend to discard.

These are my opinions drawn from my own conclusions and observations.
Your mileage may vary.