I wonder if Carlos Beltran is getting a complex. Not only did Chuck trade him the other day, but I did as well. It is not that I don’t like Beltran, but I needed to get a better keeper in the Fantasy Gameday Keeper League.  Officially, I traded Carlos Beltran and Michael Cuddyer for Nate McLouth and A.J. Burnett.  On the surface you can make the argument that I did not improve my keepers, but you need to remember the unique keeper rules that we have in this league…

Owners will select their keepers in the appropriate rounds based from a 3 round inflation from the players round selection from the previous year.  For example, if an owner selects a player in the 13th round of the draft, that player will cost the owner a 10^th round pick the following year.  That same player will cost the owner a 7^th round pick the next year, and so forth.  Any player traded during the season will carry their draft round valuation from that season to the new owner

Since I drafted Beltran in the 2nd round, he is ineligible to kept for next year.  On the flip side… Nate McLouth was selected in the 23rd round of this years draft.  That means I can select McLouth in the 20th round next year, the 17th the following season, and so forth.  Having control over an all-star player for the next few years is extremely valuable. To be completely honest, from a stats perspective, McLouth is not all that different from Beltran.  They can both hit home runs and steal bases, but won’t do either at amazing rates.  Personally, I feel that Beltran is a 30 HR and 20 steal player, while McLouth is more of a 20 HR and 30 SB base player.  The Baseball Cube has Mclouth’s speed rated at an 87 and power at 72 out of 100.  Conversely, they have Beltran with a speed rating of 80 and a power rating of 90.  Those rating tend to agree with my perception of the two.

Now that Beltran is having issue with his knees, the steal numbers might be down a bit.  However, here is the key to these two players… Stolen Base Percentage.  Over the last three seasons, Beltran has stolen 62 bases while only being caught 7 times.  Over that same time period, McLouth has stolen 55 bases and was caught only 5 times.  Over the next few years, managers are going to be more unwilling to send guys if they are going to get thrown out even 30% of the time.  Additional opportunities should be alotted to each player.
Given McLouth’s ability to be successful at stealing bases, while still adding power numbers, and having draft value for the next few seasons, acquiring him has been my best move this season.  This was not only a move to build for the future, but also one that helps my team this season as well.  On a side note… after spending much of the season in 11th place, I have worked my way up to 7th.

Now… the other part of the trade is not as easy of a comparison.  Michael Cuddyer was a waiver wire pickup for me that paid great dividends over the past month.  Then he injured his finger again, and has been limited over the past week or so.  Even though he is ranked fairly high for outfielders, he is not a player to build your team around.  A.J. Burnett has struggled at time this season, and is a risky player to acquire.  Especially when you consider his flyball tendencies and his home park.  However, my ratios have already been destroyed and I have been at the bottom of the heap in strikeouts.  Even though his K/9 rate is down to 8.06, that is still better than most of the pitchers on my staff. Not that I drafted poor strikeout rate pitchers, but Webb and Myers certainly did not do anything this year to garner excitement nor help my stat line.  I will judiciously use Burnett depending on who he faces, but any pitcher that can still strikeout over 8 hitters per nine innings can have a spot on my roster.  Even if that means he walks my grandmother…

… I wonder if she can steal bases?