Freeze List Tactics: Part I

I had meant to get to this sooner, but I always try to give priority to reader questions, and those have increased significantly from last year to this. Of course, that's a good thing, so keep those questions coming.

I've had a dialog with my readers about bid limits versus instinct earlier this month. These insticts also apply when you're working on your freeze lists and trying to put together the best team possible going into your auction. It isn't enough to simply try and acquire value without being aware of what's out in the free agent pool and, more importantly, how you'll be able to auction into your own strengths and weaknesses.

Team A entered this winter a moderate favorite. He dumped early last year, but reaped the rewards of a strong freeze list, which included the following players (A.L. only, 4x4, 12 teams):

C John Buck $3 S1, C Kelly Shoppach $2 S1, 1B Ben Broussard $3 S1, SS Yuniesky Betancourt $13 S1, 3B Evan Longoria (farm), OF Travis Buck $8 S1, OF Franklin Gutierrez $10 S1, OF/1B Marcus Thames $3 O, DH Billy Butler $10 S1, SP Jon Garland $10 S1, SP Francisco Liriano $14 S1, SP James Shields $3 S1, MR Justin Speier $1 O, CL J.J. Putz $1 O, CL Huston Street $11 L2.

It looked to me like a strong team with a heavy emphasis on youth. I wasn't high on all of these players, but Putz, Street, and Shields alone gave Team A a great deal of value on the pitching side, and the core of young hitters (Longoria, Buck, Gutierrez and Butler) gave A a nice group to build around, and possibly guys to dump later.

Instead of simply waiting for the dump deals, though, Team A decided to address his needs before the auction by making the following trades.

1) 12/19 Traded Longoria and Shoppach for Josh Beckett ($31 O).
I thought A gave up too much of a future in Longoria for just Beckett, but with Johan Santana and Dan Haren moving to the N.L., Beckett is a bonafide ace who will come $5-7 cheaper than Erik Bedard and Roy Halladay in a thin pitching market.

2) 12/21 Traded Matt Clement ($1 S1), Gutierrez, Speier, and two minor league picks for Jered Weaver ($10 O).
Another move to solidify what is now an extremely strong pitching staff.

3) 1/10 Traded T. Buck, Betancourt, and minor league pick for Robinson Cano ($17 L1).
Again, conventional wisdom in our league would advise against trading a somewhat undervalued Buck for a player in the last year of his contract. But Cano is the best 2B on the market in a thin 2B market, and locks the position up undervalue.

4) 3/13 Traded J. Buck, Liriano, and Thames for Chone Figgins ($12 L1).
Trading Liriano and two throw-ins for Figgins locks up cheap speed before the auction. Once again, some owners would have held on to Liriano and hoped for a dump deal later, but getting Figgins' 50 SB before the auction and staying out of the Carl Crawford bidding wars is a good move.

5) Traded Garland and minor league pick for Akinori Iwamura ($15 S1).
6) Traded Butler for Phil Hughes ($10 S1).
I'm not a huge fan of either of these moves, but it fits in with this team's roster, which now looks like this:

1B Ben Broussard ($3 S1), 2B Robinson Cano ($17 L1), 3B Akinori Iwamura ($15 S1), CO Chone Figgins ($12 L1), SP Josh Beckett ($31 O), SP Phil Hughes ($10 S1), SP James Shields ($3 S1), SP Jered Weaver ($10 O), CL J.J. Putz ($11 L3), CL Huston Street ($11 L3).

By trimming some of the more marginal players off of his roster like Thames and J. Buck, Team A was able to make marked improvement across the board. Iwamura is 2B eligible if he gets three games in there before our auction next Saturday, so will slide to another tough-to-fill MI position. Going in with four starting pitchers of this caliber and two closers allows Team A to budget all of his remaining dollars toward offense.

In a vacuum, some of these trades might not have made sense, and it remains to be seen if dealing Longoria, Liriano, or T. Buck will hurt later if Team A needs dump chips. But Team A saw multiple opportunities to put himself into a stronger position going into his auction and took them. Having chips to dump later is great. Getting a $12 Figgins and a $31 Beckett and staying out of the price wars for Crawford, Bedard or Halladay might mean that he won't need those dump chips after all.