So after frustratingly going through the first month and week of the season without being able to make a trade, I have just made my 2nd trade in 2 days, this time in my points league. For a refresher on that league, including the scoring system, check out my draft analysis here. In an ironic twist, I actually consider this trade a classic buy low/sell high, with me being the buy low guy, as opposed to yesterday’s buy high/sell low I discussed. So why is it ironic? Because just last night at the Yankees game with Patrick and Jay from Greener on the Other Side, I was talking about how much of a myth the buy low/sell high concept was, and that it was much, much more difficult to pull off than it would appear from reading articles giving the advice and message board posters gloating in their trading success.

What was also funny is how after my many posts that included commentary on Zack Greinke and my advice to sell high, and my continued attempts to trade him, followed by being told by Patrick and Jay last night NOT to trade him, that is exactly what I did this morning. I think last night’s start sealed the deal, which I was hoping would happen. So the trade was as follows:

I give- Zack Greinke and Adrian Gonzalez

I receive- Ryan Howard

I have a glut of starting pitchers and am currently on pace to exceed the innings cap by like 50 innings, plus Kazmir has returned and I still have Pedro on my DL. All this means I could easily afford to trade an SP without even getting one in return. Although I liked Greinke pre-season, he still hasn’t pitched any better than I expected, if you look at his season from a pure skills perspective, so he was the perfect sell high candidate for me. I do own A-Gonz in 2 of my other 3 leagues, so I hate trading him when I’ll still be rooting for him anyway, but I projected Howard to score 116 more points than him, and there’s no reason 1 month into the season to change that projection. So I see it as a big hitting upgrade without losing any pitching points whatsoever.

Questions, comments, criticisms, praise, expert league invitations? Email me at FBGeneralsMike@gmail.com.