The Drops
While we spend a lot of time telling you who to pick up and who to trade for, it's nearly as important to figure out who you need to cut to make room for those players that you acquire via free agency. It's bad enough to give up too soon on a player, but it's even worse when that player lands on a rival's roster and hurts you twice - first by performing badly for you, then performing well for someone else. When you're looking for help on the waiver wire in your leagues, particularly where the player pool is a bit wider, pay particular heed to those getting cut loose by your opponents. Without further ado, here's a list of players dropped within the last five days in four my leagues, along with commentary when appropriate.
RotoWire Staff Keeper League (18-team mixed, 5x5 league):
Dallas Braden
Mike Cameron
Cord Phelps - Phelps was called up when Orlando Cabrera was slumping, but he's since improved and Phelps is hitting .200 in limited playing time. He's a decent prospect, but the Indians have a higher profile second base prospect in Jason Kipnis, so he's not that great of a keeper, even for one unit in your league.
Matt Thornton - Thornton isn't the closer any longer, but he grabbed a save last weekend when Sergio Santos was unavailable. Though Thornton generally has pitched better lately, his ERA could easily be much worse than it is - he's allowed a whopping 11 unearned runs.
Matt Lindstrom
Don Kelly
Jon Rauch - This drop was a little surprising, if for no other reason than Frank Francisco's instable hold on the closer's job for the Jays. But after Saturday's meltdown with the umpire, perhaps his owner was sufficiently convinced that Rauch wouldn't be given a late lead again.
Aaron Rowand
Xavier Nady
Blake Tekotte
Elliott Johnson
Ivan Nova
Jordan Schafer - Schafer is still getting regular playing time, though that might dissipate once Martin Prado returns from the DL. So far he hasn't been up to the task at the plate, hitting .230/.296/.309. Still, he might be worth a flyer for the league minimum in a league this size, if you keep 10-15 major leaguers per season.
Ryan Webb
Y! Friends & Family Expert League (14-team mixed, 5x5 league):
Chris Capuano
Juan Rivera
Chone Figgins - Figgins is losing playing time to Adam Kennedy at third base, following the promotion of Dustin Ackley to the majors by the Mariners. Figgins has been shuttled on-and-off this league's waiver wire twice in the last week.
Bobby Parnell
Mike Leake
Andy Dirks
Will Venable
Emilio Bonifacio
Orlando Hudson
Trevor Cahill - It might seem strange to see a pitcher of Cahill's notoriety on this list, but keep in mind that this particular league has a low innings cap - only 1,250 innings on the season. Thus, typically for a starting pitcher to occupy a roster spot in this league, which also has a thin bench (three reserve spots, two DL slots), he has to have a pretty high strikeout rate. It's also a daily transactions league, so you'll see more streaming of starting pitchers, plus more non-closer relievers picked up and dropped due to their high strikeout rates.
Peter Bourjos
Scott Downs
Sean Rodriguez
Brian Matusz - Behold the dangers of a disappearing fastball. Obviously this isn't a keeper league.
Juan Miranda
AL Tout Wars (12-team AL-only, 5x5 league):
Scott Kazmir - Immediately you can see how much higher the bar is to clear in order to drop someone in an "only" league, particularly one like Tout Wars where we have unlimited DL spots along with four reserve roster spots. Now that Kazmir is off the DL and is a free agent, his owner no longer could use a DL spot on him. He might resurface with the Rangers, but it's going to take an incredible case of faith and/or desperation for someone to roster him in this league.
Josh Outman - Outman was a useful fill-in for me in this league, but with Brandon McCarthy back he got demoted to Triple-A, and I needed someone with a pulse in there. Let's hope that Brett Cecil is not a zombie.
Anthony Swarzak
Rene Rivera
Andy Oliver
Jo-Jo Reyes
Jayson Nix
Phil Coke - It turns out that if you believed he was "this year's C.J. Wilson", you really were high on Coke. Charlie Furbush replaced Coke in the Tigers' rotation, sparking a bidding war in this week's free agent bidding (six teams bid on him). And yes, I totally stole the "high on Coke" line from RotoWire Managing Editor Chris Liss.
Jeff Mathis
Matt Tolbert
John McDonald
Midnight Madness Keeper League (10-team NL-only, 5x5 league):
J.A. Happ - It pains me to say this because Happ went to my alma mater, but the Phillies pulled off a nice "sell-high" with Happ last year, trading him in the Roy Oswalt deal when he had a 1.76 ERA in his first three starts after coming off the DL. He held his own last year after the trade (3.75 ERA), but has found the going rough this year. He's not especially young, either, so while he's underperforming now, I wouldn't expect much growth.
Tyler Colvin
Paul Janish
Eric Young Jr. - Both Young and Herrera saw their value eviscerated by the Rockies' acquisition of Mark Ellis. It didn't help matters that Ellis subsequently went on a tear upon arrival in Colorado. At least Herrera has a major league roster spot, which might make him valuable down the road. EY Jr. has been a bit of Fool's Gold this year with his stolen base potential - however, he never got much playing time even after getting called up.
Jonathan Herrera
Andrew Brown
Melvin Mora