This is the most important time of the year after the draft.  Focusing on positioning your team for the next 4 months leading into September‘s Home Stretch.  Some teams right now are sitting pretty atop their league after their ALL APRIL TEAM Wowed with overachieving stats, and others sitting frustrated in the cellar with that sinking feeling of quicksand.  Its time to start bottom feeding.  Using the players you currently have that had an amazing April, but probably won’t sustain it for the long run, and trade it for proven consistent talent.   Here is my list of Buy Low players that consistently produce, but are off to slow starts.

C  Geovany Soto  – Numbers have been gross ytd.  His full season stats will tell a different tale. 

Steal him with:  Brandon Inge                    

1B  Mark Teixeira  – The Top 1B have all pretty much been hitting, but if you buck up you may get him below market value.

Steal him with:   Adam Dunn or Aubrey Huff (Both are off to fantastic starts to the season.  Statistically superior to Tex's. Don't be afraid to add an OF or SP who are off to hot starts too) 

2B  Alexei Ramirez – Admitted slow starter.  He may be young, but a HUGE talent. Ozzie will light the fire.

Steal him with:   Howie Kendrick, Rickie Weeks, or Freddy Sanchez (may be a stretch)

3B  Alex Rodriguez – This is obvious, but there are some concerned owners worried about his surgery.

Steal him with:  Ryan Zimmerman, or Chris Davis  (with Davis sweeten the deal with a overachieving #3 SP)

SS  Jimmy Rollins – As Simon Cowell  would  say “April was a forgettable performance”.  JRoll is a top 3 SS!!!

Steal him with:   Derek Jeter, or Marco Scutaro (Marco may not be enough, throw in another All April Player)

OF  Matt Holliday – After leaving Colorado we all expected a drop, but his talent will prove better then this.

OF  Cory Hart – I’m a HUGE fan of his abilities.  5 tool player, in his prime, on a stud team. The total package.

OF  BJ Upton – BJ is much riskier than the first 2, if you can grab him really cheap and stash him as a 4th OFit may payoff.

Steal Holliday & Hart with:  Kosuke Fukudome, Jay Bruce, Daniel Murphy, Nick Swisher, & Mike Cameron (Holliday will demand more than Hart, so you may have to do a 2-for for Matt. You may be able to steal Cory with a 1 for 1.)

Steal BJ with:  Brad Hawpe, Jeff Francour, Jason Kubel, or Ryan Spilsborghs,  (BJ is tough to gage because of his talent.  Feel out his owners needs and use that to your advantage. You may pay Holliday & Hart type talent)

Starting Pitching and Closers need to be looked at a little differently because they aren’t every day players.  You need to be more cautious trading for them because it’s easy to get burned, and the pitching carousel shuffles a lot from top to bottom and year to year.   However, here is a list of pitchers you can have confidence in trading for (I’m going to leave out the top 20 SP, they should be obvious), and who I would trade because they are just a flash in the pan.

Pitchers to Get:

Rich Harden – Slow start, but if you can stomach his potential injuries, Harden has the most talent in the bigs.

Daisuke Matsuzaka – Got a sore shoulder from the WBC, but undeniable talent and consistency.

Ubaldo Jimenez – Has only had 2 poor starts both against the Dodgers, but then again everyone has.

Mike Pelfrey – The Mets are heating up and this guy is a horse.  Mike is a closet Ace.

Jordan Zimmermann – Think this year’s Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, and maybe Jon Lester.

Hiroki Kuroda – Coming off of a little oblique strain mid to late May.  If you have a DL spot to hide him do it.

Brad Lidge – Brad’s knee was sore, now he is better.  Steal him, he closes for the World Champs.

Pitchers to Trade:

Kevin Millwood – He plays in that Arlington shoebox, and is well past his prime.

Zach Duke – If you have watched him for the past 2 year you already know this.

Scott Richmond – Toronto won’t hold up this pace with so many games to play against the AL East.