Well, not literally, but a pretty significant part of it is. It's starting to get to the point where I'm going to have to make some tough decisions here if I want to remain competitive in my league (I've already fallen to 11th out of 12 teams). Not TOO concerned since this is still the 3rd week of the season, but as you can see below I'm facing some serious problems as far as the amount of players I have on the DL.

My lineup is as follows:

C - Brian McCann

1B - Mark Trumbo

2B - Brandon Phillips

3B - Mike Moustakas

SS - Alexi Ramirez

OF - Justin Upton, Adam Jones, Brennan Boesch

Util - Matt Joyce, Michael Morse (DL)

DL Spot - Carl Crawford

Pitching:

SP - Clayton Kershaw, Kyle Lohse, Mark Buehrle, Felix Hernandez, Danny Duffy, Max Scherzer, Ervin Santana, Daniel Hudson (DL), Doug Fister (DL)

RP - Huston Street, Alfredo Aceves, Santiago Casilla, Drew Storen (DL)

Part of me feels like I should just tough it out until these guys come back, however Morse is supposed to be out until late June/early July (I think), Crawford is hopefully coming back soon as long as his elbow doesn't act up again, Hudson is supposed to miss at least 2 starts, no timetable yet on Doug Fister, and Storen is out until the All Star break at the earliest. Taking all this into consideration, I'm leaning more towards dropping at least a couple of these guys (probably Storen and Fister) so I at least have the hope of remaining competitive. Thoughts?

Also, it looks as though someone just dropped Hiroki Kuroda so I was thinking about picking him up as a replacement for Fister.

Anyone else feelin' this guy? I'd love to see him in a Padres uniform personally, and considering that the other option is letting him sign with one of our rivals, it's a chance to keep them from getting any better and vastly improve our own SS situation. I think the least we could do is put in a high bid and take our chances in signing him. Heck, could potentially even solve our leadoff problem as well, considering he hits for average and has some speed. Thoughts? Comments?

MLB Trade Rumors:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/11/japan-rumors-nishioka-kobayashi.html

Stats:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker&utm_campaign=Linker&id=nishio002tsu

(Includes 2010 Stats):

http://www.japaneseballplayers.com/en/player.php?id=tnishioka

So there's about 2 months left in the regular season, and at this point it has become fairly clear to me what my needs are. I have put together a near ridiculous pitching staff (or it was up until the past few weeks or so) but my offense definitely needs a boost, as I have seriously fallen behind in HRs and RBIs, yet still staying competitive in Runs. There are a few other teams in my league in need of starting pitching and I feel like I hold most of the cards in this particular situation. So, short of seriously depleting what I already have, I'd like a few thoughts from you guys on potential trade options/targets?

The first team proposed a B.J. Upton for Matt Cain trade that I couldn't click 'Reject' fast enough... however he seems to value Cain quite a bit so perhaps he might accept a trade for someone else. I have considered Cain for Morneau (just spitballing here) thinking that he might give him up because of the injury and uncertainty regarding his return. However if he did return it would pay huge dividends for me if he regained his pre-injury form.

The second team in my league seems to be a tad stronger offensively and might be more willing to part with a piece or to in order to add some starting pitching.

Any thoughts or comments you guys have would be greatly appreciated! (This league is a single-season format btw)

My Team:

C: John Buck, 1B: Carlos Pena, 2B: Aaron Hill, 3B: Evan Longoria, SS: Elvis Andrus, OF: Nick Swisher, Ichiro Suzuki, Carlos Gonzalez, Util: Vladimir Guerrero, Bench: Michael Cuddyer, DL: Victor Martinez

Pitchers: 

Jaime Garcia, Edinson Volquez, Matt Cain, Roy Halladay, David Price, Roy Oswalt, Mat Latos, Ubaldo Jimenez, DL: Andy Pettitte

Closers:

Heath Bell, Rafael Soriano, Bobby Jenks

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Team 1:

C: Joe Mauer, 1B: Mark Teixeira, 2B: Brian Roberts, 3B: Aramis Ramirez, SS: Yunel Escobar, OF: Matt Holliday, Nelson Cruz, BJ Upton, Util: Buster Posey, Bench: Delmon Young, DL: Justin Morneau

Team 2:

C: Brian McCann, 1B: Albert Pujols, 2B: Ian Stewart, 3B: Scott Rolen, SS: Ben Zobrist, OF: Corey Hart, Jason Heyward, Andre Ethier, Util: Paul Konerko, Bench: Michael Bourn, DL: Manny Ramirez

I have a trade currently proposed to me as of yesterday: Ricky Nolasco for Bobby Jenks.

I've noticed that there tends to be a widespread belief that closers are overrated, and I can definitely understand this way of thinking seeing as closers for teams can change over the course of the season. However I picked up Nolasco early in the year based on the assumption that he would have a rebound year and thus far he seems to have shown no signs of this at all. After reading one of the other posts on here about his struggles I am even more apt to let him go. In addition, I need help in saves, as I have Heath Bell and Rafael Soriano holding that position down right now by themselves and I typically find that having 3-4 closers is sufficient in a single season format to stay competitive in that category. I had Trevor Hoffman earlier in the year but I think most of us know how his season is going so far...

Anyways, here's the current team:

Fielders:

C: Victor Martinez, 1B: Troy Glaus, 2B: Aaron Hill, 3B: Evan Longoria, SS: Elvis Andrus, OF: Nick Swisher, Ichiro Suzuki, Carlos Gonzalez, Util: Vladimir Guerrero, Bench: Michael Cuddyer, DL: Kendry Morales

Pitchers: 

Mat Latos, Roy Oswalt, David Price, Jaime Garcia, Matt Cain, Roy Halladay, Ubaldo Jimenez, Ricky Nolasco

Closers:

Heath Bell, Rafael Soriano, Manuel Corpas

So, what do you all think? Any help you guys can give would be greatly appreciated.

So Peavy is finally gone.

We all knew it had to happen at some point. I love the guy, but the fact of the matter is we owed him way too much money over the next few years that the Padres couldn't afford to cough up. I wish him the very best in Chicago, and I hope he gets that Championship he's been playing for... God knows he wasn't gonna get it here in San Diego any time soon.

I also read today what we almost dealt Gonzalez AND Bell to the Dodgers (just that thought alone was enough to make me sick to my stomach) for James Loney, Russell Martin, Blake DeWitt, James McDonald, and Ivan DeJesus. Living with a hardcore Dodger roommate for the last two years who owns the only television in the house, I am forced into the position of having to watch a lot of Dodgers baseball, and I can tell you right now with certainty that I wasn't high on ANY of these guys. From what I understand, the Padres were more into this deal than the Dodgers were, and would've pulled the trigger had LA not backed out at the last minute. I still don't understand how this was even considered to be an option in the first place. Towers pretty much said that it would take a lot in order to acquire Gonzo and we're willing to give him AND Bell up for these bums??? I wonder how long it would have taken for this to come back and bite us in the ass...

Other potential deals that fell through include one that would've sent Bell to the Angels for Jose Arredondo, Sean O'Sullivan, and Sean Rodriguez. The Rangers were apparently interested as well but I couldn't find anything as to what they were offering. Also there was apparently one in the works that would've sent Bell to the Marlins for Camron Maybin and Sean West.

So I guess the question at the end of all this is where do we go from here? Do we still look to deal Gonzalez to the Red Sox in the offseason for the Buchholtz-Anderson-Lowrie-Masterson package even though we just acquired new pitching? Or do we look to keep Bell and Gonzo now that we're saving a ton of money (I think I read $52 mil over the next 3 yrs) in the Peavy deal?

Seems to me with that extra money we could resign the both of them AND get a third baseman who can actually hit.