With the season a few weeks old, it’s now clear that some players are overperforming while others are underperforming. So, of course, this leads to inevitable buy-low, sell-high columns. And those can surely be helpful, although to be honest, we here at FBB (and we’d think many of you out there) play with folks who have sort of caught on to the whole buy-low, sell-high thing, and probably know better than to accept that Wally Szczerbiak for Tracy McGrady deal you offered. We won’t get into buy-fake-high, sell-fake-low too much right now – if you’re not familiar here’s a column I wrote about that strategy two years ago. We’ll probably come up with a list of “buy fake high” and “sell fake low” candidates soon, by the way.

Instead, we’ll deal stick with the plain old sell high theme. I’m not at all saying that you should only stick with “buy fake high” or “sell fake low,” it’s just that everything to do with fantasy sports is about value and perceived value. Sometimes you just have to simply sell high. But it’s tough. It’s tough to trade away a player that’s playing well for you. And other times it’s not just tough, it’s really tough. I’m talking about when you’ve got a player that was a guy you really loved coming into the season and you nabbed him late in your draft and he’s playing out of his mind. Like, say, (start Ali G voice) my main man (end) Kevin Martin. The best way to succeed in fantasy is to remove any sort of emotional attachment, but that’s a lot easier said than done. One of the best things about fantasy is getting that sleeper pick right and then rubbing it in the face of everyone in your league all year. Right? I’ve watched most of the Kings games this year and I love Kevin Martin. He might be my favorite non-Wizard in the league right now. And I’m supposed to trade him because he’s putting up better numbers than he’s going to finish with?

Well, maybe. Look, even I know that Martin is going to slow down. I do believe it will only be a bit – this guy is like the new Rip Hamilton, but with more 3s and steals – but if someone were to offer me, say, Jason Terry, I’m probably going to have to make that deal. But you should never make a trade because it seems like the “right thing to do.” I only make deals when I feel good about it from all sides and if I feel that it undoubtedly makes my team better. If you’re stuck in the bottom of the standings then you have more reason to make a riskier deal, like BV was talking about yesterday, but hey, we don’t find ourselves in the bottom of the standings. Is it wrong to hold on to a guy because he’s your guy. Well, maybe, if that’s the reason. But Martin still doesn’t have much name value in a trade as MIKE said in a comment yesterday. In order to sell high, you have to actually get someone to buy high. So basically, if you’re having trouble getting rid of “your” guy, don’t feel too bad. You might very well be better off keeping him anyway. And for the record, K-Mart is for real. I will be very surprised if he doesn’t end the season in the top 50 on the player rater, and if he starts getting even more confident from long range, watch out.

Transaction Reaction seemed to get a positive, uh, reaction, when I did it on Monday, so I might just start tacking it on to my columns on Monday and Thursday from now on. Although it’s not quite a tack on when it’s twice as long as the column. And I might run out of things to say about Stephen Jackson when he’s dropped and picked up every few days. So we’ll see. It’s here for now.

November 15
Pickup: Fred Jones
Drop: Travis Outlaw
Might as well go with the starter, I suppose. The line Jones put up on Tuesday was pretty much what you can expect from him. In 35 minutes he was good for 11/2/2 with 2 3s, a steal and a block on 3-of-9 shooting. In other words, no great shakes. Jones doesn’t do anything particularly well, his best category will be 3s, even if he doesn’t take 8 every night like he did Tuesday. He was a fantasy superstar for a week or so after the brawl in 2004, regularly playing 40 minutes and being one of the featured weapons on offense, but that’s not the case right now. He’s worth a spot in deep leagues, but doesn’t have much upside. Outlaw does have some upside, but isn’t getting the starting nod with Brandon Roy out. Darius Miles’ season-ending knee surgery might make him a more interesting pickup later in the season, though. Outlaw can block shots, and he added 3 steals in 27 minutes last night. He has all the makings of another swingman whose offensive game is a work in progress but can fill up the hustle categories. It’s possible Nate McMillian will give him a chance to start at some point, but as Jarrett Jack owners found out the past few nights, the Blazers are still a very frustrating team to deal with for fantasy purposes.

Pickup: Jamal Crawford
Drop: Gary Payton
For one night, at least, it looked like the return of Steve Francis wasn’t going to bother Crawford, but then last night was another reminder of why it’s just never a good idea to have bench players in your starting lineup. Francis was awful again, but Renaldo Balkman was playing out of his mind against a clearly uninterested Wizards team that was still reeling from a tough home OT loss to the Nets on Sunday. So Balkman ate into Crawford’s minutes and Jamal finished with just 4/1/6 in 24 minutes. Still, I don’t think this is a terrible pickup. Francis could go down again, or he could move to the bench. Crawford produces when he gets minutes and he usually finds a way to get minutes, often because he stays healthy and other people don’t. He’s a decent use of a bench spot right now, but can be let go if something more interesting comes along. Payton’s managed to have a small bit of value so far because he hangs out around the three-point line so much these days. But with Jason Williams coming back within the week and Payton combining for 8/4/4 in his last two games, it’s a fine time to say goodbye. If (when?) Williams goes down again, Payton doesn’t even look to be a quality option, except perhaps in deep H2H leagues in weeks he has four games.

Pickup: Darko Milcic (waiver claim)
Drop: Stephen Jackson
The owner with the #2 waiver priority used his claim here. I don’t really blame him; I put in a claim as well (I had #9 at the time). I’m still not at all sold on Darko this season, as I think that there will be plenty of outings like last night’s 4-point, 4-turnover, 5-foul, 13-minute performance. But hey, you’ve got bench spots for a reason, right? All leagues have different number of bench spots – we’ve got three – but I usually like to use at least one on a solid, low-upside guy that I can plug into the lineup in case of an injury and use another on a high-upside guy who might have value later in the season. And Darko’s just about the perfect example of the latter. Tony Battie hasn’t done much this season, but then again he is Tony Battie. They aren’t expecting him to do much, and the Magic are winning, so no change is imminent. But if something happens and Darko gets the call, he should at the very least be a major force in blocks. And that’s worth taking a chance on. Jackson seems like he’ll be a regular in Transaction Reaction. He’s actually a pretty good example of the low-upside plug in guy to keep on your bench and I’m sure he’ll be picked up the next time he scores 18 points.

November 14
Pickup: Andres Nocioni
Drop: Earl Watson
A quick pickup after it was announced that Nocioni might be in the starting lineup on Tuesday night. Snooze and lose in our league. It wasn’t a very successful return to the starting lineup for Nocioni, though, as he totaled 11 and 5 with 2 3s before fouling out in 27 minutes. As expected, the swapping out of P.J. Brown and Ben Gordon for Nocioni and Chris Duhon had minimal effect on actual PT. Brown and Duhon still saw right around 20 minutes, Gordon got his 35, while Nocioni hovered right under 30. Nocioni’s complete lack of steals and blocks this season is pretty alarming. He’s never been particularly strong in either, but three combined through seven games is tough. I’m sure it’ll even out eventually. Still, Nocioni is a good lesson in not letting playoff stats influence next year’s draft. He was playing out of his mind against the Heat, but even Scott Skiles will tighten his rotation come playoff time. Nocioni averaged 38.3 mpg in that series. That’s just not happening this year. He should become startable if he keeps his starting spot, but he’s probably best served as one of those plug in bench guys. Earl Watson is complaining again. It’s what he does. He wanted more PT in Memphis. So he signed with Denver. He wanted more PT there. So they traded him to Seattle. Now he wants more PT. Well, he doesn’t deserve it and he’s not going to get it. Luke Ridnour is playing great ball and he’s the future there, so Watson is nothing more than a solid backup who would put up decent numbers if the guy in front of him got injured. There are a lot of guys like that in the league.

Pickup: Stephen Jackson
Drop: Eddy Curry
You can see how long Jackson lasted here. Can we even call Curry a disappointment at this point? I don’t think so. I mean, he gives you around 14 and 7 on solid shooting from the field, bad shooting from the line, and absolutely nothing else. It wouldn’t be surprising to see one of the more center-desperate teams in the league pick him up after he clears waivers, but that’s why you don’t want to be a center-desperate team. The team that dropped Curry already had Chris Wilcox, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Zaza Pachulia, Andris Biedrins, Channing Frye and now Darko. That’s six center-eligible players. Curry makes no sense for that team. 

Pickup: Delonte West (waiver)
Drop: Antoine Wright
A waiver claim for West? Well, it’s part of this owner’s strategy. He had the third pick in the draft, giving him a waiver priority of 10. He used that on Leandro Barbosa after the season’s first game, when all non-drafted players were still on waivers, knocking him down to the lowest waiver priority. So now his thinking is that if there’s ever a player he likes that gets dropped, there’s no harm in using the waiver priority to grab him. I actually like this strategy plenty, as waiver priorities are more often than not saved for a player that just doesn’t show up. It makes more sense to hold onto it in AL or NL only baseball leagues since you might have new players come into the league, but there’s not going to be anybody added to the game here. All that said, West seems an odd choice. He’s back to the bench now that Szczerbiak’s ass is better and after a solid outing on Monday, he had one of those “that’s why you don’t mess with bench players” games last night. It will be interesting to see what happens with the Celtics if (when) Doc Rivers gets axed. Wright has disappointed people who have had him in the lineup for the past few games, and it’s not for lack of opportunity as he’s seen between 35 and 38 minutes in each of those three games. But he hasn’t hit a single 3 and hasn’t really looked for his offense.

November 13
Pickup: Channing Frye
Drop: Jamal Crawford
Frye’s turned it on a bit in the last two games and his starting job appears safe, but David Lee is still clearly outplaying him and that hurts Frye’s value. With Lee deserving at least 25 minutes per game, that’s going to make it very tough for Frye to see much more than that and the 28 and 27 he’s received the last two games. Lee makes a lot more sense for the Knicks right now, anyway. Frye’s pretty much a jump shooter, and he loves to shoot. Just like most people on the Knicks, except for Lee (and Balkman). So when Lee’s out there, he really adds another element to the Knicks attack, and he’s just a great rebounder. So those in deep leagues that held on to Frye or picked up him recently, you have to be encouraged by recent developments. But he’s still nowhere near a safe start and belongs on benches until he strings together consecutive strong – not decent, but strong – outings.

Pickup: Chucky Atkins
Drop: Darko Milicic
A gutsy move that at least in the very short term looks pretty genius. And by very short term I mean last night. We already went over Darko’s horrid night, but how about Chucky Atkins exploding for 27 points on 10-of-11 shooting after going scoreless in the first half? What was most surprising was the way he went about it, attempting only two shots from downtown. There was a game early last year when Atkins was still on the Wizards when was unconscious from three-point land and led the Wiz to a win in Detroit. Tonight he was picking apart the Sacramento D. Still, despite starting he played just 24 minutes to Damon Stoudamire’s 34 off the bench, and I have this feeling Chucky’s not going to average a point per minute most nights. Call it a hunch. He’s worth consideration while he’s starting but has yet to top 26 minutes in a game this year that hasn’t gone to triple overtime. The Grizzlies are off to a predictably terrible start and there could be a shakeup over there. If Mike Fratello leaves, it could leave the PT situation for just about everyone up in the air, so pay attention.

Pickup: Matt Harpring
Drop: Alonzo Mourning
I like Harpring a lot, but at this point in his career he’s much more valuable to his real team than your fantasy team. He will definitely see a bump in playing time with Andrei Kirilenko out, but Ronnie Brewer certainly didn’t do anything to make Jerry Sloan take him out of the starting lineup with his performance the other night. Being able to bring Harpring and Derek Fisher off the bench gives the Jazz two proven veterans, which is something you know Jerry Sloan loves. But Harpring is a guy who is unlikely to see more than 30 mpg coming off the bench and won’t give you much at all in 3s, steals and blocks. He’s an incredible efficient, high-percentage scorer, and that’s where his value’s always been, but he’ll need every game to be like his last two in order to be worth starting in most leagues. As you well know, we just don’t trust bench players, not when there are likely more reliable options out there. Mourning was dropped right before Shaq sat out again. He hasn’t been nearly as good this season as he was filling in for Shaq last season, but teams in need of a quick fix at center might as well give him a shot, although it’s hard to tell how long Shaq will be out for.