Start up the hot stove

While most fantasy owners are focusing on their football, basketball and hockey teams, there's a select few who are thinking baseball.

One of the best things about being in a keeper baseball league is the activity that occurs in the offseason, even in the dead of winter. With four new owners in our 20-team league, there was a dispersal draft that started the last day of November. So for us returning owners, we were able to release players in November instead of waiting until in the spring. Trading has opened, and there are amendments on the table, most notably on balancing the hitting and pitching scoring and stat modifiers.

It should be said that this is a full keeper league that can sometimes be referred to as a 'sim' league, because it is very much a simulation of happens in real-life baseball. We owners have every player under contract and work within a luxury tax/salary cap system.

For example, I just executed a trade that could very well happen in real life. The deal was a simple one-for-one involving two minor leaguers who could break through in 2010. I dealt Cardinals prospects David Freese for Dodgers prospect Joshua Lindblom.

Freese's name might be vaguely familiar; he was arrested this week on driving under the influence. I was surprised an owner inquired about him; it turns out he was trying to trade for his upside of being in the middle of the St. Louis lineup. Last season the third baseman had an impressive .931 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) in 227 minor-league at-bats, as well as an .837 OPS in 31 MLB at-bats (anything over .800 is considered very good). Freese will also turn 27 in April, which is the age that is considered to be the peak year for major leaguers.

So why did I deal him? I sensed an owner who coveted my player and was willing to trade a similarly good prospect. For me, that player was Josh Lindblom, a 6-5, 220-pound right-hander who is said to have a good shot at making the Dodgers as their No. 5 starter or a middle reliever. The 22-year-old had OK numbers as a starter at Double-A last year, but shined in the bullpen in the Triple-A, hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

Like with stocks, you want to buy low and sell high while trading. Noah, one of the new owners, felt he was buying low on Freese. I feel like I'm buying low on Lindblom. As always, the proof will come in the numbers.

As for the Red Sox's offseason moves, I'll get to them when the dust appears to settle on Theo Epstein's grand plan. The team doesn't seem to be done remaking the roster yet.