Miguel Cabrera for Santana ?

[MajorDad]

this is a keeper league where you keep 9 players every year and 4 farm players every year. Essentually the good stay good until their good players retire. I had Piazza, Randy Johnson and Schmidt in their prime a few years back. Now my starting pitching has guys like pettite, glavine and livan hernandez - none of which are worthy of keeping. I had three closers - gagne, isringhausen and Cordero. My relievers looked good before the season started. trust me, when every team keeps 9 players every year, and 4 players on their farm team, there isn't much talent left to draft to fill your holes..

I was offered a trade of Johan Santana and Garko for Arroyo and Miguel Cabrera.

Cabrera is probably my best hitter. I also have upton and maglio. But Santana is nothing to sneeze at.

I have Konerko and loney to play first and Gordon to play third, so I would probably use garko as a dh or on my bench. i would be making this trade with the belief that either konerko or Garko will find their batting eye this year and that garko might be worth keeping for next year.

I'm inclined to take him up on his offer. I would never have traded Cabrera the last 3 years. but acquiring Santana seems too good to pass up considering the state of my pitching staff.

the league is a private league and has a very complicated scoring system incorporating about 11 batting and 11 pitching categories.

so yeah ? or nay?

[RookieOfTheYear]

If you want to talk about keeping a player for a long long time, I don't think there is a better PROVEN candidate than Miguel Cabrera. Sure there is also Jose Reyes, David Wright, HanRam, and others but Cabrera always gives great average, many homeruns and RBIs, and others like walks and low Ks.
Trading for pitchers, even if it is Santana, is always risky with the many things that could hurt them long term.
Personally, I'd turn that trade down and look to acquire some young talent that many people don't pay too much attention to like the other Santana (Ervin), Gavin Floyd, any of the young Blue Jays or Rays, etc. There are so many good young pitchers that you won't have to give your best hitter for.
Hope that helps.