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If you haven’t already noticed, this is a hard time of year to make trades in fantasy baseball circles. About as hard as finding snowmen in the Sahara.

That’s because the marathon that is fantasy baseball has hit its fizzle time for owners who are looking at a losing season. Fantasy football drafts and NFL preseason buzz is heating up, which lures too many frustrated fantasy baseball owners away from the mid-summer classic.

It doesn’t help that we are all facing the dreaded fantasy baseball trade deadline. How do you handle the pressure? How do you make the most of the trade deadline? Here are some tips. After reading these, don’t miss our companion piece on some specific players worth targeting.

1. More than ever, it is important to assess your team’s strengths and weaknesses. At this point in the season, you should have good idea of where your team is solid and where it needs help.

Most leagues hosted by major sites, such as ESPN or Yahoo, offer easy-to-sort standings that allow you to pinpoint your team’s place in the grand scheme of things.

It is time to face the reality that your squad may be hurting in one or more categories, and admit that you need help – hopefully through a trade that catapults you up the standings.

2. Using the same means, look at the rest of your league. At this point, you should have an idea of which teams are active in the trade department, and which owners are more content to fish in the free agent pool.

While you may be able to talk a mostly non-trading owner into making a big move, you also are running out of time for discussions. This means you will likely need to focus on the more active league owners.

Analyze each of these teams in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. Again, be sure to use the software built into your league host to minimize the workload and time needed to break down each squad’s needs and excesses.

3. Make your intentions known. E-mail the league in mass message that you are looking to make some deadline deals and are willing to make some big-time moves. Make the note clear and precise.

Mention actual players on your squad that are available for trade. Be specific in what you need. Again, this is no time to beat around the bush. Being open and honest to all owners up front will facilitate a potential trade quicker than being coy.

Make yourself available to talk with other owners. Let them know when you’ll be online and if you will be on IM, in a chat room or perhaps on a social media site like Facebook. The more accessible you are, the better the chances another owner will track you down.

4. You need to be open-minded about offers. Other owners don’t want to give up their studs for your scrap-heap guys. You will need to sacrifice a player or two that you were originally hoping to keep until the end.

5. Be steadfast on your core players, though. Certain guys, such as Luke Scott and Aaron Hill, are finally achieving their full potential in fantasy circles.

While many owners will come drooling for such players, you need to acknowledge that certain players will likely continue to play at an elite level.

6. Work on needs-for-needs trades. From your analysis in earlier points, be sure to pinpoint deals with teams that match up best with your needs and vice versa.

For instance, in one league, my team was desperate for saves but loaded with quality high-strikeout pitchers. While I kept the lines of communication open with all teams, I spent more time and energy on the squads that desperately needed strikeouts and wins, but also had an excess of saves.

7. Don’t get greedy. I can preach this point from experience. Plenty of times, I’ll be close to making a deal that helps my squad, but then notice an additional player or two from the other team that would make great cherries on the trading hot fudge sundae. Let me be the first to point out that these extra last-minute requests typically don’t help expedite a deadline deal.

While another owner may be desperate to make a move, and you can squeeze some extra players out of him, don’t squeeze so hard that you strangle off any chance of a deal.

8. Continue to get trading advice from unbiased sources. It can be very easy to lock into a trade at the deadline that seems to fit all your team’s needs, but the fantasy trading sort can sometimes find themselves with blinders on.

I always run trades, especially the bigger ones, past people I know and trust from fantasy circles, whether it is ep at www.chinstrapninjas.com or fantasy baseball café members, I always get some last-second advice.

For the rest of this article, including the final two tips to successful fantasy baseball trade deadline dealing, go here.

For a list of players to target in trade deadline deals, with explanations for each, go here.

Tired of fantasy baseball and ready to jump ship? Check out our rapidly growing list of solid fantasy football advice for the 2010 season.

For all your hard-hitting fantasy baseball and fantasy football advice, go to www.chinstrapninjas.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Few two-letter combos can be as devastating as the dreaded “DL” in fantasy baseball.

Anyone who has played the sport knows that dreams of championship sugarplums can quickly dissolve into nightmares of basement-dwelling dust bunnies thanks to a few badly timed injuries.

In one high-stakes 16-team roto league, my team is redder than Santa’s suit on Christmas Eve. Grady Sizemore, Scott Sizemore, Asdrubal Cabrera, Nate McLouth, Maicer Izturis, Jeremy Hermida, and Brandon Webb, among others, have given my squad more DLs than HRs or RBIs.

Too bad DL isn’t a roto category.

A slumping player has more trade value than one on the DL, and especially more so than a player on an extended DL stint, such as Asdrubal Cabrera. It doesn’t help that teams like this one are mired in last place, with less and less hope for contending as the season wears on.

Many people abandon such teams, especially as the dog days of summer turn into the dog days of fantasy baseball. People start shifting focus to fantasy football and grow tired of the 162-game MLB marathon.

But ditching a team goes against the very fiber of everything we have been told to believe in competition. It is unacceptable to give up.

So what to do?

Time to clean house. Time to shake things up, even if it seems unorthodox. It is time for some crafty trade offers and some work via the waiver wire. The following are some steps towards trying to revitalize a team that has seemingly flatlined.

1. Identify players with the best trade value. This means it is time to consider dealing a Prince Fielder or other early-round fantasy studs. Look closely at which players on your team are playing well. Those who are playing over their heads at the moment (likely not many if you are struggling to stay out of the cellar) are prime candidates for dealing.

2. Look to improve at multiple lesser positions. Trading Fielder straight up for another 1b won’t help you a ton. Dealing Fielder (who has shown signs of life lately) and some lesser players at other positions, in an attempt to improve yourself a little at several other spots, can yield quicker results.

Let’s say you have Fielder, for example. First, figure out which teams in your league have a glaring need at 1b and decent players at other positions that would give your team an overall boost. Check out buy-low posts here at chinstrapninjas.com and ep’s information-packed update posts (such as those from June 30 , June 28 , June 27 , and so on) for potential targets.

3. Scour your waiver wire. Don’t just look at players in terms of their overall 2010 stats, but also filter them based on their stats the past month and past week. This will give you a better idea of which players are streaking in the correct direction.

Also look at currently DL-bound players who are close to returning. Pitchers like Edinson Volquez and young players, with solid potential, who just earned a call to the bigs (see Madison Bumgarner, among others) are guys worth a long look.

This is espically true if you have plenty of fat to trim off your roster. Even if this young upstart player doesn’t figure to be a long-term option for you, he may become a solid piece of trade bait.

4. Float trade offers. Most teams in your league may assume that once you hit the standings basement, you’ll lose all interest in your team. They may neglect to consider you a trade partner as a result. E-mail your league, letting them know you are still in the ring and will be considering any and all reasonable offers as you attempt to rebound.

5. Let your mouse do the walking. No sense in re-iventing the wheel. Need some solid buy-low options? Need a few under-the-radar suggestions to help resuscitate your team? Plenty of fantasy websites offer regularly updated threads on this stuff.

Chinstrapninjas strive to provide regular updates. Ep’s posts on player news are priceless and we throw out buy-low, sell-high pieces as often as possible. Want news on a specific player? Rotoworld.com can be helpful. Also, don’t be afraid to ask us at chinstrapninjas for individual help. We’d love the opportunity to look over your squad and make suggestions.

For more suggestions on how to resuscitate your flatlining team, along with a place to let us know about your individual team and get some feedback, the original post can be found here .

For all your fantasy baseball and fantasy football advice, go to www.chinstrapninjas.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The month of June is a prime time to make fantasy baseball trades. At this point in the season, it is much easier to determine where your team is strong, where your squad is weak, and typically owners are open to making moves as they fret about falling too far behind in the standings.

Many people avoid trading for fear of turning a team with a broken ankle into a terminal patient attached to an iron lung. But only a very few people can draft a championship-caliber team from preseason information. It is about as easy as correctly choosing all the correct winners in your office’s March Madness pool.

So, change is good. Change is actually vital to most teams, and the following players should be high on each squad’s trading targets list.

OK…the owner of Chase Utley in your respective leagues isn’t likely to jump ship just yet. Utley was solid to start the season. However, he recently went 4-for-35 on a nine-game road trip and has posted a well-below-normal .241 batting average in the past month.

During that same time period, he has gone yard just twice. Of course, Utley will turn it around sooner rather than later, and certain owners will likely balk on dealing the second baseman, but it is worth at least a feeler or two.

I have never been a huge fan of Dustin Pedroia …perhaps it is the Yankees fan in me. However, there is little doubt that Pedroia is producing well below what many expected out of him. Just one home run in a month’s worth of play? A .221 batting average? A pathetic six RBI over that stretch?

Like Utley, Pedroia started the season on a tear, and his current funk may just be the second half of his bell curve, but at least gauge the potential trade-ability of him in your leagues.

One trip to the DL in a season is bad enough. Two trips in two-plus months of action? Enough to wear the patience thin of respective fantasy owners. So, while Nelson Cruz is again nursing a sore hammy on the DL, he could be attained for less than previous market value.

We know he can bop it big and could fuel a nice power surge on your respective squads…if the other owner is ready to jump ship.

Another power option that has struggled this season is Carlos Pena . The first baseman has failed to produce big numbers from the plate, ranking 1,204th among all fantasy options over the past month in overall production.

If you can get him cheap enough…like for a stick of gum or a lower-level player who’s currently playing over his head, then take a chance that Pena turns things around.

Three of Yahoo’s top seven starting pitchers heading into the season have an ERA of more than 5.00 in the past month. Two of the three (Tim Lincecum and Zack Greinke ) are not striking out batters with as much authority as we are used do. The other, Dan Haren , whiffed 42 batters in the past 42 innings of work, but has just two wins and a 5.14 ERA to show for it.

All three are guys that will be fine as the season progresses. All three merit at least a feeler offer, although it is possible Haren could be the best bet of the three to land … and since no one can continue to sit down batters as well as he has without the ERA and wins slowly coming around.

Those three hurlers too lucrative? How about Wandy Rodriguez ? A 6.46 ERA over the past month is enough to scare the most courageous of fantasy owners.

However, in his last outing, Rodriguez looked like he may be turning the corner. He struck out eight in five innings of work and handled two bases-loaded threats with resiliency.

If the other owner shares the same optimism about Wandy’s last outing, remind them it came against the Nationals. I’d still make a play for him…as long as you don’t give up the farm for him.

Francisco Liriano was highly touted prior to the season by we Chinstrap Ninjas, and here we go tooting his horn again. Owners are a little annoyed at his 5.46 ERA over the past month.

However, we didn’t say Liriano would post the lowest ERA in the league this year, but were in awe of his comeback ability in the strikeouts department. In the past month, he has fanned 30 batters in just under 30 innings. The ERA will slowly diminish moving forward. Like Rodriguez, he has been unlucky .

Manuel Corpas recently blew a save and hasn’t exactly been lights-out as he carries the closer mantel in Colorado. But I’m not calling him a buy-low guy right now.

Instead, look ahead to Huston Street , who is inching closer to a return to the Bigs, and shouldn’t have any trouble supplanting Corpas as the Rockies end-game option.

For more buy-low candidates and discussion, go here .

Want some advice on a trade you have brewing, which waiver wire players to snag or other fantasy baseball (or football) questions? Go to www.chinstrapninjas.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com