Hi Bobbie,
congratulations on your high ranking so far.
Firstly a couple of things.
It is generally better to trade a Rookie out of your team a week or two early, than to miss a half decent Rookie on the bubble. A half decent Rookie on the bubble will make around $50-$60k at his first price rise, where as the Rookie you are trading out a week or two early will only make $10-$30k with that extra week or two. Yes, in an ideal world we would let them fatten up to near full potential before milking them, but in reality there isn't always a downgrade target waiting when we want one.
SC Gold are still calculating their B/E's incorrectly. They have not adjusted the MN down, again this year! They made the same mistake last year until Damoz pointed out their mistake. On a MN of 5394 Hunter's B/E is around 48.8 ie 49. I think the MN is already down to around 5003, and will be around 4992 for this round. That gives Hunter a B/E of 63. It's a small difference, I know, but it might influence your decision one way or another.
Fasolo is a borderline case for someone in your position. Breaking it down to it's overly simple form, your trading should be concentrated on maximising dollar production, or point production. Fasolo is a little in between both of these things. His high(er) price restricts his dollar production, as well as "eating" working Capital that should be used to fully upgrade players to genuine Premiums, and he doesn't score enough to be a Premium. I'm not sure he's your best option.
Let's look forward to the round 6 trades for a moment. The Rookies currently sitting on one game, that should/might play this coming week, placing them on the bubble next week are:
Fwd - Lloyd $117,300 scored 131 (does King affect his JS? probably not on that game, but after that?)
Mid - Gray S $102,400 scored 104 (does Wingard affect his JS? Maybe becomes a vest candidate)
Mid - Robertson $117,300 scored 49 (Brisbane will want games in their young players now)
Def - Cutler $117,300 scored 19 (not sure what to make of him yet, but Brisbane is a bonus for JS)
M/F - Simpson J $168,300 scored 34 (Freo having injury woes, but some players coming back soon)
Mid - Van Unen $123,900 scored 40 (zero confidence in JS)
The point of this exercise was to demonstrate their could easily be a few Rookies on the bubble next week, that we will all be keen to jump on. Obviously we can only grab 2 in one week, and if we "commit" to Lloyd for next week, that leaves us 1. Obviously not all our Rookies will be mooing next week, and it might mean dumping them a week or so early, but as I demonstrated earlier, that is preferable to missing a half decent bubble boy. On the chance you might want 2 of those potential "bubbler's" and Lloyd next week, it means you might have to grab one of them this week. It would be prudent to grab the best looking of them, with the best JS this week, if you think you want 3 of them across the next 2 weeks. That would appear to be Lloyd, and while not everyone has a player they can readily trade down to Lloyd, you and I both have (For me it's Caddy). I am usually a strong advocate of
NOT bringing in Rookies after one game, but circumstances sometimes make it necessary. This is potentially one of those circumstances.
It's a risk, and we don't know exactly what those Rookies listed above will show us next week, but I think if I was you, I'd go Hunter ---> Lloyd this week, so you have a full set of trades available next week.
Next week I'd let those potential bubble boys decide, whether it is double milking time, or one up one down time.
That leaves us with the Crouch question. Is it worth "losing" your Taylor DPP link to get Crouch? Possibly, though unless another decent Forward downgrade target appears, it could be hard to get it back if you shift him. The other thing to consider with Crouch is your bye structure. It is potentially fragile with Crouch in your Mids. He looks like he could be a good prospect, but it might be hard to balance your round 8 team with him in there. Given the potential bubbles available next week, and the fragile state of your bye structure, it might be best if you went without Crouch.
Good luck which ever way you go, and I hope you keep climbing the ranking ladder.
