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Yeah, as a small market, look for guys who are rookies/1st year players to trade for.
I took an expansion team, and the first 3-4 years, sucked. But my players developed, and got a couple good players. Then as they started getting arbitration money that I couldn't afford, I kept trading them away for more young cheap prospects. Throw on one or 2 expensive guys, and my team this year was about 15 games ahead of the 2nd place team, all on a relatively small team. 2 guys making 7-8M in the lineup, and my next most expensive player cost me about 2M. Unfortunately, my good players will all be arbitration eligible, so I expect my payroll to jump by like 20M, which will take some careful budget balancing in the off-season.
Strategies? Base it around the players. If you have very few power hitters, then play more small ball (bunt, steal, etc...). Have very little OBP in your lineup, but lots of power? Just keep swinging for the fences with them.
And when building a team, get complimentary guys. So if you're lacking power hitters, it might be worth it to try to get one. Have a good meat of the lineup, but don't have any leadoff hitter? Ignore power in Free Agents, and just find the best contact/eye/speed guy you can.
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