Keeper League Question

[grassbass]

My fantasy baseball league switched over to a keeper league this season, allowing us to keep up to five players. For every player you pick, you lose a draft pick from the beginning of the draft (if you keep three, you lose your first three picks). I'm looking for some opinions on who I should keep.

 

The league is a standard 5x5 Rotisserie with the following scoring categories:

 

Batting: Avg, HR, RBI, R, SB

Pitching: ERA, K, Saves, Wins, WHIP

 

We have 28 roster spots plus one DL spot. We start a C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, MI, CI, five OF, 2 UT, and 9 Pitchers.

 

My roster currently is:

Pitchers

SP Chad Billingsley

SP John Danks

SP Roy Halladay

SP Tommy Hanson

SP Felix Hernandez

SP Randy Wells

SP David Price

SP Pedro Martinez (DL)

SP Brian Matusz*

RP Andrew Bailey

RP Kerry Wood

RP Francisco Rodriguez

 

Catchers

Geovany Soto

Matt Wieters

 

Infielders

1B Ryan Howard

1B Paul Konerko

2B Mark DeRosa

2B Orlando Hudson

2B Felipe Lopez

SS Stephen Drew

SS Marco Scutaro

3B Evan Longoria

3B Scott Rolen

3B Hank Blalock

 

Outfielders

Bobby Abreu

Jacoby Ellsbury

Luke Scott

Ichiro Suzuki

Dexter Fowler

 

*I don't have Matusz yet, but I think my waiver claim will go through tomorrow.

The italicized players are ones I'm not even remotely considering keeping.

 

I'm curious to know who you would keep.

[bukie]

In order,

 

1. Evan Longoria

2. Felix Hernandez

3. Chad Billingsley

4. Ryan Howard

5. Pick from Ellsbury, Wieters, Halladay depending on what the rest of your league is doing regarding keepers, i.e. if there are going to be no good catchers draftable, keep Wieters.

[nilodnayr]

In our very similar keeper league people typically keep 4 hitters and 1 pitcher, but I don't see any hitter other than Longoria, Howard, and Ichiro that is keepable for you. Pick your favorite among Felix, Doc, and Billingsley. I'd pick the first two, but you really can't go wrong. Catcher has now become a pretty deep position, and Weiters hasn't exactly met expectations and its not due to being unlucky.

[rawaction]

If you lose picks from the beginning of the draft, the only incentive to keep anyone is if you don't think you can pick them in the 1st or maybe 2nd round. If everyone keeps 5 and you keep nobody, wouldn't that mean you have the first 5 picks in the draft? Assuming everyone keeps their best 5 players, and there's 10-12 teams that could essentially mean the best 45-55 players gone, though. I'd probably keep Longoria, Halladay, and Howard, and see what's there in the draft.

[grassbass]

I'm curious why people don't think Ellsbury is worth keeping. I'm not saying I'm sold on the guy, but steals are a lot harder to come by than homers. The guy is good for at least 50 steals, and if he's batting leadoff for the Sox, he'll score quite a few runs. He'll hit for a solid average, too.

 

At this stage, I'm planning on keeping Halladay, Hernandez, and Longoria at a minimum, with Howard, Ichiro, Ellsbury, and Hanson under consideration for the last two spots. Howard is definitely leading that battle.

 

As far as catchers, I could probably re-draft Geo pretty easily after the season he's had.

 

The bottom three teams probably won't keep more than three players apiece, simply because their rosters are that bad.