First foray into minor league fantasy drafting. need advice

[Galt]

Unfortunately, I didn't find out about this site until AFTER my draft, but alas.

I am in the first year of a 12-team keeper league. We just had a five round minor league draft and I'm looking for feedback on how I did, as well as who I should dump and who I might want to grab.

To be eligible for a spot on our minor league rosters, one has to have never played a game in the majors (which eliminates many of the top prospects). If they qualify, however, they don't lose eligibility until the year after they lose ROY status. As long as they still qualify as a ROY, you automatically roll them over, and it doesn't count against the 5 player keeper. After they lose ROY status, you have to activate them, and you lose a last round pick. After that, their value increases by 3 rounds every year, and you can only keep them for three years.

My league counts OPS instead of AVG

When preparing I looked at minor league stats and combined rankings of a bunch of the prospect sites.

Here's who I ended up with:

Ian Stewart
Carlos Gonzalez
Erick Aybar
Javier Hererra
Michael Bourn

Most of the top 75 of the Baseball America list were either drafted or didn't qualify, so the pool looks thin.

I figured speed was the easiest thing to predict in future MLB success, position scarcity also factored in, but I also had no idea that Hererra was done for the year. Should I drop him for Hunter Pence? Eric Patterson? Any other ideas or guys who may be interesting?

I don't have any pitchers because they are typically very hard to predict, though an easy closer would be attractive.

I'd prefer to have people on my minor league roster who are as close to being MLB regulars as possible. If I can get one real cheap keeper through my minor league roster each year, I'll be very heppy.

Sorry for the really really long post, but I really haven't followed minor leaguers ever, so I don't know who I should take or want.

[sockeye]

Wow, that's fairly confusing. A couple questions:

- Will you have a 5-round draft every year, or will you guys just draft to keep the roster topped off at 5 (ie, replacing the guys who have lost eligibility)?

- What do you mean by their "value increasing by 3 rounds every year)"?

Your top 3 picks are probably pretty strong given the talent pool. The latter 2 are not so much.

I would not be so afraid to take flyers on pitchers - yes, they are a gamble, but some guy posting crazy numbers in A ball might be worth a really late pick. Someone has to make it to the majors.....

[Galt]

That was the only "minor league" draft we'll have in the keeper league. I would have preferred a draft ever year, but instead of having to worry about keeper penalties, etc there, we just had the one draft.

Going forward, you can add/drop minor leaguers as will, so I will need to keep tabs on who is performing.

The "value increasing"...Keeper penalties are always some complex and difficult to explain, but here goes.

I drafted John Patterson in the 9th round. If I want to keep him for next year, it will cost me a 6th round pick in '07 and then if I want to keep him again, a 3rd round pick in '08.

Minor leaguers roll over automatically as long as they still qualify as "rookies" (even if they are on an ML roster - like Hermida). However, once they've lost their ROY status, if you want to keep them, it costs a 23rd round pick (last round) the following year. 20th round the year after, etc.

Since the draft, I've dropped Hererra and Bourn for Hunter Pence and Marcus Sanders

So my minor league roster is (12 teams)
2B: Marcus Sanders
SS: Erick Aybar
3B: Ian Stewart
LF: Carlos Gonzales
CF: Hunter Pence

[Dawgpound 1613]

Much prefer Pence and Sanders to Bourn and Hererra. Nice moves there.

As a whole, based on your criteria, I think you have a good minors system.