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grunthal · by **grunthal** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:35 am

Hi, my keeper deadline is looming. Anyone have any advice? We only get to keep 7 players.

Carlos Beltran
Ryan Church
Carl Crawford
Adam Dunn
Alex Gordon
James Loney
Russell Martin
Justin Morneau
Alexei Ramirez
Jose Reyes
Brian Roberts
Ian Stewart
Jim Thome
Randy Winn

Scott Baker
Erik Bedard
Fausto Carmona
John Danks
Zack Grienke
Trevor Hoffman
Scott Lewis
Chad Qualls
Takashi Saito
Ervin Santana
Edinson Volquez
Brian Wilson

I am thinking of going with mostly bats:

Carlos Beltran OF
Russell Martin C, 3b
Justin Morneau 1b
Jose Reyes SS
Brian Roberts 2b
Alexei Ramirez 2b ss of

Am I wrong to be so excited by Alexei?

And just one pitcher, say,

Edinson Volquez?

C2ThaLo88 · by **C2ThaLo88** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:43 am

I forget, which one is better? Aramis or Alexei?

I think you've made the right choices however, my only thought would be maybe to keep Crawford. But I like what you have so far and it's nice to have at least one pitcher to start with.

by **plapre3** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:50 am

I find that when looking at keepers it helps to break them into tiers. So, I'll try that.

1st tier (no doubters): Jose Reyes, Justin Morneau, and Carlos Beltran
2nd tier (solid keepers): Russel Martin, Brian Roberts, Carl Crawford, Alexei Ramirez, Adam Dunn
3rd tier (outside looking in?): Edwin Volquez, , Zach Greinke, John Danks, Erik Bedard
4th tier (don't consider): everyone else

So, looking at this list, there's certainly a lot to consider. One, what is your league's scoring system. This can make a world of difference in many ways, especially with some of these options. For example, if you count OPS, or even better OBP, Dunn's value rises dramatically.

Either way, I think the list is pretty obvious, with one major question. Keep the 1st two tiers and knock one player off. It looks to me like Dunn is the one to go, unless of course you have those stats. Otherwise, Ramirez is the interesting case. He's great and no, you're not crazy. Still, you don't want to lose the position scarcity advantage by putting him in the OF or at UTIL. With Reyes and Roberts, I think it's clear that the best thing to do is make a deal before all of this. Maybe you can package Ramirez with Dunn and get a more solid bat, or maybe a better pitcher for a keeper, which brings me to my last point...

Don't keep a pitcher. Well, unless you're league weights pitcher performance more than offense. None of you're guys are sure bets, so I think it's best to go with all offense at this point. Volquez can be great, but take a look at his pitch counts if you can find them. And really, live by my rule: never trust a pitcher managed by Dusty Baker.

Ok, I hope all if this helps. If you get the chance, I'd really appreciate some feedback on mine:
viewtopic.php?t=367445