Keeper help...need to decide on 10th keeper

[misterf]

It's a 10-team, 5x5 roto league. We keep 10 players per season...no restrictions. I'm trying to fill my last keeper spot.


I have 9 "no-brainers":

1) A-Rod
2) Justin Upton
3) Carl Crawford
4) Troy Tulowitzki
5) Brandon Phillips
6) Curtis Granderson

7) Tim Lincicum
8) Zack Grienke
9) Yovani Gallardo



That leaves me with one spot to fill, and I have several players fighting for that last roster postition:

1) Alfonso Soriano (is he done?)
2) Hunter Pence (can he make that next step....or is he just a #3 OF?)
3) Kendry Morales (is he the real deal? Is he too young/risky to be a keeper?)
4) Carlos Pena (avg. stinks, but hard to ignore 105run/45hr/115rbi pace)
5) Lance Berkman (still solid....but is he too old and brittle? Probably.)

6) Max Scherzer (Young kid with great stuff...hard to drop...but can I keep 4 SP's?)
7) James Shields (only 28....but I jost don't think I have room for him)
8) Joakim Soria (one of the few closers you can count on year to year....but is he keeper worthy?)


So, who do you think I should keep? Who fills that last spot?
Of course, if you disagree with any of my "no-brainers", please let me know.

Thank you in advance......WHIR (I might not be able to WHIR until later in the day....but I will help you out as best I can)



For the sake of full disclosure, here's the rest of my team (the guys currently out of the running for a keeper spot): J. Posada; D. Uggla; T. Helton; S. Kazmir; S. Baker; R. Wells; H. Bell; J. Valverde; and D. Aardsma.

[joepig]

I would decide between Soriano and Soria. If you'd have asked yourself the same question at the beginning of the year, you would have gone with Soriano obviously. It's hard for me to justify keeping a closer, unless he plays for a top 5 team (K-Rod, Papelbon, Rivera). Berkman doesn't intrigue me b/c he's a 1B where you can possibly get better value next year. By the way, how many positions are you filling? Are there MI or CI slots or more Util?

[misterf]

Thankss for the response.

Just filling the standard positions: c,1b, 2b, 3b, ss, of, of, of, util

[jmlevy]

If I were in your position, I would choose between Pena and Soria.

You have the rest of your INF locked up and Pena will provide another power bat behind ARod. His average might not be desirable, but I feel that your other keepers should negate his low Avg.

Soria may not crack the top tier of closers for another couple of years, but I believe that the Royals are on the upswing with Hosmer and Moustakas on the cusp of the majors. Cortes, Montgomery, and Kentrail Davis are all future stars who I believe will resurrect the Royals ala '08 TBay Rays.

Both options looks solid to me; it just depends if you feel you need the power while locking up your infield (and three OF spots) or if you want to feel secure at closer for the first few rounds of the draft.

Thanks for your help with mine!

[kingofdanger]

Honestly, I think Pence has a huge upside. I'm not crazy about Peña, but I'm not crazy about any of those low-average, high-power guys. As a Cubs fan, I want to believe Soriano can get it back, but after seeing him this season I'm not so sure. Regarding Soria, it really depends on what you think others will do. If you think people will keep closers (10 is a lot of keepers), you should seriously consider keeping Soria. You don't want to have to pick from the bottom of the barrel for closers.

I'd probably go with Pence.

[Captain Furtah]

Pence or Morales - I don't see either regressing and both could improve on their numbers. I don't think Morales is great, but with that lineup and his batting average, he should have good R, RBI, AVG and solid HR numbers.