Fantasy Baseball: Whom to keep?

The Game Room
1

It’s never too early to talk baseball.

I’m in a keeper league with 15 man rosters, 8 players of which we get to keep.

My team:

C Joe Mauer
1B Justin Morneau
2B Chase Utley
3B Ryan Zimmerman
SS Troy Tulowitzki
OF Ichiro
OF Josh Hamilton
OF Michael Bourne
SP Roy Halladay
SP CC Sabathia
SP Jered Weaver
SP Dan Haren
SP Randy Wolf
RP Heath Bell
RP Rafael Soriano

This lineup took me to the championship week last year, which I lost.
Weaver, Wolf, and Soriano will not stay.

My biggest questions are:

Do I keep Josh Hamilton?
Which starters do I keep?
Which positions should be easiest to replace in the draft?

Thanks for your help.

2

The most important piece of information you need apart from the list of players is:

Type of league

of teams

Scoring categories

3

I should have thought of that!

It’s a long-term keeper league. BIL set it up as something that would go on a long time. It’s head to head with 2 divisions of 5 teams apiece.

Scoring is as follows:

Batting Average
Home Runs
RBI
Steals
Runs

Wins
ERA
Saves
Strikeouts per 9
WHIP

4

Keep Utley, Mauer, and Tulowitzi - production up the middle is hard to replace. Ichiro will help in the BA, Runs and steals department, so he’s a keeper.

Halladay is a stud, but he’s moving into that bandbox in Philly, so I’d be wary of him. However, he is also moving from the AL East to the NL East, so that’s a plus. Also, the NL East is weak this year. So, I’d lean in favor of keeping Doc. Sabathia will win a lot of games with the Yankees offense to support him, but his workload the last 3-4 years plus his general body build scare me. He looks like a back injury waiting to happen. But, I’d roll the dice on him for one more year since he’s what, only 31?

Bell is a decent enough closer, so no need to lose him.

Mourneau is not bad at 1b, but you might be able to replace his production. Zimmerman is one of the better young 3b out there, so if it comes down to those two, I’d keep Zimmerman. 1b will be replete with boppers who have no other position to play, so it will be easier to find a replacement for Mourneau than Zimmerman.

So:

  1. Tulowitzki
  2. Utley
  3. Mauer
  4. Ichiro
  5. Halladay
  6. Zimmerman
  7. Bell
  8. Sabathia
5

Oof. I dislike Head-to-Head for a great number of reasons, but one of those reasons is that it greatly devalues pitching. You can stream players and win. You can load up on relievers only and win. Either way, you can invest extremely little in them during the draft, and still dominate the categories (or at least pick up 3 out of 5).

Swapping out a counting stat for ANOTHER rate stat (and a rate stat that relievers are exceptionally good at) makes starting pitching totally and completely worthless in your league, unless your BIL managed to forsee this and limit the RP slots. How many RP or P slots are there in the starting roster?

6

Wargamer: I like having Utley, Tulo, Ichiro, and Mauer. I’m going to keep all of them, I think.

Munch: There are 5 starters and 2 relievers. I drafted my relievers next-to-last and last. Did I make a big mistake?

7

Wow, you can keep eight players? Is there a penalty? Like, in my keeper league, for every guy you retain, you lose an equivalent draft pick based on when the guy was drafted last, so there’s a premium on guys who came out of nowhere to become stars.

8

Agreed. Even with only 2 RP slots, you can fill up all the slots with double eligibility guys like Hong Chih Kuo or Taylor Buchholz and destroy that league. An innings minimum would alleviate that, I suppose.

9

No penalty as far as I know. We keep 8 from year to year. For whatever reason, I have the 5th draft pick for 2010, at least for now.

What do I do with Hamilton, baseball fans?

10

Drop Hamilton. He can’t produce steadily and he’s been hurt too much.

11

Hamilton had one star season. He isn’t worth the spot. Health is a skill and it doesn’t appear to be one he has.

C Joe Mauer
1B Justin Morneau
2B Chase Utley
3B Ryan Zimmerman
SS Troy Tulowitzki
OF Ichiro
SP Roy Halladay
SP CC Sabathia
SP Dan Haren

I can get to nine pretty easily, but I’m not sure which one to drop off. Possibly Morneau depending on what is available, as 1b is crazy loaded. The drop off from Morneau to say Youkalis or Morales is minimal. Otherwise I’d knock out Ichiro or Haren again depending on what other teams are likely to do. Probably Haren since Ichiro is your only outfield worth keeping.

12

Can you make any trades before the draft? I’d try with all your might to trade CC and Halladay away for a top 3 pick. You already have Tulo (no need for HanRam), so focusing on Pujols, A-Rod, Kemp, or Braun would solidify things. I’d trade both of them for just one of those guys in H2H easily.

13

Update:

OK, I have the 9th pick in the draft, so I will get 2 of the top 12 on the table. I need help on this because this is only my 2nd year in the league and I really don’t know how to draft this time.

Definite keepers are Mauer, Utley, Tulowitski, Zimmerman, Halladay, Bell and Morneau.

Who is my last keeper and what do I look for in the draft, especially the 1st round?

14

My question still stands.

15

Trying to trade Halladay for Braun and CC for Kemp.

16

Those are pretty aggressive trades on your part - be prepared to have to give up something else in addition to Halladay or CC. Start your first offering with Haren, especially if either owner doesn’t have ANY pitching (and thinks he may need some). But like I said - I’d happily trade BOTH of them for just ONE of those guys. Maybe try to swap first round picks along with it (assuming he’s drafting before you).