[fondybadger]

I ended up getting into a fantasy keeper league on Wednesday night.

It was a 5x5 Roto league - 8 fielding spots + a utility, 2 starters, 2 relievers, and 3 pitchers, and 7 bench spots.

You are allowed to keep 6 players in each subsequent year. Besides your 23 man roster we're also allowed to have a 5 man "minor league" roster. The minor league roster is any player who has pitched less than 50 innings or has less than 250 AB's in the majors (same rules as a ROY candidate, except you're allowed 100 more AB's). Out of those 5 players on your "minor league" roster, you're allowed to keep 4 of those players if they're eligible there the following year. You're allowed to move players back and forth between your major league and minor league rosters as long as they don't reach that 250 ab or 50 ip threshold (if they reach that threshold and they're on your minor league roster they can stay there, but once they're off they're off).

We did a live draft on yahoo, and immediately after that we planned on doing a draft on AIM to put our minor league teams together. For example, guys like Prince Fielder and Felix Hernandez could still be on minor league rosters if we desired.

Well I figured that I would check out what top prospects were already available to be drafted through yahoo, and instead of drafting a guy like Mike Sweeney or Orlando Cabrera in the major league portion of the draft, I'd draft prospects onto my major league roster, and tomorrow put them on my minor league roster and go pick up some backups off the waiver wire.

To that extent, things worked out better than I could have hoped for when it came to picking up top minor league players (or current rookies). I have two problems though, that I need some suggestions on.

The first is what positions should I try to acquire the best guys at and hold onto year in and year out?

The way I looked at things is I should go for guys at the top of weak positions. I went into the draft hoping to get young catcher and middle infielders... I figured if I was able to keep a catcher, a 3rd basemen, a pitcher, a middle infielder, and either two outfielders or one outfielder and a first basemen, I'd be in good shape every year.

Well I didn't think my luck was too good with the draft position I received (6th). I felt it was too early to reach for a young stud like David Wright or Jason Bay, but too late to get the top guys like Pujols and AROD. With 11 teams in the league (someone didn't sign up in time before the draft order was set), I wouldn't pick again until 17th, figuring I'd end up with someone like Ichiro or Abreu quality there.

Well from the start of the draft I knew I was in for an interesting draft...

1st Round
Alex Rodriguez
Albert Pujols
Johan Santana
Mark Teixera
Chris Carpenter
Vlad Guerrero (Fondy's pick)
Manny Ramirez
David Ortiz
Derek Lee
Carlos Delgado
Chris Crawford

The first two picks fell as I thought they would. There was a bit of a suprise with the 3rd pick (was contemplating him at 6th), and a REAL shocker with the 5th pick. It left me what I thought was a pretty easy choice. The rest of the first round went pretty much textbook, but Carlos Delgado in the first round was another one of those head scratchers.
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2nd Round
David Wright
Chone Figgins
Michael Young
Miguel Tejada
Miguel Cabrera
Jason Bay (Fondy's pick)
Alfonso Soriano
Bobby Abreau
Andruw Jones
Roy Halladay
Chase Utley

With my second round pick I was thinking infield, and I was hoping someone should drop that shouldn't have. Mainly Michael Young, Miguel Tejada, or Miguel Cabrera I was hoping for. When it got back to me I had a very interesting choice. Do I take a guy, Alfonso Soriano who's been moved to the outfield and is now in a bad hitters ball park, or should I take a guy I was somewhat considering drafting in the first round Jason Bay? Do I take two outfielders right away? How would that effect me in the long run. I ended up going with the 5 tool figuring he was the best guy available.
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3rd Round
Jake Peavy
Grady Sizemore
Derek Jeter
Roy Oswalt
Jimmy Rollins
Victor Martinez (Fondy's pick)
Travis Hafner
Johnny Damon
Gary Sheffield
Rafael Furcal
Jose Reyes

In the third round I targeted one guy who I hoped like hell would get to me. That person was Victor Martinez. I wanted to come away from this draft with one of the two younger premiere hitting catchers. I figured with the 27th pick the in the draft I wasn't reaching more than a few slots. The 3rd round featured a run on middle infielders and really left me questioning what I was going to do for a shortstop.
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4th Round
Ichiro
Carlos Lee
Jeff Kent
Pedro Martinez
Lance Berkman
Carlos Beltran (Fondy's pick)
Aramis Ramirez
Todd Helton
Paul Konerko
Joe Mauer
Juan Pierre

Stuck to the best player available route. I was more than satisfied with who fell into my lap with the 37th overall pick. It was a bit tough passing up Aramis Ramirez, but with his ups and downs, I felt like it was better to go after a guy who could be NL MVP. Ichiro falling to the 4th round? Never thought I'd see that. More than a little early for Juan Pierre in my opinion.
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5th Round
Bradon Lidge
Vernon Wells
Eric Chavez
Rich Harden
Ryan Howard
Scott Rolen (Fondy's pick)
Mariano Rivera
Barry Zito
Ken Griffey Jr.
Adam Dunn
Carlos Zambrano

I made an epic blunder in the 5th round. One I forgot I had chicken in the oven since before the draft started. The fire alarm alerted me to that. Thus, I didn't have any players in queue when it was my turn to pick, plus I had to get caught up on who was recently drafted. I was wondering with the Brandon Lidge pick if there was going to be a run on relievers and if I should get in on it, but I decided not to. At this point I had drafted three outfielders and a catcher, I knew it was time for an infielder. Decided that 1st base was deeper and I'd really be reaching for a SS or 2nd basemen so I went with Scott Rolen thinking he could succeed in becoming one of the premier 3rd basemen again.
opinion.
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6th Round
Richie Sexson
Hideki Matsui
Randy Johnson
Mark Prior
Francisco Rodriguez
Dontrelle Willis (Fondy's pick)
Joe Nathan
Scott Posednik
Bartolo Colon
Felix Hernandez
Huston Street

With my sixth round pick I decided it was time to focus on an ace pitcher. Might have been foolish in the long run to draft Willis with guys like Ben Sheets and Mark Buehrle still available, but taking Willis is that position I felt was a personal choice. I had planned on taking Francisco Rodriguez with that pick, and decided Willis/Sheets/Buerhle triumphet would more likely be gone by the next time I picked then a top of the line closer.
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7th Round
Ben Sheets
Morgan Ensberg
Brian Wagner
Jorge Cantu
Mark Buehrle
Marcus Giles (Fondy's pick)
Chipper Jones
Nomar Garciaparra
John Smoltz
Andy Pettitte
BJ Ryan

This round had some really solid picks in it with Ben Sheets, Mark Buehrle and BJ Ryan. Couple of reaches I thought with Nomar, Cantu, and Smoltz. I drafted on need and the drying up of 2nd basemen. Only if I knew that I could have had Richie Weeks 4 rounds later.
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So at this point I have a team of:
C - Victor Martinez
1st - ?
2nd - Marcus Giles
SS - ?
3rd - Scott Rolen
OF - Jason Bay
OF - Vlad Guerrero
OF - Carlos Beltran

SP - Dontrelle Willis
SP - ?
RP - ?
RP - ?
P - ?
P - ?
P - ?

Well I knew it was time to start focusing on some pitching, and wait as long as I could on positions until there was only a guy or two left I felt comfortable taking.

Over the next few rounds I drafted:

Eric Gagne
Jason Isringhausen
Julio Lugo
Tim Hudson
Jason Giambi
Matt Morris
Amando Benitez (one of the last of the closers - could have had Bonderman/Livan Hernandez, Prince Fielder here)
Joe Blanton
Chris Ray
Brad Wilkerson
Carlos Guillen

So my final "starting" team looks something like this:
C - Victor Martinez
1st - Jason Giambi
2nd - Marcus Giles
SS - Julio Lugo
3rd - Scott Rolen
OF - Jason Bay
OF - Vlad Guerrero
OF - Carlos Beltran
Util - Brad Wilkerson

SP - Dontrelle Willis
SP - Tim Hudson
RP - Eric Gagne
RP - Jason Isringhausen
P - Amando Benitez
P - Chris Ray
P - Matt Morris/Joe Blaton

With my last 5 picks I could have taken guys as backups... Jose Vidro, Mark Loretta, Robinson Cano, Mike Sweeney, Mike Piazza, JD Drew, Tom Glavine, and Rocco Baldelli are some of the name guys who went in those later rounds.

I decided to take a different approach - I wanted to draft my minor league guys during my major league draft (guys who could be top 30 players in the next few years).

So I decided I HAD to take the #1 prospect in baseball...
Delmon Young

Between that pick and my next pick, Liriano and Hermidia went off the board.

With my last 4 picks I drafted:
Ryan Zimmerman
Justin Verlander
Brian McCann
Stephen Drew

I intended to put those four and Delmon Young on my minor league roster and watch their progress this year. Zimmerman, Young, McCann, and Verlander could all be "called up" if an injury took place to one of my guys (plus I can go to the waiver wire and pick up guys if I put these guys on my minor league roster).

I ended up sticking around for the minor league draft, just out of curiousity to see who I could pick up who wasn't available on yahoo. Well that decision really complicated things for me.

It was obvious guys in this part of the draft had no idea of who they were taking. Chad Billingsly, Corey Hart, Glen Perkins, Justin Upton, and Andy Marte went before my pick, but I was able to draft:

Brandon Wood
Alex Gordon
Ian Kinsler
Craig Hansen
Joel Guzman

Now I'm kind of stuck. Brandon Wood, Delmon Young, Stephen Drew, & Alex Gordon are all guys I could see being keepers down the line. I'm assuming that come the end of the year the only players out of the 10 I ended up drafting for my minor league spots that will still be eligible for the minor league roster are Brandon Wood, Joel Guzman, and possibly Alex Gordon and Steph Drew (those would probably be the 4 guys I'd keep on my minor league roster).

That leaves me in a dilema. Looking at my top 6 draft choices from the major league draft, I'll for sure keep the top 4 of them (barring trades):

Guerrero
Bay
Beltran
V. Martinez
Scott Rolen
Dontrelle Willis
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That leaves guys like Gagne, Delmon Young and the rest of my roster unprotected. During the course of the year should I try to trade two marginal guys for a sure fire keeper or just let my guys fall into the draft?

Also what should I do now with the team I have? I need some type of bench.

Do I keep

Delmon Young, Ryan Zimmerman, Justin Verlander, and bring up Ian Kinsler as my bench players or should I drop a guy like Joel Guzman and Craig Hansen and move two of those "bench" guys down to the minors and pick up available people such as:

Alex Rios
Chris Shelton
David Delluci
Tony Clark
Orlando Cabrera
Omar Vizquel
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Josh Towers
Tim Wakefield
Jeff Suppan
David Wells
Brad Penny
Jeff Francis
Daniel Cabrera

Just looking for some suggestions. Never have dealt with a keeper league before, and hindsight right now on how I drafted is 20-20.

Yep, I took about an hour to type all of this up, but I'm bored waiting for a few episodes of entourage to finish downloading so I can watch them.

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks...

[Tommy]

That is a pretty solid lineup Fondy. Who knows with a keeper league though. I never been in one before. You made a solid choice I think in Victor Martinez.

Overall I think your team can compete if everyone stays healthy. This year looks promising but I dunno about next year and so on. This year you look like you will definitely compete. BOL with it!

We are trying to get a league together here. I hope it works out and we have the league for years to come.