Ask Nash: A 2013 Fantasy Baseball Keeper Question
Should you back away from Shin-Soo Choo or is he a 2013 fantasy baseball keeper? Image by Keith Allison.
"Nash,What would you do for keepers in a deeper league (13 teams), with 6×6 categories (Holds and OBP are the extra categories). I get 5 keepers, kept at our site’s predicted values for an auction draft.I am trying to pick 5 of Albert Pujols, Jose Reyes, Dustin Pedroia, Pablo Sandoval, Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick, Brian McCann, Nelson Cruz, Shin-Soo Choo or Shane Victorino.I guess I might consider keeping Tim Lincecum on buy low value, or Rafael Betancourt for some save foundation BUT with my hitters I just don’t see how I drop any for a pitcher.What do you think?Steven"
Hey Steven,
Thanks for the traffic and the email man. Glad to help.
One of the things that most of us agonize over are our keepers, and trust me, I am no different. Going straight with my gut without knowing who everyone else in your league is keeping (that might make a slight difference) I would say: Pujols, Pedroia, Reyes, McCann and Panda.
The nice thing about most of your options is that you don’t really need to wait through hot stove to know what you have. Luckily the Reyes trade went down early, not that he wasn’t a no brainer before, but now you can be really excited about his situation.
Looking at your glut of outfielders, I would be pretty confident in getting at least 2 of them back if you play your draft right. As much as I enjoyed have Cespedes on my squads last year, it is hard to trust that what he put out last year is what we will get this year (I think power and even steals will be there, but the average worries me).
Even still, none of those outfielders are worth chancing it at catcher, when you should get McCann at good value (since you are going at the reassessed dollar values). Even if he misses more than a month to start the season (shoulder) you can pick up a replacement pretty easily (perhaps Russell Martin or Wilson Ramos).
If this were a league where you were getting McCann at what you paid last year or losing a pick in a snake draft, then I would easily drop him and keep, in order: Cespedes, Victorino, Cruz, Reddick, Choo. I do not advise Lincecum or Betancourt as a keeper with the hitter options you have, however you might look around your league and if a guy is sitting on only 2 or 3 keepers and one would be even a slight upgrade to you, I’d make a play for him.
In my opinion if you are going to over pay for a player, the offseason is the time to do it.
You need to set yourself up for the best set of keepers possible, even if that means strengthening another team in the process. Just be sure that won’t come around to bite you in the rear.
I think that perhaps the best places to look for a trade upgrade would be:
Pujols into Joey Votto
Pedroia into Robinson Cano
Reyes into Hanley Ramirez (maybe)
Panda into Evan Longoria or David Wright (Miguel Cabrera would be a LONG shot)
If you could make one of these moves without giving up another one of the guys I mentioned, you have to do so.
Hope this helps man,
Nash