2nd Year Keeper Help...

So-Tex   9/24/2013 7:23 PM

So, here's the story...

Joined a keeper league with mostly basketball types who do baseball, football and other stuff as well. They've been at this league for a while now (several years), so I basically came in and took over someone else's squad.

Now, I don't do baseball...don't watch it, don't follow it, nada. Been using Baseball Monster (thanks Buser for turning me on to this side of the Monster site - I'm already heavy into the basketball side ) for the season, and it's kept me pretty much in the thick of things, especially for someone who doesn't know beans about baseball (player-value-wise, I mean - I get the game and all, stats, positions, etc...I used to follow it when I was younger). Out of 11 pretty knowledgeable guys, I'm looking to finish around 5th or 6th place, with an outside chance at making it as high as 3rd - that's a reach at this point though, but was very realistic a few weeks ago.

Anyway, enough tooting my own rookie horn...I'd like some ideas as far as who to keep this next season coming up. Here are the league settings:

Roto, 13 teams, cats are OBP, SLG, Runs, Homeruns, Stolen Bases, RBIs, QS, Holds, Saves, Strikeouts, ERA, WHIP; Positions: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 3 OF, 1 UTIL, 2 SP, 2 RP, 3 P, 5 BN, 2 DL slots.

We keep 7, but they're tiered in years of 3 - so for example, I had Yu Darvish for this season, 1st year. I can keep him for two more years. Last little nuance (if I remember correctly) is that anyone I pick up on waivers this season, I can keep for 3 years (got a few of those). Anyone traded for would simply get reset and thrown back into the pool (I didn't make any trades this season, so I won't have issues there).

Here's my current roster:

13 Teams | 9 Hitters Per Team [6 Active = HR RBI SB R OBP SLG] | 7 Pitchers Per Team [6 Active = SV ERA WHIP SO HLD QS]

Round	Rank	Value	Name	Injury	Team	Pos	g	News	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	BA	HR	SB	OBP	SLG	HRV	RBIV	SBV	RV	OBPV	SLGV
2	21	0.45	Carpenter, Matt		STL	1B/2B/3B/OF	8		35	5	11	4	4	5	0.305	1	0	0.380	0.467	-0.68	0.00	-0.68	2.23	1.55	0.28
2	23	0.40	Freeman, Freddie		ATL	1B	8		29	4	9	4	3	6	0.295	1	0	0.376	0.468	0.17	0.78	-0.83	0.90	1.11	0.26
4	41	0.08	Molina, Yadier		STL	C	8		28	3	9	5	2	3	0.319	1	0	0.372	0.463	-0.81	0.97	-0.24	-0.48	0.92	0.14
7	80	-0.41	Fowler, Dexter		COL	OF	6		24	4	7	2	4	6	0.272	1	1	0.377	0.401	-1.29	-1.82	0.55	0.23	0.98	-1.13
7	84	-0.42	Hardy, J.J.		BAL	SS	7		25	3	7	4	2	3	0.265	1	0	0.312	0.454	0.56	-0.07	-0.86	-0.74	-1.37	-0.05
7	87	-0.45	Rosario, Wilin		COL	C	6		21	3	6	3	1	5	0.280	1	0	0.316	0.476	0.13	-0.19	-0.50	-1.44	-1.04	0.33
8	102	-0.55	Johnson, Chris		ATL	1B/3B	7		26	3	8	4	2	6	0.305	1	0	0.346	0.442	-1.12	-0.06	-0.76	-0.93	-0.12	-0.31
15	189	-1.11	Rollins, Jimmy		PHI	SS	7		29	4	7	2	2	4	0.248	1	1	0.306	0.358	-1.23	-1.61	0.79	-0.32	-1.89	-2.40
17	209	-1.26	Blackmon, Charlie		COL	OF	6		19	2	5	2	1	2	0.270	0	1	0.321	0.375	-1.86	-1.67	0.53	-2.46	-0.81	-1.30
18	234	-1.44	Sierra, Moises		TOR	OF	5		18	2	4	2	1	5	0.230	1	0	0.279	0.383	-0.67	-1.96	-0.71	-2.34	-1.88	-1.11
19	238	-1.47	Iannetta, Chris		LAA	C	3		10	2	2	1	2	3	0.232	0	0	0.359	0.386	-1.72	-2.89	-0.82	-2.96	0.16	-0.59
23	293	-1.69	Hernandez, Cesar		PHI	2B	6		27	3	7	2	1	5	0.255	0	1	0.296	0.342	-2.32	-2.36	0.60	-1.28	-2.15	-2.60
27	350	-1.85	Craig, Allen		STL	1B/OF	1		3	0	1	1	0	1	0.314	0	0	0.376	0.472	-2.43	-3.56	-0.89	-4.40	0.15	0.04
41	528	-2.03	Culberson, Charlie		COL	2B/OF	1		3	0	1	0	0	1	0.250	0	0	0.284	0.368	-2.54	-3.77	-0.78	-4.57	-0.29	-0.23
Round	Rank	Value	Name	Injury	Team	Pos	g	News	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	BA	HR	SB	OBP	SLG	HRV	RBIV	SBV	RV	OBPV	SLGV
		-11.69	Avg Stats/Total Values				80		298	39	83	35	25	56	0.277	8	5	0.340	0.422	-15.82	-18.21	-4.62	-18.55	-4.28	-8.66
		-8.03	Avg Stats/Total Values (active)				52		199	25	55	22	17	35	0.275	5	4	0.339	0.411	-11.67	-12.51	-2.16	-11.28	-3.03	-7.54

Round	Rank	Value	Name	Injury	Team	Pos	g	News	IP	H	RA	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	SV	WHIP	HLD	QS	SVV	ERAV	WHIPV	SOV	HLDV	QSV
1	2	0.82	Sale, Chris		CHW	SP	2		11.9	11	4	4	3	13	1	3.10	0	1.12	0	1	-0.59	1.00	1.82	1.96	-0.57	1.30
1	4	0.62	Darvish, Yu		TEX	SP	2		11.0	9	4	4	4	14	1	3.19	0	1.17	0	1	-0.59	0.58	0.69	2.48	-0.57	1.12
2	14	0.36	Uehara, Koji		BOS	RP	3		2.7	2	1	1	0	4	0	1.88	2	0.91	0	0	1.58	1.37	1.65	-0.89	-0.57	-0.99
11	140	-0.45	Shields, James		KC	SP	2		10.8	11	5	5	3	9	1	3.78	0	1.26	0	1	-0.59	-1.69	-1.54	0.85	-0.57	0.88
44	567	-0.81	Cashner, Andrew		SD	SP/RP	2		8.9	9	4	4	3	6	1	3.89	0	1.33	0	1	-0.59	-1.74	-2.70	0.02	-0.57	0.73
46	590	-0.83	Jimenez, Ubaldo		CLE	SP	2		9.6	9	4	4	4	9	1	3.88	0	1.38	0	1	-0.59	-1.83	-3.77	0.95	-0.57	0.84
Round	Rank	Value	Name	Injury	Team	Pos	g	News	IP	H	RA	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	SV	WHIP	HLD	QS	SVV	ERAV	WHIPV	SOV	HLDV	QSV
		-0.29	Avg Stats/Total Values				11		54.9	50	23	21	18	55	6	3.46	2	1.23	0	5	-1.39	-2.30	-3.87	5.36	-3.44	3.88
		-0.29	Avg Stats/Total Values (active)				11		54.9	50	23	21	18	55	6	3.46	2	1.23	0	5	-1.39	-2.30	-3.87	5.36	-3.44	3.88

I also had Jose Bautista on my team (currently on the DL), but he is the only one who I can't keep (he was in his 3rd year this season when I inherited him). I have one year left on Freeman and James Shields, two years left on Darvish, Sale, Craig, and maybe Rollins (I have to find out about him, because I actually dropped him during the season, and just picked him back up last week). Everyone else is eligible to be kept for the next three years.

I've got my own ideas about who I'd like to keep next season, and I know a lot can change between now and then. But I'd like to hear some of your impressions, ideas, and such. I know where my weakness are, or were during the season (I'm now understanding that "relief pitcher" and "closer" are NOT necessarily one in the same ), and I hope to address them next year to balance my team out and make it more competitive. I'm just glad I didn't finish dead last this season, as I used it more for the learning curve than anything else. But hopefully I can do better next year using what I have as a base to start off with.

I appreciate all the help I can get. And I think I've got everything covered here...but if not, let me know and I'll clarify.

Thoughts anyone?

mbuser   9/24/2013 11:15 PM

Darvish, Sale, Craig, Freeman, Carpenter, Yadier, Rosario. Maybe Uehara over one of the catchers?

unbigote  9/29/2013 11:54 PM

Agree with all Buser's picks aside from Uehara. Its likely you could trade one of the catchers and get a return value higher than Uehara. I know he had a great season, but he is old (in baseball years), I also know its risky to draft/keep players with trading in mind, but those are two valuable backstops, someone is bound to be short a catcher.

mbuser   9/30/2013 11:49 AM

Yep, that was certainly only a maybe with him not being keen on keeping both. Agreed that those two in particular will have trade value.

So-Tex   10/2/2013 1:25 AM

That's good advice...thank's to you both.

I do like Uehara, and the age doesn't bother me...espeically since NOW I get the idea of owning "closers" for saves...I keep regressing to the baseball I remember as a kid in the 70's...when pitchers throwing complete games was more common place than now...and relievers came in and actually FINISHED a game, as opposed to handing it off to another pitcher. Wow, was THAT a wake up call...

Any idea for possible trade targets? I'd have to double check (Buser might know since he's actually familiar with the league), but I might also be able to trade for draft picks.