Today there are many ways to play fantasy baseball. Vanilla fantasy leagues, AL only, NL only, stat changes, so on so forth but the most popular variant outside of just plain old vanilla leagues is the keeper league. Keeper leagues are fantasy leagues that allow you to keep a predetermined amount of players on your team for the next year. Some leagues have limits on how long a team can keep a player but more on that later. For now, this writer will discuss some of the basics and strategies of a keeper league.
Learn the League rules:
In a keeper league, it is FAR more important to understand the rules than in regular leagues since this dictates whom and how many players you can keep. Almost every important decision the team manager makes during and after the season will be dictated by the rules of the league. Before joining anyone’s keeper league, it’s very important for the team manager to make sure he/she is comfortable with the rules that the league since a keeper league is a long-term commitment and should be taken seriously.
The Draft:
The draft can be complicated, this section changes depending on what year of the league the manager is in. If it’s the leagues first year than there’s not much that changes and the managers draft proceeds basically as normal. There are some variants but in the end it’s a basic draft with some added value into players that have better keeper value. (For draft basic strategies go ahead and read the article here)
The gets different for leagues that have progressed passed the first season. The price of keeping the players your are keeping normally comes at the expense of a draft pick and this can while this isn’t a staple the average league has it you loose the pick you drafted the player your keeping. For example, if a manager choose to keep Mike Trout with the number 1 pick in the draft the next draft you loose the first round pick the next season. The value of players also changes since the older players loose value to the younger up and coming players. The real change happens near the end--funny enough since this is where rookies and prospects get drafted.
Value your guys:
One of the hardest choices for any team is which player to keep. There are a few ways to make the choice but we’ll start off with the obvious. In general batting trumps pitching. It’s almost always better to keep the batters over your pitchers. While some leagues make managers balance this out, check your league rules. Try to keep your better hitters over pitchers since pitching is actually quite plentiful. Consider position sacristy but don’t live by it: A deadly trap manager’s fall into is thinking they need to keep players that have a shallower pool than others. This isn’t a terrible strategy if you have the right players but in the end you want to keep your best players no matter their position. Don’t be afraid to throw back Ian Kinsler if it means you can keep Yasiel Puig.
Production over age: Commonly held logic is that the younger the player the more valuable he is as a keeper. While this is true in most cases that doesn’t mean it always applies. It’s a smart move for a manager to look at a player and ask “How many more years of production does this player have before he drops off?” The answer to that question will help in tough choices. For example, if you have Adrian Beltre and Bryce Harper but can only keep one, whom do you choose? Logic dictates you take Harper since he’s younger and has more years of productive play ahead of him. In this writer's opinion, keep Beltre since he possibly has 2 more years of top tier production left in him and those 2 years are going to be better than 2 years of Harper.
The Prospect watch: Keeping players you think could be a big name next year is a smart idea if you’re not in the running for the next season. This is a strategy that will be talked about in a bit.
Are they worth the pick: If a player has come off a bad year a manager could actually use that to their advantage. This is a trick that is used in the upper rounds of the draft since that’s the picks that everyone wants. By throwing back players that have fallen in the rankings, they can be drafted back at a later round than they were originally drafted saving a pick. Now of course any manager could grab him but that’s a risk that could pay off big for you.
Prospect watch continued...
Prospects play an interesting role in a keeper league since they could be super valuable. In a draft where a prospect gets drafted depends on the prospects. For example someone like Mookie Betts will go higher in a draft since Betts has a clear path to the majors and will see regular time in the majors as opposed to someone like Bryon Buxton even though Buxton is the far superior prospect in talent and name. Buxton will likely draw more attention but isn’t likely to be drafted before top tier prospects that have a position or just above average ones that have clear playing time.
If a player is drafted that doesn’t have clear playing time yet then he’s going to clog the bench spot till he finds playing time. This is one of the dangers of drafting prospects since you get sucked in on the talent but if they’re not playing well or don’t play at all a decision needs to be made to either let them stay on the team or drop them. A team’s position in the standings will likely dictate that more than a manager’s plans.
Trades are good:
Trades have some added value in a keeper league since it can add to the player pool that a manager can keep. A very common strategy for teams out of the running is to start rebuilding the team for next year or future years. Every fantasy team has the same goal every year and that’s to win and every team has the “win now” mentality. Unlike regular baseball this is a good thing and should be the goal until a team is statistically eliminated from the league. I mention this here since once a team is eliminated they can use that mental state to give themselves an edge next year.
Say the first place team is in desperate need of a good strikeout pitcher and has many good power hitters. A team in tenth place has Cole Hamels and a need for some better hitting next year. The tenth place team offers the first place team Cole Hamels for Mookie Betts, Miguel Sano and a throw away guy. Normally this trade would be a terrible trade for the tenth place team since they are losing the best player in the deal by a wide margin but the idea of the trade was to get ride of a player they weren’t going to keep and gained two that they will in Sano and Betts. The team in first gets what they want and the tenth place team got what they wanted so both sides win.
