Who Would You Keep?
Aug 11th, 2007 by winabango
I figured since I was talking about keepers for next year, I thought that I would post one of my teams. Here is your chance to give input on one of my teams. I am in a 12-team roto league in which we keep 5 players for next year. Scoring is standard 5×5 with NFBC style roster. Here is my Current lineup and how I acquired them:
C - Jason Varitek (drafted)
C - Yorvit Torrealba (waiver wire)
1B - Juston Morneau (trade)
2B - Brandon Phillips (drafted)
3B - Josh Fields (waiver wire)
SS - Orlando Cabrera (drafted)
CI - Jason Giambi (drafted)
MI - Robinson Cano (drafted)
OF - Matt Holliday (trade)
OF - Jeff Franceur (trade)
OF - Gary Sheffield (drafted)
OF - Kelly Johnson (drafted)
OF - Ty Wigginton (drafted)
UTIL - Ross Gload (waiver wire)
Bench - Dave Roberts (waiver wire)
Bench Adam Jones (trade)
DL - Shane Victorino (drafted)
SP - Cole Hamels (drafted)
SP - Rich Hill (drafted)
SP - Ian Snell (trade)
SP - Chien-Ming Wang (trade)
SP - Joe Saunders (waiver wire)
SP - Adam Wainwright (waiver wire)
SP - Nate Robertson (waiver wire)
RP - Pat Neshek (drafted)
RP - Manny Corpas (waiver wire)
RP - Tim Byrdak (waiver wire)
RP - Rafeal Perez (waiver wire)
RP - Michael Wuertz (waiver wire)
Which 5 players would you keep and why?
I’ll look at it in two buckets, the no-brainers & the maybes:
No Brainers:
Morneau - One of the top 1B in the majors…consistently good.
Holliday - Hits for power, hits for average, steals some bases, plays in Colorado…
Maybes:
Sheffield - Dude, he’s almost 40. He continues to produce, and he’s even stealing bases this year, but how much longer can he produce?
Phillips - He’s been awesome this year at 2B / MI, and he’s still young…so he might get better. You just can’t find a 20-20 (or 30-30) middle infielder, so it’d be hard to let him go.
Cano - He’s really turned it on in the second half, he’s young, and he plays for a great offense.
Francoeur - He’s proving to be a very good big league hitter, and I think he’s got annual 30+ HR ability to go along with his vastly improved average. I just wish he stole some bases, but he’s young & plays for a good team.
Victorino - I see him going for 15 HR / 30 SB next year, but it’d be a tough call between him & Francoeur.
Hamels - He’s going to get you a ton of K’s, and he has been bulletproof when it comes to injuries this year (some experts had concerns injuries given his history). It’s not bad to have an anchor to your starting rotation (which he would provide), but SP are easier to come by the position players, especially non-OF.
So, if I were picking, my choices (today) would be:
Morneau
Holliday
Phillips
Sheffield
Hamels
It would be tough to let Cano go, but Phillips will anchor you at 2B. Even though Sheffield is getting up there in the years, I still think he’ll out-produce both Francoeur & Victorino overall next season. Ask me again in a month & I might swap Sheff with one of those three…
Overall, you have a very solid group of keepers, and I don’t think you’ll go wrong holding onto any of those guys.
You have some really good players there, Ill get back to you I have to think about this with only keeping 5…
Hmm…Morneau, Phillips, Cano, Holliday, Francouer, Sheffield, Victorino, Hamels, Hill, Snell, Wang are the names that caught my eye…
From this group, Morneau, Holliday, Hamels are the locks. In your league, 60 players are kept and these are all sure fire top 50 imo. I’d also put Sheffield in this group, but I do worry about his age/health a bit. I’d throw back the rest of the SPs and for the last spot look at Phillips, Cano, and Victorino. Cano looks all the way back and I can really see him hitting near the top of the order next year, but Phillips’s speed really sets him apart imo. Victo is great for speed too, but his all out playing style may lead to more injuries as well as you already keeping 2 elite OFs…
I’d go with Morneau, Sheffield, Phillips, Hamels and Holliday.
I’m committed to picking up Joba the Hut off waivers in my deep 20 teamers w/holds and k/9…the question is who should I drop? A. Huff or Casilla (2b twins).
We play w/2b/3b/and MI spots…right now I have Vidro/Weeks/Upton manning those spots…runs, 1b, 2b, 3b, hr, rbi, steals, k, bb, avg
leaning towards dumping huff, but what do you think??
No brainers: Morneau, Holliday, Hamels, Cano (don’t you dare drop a guy who will hit .320/30 hitting 3rd, yes 3rd, in the Yanks lineup for the next decade = 100RBI/100Run LOCK).
Because you’re keeping Cano, Phillips value to you decreases slightly. Then again, who says you can’t trade him. You have no business keeping Sheffield so I would go ahead with Phillip’s 20/20 contribution then maybe deal him out.
Morneau, Holliday, Hammels. Ask me in June if I say Cano, and I no, give me keep Phillips. Now, I would say Cano, and look to get value for Phillips in a package of Phillips with Jones or Fields…maybe a guy who got lucky in getting two great releviers this year…and needs infield help. I got auto-dealt Sheffield this year and kept him, but with each draft, I say let somebody else take that risk. I guess your other considerations are weighed by who you gave up in the trades…Josh Fields out of the box next year with Crede being moved? Jones opening day starter?