This is the time of year to be making final decisions on your keepers for the 2008 fantasy baseball season. I am here to help as often as I can. Ivar had this question about keepers:

In my keeper league, we can keep 5 players, the only limitation being that a team can only keep 1 SP and 1 RP (so 2 pitchers maximum), but there is no requirement to keep any pitchers. League has 10 teams, 6×6 roto, with OPS and Holds as the additional categories. We play on ESPN with daily roster moves allowed.
My roster currently consists of the following:

• Carlos Beltran (OF NYM)
• Brandon Webb (SP ARI)
• Brian Roberts (2B BAL)
• Alex Rodriguez (3B NYY)
• Cole Hamels (SP PHI)
• Russell Martin (C LAD)
• Hunter Pence (OF HOU)
• Lance Berkman (1B, OF HOU)
• Josh Fogg (SP COL)
• Cla Meredith (RP SD)
• Doug Brocail (RP HOU)
• Carlos Guillen (1B, SS CHW)
• Delmon Young (OF MIN)
• Tim Lincecum (SP SF)
• Chone Figgins (3B LAA)
• Freddy Sanchez (2B PIT)
• John Smoltz (SP ATL)
• Scot Shields (RP LAA)
• Tom Gorzelanny (SP PIT)
• James Shields (SP TB)
• Vernon Wells (OF TOR)
• Garrett Anderson (OF LAA)
• Alex Gordon (3B, 1B KC)
• Ryan Freel (OF CIN)
• Jair Jurrjens (SP ATL)
• Josh Hamilton (OF TEX)

I am thinking of setting ARod, Beltran, Berkman, Pence and Webb as my keepers. Do you have any alternate suggestions?
Thanks.

The first thing that I have to say is: Nice Team! Please tell me that you won the league with that pitching staff. I agree that you should keep Alex Rodriguez (DUH), Carlos Beltran, Lance Berkman, and Brandon Webb. I am not so sure that you should keep Hunter Pence though. Keeping two players from one team can be a risky choice. I would rather keep Cole Hamels, but you can only keep one starting pitcher. Besides, you have the best National League pitcher already on your roster. According to 2008 average draft position, and if you use the position scarcity theory, you should definitely keep Russell Martin. However, I always go with the rule that catchers and closers should not be kept.

With the offseason moves, I would keep Delmon Young over Hunter Pence. I think the move to Minnesota is going to help Young develop at a quicker rate. I would also make the argument that he will be a superstar within the next three years, and you should keep that all to yourself. I personally think that Young’s and Pence’s production for 2008 will be about the same. I base this off the idea that Pence will have a natural regression of his stats for his second year, much like Young did last year. I also like that Young is a few years younger, and he has had more playing time at the major league level. So here are my five picks for keepers

• Alex Rodriguez
• Carlos Beltran
• Lance Berkman
• Brandon Webb
• Delmon Young

Those are the five that I would keep, but I would not think you were wrong in keeping Hunter Pence.