11 Team Roto Keeper League (mixed)

Any of my twitter followers probably remember that for a few weeks I was trying to fill up a 16 team keeper league, the idea being that I wanted to play in a long term keeper league (the easiest way of doing that would be to start my own). I was not able to get 16 (14 people said they would join, only 11 actually did), but none the less this auction happened the first Sunday after games started. The categories are standard 5×5 excepting net steals replacing total steals and obp replacing avg. This is my final draft/auction writeup of the season, and either today or tomorrow my week 1 summary should drop. FAAB is $100 for the season. We did require one LF, CF, RF and then 2 OF of any position, so that had a small effect on the strategy of building an outfield.

Catcher: Geovany Soto ($9), Kurt Suzuki ($1)

I have been harping about the depth of the catcher position, but sometimes I feel like grabbing someone other than John Buck (who I actually did grab for $5 in FAAB to replace Suzuki) and having someone more reliable, and Soto provides top notch obp, as one of the only Cubs with plate discipline. 5 catchers went for $13 or more, so it’s not like I didn’t get some value here (Mauer topping out at $22, both Posey [$17] and Santana [$16] went for more than McCann[$15] which I thought was odd). If Matt Wieters ever puts it together, he will be a fantastic value as a $1 catcher. There weren’t any amazingly bad picks here.

First Base:  Carlos Pena ($7), Ike Davis ($4), Derrek Lee ($5)

Carlos Pena is someone I really like here, because the obp categorie almost ensures he is a great value, assuming he plays even just well enough to not lose his job. Not to mention people went crazy buying 1B’s (Votto $42, Pujols $45, Gonzalez $31, Fielder $26) and even Adam Laroche went for $11. I had a lot of money to play around with based on my decision to wait on a first baseman. I really liked the Cabrera buy for $29, he is clearly more than $3 above Fielder, and there’s no way he’s $13 or $16 less valuable than Votto and Pujols respectively. Ike Davis slots as my middle infielder, and I’m fine with that.  I grabbed Lee with the intention of slotting him in my UTIL, but I moved my 6th OF there right after the draft. I do have a little Depth at 1B now though.

Second Base: Aaron Hill ($13)

I bought Aaron Hill for a decent price, and I feel like he’s going to get that avg (and by extension obp) up, but at the moment he’s killing me. I still believe he’s going to be fine, and he’s going to provide some nice power numbers when all is said and done. Canoe went for $40, which seems insane considering that no other 2B went for more than $20. I like Uggla at $20 and hate Kinsler there (when all is done Kinsler will probably play 100 games and end up around 15 home runs or so). Kelly Johnson at $12 is another nice buy for this position.

Third Base: Pablo Sandoval ($11)

I hate Pablo Sandoval. I realized I had made it far too late in the auction without a 3B, and got stuck with someone I think is honestly a below average hitter. I hope I am wrong for the sake of my team, but he sucks. Casey McGehee went for $11 as well, and I would much rather have him. Longoria $39, Zimmerman $29, and Wright $30 were all people I was in on but didn’t stay in. Bautista going for $24 seemed high, but if the power stays for the most part this will be a nice buy. I like Ramirez at $15, and considered going a little higher on him as well, even if his effort cost the Cubs a double play in the 1st yesterday that would have completely changed the complexion of their eventual loss.

Shortstop: Stephen Drew ($11)

The injury not withstanding, I thought Drew would provide some nice pop and average speed, particularly with one team appearing to crush on power (He has Pujols, Hanley, Tulo, Uggla, Bautista, Teixeira, and Howard, though his pitching is fairly suspect and he appears to be punting saves) so I found myself trying to play catch up, and I don’t see a lot of people who have more power upside than Drew from this position. Hanley and Tulo went for $38 and $32, which is a crazy amount to spend on short stops, but I suspect the owner will try to move one of them before too long to try and land a 3rd starter better than Josh Beckett.

Outfield: Ryan Braun ($38, LF), Andrew McCutchen ($21, CF), Nelson Cruz ($26, RF), Michael Bourn ($14), Raji Davis ($9), Raul Ibanez ($1)

I spent a lot of money on my outfield (More on the top two than I spent on every infielder on my roster), and I like the production I look to get here, though people like Bourn also were partially to blame for my looking specifically to power later. I might have overpaid on Braun, but I would do it again. He’s a tool, but he’s a great player. Crawford went for $40, and I would rather have Braun. BJ Upton at $14 is a nice buy, as is Jay Bruce at $16 (I was in on Bruce for a second). Cargo for $34 is fine if we assume last year is closer to the baseline than the ceiling, though I don’t necessarily believe that.

Starting Pitchers: Dan Haren ($17), Matt Cain ($15), Matt Garza ($11), Max Scherzer ($10), Ryan Dempster ($6), Randy Wells ($1), Tom Gorzelanny ($1)

I think my pitching is fine, and Haren and Cain are nice 1/2 combo. Garza is looking bad, and honestly his 12 k’s during the draft led me to overpay for him (I was watching the Cubs at the time). Dempster is a nice boost to K’s for the price, and I like Wells this year (DL stint not withstanding) and Gorzelanny figures to keep my k’s up in the event of needing to be put in because of an injury. Haren at $17 looks nice when we consider some of the other prices pitching went for: Lee $26, Halladay $37, Jiminez $17 (I don’t think Ubaldo is close to being Haren’s equal), Hernandez $32, Lincecum $35, and Lester $23. I feel like I got good value for my money spent here.

Relief Pitchers: Carlos Marmol ($13), Chris Perez ($8), J.J. Putz ($6), Joel Hanrahan ($1)

My original plan was to grab two closers and an elite setup man, but people weren’t biting on closers late, so I ended up with 4 of them. People by and large weren’t paying anything for saves, and two teams punted completely with a 3rd having only one closer and a 4th who drafted Rodney and League, but Rodney has already lost his job and League will when Aardsma returns in all likelyhood. Which means competing for saves for the other teams guarantees at minimum 5 points, at least until some waver magic or trades can be pulled off. I am giving strong consideration to trying to move Putz in a deal to one of the teams who isn’t completely punting saves to try and improve my offense slightly. I wish I had known how cheap saves would be going in… but given that this is a long term league, I will try to remember that for next year.

Here are the rosters as presently constructed.

http://games.espn.go.com/flb/leaguerosters?leagueId=176304

I like my chances of winning this league, I should be top tier in saves and k’s when all is said and done, and figure to compete in all of the offensive categories, I would like to upgrade here or there, but we shall see what savvy trades and waver wire work can do to help in that goal. Look for the week one article in the next day or two, maybe along with a general reaction to the first week of action with a fantasy slant but not relating specifically to any of my leagues.

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