Case study: Mistakes of a rookie

By Jim

I think one of the best ways to learn is by sharing real life experiences. And since this site is about focusing on the under-served keeper league, I figure the best way to open up discussion is to share my personal experiences thus far.

To give some background, I inherited a team this year in an established league along with another owner. To make things fair, the other owner and I drafted rosters from the two derelict teams we were taking over and then had to narrow our roster to 14 keepers (the league standard).Looking at the rosters I felt I could draft a somewhat competitive team and still have some sort of a foundation for the future. Heading into this season I thought my roster looked competitive given that I was able to draft Jimmy Rollins, Brandon Webb, Manny Ramirez, Carlos Delgado and Victor Martinez to name a few players.

Then the season started.

With Webb going down in the first week and Delgado, Ramirez, Rick Ankiel and Xavier Nady among the guys occupying my bench slots – I found myself extremely limited in the lineups I could use. At one point every one of my bench spots was occupied by a guy who couldn’t take the field – and this league has 6 bench spots plus 2 DL slots!

Looking for healthy players, I dropped Delgado (who I probably wasn’t going to keep next year anyway given his age) and Ian Snell to add Casey Blake and Mike Jacobs – both who could fill my desperate need for corner infielders.

My bad luck this season then struck again of course as both Blake and Jacobs go cold. Still looking to be competitive, the biggest mistake I have made this season then occurs – the Pirates trade Nate McLouth.

The crown jewel of my 5-player minor league roster is Andrew McCutchen and with a spot cleared for him in Pittsburgh, I decided to add him to my active roster. Now, many owners all over the place have added McCutchen but what I did was drop Jacobs to bring up another OF. I need another OF like I need another hole in my head and Jacobs was immediately scooped up despite his still slumping ways.

Given the chance to do it over again I would have left McCutchen on my minor roster until the end of the season. I would have had to call him up to keep him but at that point I would have had a better idea of who was keeper worthy on my roster and given that I am last in my league – it serves no purpose to have McCutchen on my active roster right away.

So what is to be learned from this? Patience is the most important part of managing a team in a keeper league – wait to call players up and wait to cut players loose.