By Jim Higgins

As the keeper declaration deadline in my main keeper league league approaches, I find myself looking at my original list of keepers and asking myself if I’ve actually improved my team?

Obviously every owner would like the answer of that question to be yes, but as I’ve often found, an outside perspective is usually a more accurate one.

So, I’m going to take my advice and open the comments to you, the reader. Below are my keepers lists from two years ago and this year and all I want to know from you is, “Is my team any better?” Leave your answer in the comments below.

For your reference – each team must keep 14 MLB players and is allowed to keep up to 7 MiLB players. There are no contracts and we are a 5×5 standard roto scoring league, except OBP replaces runs.

2009
MLB
1. Victor Martinez
2. Carlos Delgado
3. Jose Lopez
4. Kevin Kouzmanoff
5. Jimmy Rollins
6. Manny Ramirez
7. Fred Lewis
8. Xavier Nady
9. Conor Jackson
10. Rick Ankiel
11. Pablo Sandoval
12. Kelly Shoppach
13. Brandon Webb
14. Matt Capps

MiLB
1. Andrew McCutchen
2. Matt Antonelli

2011
MLB
1. Buster Posey
2. Derrek Lee
3. Brandon Phillips
4. Ian Stewart
5. Ike Davis
6. Andrew McCutchen
7. Matt LaPorta
8. Dexter Fowler
9. Jose Tabata
10. Max Scherzer
11. Brian Matusz
12. Jonathan Sanchez
13. Joe Nathan
14. Mike Minor

MiLB
1. Yonder Alonso
2. James Darnell

By Jim

As many of you know, 2009 was my first foray into the world of keeper leagues. And while I entered the season with high hopes of competing for the championship, my title hopes flushed down the drain only a month into the season.

Between numerous injuries, a well-publicized 50-game suspension and multiple players failing to live up to expectations – the same ailments most of us suffer every year.I spent most of the second half of the season trying to pick up guys with future potential and hopefully I will be able to contend in the next year or two. I hope that with my core I can begin plugging holes as opposed to trying to build a roster but that is something only 2010 can answer.

I realize that is an optimistic view for a guy who finished 10 out of 11 teams, 50 points behind the winning squad but if you have no hope then there is no point playing right?

Hopefully now that Year 1 is in the books I have learned enough to turn things around in Year 2. But this much I can say for sure, I will make a better effort in cataloging my season so continue to come back here for more discussion on strategies for keeper leagues.

By Jim

I apologize for how long it has been since the previous post, it’s funny how long life can get in the way some times. So, to get back in a groove I decided to share another learning experience from “Year 1″ in my keeper league but before I talk about the move I need to give a little background.

In the single year league I play in, I found myself sitting in last place in mid-May. My pitching was horrible and weighing me down and I couldn’t find fair deals for a struggling Ryan Howard, David Ortiz or a hot Kevin Youkilis. Searching the waiver wire to fix my staff, I decided to take flyers on Gil Meche (who had just been dropped by the lone Royals fan in the league) and Ricky Nolasco. Those two moves helped me climb out of the basement and while I didn’t win the league, I was able to double my point total and earn my way into my keeper league this year.Heading into this season Meche was the second starter I took in my keeper league and I thought that with Brandon Webb I had a good 1-2 punch in a league that has only 3 starting pitcher slots. I don’t need to tell you how that is going.

Back to Meche, I finally had enough last week. His WHIP has killed me all season and after his blowup, subsequent health questions and the fact that I wasn’t going to keep Meche next year anyway, I waived him. He was immediately snapped up by an owner desperate to make up some ground in the pitching categories. I guess I could have tried to work out a deal but this guy had expressed multiple times he was interested in other pitchers of mine.

The next day it became my turn to take a gamble when another owner dropped Adrian Beltre for Fernando Nieve. Now, Beltre doesn’t help me a lot this year as he is expected to be out 6-8 weeks after his surgery earlier this week but on a team desperate for hitters and setting up for 2010 it seems like this move is a no-brainer. Beltre may not come back at 100% even next year or he may not put up the numbers he did prior to this year but doesn’t that seem like a small gamble to take for a 3B with 25+ HR power?

Ok, so the situation with my team and league allow me to take a gamble on a guy like Beltre by stashing him away for next year since we have no contracts/costs associated with our keepers. If you were required to keep Beltre at a contract of $30+, then releasing him is a sensible move.

While I replaced Meche with Kevin Correia and dropped Fred Lewis (who I kept coming into the season) for Adrian Beltre, this series of moves really became dropping a borderline keeper in Meche for a 2010 bounce back candidate in Beltre. It may not be a move that puts me over the top but it does help me build for a better 2010.

By Jim

This post is going to be another example from “Year 1″ in the keeper league (I have a feeling there will be many of these this year).

One of the philosophies I have played the last couple of years is punting saves. In my expansion draft I ended up selecting Matt Capps but never selected another closer to pair him with. Knowing that I will not make any serious gains in the saves category, I decided it was time to see what I could get for Capps.I contacted a couple of owners in the league about Capps and also “placed” him on the trading block in our Yahoo! league. The owners I talked with were willing to part with some talent but most of the players were HUGE injury risks. Hoping to get a player to build for the future with, I was content to wait another couple of weeks to see if panic would up the offers any more.

Then I received an intriguing e-mail from an owner I had not contacted about Capps. Asking what I wanted for Capps, I gave the owner a list of four players from his roster that I found most appealing. Figuring I would have to do some more back-and-forth to come to a deal, I was completely caught off guard by what was offered. The owner offered me Nate McLouth (one of the guys I had singled out) for Capps and Pablo Sandoval.

At first I was hesitant to make this deal (and I know most of you will think I am crazy) but let me explain. I have a roster flush with outfielders and recently just completed a deal brining me Andre Ethier. Most of my infield talent has underperformed so far but I am not ready to give up on most of these players for the long run. Sandoval has been one of the few bright spots in my infield so it seemed that trading him would weaken an already troublesome spot on my roster.

I slept on the offer (which seems like it should be a no-brainer) and after a conversation with a trusted fantasy baseball source, I realized I was an idiot for not jumping on this as soon as it was sent. While in the short term this move doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense, over the long term this deal actually accomplished what I had set out to do – add an impact bat.

Granted I have added another player to an already crowded outfield, but in the long term McLouth is a potential 30-30 guy year in and year out that I can build around and now I have more flexibility in terms of players to trade. Building a fantasy baseball team can be a quick process but if you want to obtain long-term success, the building process takes a lot more work and usually takes more than a couple of months.

So as you set out to build your fantasy empire, just remember to look at things in a long-term perspective, not one year at a time.

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.