Friday October 12th, 2012
Peter Stein: Now that the 2012 season is over, it is time to start thinking about the 2013. For many owners, that includes deciding on keepers, although keeper systems vary from league to league. In some leagues, keepers can be held onto for an indefinite period of time, while others build upon the previous year’s draft value. Regardless of your league’s keeper setting, this piece identifies the top keeper player at each position. I chose a time period of five years; therefore, the player at each position should produce the most total fantasy value over the course of the next five years. That is, of course, assuming another Mike Trout doesn’t jump onto the scene.
Here is the first installment of the 2013 fantasy keeper focus:
First Base:
Winner: Joey Votto
Honorable Mention: Paul Goldschmidt
First base is actually the most tenuous and hardest to predict position on this list. Can we really expect Albert Pujols to be super-productive for another five years? He will be 33 next season and his struggles at the beginning of the year are certainly not encouraging. Then again, a .285/30/105/8 season is considered a major down year from him. And, we all know how much better he was after the brutal start. Edwin Encarnacion (.280/42/110/13) emerged into the mix and excluding Miguel Cabrera was the top option at first base. However, he is 29 years old and has just a career .815 OPS in eight seasons. Clearly he has made strides, but he is very tough to predict moving forward. (more…)
When the 22-year-old Morneau first broke the big leagues with Twins in 2003, he struggled miserably. Year by year after 2003, Morneau improved, leading him to the 2006 AL MVP award. The Twins, led by manager Ron Gardenhire, were slowly building an A.L Central dynasty. From 2003-2009, the Minnesota Twins won an average of eighty-eight games.
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