Choosing the right fantasy baseball keepers

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Unless you're in a league that allows you to keep whoever you want with impunity, selecting keepers can be agonizing. In auction leagues, you're allotting resources before the draft even happens; in snake draft leagues, you're sacrificing entire rounds to hold onto a player.

Auction Formats

In an auction format, you have a non-negotiable budget. Be careful not to overspend on keepers. While there is no guarantee big fish will get tossed back in the pond, if you've already compromised your roster you have no choice but to seek out bargains.

That lack of guarantees makes focusing primarily on keeping younger, cheaper players problematic as well. If no top stars are re-entering the draft, you're overspending on mediocrity as your young stars get progressively more expensive. These players were meant to complement a roster inexpensively. By failing to acquire top talent, they're going to waste.

Don't be afraid of overspending on top names. If you fall out of contention, these players still have value - and can fetch a king's ransom in rebuilding chips for the following season.

Snake Draft Formats

Snake draft keeper leagues have built-in restrictions to make sure top talent is available the following year. Keeping a player a round or two ahead of where they were selected the year before immediately eliminates anyone from the first round and makes it tricky to vacate an early round pick when you know for sure these players are available.

Ask yourself, and back it up using stats, if the players you're considering are more or less likely to return value compared to the players you expect to be available in the rounds you're losing.

Reserve earlier rounds for younger players who came into their own last season (Starling Marte), someone returning from injury who has a high ceiling (A.J. Pollock), or a player who was trending toward early rounds already (Mookie Betts). Don't waste the pick on aging players who may see draft stock drop even if they had a stellar season (Adam Jones).

If you're slated to have the first or second overall pick, it might be worth sacrificing your second-round pick (depending on who it is), as it will take a while to snake back.

Know Your Opponents' Rosters

This is imperative regardless of format. Educate yourself on what last season's draft looked like. In auctions, know which players are likely to be kept and which ones are headed back to the player pool. Monitor each team's cap situation, as well, so you know where you stand going into the season.

In snake drafts, you can pinpoint better who is absolutely available and who is expected. There is guesswork, because you can't fully predict who everyone will choose to keep, but you're better off if you make educated leaps based on the previous year.

Be Aware of Position Scarcity

If you have a crack middle infielder, especially a second baseman, or two it's a good idea to hold onto him. Outfielders and first basemen are easy to procure in the draft, but middle infielders dry up pretty quickly. That doesn't mean you should toss back elite production. Weigh value a little more in the direction of perpetually weak positions.

This is a greater concern in keeper leagues than in standard, because your opponents likely know how rare top production at these positions are. If you don't have one worth keeping, or the price is too great, you are going to have to hope one comes to you favorably on draft day.

Don't Overvalue Prospects

This is a horrible trap, and one I've fallen into. While it feels amazing to be ahead of the curve, trying to force chance is a surefire way of rostering too many players not ready for prime time.

You don't really know how good Lucas Giolito or any prospect is going to be. While playing for a rebuilding team, like in Giolito's case, can help a prospect's odds at playing time, it hurts upside. Stockpiling youth is an in-season strategy, but it's easy to overreach on prospects who have little MLB exposure.

Limit how many unproven players you hold onto and don't fall in love with your glut of prospects. Do not feel obligated to keep them just because you dealt Miguel Cabrera to acquire them. Look at Spring Training reports and see who is projected to play big league innings right off the bat.

Don't be shy about trading these chips if you do hold onto them, either. Teams that fall into the abyss will look to trade their top names in an effort to restock long term. For owners on the bubble of contention, trading futures can be the difference between contention and languishing in the middle of the pack.