So here’s how the keepers work in RAMROD. You are allowed to keep 1 player from each of 5 tiers based on last year’s draft, for one season after they were drafted. At any time, you can substitute a player in lower tier for a higher one. For the upcoming season, my keepers are lined up as such:
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A Tier (round 1-3 from 2007 draft) – A-Rod. The obvious choice.
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B Tier (4-7) Ichiro. He wins out over Konerko, Michael Young, Sheffield, Joe Nathan.
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C Tier (8-12). Here’s where it starts getting a little tougher. I have to choose between two of last year’s breakout SP’s, Dan Haren and Erik Bedard. Untill he got hurt towards the end of last season, I would have said Bedard for sure, due to the high K potential, but the injury risk does concern me a little bit. With Haren’s trade to the NL, his value certainly rises, but then again, Bedard may be joining him in quadruple A. As of now, I’m still leaning toward Bedard, but that may change. I think there is a chance last year was as good as it gets from Bedard, which is amazing, but I think Haren still may be rising. He could take another big step this year.
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D Tier (13-18). The options are two NY Yankee hurlers, Chien Ming Wang and phenom Joba Chamberlain (eligible as an E). Now this decision becomes real easy if Joba stays in the bullpen. If he ain’t getting saves, I ain’t wasting a keeper on him this year. But if he does join the rotation as expected, then you have a tough call. Wang is valuable because of his ability to get wins and post a respectible ERA and WHIP. Being that they play on the same team, I think they should win about the same ammount of games. Throw in that Joba has 200 K potential, and I think you may have to give the edge to the kid.
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E Tier (19-25 plus undrafteds). Chris B. Young. A 30-30 guy is hard to come by. His terrible average from 2007 should go up, in turn raising his other counting stats (HR, RBI, R, SB’s) as he should be on base more. I expect big things.
So basically, my two big decisions are what to do with my C and D keepers. I’d love to hear what everyone thinks/
[...] 3 01 2008 So as I mentioned in my original post about keepers, I have to decide for my C Tier between Dan Haren and Erik Bedard, and between Wang and Joba for my [...]