Jeff Keppinger – 1 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper That’s Paying Off

Jeff Keppinger (shown left in this Upper Deck 2008 Series One baseball card) was supposed to be a short term band aide to prop up my middle infield. The injury to Alex Gonzalez opened the door for Keppinger to start the season as the Cincinnati Red’s starting short stop. In 2 leagues I drafted him as a bridge to Akinori Iwamura being able to qualify at middle infield.

He doesn’t offer a lot of home runs or stolen bases but he hit better than .330 at 4 minor league stints of 127 ABs or more and .332 in over 200 ABs last year in the big leagues. My thinking was that he was a filler that wouldn’t hurt. It turns our Gonzalez is out for another month and Keppinger has been playing great out of the 2 hole - .329 BA. I could see him going wire to wire for my fantasy baseball teams and challenge for a batting title with around 100 runs – my band aide looks like the solution. Just goes to show that some fantasy baseball sleepers pay off, just impossible to tell which ones.

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Fantasy Baseball Auction Draft Results

Here are the results for my fantasy baseball keeper league draft. It’s a 5x5, 10 team head to head fantasy baseball league with a $312 salary cap and 5 keepers. We enforce a cap on undrafted players throughout the season and increase the cap by $20 to $332 once the draft is over. This is our league’s 11^th year with the same group of owners and I’m the defending champion which is my 2^nd in that time.

A key tool that I used this year was Heater Magazine’s latest spring training issue. They’ve been publishing baseball statistics for every player twice a week and it was a great reference guide to use during my draft.

Keepers

$1 Ryan Braun, 3B – at $1 one of the best keepers in the history of the league

$9 BJ Upton, 2B – I expect his batting average to drop but the 30/30 potential at second is awesome

$11 Alex Rios, OF – I firmly believe Rios is over-hyped but $11 for a 5 category outfielder is great

$6 Russell Martin, C – arguably the best catcher in fantasy baseball, I had to trade to get him – Cole Hamels at $12 and Hunter Pence at $1, steep price but I think it was worth it

$1 Tim Lincecum, P – he may transcend to being a top 10 pitcher this year, is sure to be top 5 in Ks

The Draft

$52 Alex Rodriguez, 3B – (seen above in rookie baseball card) threw out a price enforcement bid and heard crickets, so I got “stuck”, Wright went for $57 and Miguel Cabrera $59 – didn’t really want him darn right I love Arod at a discount

$38 Jimmy Rollins, SS – 3^rd year in a row and carried me to a championship last year, ultimately 5 players went for $50+ with another dozen $40+, $38 for Jroll is an extreme discount

$39 Albert Pujols, 1B – an injury risk for sure but I think it’s over played, I’ll take a chance on the best hitter at a bargain

$45 Carl Crawford, OF – love Crawford, 50+ SB lock, 300+ BA, emerging power, could be an MVP

$56 Matt Holiday, OF – this hurt but given the cost of elite players I had to stay in, makes up for the Jroll and Pujols discounts

$24 Chris Young, OF – since I blew a ton of cash early it took about 2 hours to make this pick, people are scared off by the batting average but I think he can get it up to 250-260, on top of that he’s 30/30 with a shot at 35+ HRs

$1 Gil Meche, SP – didn’t really want him but nice veteran pitcher on an improving team and the price was right

$14 Matt Kemp, OF – has 300+ BA potential to make up for Young and could go 25/25, he fills in at utility

$1 Andy Sonnanstine, SP – I love this guy, beat the Yankees last night, K rate isn’t great but nice control artist in the Slowey mold

$1 Zack Greinke, SP – really came around in the rotation last year and improved every start this spring, didn’t have him in the lineup this week but he beat the Tigers on the road, could be a real stud

$1 Kevin Slowey, SP – he’s going to have a great year, he really knows how to pitch and he gets more Ks than people realize, I could see mid-3 ERA, sub-1.2 WHIP, 150-170 Ks and 15 wins

$1 Shaun Marcum, SP – late bloomer was solid in the rotation last year, nice K rate, really like him to take a big step forward

$1 Eric Gagne, RP – love cheap $1 closers and don’t really care about the names if they have the job

$3 BJ Ryan, RP – looks like he’ll come back by late April and could be a top 10 closer again

$1 Brian Wilson, RP – mark my words – 40 saves – that’s right, San Fran has to win rough 70 games and every one is sure to be close, if he can keep the job 40 is a lock, I’m the only one on earth that thinks this but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong

$1 Troy Percival, RP – the price is right, apparently has a little tread left on the tires

$1 Jeff Keppinger, SS – this got some laughs but if he can keep the job he could hit 330+ and go 10/10 with a ton of runs out of the 2 hole

$1 Akinori Iwamura, 3B – the idea is to slide him to MI in place of Keppinger once he qualifies at 2B, after one week I’m not so sure and already dropped him for Edinson Volquez

$1 Manny Parra, SP – love him but already dropped to get Johnny Cueto, the move has already paid off huge

$1 Wandy Rodriguez, SP – could be great if I can remember to only start him at home, great K rate – could be top 10 in Ks this year