Friday, December 10, 2010

Finding Keepers: Florida Marlins

The Florida Marlins are a team filled with many useful fantasy baseball assets but only a few that should be under consideration when evaluating your team's keeper options.

SS Hanley Ramirez had a statistically down year in 2010 when looking at his seasonal averages (per 162 games) but truly it's hard to find fault with the 12th-ranked player on ESPN's Player Rater who turned in a line of .300/92/21/76/32. He probably would have been right on track had he not missed 17 games in September/October due to a sore left elbow. Ramirez is a definite keeper and the kind of player you team around in dynasty leagues. If you're drafting a new team from scratch in 2011, Ramirez is sure to see his ADP slip a bit from the 2.4 it was in 2010 and could be a steal at the end of the first round or even early second.

SP Josh Johnson finished 5th in the NL Cy Young Award voting after posting just an 11-6 record, but leading the NL in ERA (2.30) with a 1.11 WHIP and a 9.1 K/9 ratio while recording 23 of 28 Quality Starts. At just 26 years old, Johnson is a pitcher to keep and enjoy the numbers you know you'll get and hope the wins come along too.

Would you want an outfielder on your team that could hit 35 home runs but only bat around .260? Maybe even lower with lots of strikeouts? What if he was just 21 years old and named Mike Stanton? Stanton in a no-brainer in deeper dynasty-type leagues for his long term potential but what about for the 2011 season. Does he figure it out or do pitchers figure him out? I'm passing on him as a keeper this season but will try to grab him in the draft as late as I possibly can.

I'd love to call 1B Gaby Sanchez a keeper but in most formats a first baseman that hits .275 with 20 HR, 80 RBI and scores 70 runs is probably going to be available later in drafts but if this is the best your team produced in a very deep or shallow NL-only league, you may have to take that chance.

So that's all I'm seeing as far as keeper options on the Marlins roster but would love to hear some opinions on these and any other players I may have missed.

2 comments:

  1. Pretty spot on I'd say! Good job!

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  2. I'm still not sold on Sanchez, but he could improve enough to be a Mark Grace type first baseman.

    Hanley is going to have a monster year in 2011.

    Josh Johnson has to prove he can stay healthy. So he would be a risk.

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