Roster Doctor

Welcome to THT Fantasy’s Roster Doctor. If you’d like your team to be analyzed by one of our fantasy baseball experts, please send your full roster to this address. Also be sure to include your league’s player pool (mixed, AL-only, NL-only), number of teams, scoring format (roto, head-to-head, points, etc.), categories, whether or not it’s a keeper league, and any other pertinent information. If your roster is selected it will be analyzed in a future Roster Doctor column.

League Roster Details: 12 team keeper league, keep 10 players from year to year. It’s a points league; each team ranked 1-12 and scoring = ranking totals. DEEP league: 38 roster spots + 2 DL slots, no position limits. Start 1 at C-3B, 3 OF’s, and 2 Util spots. Pitching is limited to 180 total starts/season.

Scoring is 8×8: R, HR, RBI, KO, SBN, AVG, OBP and OPS. Pitching stats: IP, K, CG, W, L, SV, ERA and WHIP.

C: Russell Martin, Chris Iannetta
1B: Mark Teixeira, Billy Butler, Casey Kotchman
2B: Ian Kinsler, Aaron Hill
3B: Chone Figgins, Marco Scutaro (2B/SS), Jed Lowrie (SS), Kevin Kouzmanoff
SS: Stephen Drew, Ryan Theriot, Jeff Keppinger
OF: Grady Sizemore, Ryan Braun, Carlos Lee, Justin Upton, Dexter Fowler, Wladimir Balentien, Marlon Byrd
SP: Johan Santana, JohnJohn Lackey (DL), Felix Hernandez, Rich Harden, Ted Lilly, Jamie Moyer, David Purcey, Edwin Jackson, Kelvim Escobar (DL)
RP: Johnathan Broxton, Fernando Rodney, George Sherrill, JJ Putz, Juan Cruz, Damaso Marte, Manny Corpas, Cory Wade, Ryan Perry, Aaron Heilman

First of all, your league counts AVG, OBP and OPS, which means OBP counts explicitly twice (once in OBP and again in OPS=OBP+SLG) and hits count a lot (they count in all three stats, never mind the counting stats). So a guy like Keppinger isn’t a bad idea in such a deep league. I imagine Butler is killing you right now though; I have him in my Razzball league and he’s been “on fire” for me. Lowrie’s hurt now, but he wasn’t helping much while he was playing either. You might be better off replacing him with guy like Matt Diaz. Platooning players are actually good options in this league, since they’re likely to have decent percentage stats. As for Butler, Kotchman, Upton and Teixeira’s slow starts—you’re just going to have to hold your nose for a while and wait until these guys get their OBPs back up to their historic standards.

Starters average about 30 starts per season. So with only 180 starts to use over the season, you only really need six starters at any given time. Lackey and Escobar should probably make it into your “rotation” when they’re ready. I would think about dumping Moyer and keeping a very close eye on Purcey and Jackson. Moyer’s probably only going to help with wins and is going to eat up precious starts. Perry’s a good move, but I’m not sure about Wade. You should probably replace the aforementioned starters with either some more potential future closers, like Perry, or some potential starters who are now in the minors (getting no productivity from them until they come up might be better than having a below-replacement level relief pitcher actually pitching).