Ian Kinsler or Felix Hernandez? Which one should I keep? League categories are standard 5x5, except that we sub OBP for batting average, and OBP against for WHIP.
That's a tough one as I usually almost always take the hitter but do to Kinsler's injury history I might have to think twice. I will try to help you but I need you to answer a few questions for me: How many teams are in your league? How many players per team? Who else is currently on your team already? Is this a normal draft or is it an auction league?
2nd base is actually pretty deep this year depending on how many people are in the league. Roberts, Pedroia, Cano, Zobrist, Hill, Beckham, Kinsler, Uggla, Utley and Phillips are 10 guys right there that are must owns and will put up pretty good numbers overall. Obviously Utley is in a class of his own but the other guys are all pretty even and there's really not a whole lot of difference between them.
5x5 (unique stat) keeper....12 teams? What is your re-draft slot? Do you have a feel for other 2B that would be available in draft? or other SP? Who else do you have on your team? Who else you keeping? What about trading either prior to draft for package deal, etc? I too would lean Kinsler without knowing the above details, but if you have top slot, keep King Felix and redraft Kinsler....for me, I need additional detials to not vacuum this and simply say Bat over Arm.
Uggla and Phillips you may have to deal with below average OBP's. With Zobrist and Hill you have to worry about whether last year was a fluke or not. Roberts you take a hit in the power stats. Cano is always a 2nd half player so you have to deal with an average 1st half and average OBP. That leaves Utley who is relatively flawess, Kinsler, and Pedroia and imo Beckham as the elite 2B players.
Ok but Kinsler has only played over 140 games exactly once in his career. He always seems to be injuried at least once or twice a year so that's a big concern. Plus he's not a big OBP guy himself, you mention Uggla as not having a high OBP but Kinsler is just a few % points higher. Is Kinsler worth a 2nd or 3rd round pick when he historically only plays in less than 80% of the games or so each year? I'm not so sure. My only point was besides from Utley, who's a top 5 pick for sure, the rest of the pack is pretty similar and 2B isn't weak overall like 3B is this year. Sure some guys hit more HRs and drive in more (Uggla, Phillips) but others might steal more bases and score more runs (Roberts). I don't think anyone can for sure say Kinlser or Felix without more information.
Fair point but the counter to that is that Kinsler: A) plays in a bambox for a team that always plays a lot of 10-8 games B) Whats harder to find: 2B or SP? Id continue further but Im not giving away all my secrets for free. Keep Kinsler. Its not really a discussion imo.
Wow, great discussion, thanks all! To answer the other questions that came up, it's 5x5, 10 teams, and my other keeper is David Wright (we can only keep two; I doubt that I could turn F-Her or Kinsler around into a pick and keep the other). I'm new to the league, so I've no sense of who's going where. I'm picking last in every round, since my team is the defending champ. No snake drafting here, unfortunately. Roster is: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, Util, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, DL, DL.
In that case I think you almost have to keep Kinsler, eventhough I'm not in love with the guy because of his health issues and the depth of the position overall. That stinks that its not a snake draft. It almost makes it unfair to you.