Keeper advice?

[Tornon]

I'm getting ready for the next year of my keeper league where we can choose up to 5 players to keep. It's a standard 5x5 Head to Head 12 team league. The players I've narrowed down to keeping from my team last year are:

Carlos Beltran
Matt Kemp
Joey Votto
Pablo Sandoval
Nelson Cruz
Adam Wainwright
Zack Greinke
Justin Verlander
.. Chone Figgins or Adam Dunn maybe

My instincts are to go with Beltran, Kemp, Sandoval, Wainwright, & Greinke.. any advice/arguments against that?

[Buckeye33]

Kemp, Greinke, Votto then it's down to Verlander, Wainright, Beltran. for your final 2 spots. Can you rely on Beltran coming back 100% healthy from his surgery? If you keep the 3 starters you wouldn't have to worry about drafting a SP for the 1st 5+ rounds of your actual draft.

Sandoval is a solid hitter but no longer qualifies for C and when compared to other 1B/3B he isn't elite.

[Eric_the_Red]

Kemp, Votto, Greinke, Verlander are easy. I'd say Wainwright for the 5th player.

[redsfandan]

Sandoval is a solid hitter but no longer qualifies for C and when compared to other 1B/3B he isn't elite.
3rd isn't as deep as 1st. He's keeper worthy as a 3rd baseman.

[IowaRed]

for H2H I would keep Votto, Greinke, Kemp, Dunn, and Verlander

[Tornon]

I guess my thinking is that I love players that provide decent to good stats in every category.. Beltran is only in his early 30s and if he is anywhere near the player he has been recently when he comes back he can usually put up a 25 HR 25 SB season. I guess it's a toughy between Sandoval & Votto.. Sandoval seems like he will hit for a higher average, maybe .320 while Votto hits .300. I believe they are both going to be around 20-25 homers, but I guess Votto has a higher ceiling there with the ballpark he plays in. RBIs maybe edge to Votto, although neither are on particularly juggernautish offenses. Runs scored has the same issue, and neither has really been prone to stolen bases thus far.. Votto will almost certainly have more though. But then Sandoval does have the ability to be put at 3rd base.

Man how i missed baseball :)

[HayPay]

Kemp, Votto, Greinke, Verlander are easy. I'd say Wainwright for the 5th player.

I agree Verlander might be a Cy Young Canidate for years.

[RedsManRick]

For what it's worth, here are their rankings from Mock Draft Central:

7. Matt Kemp (R1)
29. Joey Votto (R3)
31. Zack Greinke (R3)
39. Pablo Sandoval (R4)
44. Justin Verlander (R4)
57. Adam Wainwright (R5)
62. Nelson Cruz (R6)
63. Adam Dunn (R6)
78. Chone Figgins (R7)
91 .Carlos Beltran (R8)

I definitely agree with the top 4. After that it comes down to Wainwright vs. Verlander (vs. no keeper if it means an extra pick to start the draft). I'd prefer Wainwright for reliability reasons, but Verlander has higher upside. Personally, I like to emphasize offense and wouldn't want to keep 2 starters. So I'd consider keeping just four guys if it means you get a draft pick that gives you first shot at the best position players who weren't kept.

[Tornon]

Thanks for the advice guys, I ended up locking in my final decision as Kemp, Votto, Sandoval, Greinke, & Verlander