9th place, Glaus, Swisher, Gagne Swisher and More??

[Redsnake]

Long but I thought this might be a good discussion and I could really use some opinions from the best.

The League:
My keepers league is only 4 years old and you can keep only 3 players. There
10 teams. All league owners are very good. Only 35 points seperates the 1st place team from the last place team. VERY VERY Balanced!!

The rules:
They all have to be drafted at one point in time after the 5th round. So players like Pujols, Manny and Arod can not be kept. But the new gems of the bunch D.Wright, Howard and Fielder can be and were kept by there owners from last year.

My team and the draft:
I kept Mauer, Oswalt and Konerko from a team that I took over for the first time. This team came in dead last last year. And I'm currently in 9th place.
I got the last pick in the draft, so the best options were 2nd round pick at best(Sheffield and Berkman). I had to resort to high risk/high reward players, Prior, Gagne, Burnett and now Sheffield is out for 10 weeks. I liked my keepers more at the beginning of the season than now. Oswalt DL stint and Mauer only catching 5 days a week and doesn't add much production other than average. Konerko was the one I was worried about the most and he is probably the best. I had the option of keeping Burrell over Mauer and I wish I had now.

The Results:
I'm currently in 9h place out of 10 teams, but I'm only 25 points from first.
The players that I picked up from waiver wire or drafted that are worthy of keeper considerations are Swisher, Glaus, F.Lopez, Verlander, Ray, Gagne and Prior. Players that I drafted that can't be kept Sheffield (1st R), Berkman (2) Reyes (3) Rivera (4) and Blalock (5).

Questions??
1) I'm loving the idea of Glaus SS eliglble soon. Would he be a no brainer for a keeper?
2) Gagne was once a sure fire #1 round draft choice. Is he worth keeping?
3) Trade strategy, some teams have already started dropping their keepers (Duke, C.Tracy, Linebrink, Sexson, Cantu) Should I start looking to move my keeper eligble players for better option? For example, if I know I don't want to keep Mauer next year should I try and deal him now with another keeper and land a even bigger keeper for myself?

Give me some of your thoughts please?!?!?!

[NJReds]

I really like Verlander.
Mauer's production 5 days per week is probably better than most catchers.

You a lot of "wait and see," players though: "if" Prior has a great second half; "if" Glaus gets SS eligibility; "if" Swisher has a monster year that he seems to be headed for (although he plays a position where you can probably obtain comparable talent in the draft).

[Reds Nd2]

I'd reevalute my position on Mauer. He currently leads all MLB catchers in VORP and all qualified catchers in AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and stolen bases (6).

I don't think Gagne can be considered a keeper any longer. The Dodgers have a better closer option in Saito. Still kicking myself for dropping him when Gagne came back from the DL.

[Redsnake]

Good points guys.
Mauer is a great catcher and a good keeper option. I'll know I'll still struggle with keeping him next year or not.

Lets say if Glaus does get SS eligibility, would be a keeper for sure? Right?!?!
The HR and RBI totals would be hard to pass on.

What about Oswalt? DL stint, history isn't good on SP in keeper leagues. Hallday, Prior, Wood for example. Is his status of a for sure fire keeper for debate?