By Kevin Kleps, Fantasy Correspondent
Keeper leagues are made for players such as David Price.
He's a 6-foot-6 lefty. Two-hundred twenty-five pounds. A fastball in the upper-90s. A slider in the high-80s.
A franchise – the Tampa Bay Rays – loaded with young talent, but ready to win now.
Price, USA Today’s Minor League Player of the Year in 2008, was a combined 11-0 with a 1.87 ERA at Single- and Double-A this season. He made a brief stop at Class AAA Durham, going 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA, before his first minor-league season came to an end.
Price was the top overall selection in the 2007 draft, and the Rays are going slowly with him, delaying his major-league debut until a Sept. 14 appearance out of the bullpen. By 2009, he should be a regular in a Tampa Bay starting rotation that also features Scott Kazmir and Matt Garza, both of whom are only 24, a year older than Price.
If you play in a keeper league, Price is probably long gone. The debate then centers around his value heading into 2009, depending on the keeper restrictions and the pitching depth of the owner who was crafty enough to take a chance on Price.
At 23, and with scouts (and big-league hitters who have faced him in the past) drooling over his talent, Price will be among fantasy baseball’s top keeper commodities next season.
With that in mind, let’s look at the fantasy equivalent of the Rays: The all-25-and-under team – the guys you have more incentive to keep because they should excel for another 10 seasons or, in Price’s case, 12 to 15. (All 2008 statistics are through Sept. 15.)
Catcher
Brian McCann, age 24, Braves: Because fantasy’s top four backstops are all 25 or younger – McCann, Minnesota’s Joe Mauer (25), the Dodgers’ Russell Martin (25) and the Cubs’ Geovany Soto (25) – this is a tough call. I’d give McCann the edge because of his pop – a combined 65 homers and 267 RBI the last three seasons. The Braves catcher will also hit for average (.298 this season and .333 in 2006).
The runner-up:
Mauer. He’s a hitting machine - .321 through mid-September this season, .293 in 2007 and .347 in 2006 – but he has only 44 home runs in five years. If you don’t mind giving up one category, he’s your guy. If you prefer a more well-rounded player, go with McCann.Others of note: Soto (.288, 22 HR, 83 RBI) could equal McCann in the power categories, and Martin (.276, 12-63) is a distant fourth. The latter has 16 stolen bases this season.
