Last week I wrote about my dynasty league team self assessment. No further developments there. I have floated out a few trade offers but nothing is moving yet. This week I’ll tell you about the status of my keeper league team. A bit of a brighter story with this team. The PPR format in my keeper league is about the same as the dynasty except no flex starter. I can keep one player from each position only. Serpentine draft in reverse order of finish. This year I will draft 11th, so the pickings will be getting slim by the time I draft.
Keeping one player from each position in a keeper league means that when the draft starts most of the players that would have been taken in the first or second rounds in redraft are already gone. That is why it is imperative to have some healthy trade bait laying around if you are drafting at the end like I am. And right now is the best time to use it.
The keepers I have lined up are pretty solid. I used an early draft pick last year to snag Chris Johnson, and he has supplanted Frank Gore as my RB keeper of choice. Usually in a situation like this I would try to move up in the first round using Gore as the trade bait. But in this league I found that almost every team has a solid running back keeper already, and my list of potential trading partners was very short. I knew I needed to jump on this situation early if I was to get anything at all out of Gore. This is the time of the season when keeper league owners need to get the jump on the competition. There are only so many moves that can and will be made and I want to be right in there at the sound of the gun.
I announced on the league message board that Gore was available for a third round draft pick, and a deal was done within 24 hours. In the meantime I had shored up my tight end position by acquiring Greg Olsen for my 8th round pick and his 12th. I was left with Tony Scheffler as my keeper otherwise, and I am sorry but I think I will follow the quarterback to Chicago and look for tight end results there rather than go down in flames with Scheffler in Denver.
So after that fast and furious day of trading, I end up with an improved draft pick (gave up 8:2 - got a 3:2) and my keepers look as thus:
Matt Schaub - Chris Johnson - Steve Smith - Greg Olsen - Bironas - Packers
Yes, I would like to have a more solid if not spectacular quarterback. Then again I would settle for Schaub staying upright for an entire season and laubing bombs to Andre Johnson the way he is supposed to.
Kind of a critical decision there at quarterback. I have the resources now to go after an upgrade at the position if I so desire. Warner is available. I could probably go and get him cheap enough. He could probably help me win this year. And if I close my eyes and try not to think about next year just long enough, I could probably talk myself into doing that. Ahh, the dilemma’s of the keeper league…
