First off- What is a keeper league? A keeper league is a fantasy league where the owner gets to “keep” however many players the rules of the league allows every year for reuse. There are really three kinds of keeper leagues: small team keepers, medium team keepers and big team keepers. Small team keepers usually allow you to keep 1-3 guys a year. Medium is usually 4-12 and big leagues usually consist of 13 players to full teams.

These kinds of leagues are becoming more and more popular with fantasy players because they literally allow owners to become real life GMs. In the big and medium keeper leagues, it’s basically like owning a real team, and the success or failure every year falls on the owner. I personally love keeper leagues because of the strategy and pressures that come with being responsible for success or failure. I currently am in three different keeper leagues with mixed results. I’ll get to those later in the article.

In my opinion, keeper league strategy is pretty easy and if you follow three simple steps, you’ll more or less become a powerhouse. Most owners will make drastic moves to win ONE year and give up the future to win that one year. It’s real easy for guys to get caught up in the moment and forget that keeper leagues (especially the big ones) last more than three years so it could be real easy to prey on owners like that, especially the teams that are in the championship race that first year.

Step 1- Get the BEST keepers you possibly can that first year no matter how you do it. Sacrifice that year to become a long term success if you have to. In smaller leagues, it’s easier to do this. In bigger leagues, it’s a little more difficult which brings me to Step 2.

Step 2- In every trade, make sure you get a draft pick somewhere (in leagues that allow that. Most do.). Why? Draft picks in multiple rounds give your team depth. The more depth you have, the easier it is to sweeten a deal. Example, if you make a two-for-one trade, demand a draft pick. Most owners don’t really think much about the future, so them giving up a 4th or 5th round pick really doesn’t hit home until the draft of the next year happens. Doing this allows you to have the flexibility with draft picks to sweeten deals to get even better keepers. If you end up with two 2nd round picks, two 3rd round picks, and four 6th round picks, it’s real easy to package two decent fantasy players and four draft picks to get a flat out superstar. That not only circles back to Step 1, but it still doesn’t hurt your draft.

Step 3 ONLY IN MEDIUM/BIG KEEPER LEAGUES- Draft as many up and coming guys or prospects as you can. Drafting the rookies and younger prospects simply takes them out of the waiver wire and off the hands of your league members. For example, how many owners drafted guys like Ryan Braun, Evan Longoria, Gordon Beckham, Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum, David Price, Tommy Hanson etc BEFORE they even made the big leagues? In these deep leagues, your probably sitting pretty aren’t you?  The more prospects you can draft again- the better off your depth is going to be. You now can trade three prospects in separate deals to sweeten your side of the bargain and end up with fantasy superstars.  If you continue reading you’ll see how that strategy paid off for me in my big keeper league.

If you follow these three easy steps, you’re going to put yourself in good position to run the league you’re in for a long time.

My leagues-

I’m in three current keeper leagues. Two small and One big.

Small League 1 (points league) 3 keepers—In the original draft, I ended up drafting Albert Pujols with the 2nd overall pick. The next year, I was able to snag Jose Reyes in a monster deal and one that is STILL talked about as the hosing of the league history. I traded Juan Pierre, Cole Hamels and Jermaine Dye to get Jose Reyes and Hideki Matsui. Now before you start screaming at me- SB’s in that league are 3 points, so the fast guys are just as important as the power guys. Jose Reyes has finished in the top 5 in points for the last three years and I was able to solidify my keepers with one trade that more or less hurt me that one year. I ended up picking up Josh Hamilton off the waiver wire prior to 2008 who rewarded me with an MVP-type year. The Natural, Reyes, and Pujols obviously led me to the championship and the money in 2008. I kept Hamilton coming into 2009 like most owners and was disappointed as he was hurt for most of it.

Results: 2009—last place. I was devastated by injury and ineffectiveness this year. Reyes and Hamilton were out most of the year which hurt my chances immediately. Dice K went down and Liriano was pretty ineffective. Early in May, I recognized the fact that I wasn’t going to win the money this year and traded away my key pieces for draft picks. I traded Joe Mauer for a couple picks, traded Adrian Gonzalez for a couple picks including a first rounder, so I’ll walk into next year with Jose Reyes, Albert Pujols, and Kendry Morales with three first round picks and two second round picks. I’ll be back next year.

League 2: 4 keepers (H2H league)—Keepers- Albert Pujols, Tim Lincecum, Johan Santana, Miguel Cabrera. How in the heck did I get these guys? I drafted Miggy in the first round and Lincecum was only going to be a 2nd year guy so I took him as a “sleeper” in the middle rounds. And yes there are 12 owners in this league. That team in 2008 finished out of the playoffs with a 12-10 record as I was just crushed with luck. I led the league in several categories, but unfortunately the team I was up against every week usually put up the week of their life. Prior to 2009, I traded Evan Longoria straight up to get Johan. Johan and Lincecum to go along with AJ Burnett, Dice K, and Justin Verlander set me up for a real strong rotation. It got even better when Ubaldo Jimenez was dropped and I picked him up as well as picking up Tommy Hanson and drafting David Price. My offense was solid with Miggy, Sizemore, Uggla, Dunn, Tulo and Adrian Gonzo to name a couple. I was clearly ready to make my run. Well, Sizemore had a terrible year which killed me, so I packaged Adrian Gonzo, Sizemore, a first round pick, David Price, and Justin Verlander for Albert Pujols and a 3rd round pick. I then traded that 3rd round pick to get Ichiro. Why did I make that trade? Well, Pujols is obviously The Man and better than Gonzo. With what I already had in the rotation, I was able to sacrifice Verlander. Sizemore was brutal and Michael Bourn had a solid year. David Price was a throw in and I didn’t need my first round pick if it was going to be 11th or 12th overall. With that trade, I’ll walk into 2010 with Albert Pujols, Miggy, Lincecum, and Johan/Hanson/Ichiro as my 4 keepers. (Depending on who I trade.)

Results 2009- 2nd place. I was upset in the Championship game as the loss of Johan definitely hurt. If owners recall, Lincecum missed a start that week with a back injury which was our Championship week, so that hurt as well. I’ll be right back there in 2010 with the moves I made.

League 3: 15 player keeper league with 16 owners—This is my pet project of a league and my favorite. I, along with two other owners, took over a dead team in 2009 with the catch being—put all three teams’ rosters in a three man draft. My draft consisted of- Chase Utley, Evan Longoria, Danny Haren, Geovany Soto, Troy Tulo, Hunter Pence, Justin Upton, Aaron Cook, Justin Masterson, Ian Snell, Chad Durbin, Bobby Abreu, Carlos Gonzalez, Scott Shields, and Jed Lowrie. Not a terrible offense but no pitching. The draft was real, REAL slim on pitching, so my plan was to round out my draft with as many pitchers and prospects as I could to make trades all year and build a real strong 15 keepers. I ended up picking up and drafting prospects such as Matt LaPorta, Gordon Beckham, Tommy Hanson, and Daniel Bard, to name a few. I made about 15 trades over the year so I won’t be putting all of them in this article- but if you want more information of how I formed the roster I did, feel free to email me through the website.

My roster for 2010 and arguably the leagues’ best keepers- Lance Berkman, Jose Reyes, Manny Ramirez, Evan Longoria, Eric Young JR, Gordon Beckham, Bobby Abreu, Jason Bay, Drew Stubbs, Danny Haren, Javy Vazquez, Daniel Bard, Phil Hughes, Edwin Jackson, Brian Matsuz/Wade Davis. I have a nice mix of power and speed, young and old with multiple round picks in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th rounds so I’ll be active on the trade market this winter.

I followed my own three steps and I am now set for domination in all my leagues for more than one year. If you follow suit, you will be, too. I answer a ton of fantasy based questions a day from keeper league owners so feel free to email me about anything that has to do with your team. I’m happy to hear and help even if it’s just a simple overview of your roster.

our roster.