I believe I’ve been able to successfully figure out everyone’s keepers over the years, a painstaking process that included comparing end of year rosters to the next year’s draft, transactions, and old message board postings. You may not have needed to know the details on how I did it, but I wanted to make sure you knew how much of a pain in the ass this was. Give me credit. Preferably in the form of draft picks.
Anyway, lots of interesting items after going through all of this. Things like seeing Adam Jones being kept as a minor leaguer, Aaron Hill and remembering I was mad Nick had him, Ryan Braun’s name every god damn year, and old friends like B-Rob, Big Z, Magglio, and Nate McClouth. In looking through the list I wanted to figure out who were the WORST keepers, but that’s just too much work – figuring out who had the worst year after being kept requires more research than I’m willing to do. With that said, here is a list of my top 5 random keepers. Guys who either I forgot about, or had no business being kept.
1. Carl Pavano - Baseball Furies, 2011
There’s Pavano, and then there’s the rest of this list. I remember being so dumbfounded that Mike kept Pavano, and even more dumbfounded that he really didn’t have many other better options. It was between him, Scott Baker, Freddy Garcia, and a then-almost-dead-on-the-Angels Scott Kazmir. The funny thing is that the Furies had James Shields on their roster at the end of 2010, and he was fresh off a year with a 5.18 ERA, and lead the league in hits allowed and earned runs, as a 28 year old. The very next year he’d go onto be an all-star and place 3rd in Cy voting. Furies luck I guess.
2. Travis Snider – Ham Sandwiches, 2011
Ugh. Ughhhhhhhhh. So here’s the thing. Snider was coming off a year where as a 23 year old he hit 14 bombs in just 82 games. Theoretically, you double his at bats, you double the home runs. Who wouldn’t want a 24 year old outfielder with 28 bombs? Right?? Well, we all know that didn’t happen and Snider is fucking terrible. Thankfully my team sucked so much that year that I didn’t really miss out on not keeping someone else more blow up, the only other option was Trevor Cahill, who almost doubled his ERA the next year.
3. Josh Tomlin – Baseball Furies, 2015
What the fuck, Mike? Pavano and Tomlin? Christ. Tomlin was kept coming off a year as a 29 year old with 4.76 ERA with only 104 IP’s. At the end of 2014 Tomlin was on 6% of CBS rosters, and started on 2%. Maybe he was trying to strike on James Shields, part duex? I have no idea what else to say here.
4. Oliver Perez – Kaiden’s Krew, 2008
Honestly, he’s just on this list because I forgot he existed. He wasn’t half bad during the early Wombat years, proving some real value in 2007 . Kev kept Perez after he put up 15 wins and a 3.56 ERA with the Mets during our first year, and he’d go onto a few more decent seasons before being traded to the AL and losing just about all value.
5. Brandon Webb – Kaiden’s Krew, 2010
Okay, Webb isn’t a “random” keeper but I wanted to point this out for a reason. Webb was amazing for a few years before injuries destroyed his short career. Unfortunately for Kev, Webb really fucked him over. Here’s some history:
March 2009: Webb was one of Dean’s keepers going into the 2009 year, fresh off a year in which he was runner up in Cy votes.
May 2009: Webb starts the year hurt, and is still on the DL when the Time Consumers trade Webb and Jonathan Sanchez to Kaiden’s Krew for Yovani Gallardo and Ian Snell (lol). Webb doesn’t throw a single pitch in 2009, being shut down for the year.
March 2010: Kev uses a keeper slot on Webb – which by the way, I think all of us would have done – but Webb never suits up for the Krew, and retires.
So not only did Kev trade a young ace in Gallardo for Webb, he kept him, only to see him retire without ever wearing a Krew uniform. Sad.
Check out each of the individual team pages to see the keepers from each you.