When creating this rankings, I assumed this keeper / dynasty fantasy baseball league would be around for at least 7 or 8 years. Emphasis was placed on the potential for excellence, and players were evaluated based on how many projected top-10 percent seasons they had in ‘em.

This is why Manny Ramirez, who realistically has 2 or 3 good seasons left in him, falls far behind Cameron Maybin who’ll either boom or bust.  Depending on how you weigh risk, this may change.  The easiest way, and I’m not saying it’s the best way, is to just average it out: Maybin will either have 8 great seasons, or 0 great seasons in the next 8 or 9 years.  Therefore, we’ll assume he has 4 great seasons which puts him in line with guys nearing the end of their career like Carlos Lee, Carlos Beltran, Jason Bay, etc.

The First Group of Players (1 in the table) are proven performers who shouldn’t see a decline in the next 3-4 years.  The next Group of Players are proven performers (2 in the table) who will probably see a noticeable drop off in the next 3-4 years. The final group of draft eligible players (3 in the table) are young players with very limited major league experience.  They’re the toughest to place, as they all could potentially be boom or bust players. The Final group of players (4 in the table) are elite prospects that aren’t in the player pool yet.  At least with my keeper league, a player must start the year in the player pool in order for them to be kept.  Is Jason Heyward a top-50 player? Probably.  You should keep an eye on these guys and if they’re available, they’re probably worth a draft pick.

After browsing through the Yahoo Player Pool, it appears as though a few very talented kids snuck in, and they’ll make terrific keepers.  The inclusion of Austin Jackson and Fernando Martinez, leads me to believe that Yahoo may be biased towards New York….naww.

If you can wait a year or two, I’d slot Martinez between LaPorta and McCutchen, and Jackson can be dropped anywhere after about 60-65, depending on how you feel about him.

C- 1B – 2B – SS – 3B – OF - SP – RP

OVR	1	OVR	2	OVR	3	OVR	4
1	Ryan Braun	16	Carlos Lee	18	Cameron Maybin		Jason Heyward
2	Grady Sizemore	19	Carlos Beltran	23	Travis Snider		Mike Stanton
3	B.J. Upton	20	Jason Bay	36	Colby Rasmus		Fernando Martinez
4	Matt Kemp	26	Alfonso Soriano	37	Dexter Fowler		Dustin Ackley
5	Josh Hamilton	30	Ichiro Suzuki	39	Matt LaPorta		Austin Jackson
6	Curtis Granderson	31	Magglio Ordonez	48	Andrew McCutchen		Aaron Hicks
7	Jay Bruce	34	Vladimir Guerrero	49	Aaron Cunningham		Nick Weglarz
8	Nick Markakis	41	Manny Ramirez	54	Carlos Gonzalez		Greg Halman
9	Justin Upton	42	Bobby Abreu	55	Jordan Schafer		Ben Revere
10	Corey Hart	75	Raul Ibanez	58	Travis Buck		Desmond Jennings
11	Carl Crawford	76	Johnny Damon	82	Jose Tabata		Julio Borbon
12	Matt Holliday	77	Jermaine Dye	102	Brett Gardner		Mike Saunders
13	Alex Rios	87	J.D. Drew				Drew Stubbs
14	Carlos Quentin	88	Hideki Matsui				Daryl Jones
15	Jacoby Ellsbury	93	Juan Pierre				Michael Burgess
17	Elijah Dukes	96	Mike Cameron				Cole Gillespie
21	Hunter Pence	100	Eric Byrnes				Brian Boquesivc
22	Lastings Milledge	104	Randy Winn				Domnic Brown
24	Adam Jones						Kellen Kulbacki
25	Nate McLouth						Michael Taylor
27	Adam Dunn
28	Chris Young
29	Carlos Gomez
32	Shane Victorino
33	Delmon Young
38	Jeff Francoeur
40	Jeremy Hermida
43	Shin-Soo Choo
44	Adam Lind
45	Rick Ankiel
46	Chase Headley
47	Chris Dickerson
50	Ryan Ludwick
51	Conor Jackson
52	Milton Bradley
53	Brad Hawpe
56	Willy Taveras
57	Nick Swisher
59	Andre Ethier
60	Jayson Werth
61	Pat Burrell
62	Nelson Cruz
63	Michael Bourn
64	Seth Smith
65	Matt Joyce
66	Steve Pearce
67	Franklin Gutierrez
68	Jack Cust
69	Coco Crisp
70	Nate Schierholtz
71	David Murphy
72	Denard Span
73	Xavier Nady
74	Melky Cabrera
78	Felix Pie
79	Kosuke Fukudome
80	Josh Willingham
81	Ben Francisco
83	Torii Hunter
84	Daniel Murphy
86	Jose Guillen
89	Jason Kubel
90	Jerry Owens
91	David DeJesus
92	Fred Lewis
93	Nyjer Morgan
94	Michael Cuddyer
95	Ryan Church
97	Wladimir Balentien
98	Brandon Moss
99	Cody Ross
101	Ryan Sweeney
103	Mark Teahen
105	Ryan Spilborghs
106	Josh Anderson
107	Chris Duncan
108	Gregor Blanco
109	Rajai Davis
110	Fernando Perez

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