Welcome to another game of Keeper League Would You Rather.  While first base is widely considered the deepest position in fantasy baseball, it is also has a high percentage of players protected, given the fact that most of your mashers are found here.  Still, dynasty leagues, AL or NL-only, and deeper mixed leagues have numerous owners looking for cheaper alternatives at the position with the hopes that an inexpensive youngster will eventually provide big time power at a bargain rate.  So let’s look at two of the more popular options from the youth bin…

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This week’s installment covers a banished first baseman, one of baseball’s top prospects and yet another third base option in Denver.

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At this stage of the game, every single point matters. So much so, in fact, that the numbers become more important than the names. By that, I mean, it’s not as much about the players in your lineup as it is about the statistics on your league’s standings page.

Find the categories that are most essential to your chances at gaining ground and focus on adding players who will address those areas. This applies more to rotisserie leagues than head-to-head ones (since matchups and scoring in the latter change each week), but the point remains the same: Numbers over names.

With that in mind, here are three American League outfielders owned in less than 50% of leagues, each of whom has the ability to help your team in a specific category down the stretch.

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In the hours after yesterday’s Mining the Minors column was posted, the Red Sox promoted Ryan Lavarnway. The 24-year-old catcher got his due in this space three weeks ago for mashing baseballs all year long. At the time of that write-up, I didn’t see an easy fit for him in Boston until September roster expansion, but with Kevin Youkilis hitting the DL and David Ortiz battling a heel issue, Lavarnway got the call a couple weeks earlier than expected. Considering he’s known more for his stick (30 HRs this year) than his glove, he’s likely to see some time at designated hitter in addition to any opportunities behind the plate. As a savvy add in leagues that require a second starting catcher, Lavarnway is worth a look. My colleague Erik Hahmann will have more in just a bit, so check back here shortly.

Until then, though, here’s a trio players who might soon be up and contributing.

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The return of a preseason fantasy darling leads off this week’s pitcher-heavy column.

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Prior to the All-Star break, four RotoGraphs writers — Eno Sarris, Jeff Zimmerman, Howard Bender and me — engaged in the just-for-fun activity of drafting Pick Six-style teams, with the pool of players limited to those available in 10% or less in ESPN leagues (at the time of the draft). Given those parameters, the exercise proved to be challenging, but if you paid attention to our picks, you may have managed to snag a useful fantasy player or three off the waiver wire — no matter what kind of league you play in. Let’s update the scoring and hit on each owner’s best and worst selections. In other words, it’s time to see who’s in line for some bragging rights.

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On Friday, I asked for our reader’s input on a few topics and here are some of the results. Thanks to everyone that filled out a survey (over 330 filled out) and hopefully we can use the information to better serve our readership:

5 categories for each pitching and hitting: 58%

Even with the expansion of other types of fantasy leagues, the basic 5×5 league is still the most common.

Types of Leagues
Roto 46%
H2H 50%
Other 4%

There was almost a 50%-50% split between head to head and roto. We may have not been giving the H2H format enough credit, so there may be more content on them in the future.

Average Number of Teams in a Mixed League:12.4
10 Team League: 24%
12 Team League: 43%
14 or more teams: 20%

Leagues are generally small in number with 2/3 of the leagues having between 10 to 12 teams. This fact leads us to our next bit of data:

% of leagues with a player over 50% owned in all leagues, but still available on the waiver wire: 75%

I have seen many comments on waiver wire articles that the players covered were not available in their leagues. These owners must be the vocal few and players over 50% owned may be popping up more in WW articles.

Percentage of leagues with 1,2, or 3 DL spots: 73%

The number of DL spots for leagues seems low. Long term DL stashing doesn’t seem like a viable option for many owners useless it is a top tier player.

Days for position qualification
1: 2.%
5: 39%
10: 39%
20: 5%

These number are fairly common.

Designate a difference between SP/RP: 77%

With the high number of H2H leagues and those that have SP/RP designations, we should write more articles on starting pitchers with RP qualifications.

Weekly Lineup changes: 24%
Daily Lineup changes: 74%

Mixed League: 89%
AL Only 6%: 6%
NL Only 4%: 4%

Nothing ground breaking with the 2 previous results.

Keeper League: 62%

This was probably the most surprising number out of the whole survey. Almost 2/3 of the leagues are keeper leagues. This off season we will look into more strategies/rankings for these leagues.

FAAB Budget: 20%
Reserve Roster: 30%

I am actually surprised that the numbers are this high for these two results. More future content may be coming on these two topics.

Auction League: 27%
Draft League: 70%

This seems about right with the ease of running a snake draft

Well that is all for today. I may cut and sort the data a little more, but the preceding is a nice snapshot of the current Rotographs readership. In the future we hope to direct more content for the types of leagues and rules readers use. Finally, thanks again for everyone that participated in the survey.

RotoGraphs is looking for information on the types of leagues that our readers are in order to more specialize the content. Feel free to submit information on one or as many leagues you belong. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Goto the following link to answer the questions. Thanks for your time and we will publish the results soon.

Link to RotoGraphs Reader Survey

At this point in the season, with just about seven weeks remaining, the chance that a newcomer to your roster will make a significant fantasy impact isn’t great, whether we’re talking about a recently-recalled minor leaguer getting another another shot in the bigs or one of the few elite prospects who has yet to get the call. But that doesn’t mean these players are entirely incapable of making useful fantasy contributions either.

Now that we’re down to the final push — when the fantasy playoffs are in sight, money is on the line and bragging rights are up for grabs — it’s the savvy owner who follows every turn of the the never-ceasing transaction wheel. Because continuing to play that slumping stud regularly (any day now, Carlos Beltran) or rostering that one-time starter who just lost his job (step aside, Travis Snider) or waiting for that injured star to return (hurry back, Rickie Weeks) or sitting on that pitcher who was traded to a tougher environment (hey, Jason Marquis is actually owned in some leagues) isn’t exactly doing much to help your cause now, is it? But maybe — just maybe — one of these guys can.

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So you’ve probably heard Brett Lawrie has been called up. Of course, if this is the first you’re getting wind of this, I urge you to click on over to your league site, type in “Lawrie” in the Available Players search and add him, even in mixed leagues. Erik Hahmann will have more Lawrie analysis coming shortly, so don’t forget to check back here.

Also debuting later today? Trayvon Robinson, who was arguably the Dodgers top hitting prospect until he was basically given away to Seattle at the deadline for reasons I’m still trying to figure out. Here’s my take from last month on Robinson, who I think is only actionable in AL-only play. As I mentioned previously, his new power-over-speed approach this year won’t necessarily suit him well at his new team’s digs, which play a lot like his old team’s digs.

Until Lawrie and Robinson get their careers underway, though, you can read about three other guys who could be joining them in the bigs pretty soon.

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