Patrick Davitt was on The Rotowire Fantasy Hour with Jeff Erickson, and he spoke about a new team entering an existing keeper league and what that new owner should do come draft time. His advice was to pay whatever it took to land Albert Pujols and Johann Santana and the top SB guy in order to deal then mid-season to teams that are pushing for the league title.
A couple of points I felt I needed to make. First, if you can land Pujols and Santana along with the top SB guy, you're not going to be out of it mid-season. Second, what kind of keeper leagues has those two players available in the draft?
If they are not, is there the same attraction for a $45 Juan Pierre or $55 Roy Oswalt at mid-season? And what does that type of player get in a bail deal? Nevermind a league that has a salary cap of some nature.
I believe the advice is decent. New teams have to take a different approach when entering existing keeper leagues. I'd suggest selling the fully-value inherited players at discounts for cheap players with upsides i.e Pat Burrell for Jeff Baker. Or as the new guy in my NL-only did Andruw Jones for Russ Martin and Jeremy Hermida.
Once this is done, the new team can enter the draft with a roster of low-priced high-upside players. With this base, paying for the top players becomes a feasible way to be competitive.
If the team is out of the running, then he could deal the expensive players. If the team is competitive, then he could deal the cheap player for a couple of expensive ones.