My AL-Only League Keeper List

This offseason, I joined my first AL-Only league. This is a 12 team, 4 x 4, $260 auction league with a 2 round minor league draft (MLD). In the past, I had only participated in NL-only and mixed leagues, so this is my first venture into an AL-only league. I took over a team that had limited keepers, and decided the best strategy was to trade all players that had some value in return for prospects or first round picks in the minor league draft.

Some of the trades are made are:

Traded a $17 S0 Jon Lester for the #3 pick in the MLD and a $10 S1 Eric Thames

Traded a $25 S0 Adam Jones and a $5 S0 Alexi Ogando for a $10 S1 Lonnie Chisenhall and the 11th pick in the MLD

Traded a $10 S0 J.P. Arencibia for the 8th pick in MLD and Casey Kotchman

Traded a $11 S1 Matt Capps and a $23 S0 Howie Kendrick for Miguel Sano and the 4th pick in MLD

Traded a $10 S0 Austin Jackson for Nick Castellanos

My list of keepers after the jump:

Now, I may have not gotten full value in some of these deals, but I wanted to blow up the team and start from scratch, and to grab some first round MLD picks along with some solid prospects to build my team to compete in 2 years. Plus this year's MLD draft is stocked. I have the following picks in the MLD draft: 2, 4,5, 8 and 11, so I should be able to grab some of the top prospects in the AL to help build for 2 years down the road.

Here is a list of players available:

Dylan Bundy

Taijuan Walker

Danny Hultzen

Xander Bogaerts

Francisco Lindor

Bubba Starling

Cheslor Cuthbert

Eddie Rosario

Mason Williams

Jarrod Parker

James Paxton

Mikie Mahtook

Mike Olt

Travis d'Arnaud

Jake Marisnick

Drew Hutchison

And the big league draft is stocked as well:

Albert Pujols

Prince Fielder

Yoenis Cespedes

Shin-Soo Choo

Michael Young

Dustin Pedroia

Robinson Cano

Kendrys Morales

Curtis Granderson

Jacoby Ellsbury

Alex Rodriguez

Nick Swisher

Carl Crawford

David Ortiz

Joe Mauer

Mike Napoli

Alex Gordon

Adam Dunn

Yu Darvish

So, this year is a perfect year to rebuild with the wealth of talent available in both the MLD and the major league draft. I imagine I will end up with a few of these players on my team, and can take advantage of the fact that some guys, like Crawford, Joakim Soria, and Victor Martinez are either out for the year, or will miss some time to start the season.

The draft is this Saturday, and our keeper list was due last evening. My keepers consist of two players, yes just two:

$10 S1 Eric Thames

$5 S0 Danny Valencia

I won't reveal who I am targeting in the draft, or my draft strategy, as several of the owners in the league read Fake Teams. But I will write a follow-up post with my rebuild strategy and the results of my draft on Sunday.

Who should I target with the 2nd overall pick in the MLD?