Need Help in Large League

[Broly19]

I'm in a 20-team league on ESPN.com and I have a fairly decent team. Now, we can keep up to seven players, but must have a minimum of 3 keepers. Here is the team I have that could be potential keepers.

Lance Berkman
Jose Lopez (Sea)
Kevin Youkilis
Martin Prado
Jered Weaver
Johnny Cueto
Mark Buehrle
Brian Wilson (SF)
Joakiam Soria

Now, I know at least three players I am definately keeping: Berkman, Youkilis, and Weaver. But I'm not sure if I should bother keeping all seven or just going with those three. There is no penalty, for loosing keepers, but some players that might be available should not be taken in rounds four thru seven. So, I was thinking of also keeping Lopez, Cueto, and Wilson. I'm in a bind because I've never been in a league as large as this. Any help would be great.

[Todd Zola]

Welcome aboard Broly.

Quick question....

Do you get to keep your best 3-7 of your roster or are some players thrown back into the pool?

The reason I ask is quite frankly, even in a 20 team league, your team is devoid of a first round keeper. I suppose if the league has been around for a few years, Berkman was a 1st rounder, but as of now, Youk is your best player and he is a mid to late 2nd rounder in a 20-team league.

If everyone can be kept and not automatically tossed back after being kept for a certain number of years, that will impact the advice.

[Broly19]

Well, I took over a team which the only star player was Ryan Braun. So I made several trades in order to get those players that I listed. The ones that are not kept are thrown back into the pool. So, think about what I told you. 20-team league...that means that you would take two rounds of a 10-team league and combine them into one round. So, in fact, I do have a first round player in Youkilis. If all the teams did keep seven players, then that means 140 players have already left the list. So, I'm guessing between 100 to 140 players will be kept.

[Todd Zola]

I disagree on Youkilis being top-20, but that's a discussion for another thread.

Actually I have onemore question...

Does everyone start in "round 1"? That is, if you don't keep 7, are you making up the difference at the beginning or end?

If everyone drafts from the beginning. my inclination is to keep my top-7.

If you get to "catch up" and only those that did not keep 7 go first, I may only keep Berkman and Youkilis with Weaver on the cusp.

[50 Desert Eagles]

I agree on Youk for sure, I see his health/numbers/value dipping for sure. I have someone offering me Youk for Ichiro and I can see Ichiro's numbers slidding due to age, not health as I see for Youk. I love his position though as far as 1B/3B, but if he don't play, he don't have value.

[Todd Zola]

Time out. All I said was Youkilis is not top-20. I think he is borderline top-30.

While I am not going to say he is not an injury risk, he is not dealing with chronic ailments or recovering from anything "major." He just seems to get some tweaks and with the Red Sox flexibility, it is easy to give him a day or two off now and again.

As for his production, I don't like the contact rate trending downward, but that is likely due to a simultaneous upward spike in power as his HR/FB is trending upward. He has a stable skill set and should continue producing at the current level for a couple more years.