Welcome to the off-season here at Baseball Prospectus Fantasy! This week, you'll notice our writers transitioning from our in-season Value Picks column to The Keeper Reaper, which will likely run through October and November. While many owners who play in redraft fantasy baseball leagues take a breather over the next couple of months, we know that keeper league owners are active year-round and are always looking for advice.  As such, this column should be of great use to keeper league owners who are trying to decide which players are worth keeping for the 2012 season and which should be thrown back. The goal of keeping a player is to reap as much excess value as possible, and The Keeper Reaper will help you to do so.

If you happen to be one of the dedicated redraft leaguers who pays attention year-round, first, congratulations; you're a fantasy player after my own heart, and your team is going to benefit from your hard work. Second, these articles should still have a lot of utility for you since their aim is to discuss a player's potential (primarily for 2012) and where they rank among their peers—things that are important no matter what kind of league you're in.

Value Picks is such a mixed bag, especially before NL-only and AL-only players were separated out. Sometimes, a “Value Pick” is a player the authors think should be owned in every league, even shallow mixed leagues, because they're just that good. Other players are more appropriate for deeper mixed leagues or shallow single-league leagues. And, of course, some players are total bottom-of-the-barrel shots in the dark (here's looking at you, Trent Oeltjen!)
 

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Value Picks Team Tracker

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Arrivals
Nyjer Morgan, Milwaukee Brewers (Yahoo! 18%, ESPN 18%, CBS 27%)
Value Picks has shunned Nyjer Morgan for most of the season—not for lack of faith in his abilities but because so many early raves were written about him that readers were expected to know the opinions on the ballplayer. With the season winding down, it's time to revisit an old friend. Nothing about his skills has really changed, and here's what was written before:

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

The minor-league regular seasons may be done, but the analysis of minor-league statistics has just begun. Observant readers have already noticed that various pages at Baseball Prospectus have started including minor-league stats with all the same depth of statistics for which Baseball Prospectus is known. For example, the “Batter Season—Standard” report shows the top-15 Triple-A leaders in BWARP:

Read the full article...

Thanks for reviewing this, Beta Bloggers!  Coming improvements:

- Comments

Read the full article...

Alex Presley was reluctantly dropped from VP while injured and should be eyed carefully for teams looking for an outfielder this week. Meanwhile, a couple of platoon outfielders have been having hot streaks, and both have a history of hitting in September, making them enticing pickups in deeper leagues.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Value Pick outfielders performed like they'd been hit by a hurricane this past week, but the batter Ozzie Gullen calls “The Tank” (Dayan Viciedo) is up, causing belated relief in Chicago as Adam Dunn hasn't been striking out for a few days now. And this author risks becoming “Rocket Man” as yet another Astro gets featured in Value Picks. But really, who outside The 610 Loop has paid any attention to the Astros recently, anyway? And a lack of attention often leads to value.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Last week's choice of players spurred some interesting discussion in the comments about Casper Wells, with a smart reader looking even smarter now, as Wells has posted a nice .308/.400/.538 batting line this week. However, the Mariners seem to agree with this author's opinion that he's nothing more than a fourth outfielder, limiting him to just 15 plate appearances. He's someone to keep an eye on, to be sure. Meanwhile, owners who were able to find space for AL-only multi-position pick Trevor Plouffe were rewarded with a fine .308/.357/.500 batting line and 28 plate appearances. Meanwhile, former NL-only VP Trent Oeltjen had a nice eight (8) plate appearances, hitting .429/.500/.857 and stealing a base, raising his season line to .250/.387/.438. Of course, as Derek Carty points out, he's started only one game in the past (nearly) two months, so he's purely deep-league filler. Onward to more significant players...
 

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Rebounding from a rough week, the six Value Pick Outfielders hit a combined .299/.358/.557 this past week, led by Eric Thames at .389/.450/.944, and just-removed Nolan Reimold reminded fantasy owners why he was a Value Pick in the first place, hitting .286/.348/.571 for the week. Meanwhile, outfields all around the majors have been shaken up this week. Delmon Young switched allegiances in the AL Central, changing lineups in Detroit and Minnesota. Logan Morrison will be Tweeting from the minors, and two-thirds of the Giants starting outfield (Andres Torres and Carlos Beltran) head to the disabled list, as does Rajai Davis of the Blue Jays. Shin-Soo Choo and Jose Tabata returned to action, and former Value Picks Wily Mo Pena, Brandon Allen, and Brandon Belt all seem to be in line for more playing time. All these changes have created opportunities for shrewd fantasy owners.
 

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

There was little value to be had this past week as the seven players on the Value Picks List hit a combined .192/.261/.256, but Dexter Fowler and Josh Reddick had good weeks, and there's reason for hope with some others. As always, some players won't last on the list, while new faces come along to help out fantasy teams in need.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

It's been a chaotic week of outfielder moves across the league, and Houston's outfield takes on an entirely new look with Carlos Lee moving to first base and the other two starters moving out of town. Last week's additions both graduate from The List this week, but new faces are getting playing time all around the majors with the shuffling. The holes in San Diego and Seattle will probably see multiple players before the season ends, but none besides Trayvon Robinson have much star power, and the parks will depress the stats of the other pretenders enough that they can be safely ignored for now.
 

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.