CALIFORNIA KEEPER LEAGUE

Thanks Colin for your kind words. It feels like just yesterday a much younger version of myself showed up for my first draft in Daly City where we ate Round Table pizza and I turned down Justin asking for a future 7th round pick in exchange for Aaron Judge because I already had drafted Greg Bird and I didn't want too many Yankees prospects on my team. The Isotopes learned our share of lessons along the way… You should not have Austin Hays as one of your starting OF's in a pennant race. Don't get offended by DJ's offers as his heart is in the right place. Always respond when Yaffe hits you up with a "Whats up player?" The next time you think you have a good platform for the league to use, bury your idea far far away. Most importantly though when a strange virus is going around you should probably not pack a bag and get on an airplane. Thankfully we learned all those lessons and applied them this year to write one of the most amazing stories in the history of fantasy baseball. The story of your 2025 Cali Keeper Champion Springfield Isotopes can only be best described as a ball club that overcame adversity. Those first 9 days of the season were tough while we languished outside first place. The front office questioned whether we had gotten this all wrong. The analytics team responsible for creating the greatest excel spreadsheet ever doubted themselves. So we gathered the team for a closed door meeting that night and reminded them of what was expected. Thankfully they responded by stretching the lead as high as 21.5 points on June 3rd, We started writing this message that night. When the lead was cut to 7.5 points on July 22nd we stopped writing that message and got back to work and made some tweaks to our roster. Those deadline additions fired up the clubhouse and showed the rest of the team our commitment to winning. What ended up happening is the Isotopes were in first place for 177 of 186 days. Was this the most heroic run of dominance in the league? Probably. Will domination like this ever happen again? Probably not. What we can all agree on is that by leading by 10+ points for 145 of those 186 glorious days this Isotopes squad showed the world that they would not be stopped. While this glorious game is played as a team I would be remiss if I didn't call out a few of the ball players who made this happen: Special thanks to Shohei for once again showing the world you are quite possibly the greatest player (and shittiest gambler) in the history of the sport. I look forward to seeing who you'll choose to do the jail time for you when the next scandal breaks. To Mr. Olivia Dunne thank you for keeping your UCL intact just long enough to have the most dominant two year start for a pitcher in the history of the game. Can't wait to see you get traded to the Dodgers for a few Dominicans and $750K in cash. To Max Fried and Hunter Brown you have my eternal love and gratitude. Clearly after seeing players like Spencer Schwellenbach and Bailey Ober drafted ahead of you this fueled your fire to combine for over 30 wins and almost 400 K's. Your contributions will not be forgotten. In fact let's take a second and show some love to the most dominant pitching staff in the history of fantasy baseball. Seriously between Skenes, Wheeler, Crochet, Brown, Fried, Peralta, and deGrom you took the ball and gave us 5 solid innings every single day. You then handed it over to the deepest bullpen in the game. Diaz, Hader, Duran, Suarez and Palencia locked down the lead each and every night. Hell this staff was so good we traded away Gavin Williams, Mason Miller and Raisel Iglesias and never skipped a beat. To Josh Freaking Naylor, may you continue to inspire those of us who never saw a burrito we didn't like to go out and steal 30 bags for our clubs too. To Juan Soto you joined the team and fired us up by having a 20-20 season since the trade went down. May idiotic Mets fans continue to boo you, forcing you to request a trade to the Dodgers and then watch the Mets pay 50% of your salary for the next decade while you win titles for us. Finally to Corbin Carroll you were the first piece we acquired when we started our rebuild. We turned down every offer thrown our way because we believed you'd lead this team to the promised land. You might look like you should be either the bassist for Def Leppard or on parole but either way you'll always have a soft spot in our hearts. I could keep going here but you all get the point. This was a team of destiny. As Abi put it, a super team. Like all great super teams it's tough to keep everyone together. My gift back to the league is despite having ~20 good keepers on the roster by the end of the season I can only keep 8 so you're welcome. I already started working on my 2026 draft sheet because greatness is never granted it is earned and I look forward to defending my title. A special note to Fox and Colin. You both kept me on my toes for the whole year and never gave in. I take pride in knowing I outlasted two of the best GMs this league has to offer. All bull shitting aside I love this league. Thanks for having me around. None of you make a trade negotiation easy (nor should you) and I look forward to seeing you all in March for our draft. BTW I vote for Tahoe because fuck it why not. Go Dodgers! Brian

Fellas, It's THAT time of year again! When most of us submit our keepers on time so that we can prepare for the upcoming fantasy baseball season. With that comes one of my favorite pastimes...looking over everyone's list and judging the shit out of them! This year finds me in Costa Rica with a lot of time on my hands so I decided to go long form... Who has the best set of keepers? Who has the worst? Find out below. Also included are our Ramon Hernandez and Mike Trout award winners. Don't agree with the rankings? Tough shit. I think they're pretty fair and just for fun anyways. What I think we all agree on is that we're excited for another year to unfold and that most of the stuff we think is going to happen, won't. First up are the awards... Ramon Hernandez Award The Ramon Hernandez Award is given to the owner of the worst keeper of the year. It's in honor of when Matt Toboni kept 35 year old, one-time all-star, Ramon Hernandez in the 8th round of the 2011 draft following a 1 WAR season. The reigning champion is Esteury Ruiz, who ended up taking just 55 at-bats last season on his way to earning the title and stealing a keeper spot away from Chipp. This is a serious award that is to be taken seriously. I've combed through ALL 92 keepers to find this year's WORST keeper. It was a close race. There were no obvious Ramon-like standouts in the early rounds, so I had to go digging. This year's runners-up include: Jordan Walker (Parker, 26th round) Jeferson Quero (DJ, 19th round) Robby Snelling (Chipp, 24th round) 2025 Ramon Hernandez Award Winner Merrill Kelly (Abi, 17th round) A lot like Ramon in 2011, Merrill is coming into his age 36 season. Mr. Kelly finished last year with a 4.03 ERA across just 73 innings due to shoulder strain. In his pitching arm. Perhaps father time will be on his side but as far as keepers go, this is not one to build a future around. Mike Trout Award Introducing the Mike Trout award, given to the BEST keeper going into the season. This award is named after the best keeper of all time, Mike Trout, selected by Colin in the 24th round of the 2011 draft. He went on to total nearly 30 WAR over the next 4 year period. Each of the 92 keepers were graded on a scale of 1-10. There were 7 players that scored a 9.5 and none with a perfect 10. Those 7 are: Corbin Carroll (25th round, Brian) Paul Skenes (9th round, Brian) James Wood (19th round, Colin) Jarren Duran (14th round, PK) Jackson Merrill (18th round, Chipp) Garrett Crochet (28th round, Chipp) Gunnar Henderson (5th round, Hunter) 2025 Mike Trout Award Winner Corbin Carroll (Brian, 25th round) CC had a really shitty start to 2024 but turned it all the way around in the 2nd half. If he gets the average close to where he was his rookie season then this is a no brainer pick, with great late round value for 2 more seasons. Keeper Rankings 1. Brian - 65 total points Back-to-back years of having the top rated keepers, this is a well balanced group with 4 hitters and 4 pitchers included. The only squad with 3 keepers scoring a 9 and above. Pair this list below with 10 picks in the first 4 rounds of the upcoming draft and it's fair to say BZ is the odds on favorite to win the title in 2025. Corbin Carroll (25-2) 9.5 Paul Skenes (9-1) 9.5 Jackson Chourio (10-1) 9 Willy Adames (17-1) 8 George Kirby (8-3) 7.5 Bryce Miller (11-1) 7.5 Josh Naylor (25-2) 7 Robert Suarez (8-1) 7 2. Smolen - 63.5 points Gotta hand it to Smolen for coming correct once again even after finally getting to the mountain top in 2024. He may have traded the rest of his picks for this decade but he's got a ring and another opportunity to compete to show for it. A fair amount of risk involved to go along with the upside. Will need them all to perform to have a real chance. Ketel Marte (11-1) 9 Elly de la Cruz (6-2) 9 William Contreras (15-2) 8 Mason Miller (10-1) 8 Jacob DeGrom (12-1) 7.5 Robbie Ray (18-1) 7.5 Ryan Presley (19-1) 7.5 Riley Greene (10-1) 7 3. Fox - 60.5 points After 2 seasons of full rebuild mode, we are ready to compete in 2025 and beyond. Lots of "solid" pieces that look to take a leap forward but could easily flop and not fulfill expectations. A good blend of late round values with potential to be 5 category contributors. This will be a make or break year for nearly everyone on the list. Roki Sasaki (23-0) 9 Wyatt Langford (9-1) 8.5 Shohei Ohtani (P) (20-1) 8 Walker Jenkins (25-0) 7.5 Brent Rooker (8-1) 7 Jackson Holliday (24-1) 7 Zach Neto (22-1) 7 Jasson Dominguez (11-0) 6.5 4. Colin - 60 points It's been 9 years since the last time our humble Commissioner held the top spot. Will this be the year the drought ends? This group of keepers gives Colin a good head start in 2025, however not a ton of future value outside of Wood. With a few guys in their last year of eligibility and a couple others being kept with early picks, is the window of opportunity closing after this season? James Wood (19-1) 9.5 Tarik Skubal (5-2) 8 Marcell Ozuna (10-1) 8 Tyler Glasnow (14-3) 7.5 Bryce Harper (3-2) 7 Joe Ryan (14-3) 7 Felix Bautista (8-1) 6.5 Oneil Cruz (6-3) 6.5 5. Yaffe - 57 points The group below looks like it was copied and pasted from MLB.com's top 25 prospect list. Filled with potential, Yaf is playing the long game and continuing his rebuild in 2025. Already starting with trade talks in true Yaf fashion, this group will likely look a lot different next year with lots of moving pieces. Jackson Jobe (26-0) 7.5 Samuel Basallo (25-0) 7.5 Shota Imanaga (10-1) 7.5 Jac Caglianone (26-0) 7 Chase Burns (28-0) 7 Max Clark (13-0) 7 Jordan Lawlar (18-0) 7 Lawrence Butler (8-1) 6.5 6. (T) Hunter - 54 points Following a runner-up finish in 2024, Hunter returns a solid group to make another run at it. Nobody kept after the 8th round hurts overall keeper value but all of the players have proven themselves. Also, in what looks like a BIG brain move, Julio Rodriguez (4-3) kept OUT of this group and was thrown back into the player pool. Another guy with lots of picks in the first few rounds. Gunnar Henderson (5-2) 9.5 Teoscar Hernandez (7-1) 9 Anthony Santander (7-1) 8 Vladimir Guerrero Jr (2-1) 8 Gerrit Cole (8-1) 8 Yoshi Yamamoto (4-1) 6.5 Christian Walker (5-1) 5 6. (T) Chipp - 54 points A top heavy group, including two of the best values of 2025. This is one of only 4 teams to have multiple keepers scoring 9 or better. However, the bottom half drags the group down including Robby Snelling whom I'm not positive plays baseball and may just be part of Chipp's weekend foursomes in SD. Jackson Merrill (18-1) 9.5 Garrett Crochet (28-1) 9.5 Jordan Westburg (28-1) 8.5 Jeff Hoffman (28-1) 7 CJ Abrams (10-2) 6.5 Bryson Stott (15-1) 5 Cade Horton (25-0) 5 Robby Snelling (24-0) 3 8. DJ - 53 points Imagine making us wait on THIS group of keepers?! Aside from Bob Witt there are some good pieces but nothing that'll knock your socks and a couple head scratchers. In a tough position not being able to keep most of his great players from yesteryear, DJ is doing the best with what he has. Top-5 finishes in 12 of the last 13 years(!) he'll have his work cut out for him in 2025. Bobby Witt Jr (5-3) 8.5 Sal Perez (11-1) 8 Yandy Diaz (18-2) 7.5 Dylan Cease (6-1) 7 Zac Gallen (9-3) 7 Kyle Bradish (22-1) 6 Eury Perez (21-2) 4.5 Jeferson Quero (19-0) 4.5 9. Abi - 51 points One of my favorite parts about this time of year is seeing which random reliever Abi is going to keep. This year it's Ryan Walker, who will at least enter the year as the Giants closer. Otherwise he's going with 6 other pitchers, including 5 returning keepers and 1 Tampa Bay Ray shortstop prospect. Let's hope that Abi can keep this one away from teenage girls... Michael King (19-2) 8.5 Shane McClanahan (29-1) 8 Carson Williams (25-0) 7 Walker Buehler (19-2) 6.5 Devin Williams (10-3) 6.5 Framber Valdez (8-3) 6 Ryan Walker (8-1) 6 Merrill Kelly (17-2) 2.5 10. Ed - 50.5 points Ed put together a solid group after his first season in the league. With one of the few people to have all of his 2025 draft picks in tow, he will look to continue on the path of building a franchise. Who knows, maybe this year he will dip his toes into the trade pool? Chris Sale (8-1) 8 Ezequiel Tovar (17-2) 7.5 Seiya Suzuki (10-2) 7.5 Cal Raleigh (14-2) 7.5 Pablo Lopez (12-2) 7 Maikel Garcia (21-1) 7 Taj Bradley (23-2) 6 11. Parker - 49.5 points One of the best keeper values in the league with Duran and other big names in Caminero and Rafael, but other than that there isn't a ton of future value here to love. PK will rely on the draft in 2025 as he is STACKED with picks in the first several rounds, including FOUR in the 1st round. His team will be full by the 7th and he'll be in bed by 9pm, exactly how he likes it. Jarren Duran (14-1) 9.5 Hunter Greene (12-3) 7 Junior Caminero (8-1) 6.5 Cedanne Rafaela (20-1) 6.5 Josh Jung (25-2) 6 Grayson Rodriguez (8-2) 6 Tanner Bibee (6-1) 5 Jordan Walker (26-2) 3 12. Justin - 41 points Two years into the rebuild and Justin was only able to muster up 6 names, probably half of which could've been drafted in the same spot they were kept, if not later. Has he lost his fastball? Some are wondering. With no picks in the first 8 rounds of this year's draft to go along with this uninspiring group of keepers, it's fair to wonder if we will have our first back-to-back last place finisher? Roman Anthony (15-0) 7.5 Sandy Alcantara (19-1) 7.5 Dylan Crews (9-0) 7 Royce Lewis (20-2) 7 Coby Mayo (13-0) 6 Pete Crow-Armstrong (17-1) 6 Rank Owner Total Points 1 Brian 65 2 Smolen 63.5 3 Fox 60.5 4 Colin 60 5 Yaffe 57 6(T) Hunter 54 6(T) Chipp 54 8 DJ 53 9 Abi 51 10 Ed 50.5 11 Parker 49.5 12 Justin 41 There you have it, folks. The super official 2025 Keeper List Rankings and pre-season awards. Next up...Scottsdale! See you guys soon. Love, Fox (3x Champ)