After posting yesterday's articles on my and Doug's thoughts on a Keeper league, it got me thinking about an e-mail I received from one of you last week. The premise of the e-mail was asking my advice on keeping a couple of guys for a hybrid keeper league. The basic rules were that you could keep up to 4 players from year-to-year but you lose a draft pick for each keeper. So, by keeping 2 guys you'll start in the 3rd round. Keep all 4 and you start in the 5th round. This got me thinking...why in the world would anyone ever participate in a league like that! Yuk!!

Ok, if you read my Keeper League Bahumbug article, you know my thoughts on keeper leagues in general; I don't like them. I've never participated in a Keeper League and I never will. I think my biggest beef with Doug's original article was that I thought he was promoting participating in a keeper league in lieu of a redraft league. After his rebuttal, I am now with him that participating in a keeper in addition to a redraft league is totally cool and probably fun. I just know that I would get frustrated and want to bow out after the 1st year. Kind of reminds me of when I bugged my mother that I wanted a goldfish really badly. She told me only if I promised to feed it each and every day. Low and behold, a month later, she ended up feeding it instead of me. I lost interest...big surprise!

This modified keeper league or hybrid just absolutely baffles me. I'm generally not a middle of the pack kind of guy. Things are black and white to me. So a hybrid of any type usually tells me that someone is trying to appease both sides of the equation, and rarely does it meet either need correctly. Have you ever seen one of those hybrid mountain bikes? They try to be kind of a road bike and kind of a mountain bike. Guess what, they stink on the road and are a terrible off-road. Don't buy one. The same is true of a hybrid keeper league. It will not meet either need.

People won't get the opportunity to draft Priest Holmes, Clinton Portis, or Marshall Faulk. In your typical redraft you can hope that one of these RBs makes it to you even though you're drafting in the 6 hole. Not in a Hybrid Draft - they will certainly be kept as a 1st round draft pick. Nor does it promote the bottom feeding and player development that is so critical to winning a true keeper league. Someone please try to explain to me how someone should get credit for drafting Michael Vick in the 10th round last year and then get credit to keep him as a 1st round choice this year. Dumb luck if you ask me. Or worse, the person that has to make a decision between keeping no one or keeping Travis Henry and Stephen Davis. Both of which are clearly round 2 picks, but neither is worthy of a 1st round pick. This person is in a no-win situation.

The worst part of a 4 round keeper league is that your entire league in reality is basically drafting from the 5th round on. What an unexciting draft! Picking through the garbage, flyers, and has beens is worse than being in a perennially losing situation of a true keeper league. At least in that league you can fill your roster with "projects".

If I were you, I'd stick to a full redraft league, participate in a keeper league if you wish, and shy away from any of these hybrids. Trust me, you'll be happier in the end.

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