I decided I wanted to go through the exercise of ranking the one point keepers in my league in order based on my formula and eye test as well. Just as a reminder to my league rules and how it’s set up, you get 5 points each season to spend on keepers, and a player drafted in the first 5 rounds costs 3 points to keep out of the 5. All players also max out at 3 points, meaning they will never cost more than that to keep. Then players taken in rounds 6 through 10 cost 2 points to keep, then the next season he would cost 3 points to keep. So each season you keep a player whose cost is 1 or 2 points, he will cost another point each subsequent year until they get to 3, so you get rewarded in a big way when you find breakouts or hit on picks in the 11th round or later. So any player taken after round 10 in the draft or is picked up during the season off the waiver wire only costs 1 point to keep. While my two keepers are mostly set right now with Aaron Judge and James Wood, who I believe are the best 3 and 2 point keeper options in my league. That includes pitchers as well, but my 1 point keeper rankings will only focus on the hitters. The only rules I really had were that a 1 point keeper had to be 28 years old or younger to be considered as a keeper in my rankings, and that based on my metric it had to be high enough to meet a requirement number that I decided on. There are two players I manually moved higher that I feel have more upside next season, and I’ll explain all this below.

There are two hitters at the top who have clearly separated themselves from the rest, as they’ve shown the ability this season to be elite players, and my metric backs that up as well. It won’t surprise you to hear those two players are Nick Kurtz and Cal Raleigh. You may be wondering how Raleigh could possibly be a potential one point keeper, but not when you consider the fact coming into the season Raleigh wasn’t viewed or drafted as an impact bat, or at least not as an elite one. When you fast forward it’s crazy to think about, but it is true that coming into this season Raleigh wasn’t viewed as close to the player he is now. That part is actually similar to Nick Kurtz, the difference was just that Raleigh had already been in the major leagues for a while. What the two clearly have in common is an ability to hit for lots of power, and that because of this their ceiling is like that of Aaron Judge and Yordan Alvarez. It’s worth noting Raleigh doesn’t have the same type of batting average, but Kurtz already has the batting average and OPS to be in the same conversation as them. Since that’s the case, Kurtz is actually ahead of Raleigh based on my metric and is the better keeper option, at least if you’re only going based off of the numbers. However, it’s an interesting discussion because the gap between Raleigh and the next player at the catching position is as wide as any position in the sport, so choosing between the two is a difficult decision to make. We’ve never seen a catcher have this sort of fantasy season, where he’s on pace to hit 60 home runs. You could argue the gap between Raleigh and Will Smith for example isn’t that wide, but it is when you consider the fact Raleigh plays every single day while Smith only really plays in 5 out of every 7 games. I would pick Raleigh because of that, even though I will actually go into next season viewing Kurtz as the top first baseman in fantasy baseball. In reality, in a keeper league both are easy 1 point keepers, and nobody is going to be forced to choose between the two when if someone somehow had both players they would simply keep both of them anyway. Regardless, it’s still a fun discussion to have and I’m so intrigued to see where both are drafted next season and who goes higher.

After going through this exercise I decided to just rank the top 10 best one point keeper hitters for the points league I’m in, and broke it down into three tiers. I just gave the clear top tier with Kurtz and Raleigh, and the next tier consists of Roman Anthony, Kyle Stowers, Geraldo Perdomo, and Junior Caminero. Based on my metric, Anthony and Caminero would have been ranked 5th and 8th, but moved up a few spots respectively since they have a higher ceiling, even if their profiles couldn’t be more different. From a points league perspective, moving Anthony up to 3rd in my rankings was an easy decision because of the elite plate discipline and on-base skills he already possesses and has put on full display. If you simply watched him in a batters box and didn’t know any better you would think he was a veteran based on his patient approach. He has a 0.398 on-base percentage and an elite 14.5% walk rate, and has all the tools for the type of hitter I love in points leagues. He reminds me a lot of Juan Soto when he was a rookie, and I believe the power will come for Anthony. That is clear when you think about the fact he hit a 497 foot home run in triple A right before the Red Sox called him up. Caminero, on the other hand, has already shown off immense power with 36 home runs this season, but his low on base percentage really hurts him in a points league and why he was ranked 8th based on my metric in the first place. To be blunt, it’s a profile I avoid in points leagues, as I almost disqualify a player as a legitimate option when someone’s OBP is under 0.300. It’s hard to count on someone like that in a points league, and he chases a lot as well. I’ve found for the most part that in a points league a player has to have an on-base percentage at or above 0.320 to really be useful and trusted in a points league. It’s a profile that works when Caminero may hit 45 home runs this year, but I’m unsure how sustainable that is to count on and if his value will be enough to matter if he only hits 30 in a season.

One of the players on this list I’m the most excited about is Kyle Stowers, because he has a profile I typically like a lot. He grades out quite favorably based on my Points League Efficiency Index (PLEI) and his recent injury that may cause him to miss the rest of the season hasn’t taken away my enthusiasm for him either. He has a great 0.368 OBP and 0.544 slugging percentage, and he impacts the ball in a way that only the elite players do. He swings hard, makes good decisions at the plate, and has a good 10.5% walk rate showing that he’s well suited for points leagues by getting on base a lot as well. Even if Stowers doesn’t return this season, he’s already produced this year in a way where I’d be happy to keep him and confident about his impact going into next season.

I find Perdomo to be very interesting, because for a lot of the season I dismissed him, but he’s only continued to produce all season by putting together an elite season from a points league perspective. His statcast page really doesn’t jump off the screen, but the best way to put his profile is that he’s doing a really good Jose Ramirez impression at the shortstop position, so it’s worth paying full attention to. I hadn’t really bought what he was doing, but at this point I have no choice but to recognize it and be intrigued by it. It’s pretty wild for a player to have a 0.391 OBP and be on pace for 570 fantasy points and still not be universally rostered. That part reminds me a bit of Zach Neto, since both are owned in 97% of leagues but not 100. I think it’s gotten to where I have to buy into what he’s doing, and that I’d probably keep Perdomo if he was on my team.

My third tier starts with Shea Langeliers who has been red-hot in the second half since returning from injury, and is one of those hitters who is very streaky. I’m not sure about this ranking, especially when I consider he’s a one point keeper because he was just a free agent in my league a few weeks ago. I did try to add him, for what it’s worth, but I got outbid for him. My metric has him at the top of this tier, but I’m not sold that he belongs there or that I won’t eventually move him down. I’m going to group him together with Ben Rice here, who is also eligible at catcher like Langeliers and ranked directly behind him in my 1 point keeper rankings. Now that Rice is finally playing every day, he’s producing and showing the upside I believed he had. I think in a keeper context I would move him ahead of Langeliers, especially with the upside he possesses as a left-handed power hitter playing for the Yankees and having the benefit of playing half his games in that stadium. I also just prefer his consistency, and the fact he has an absurd 98th percentile 0.414 xwOBA for the season. Rice along with the next two players are all on my team and worthy for consideration as keepers. He has underperformed his expected stats as much as any player this season, but now that he’s played every day for the last two weeks the production is finally starting to match his elite expected stats.

Zach Neto and Michael Busch round out my top 10, but I must admit it feels a little low for Neto. He’s only ranked 9th, but there are a lot of things I could point out to suggest he should be much higher. For starters, based on the stats he is an identical comp to Francisco Lindor, who has regularly been drafted in the top 2 rounds in fantasy drafts over the past 8 to10 years. They currently have the exact same batting average and OPS at 0.265 and 0.797 and are the only two shortstops in the sport right now that have 20 homers and 20 stolen bases, and that’s even after Neto missed the first two weeks of the season. They are actually the only two shortstops to eclipse 20 home runs this season, so that sort of rare ability to hit for power makes him an intriguing keeper option to consider going into next season.

There was a time I was much higher on Michael Busch, but he’s really cooled off in the last month or two since the 3 home run game he had. Busch still has a very respectable slash line of 0.262/0.342/0.494 with a 91st percentile 0.382 xwOBA. Even though Busch doesn’t swing hard, his statcast page and metrics are still all very good, and Busch also has great plate discipline which makes him more valuable in a points league. The only issue with Busch is that he still struggles to hit lefties, and while he has some home runs off of them this year, he’s been very inconsistent in his production against them. Another thing working to his advantage is that he leads off against righties at the top of a good Cubs lineup. I must admit though that this all paints a picture of a much more productive player than Busch has actually been. He has 24 home runs, but it often feels like he either hits a home run, walks, or gets out most of the time. He doesn’t hit many extra base hits that aren’t home runs, so the production can feel empty at times if he’s not on a home run binge.

To wrap this up, my plans going forward is to have a final keeper ranking for 1 point players once the season ends. I’m currently working on incorporating starting pitchers into my keeper rankings and hope to have that formula ready to go. I’m wanting it to be a metric where I can compare hitters and pitchers head to head, and am excited to find the solution.