2010 Keepers: SS

For all you disgruntled Jose Reyes owners out there, take a deep breath.

Sure, you were burnt by a Top 5 pick this season. Reyes' hamstring issues probably kept you from contending all year, but if you're in a keeper league, do you still hang onto Mr. Excitement?

How could you not?

OK, there's the feat that he won't fully recover, but he's only having surgery to remove the scar tissue, not to repair the September tear, which tells me it's not as bad as some of his early-career hamstring woes.

Anyone with 70-SB, 15-HR potential has to be given a longer leash, even if he only had 147 at-bats this year.

My advice would be try to find the Reyes owner in your league right now and make a low-ball offer while his 2010 outlook is still somewhat murky. He may be thinking of throwing him back in the pot next year anyway.

As far as the rest of the SS position, it's pretty much slim pickens out there. Here's how I see it.

Definite Keepers

Hanley Ramirez

Troy Tulowitzki

Derek Jeter

Jimmy Rollins

Jose Reyes

Definite Maybe

Jason Bartlett

Michael Young

Only in deeper leagues

Yunel Escobar

Alexei Ramirez

Commentary: Outside of Reyes, Bartlett is probably the toughest call here. I would like to see more than one pretty good year to elevate him into "Definite" status. If you drafted him this year, you probably rode his 30 SB and .320 average to a high finish and may want to reward him. I have no prob with that. The average may be a one-time deal (career .298 hitter in the minors), and there's not a lot supporting his 14 HR this year, but the speed is for real. Rollins finished as a top-80 player after one of the worst starts in MLB history (17/14, .272 after the break), but I would understand if you lost faith in his elite status. Escobar reminds me of someone who's on the cusp of breaking out, but I'd still be surprised if it happened. I don't think we know what we have with Alexei, another big disappointment this year. Tons of raw talent, which makes you at least stop and think before sending his services back.