I need some help. I'm in a keeper league where we get to keep 7 players. so far I've decided on Albert Pujols, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Nick Markakis, Alex Rios and John Lackey. who I can't decide on is whether I should keep Verlander or Gallardo. please shine some light on this conundrum

Those are a solid six keepers you have in place already.

Now I'm assuming there's no penalty to keep either Verlander or Gallardo and either can be kept for as long as you'd like. My suggestion is you keep Gallardo. Verlander's Strand Rate was pretty bad in 2008, which makes him a bit of a bounce back candidate, but his velocity was down, his walks were up, hits were up, he wasn't being particularly unlucky with BABIP, etc. Verlander will be better in 2009, but he still won't be as good as we saw him in 2007. Gallardo, assuming his injury is better, which it should be, will be a better pitcher.

Thanks for the advice. in the beginning I was thinking of keeping papelbon and keeping either rios or markakis but I came in last and starting pitching is something I lack. I've got the first pick and rumor is jake peavy could be available to me

Wow, Peavy would be great. Hopefully he's still playing his home games in Petco in 2009. Why isn't the Peavy owner keeping him?

he's keepers are most likely gunna be A-rod, aramis ramirez, dustin pedroia, cole hamles, roy halladay and joe nathan. he hasn't decided whether to keep peavy or magglio ordonez. he's leaning towards magglio because peavy numbers were down except his ERA never went above 3. and since he has hamels and halladay he figures that peavy is expendable

Hopefully, he doesn't find Razzball or this forum cause I would tell him to keep Peavy over Mags. I'd even want Peavy over Halladay, but I would want Halladay over Mags, as well, so that's moot.

haha true that. but if peavy isn't available I think I'd go with verlander or mayber a position player depending on who becomes available