Over the last few weeks, the focus of reader mail has shifted from in-season concerns to questions about keepers for next season. Rather than sampling from the variety of "if someone put a gun to your head, who would you keep?" scenarios I've been reading lately, I'm taking a different approach to help with your keeper conundrums. I have culled a list of players who could be considered by many keeper-league owners as protection candidates, particularly in leagues where you are allowed to keep four or more players. Some of them are players who may not immediately register on your radar as keeper material, yet you would drop them at your own risk. Others may seem like no-brainer keepers, but they are really just letdowns waiting to happen.

Let's proceed by separating the keeper contenders from the keeper pretenders.

Keep 'Em

Dan Haren, SP, Arizona: Owners still frustrated with his August struggles shouldn't let that bad month get in the way of making a good keeper decision. This season, Haren has been one of only five starting pitchers with a K/BB ratio of at least 5.0 and a HR/9 rate below 1.0. The others happen to be Roy Halladay, Mike Mussina, Josh Beckett and Cliff Lee. Dan Haren, welcome to the elite.

John Danks, SP, Chicago White Sox: What do you call a statistical clone of Brandon Webb who is six years younger? That's right: John Danks. With a few more innings pitched and a lot more run support, he would have been just as valuable as Webb in 2008.

Chad Billingsley, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers: He became a Fantasy favorite in the second half, finding himself on active rosters in 89 percent of CBSSports.com leagues during a couple of weeks. Still, can you really trust a guy with a 1.34 WHIP? Sure, you can, when that stat has been inflated by a 32 percent H/BIP rate and his walk rate has been on a steady downward trend. Billingsley is a justifiable keeper, especially if you have at least five spots to use up.

Brian Fuentes, RP, Colorado: Whatever was ailing Fuentes last year appears to be fixed. His K/BB ratio is just a shade below Joe Nathan's and he has given up just three homers all year. His 2.77 ERA might be on the pedestrian side for a closer, but ERC says it should be more than a half run lower. Fuentes won't cash in on the free agent market to the extent that K-Rod will, but he could outperform him in saves, ERA, WHIP and Ks in 2009.

Brian Roberts, 2B, Baltimore: Roberts isn't exactly a surprise pick, but playing in Baltimore and having a birthday that predates the Iranian hostage crisis has taken him out of the limelight. He is as good as he has ever been, consistently piling up hits, runs and steals for his Fantasy owners. The only cause for concern is a whiff rate that is at a career-high 17 percent. It's not affecting his batting average so far, though it's something to keep an eye on in 2009.

Jimmy Rollins, SS, Philadelphia: He may never recapture the power surge he experienced last season, but the version of Rollins that sandwiched that campaign in the '06 and '08 seasons is still worth keeping if you have five or six slots available for protection. Better yet, chances are good that he will rebound at least part of the way towards his MVP numbers of a year ago. It's not as if that season was a one-year freak show, like Angel Berroa's rookie year or Barry Zito's Cy Young season.

Nate McLouth, CF, Pittsburgh: It's been a rapid rise from battling Chris Duffy for playing time to becoming one of the 10 most productive Fantasy outfielders. Everything in his profile says that his performance is for real, and he may have even been cheated a little on batting average due to a 29 percent H/BIP. He'll be one of the best next year, too.

Drop 'Em

Daisuke Matsuzaka, SP, Boston: With 18 wins and a 2.80 ERA, Dice-K has to be one of the game's 10 best pitchers, right? Eh, maybe not. According to ERC, a pitcher who puts as many baserunners on as he does should have an ERA that is half a run higher. Even with five or six keeper slots to fill, I would no sooner protect Matsuzaka than I would Gil Meche or Javier Vazquez.

Edinson Volquez, SP, Cincinnati: Forget all that early season Cy Young talk. Like Dice-K, Volquez just walks too many batters to be a reliable source of low ERA and WHIP. Sure, he's useful for strikeouts and, if he's lucky, double-digit wins, but he is simply not protectable.

Ryan Dempster, SP, Chicago Cubs: It appears that Dempster will finish among the top 10 starting pitchers in Fantasy Rating this year and he has earned every bit of that distinction. He has good skill indicators all the way around and there is nothing fluky about his Fantasy stats. The problem with Dempster is that this year's performance most likely represents his ceiling, and at a level much below this, he is sort of the pitching equivalent of Andre Ethier. He's a nice player to have, but he doesn't excel in any category enough to truly be an elite.

Francisco Cordero, RP, Cincinnati: Don't be fooled into thinking that Cordero had a bad second half; it was his whole season that stunk, at least by closers' standards. His first-half 2.30 ERA had nothing to do with good pitching, as he walked nearly five batters every nine innings. It had everything to do with a favorable 26 percent H/BIP rate. As more of those balls in play became hits during the second half, his Fantasy value collapsed. He has long way to go before he can be considered a top closer again.

Joakim Soria, RP, Kansas City: Everyone knows that Soria won't register a 1.63 ERA every year, but how good is he really? Adjust his 22 percent H/BIP to something more realistic, and what you are left with is someone whose stats look suspiciously like those of Chad Qualls.

Russell Martin, C, Los Angeles Dodgers: He hasn't exactly gone all Jason Kendall on us just yet, but his power numbers took a U-turn in '08. Between the 31 percent drop in extra-base hits and the increasing depth in the catcher pool, Martin has nowhere near the value today that he appeared to have back in March.

Carlos Delgado, 1B, New York Mets: I find all this MVP talk perplexing. Delgado's strong finish helped to propel the Mets out of their first-half doldrums, but he is nowhere close to being even the NL's Most Valuable First Baseman. The much-maligned Prince Fielder is also a questionable keeper choice, but his OPS is only five points lower than Delgado's.

Ryan Ludwick, RF, St. Louis Cardinals: Just about everyone missed the boat on Ludwick this year. At the risk of being wrong for a second year in a row, I think Ludwick will drop from the Fantasy elite next year. He will still hit 25-30 homers, but his average could drop 20 points or more. I just don't see him sustaining a .286 Isolated Power or a 34 percent H/BIP, and the resulting decline in these stats will bring all of his Fantasy numbers down.

Glossary
Runs Created per 27 Outs (RC/27) -- An estimate of how many runs a lineup would produce per 27 outs if a particular player occupied each spot in the order; ex. the RC/27 for Miguel Cabrera would predict the productivity of a lineup where Cabrera (or his statistical equal) batted in all nine spots; created by Bill James
Component ERA (ERC) -- An estimate of a what a pitcher's ERA would be if it were based solely on actual pitching performance; created by Bill James
Base Hits per Balls in Play (H/BIP) -- The percentage of balls in play (at bats minus strikeouts and home runs) that are base hits; research by Voros McCracken and others has established that this rate is largely random and has a norm of approximately 30%
Isolated Power -- The difference between slugging percentage and batting average; created by Branch Rickey and Allan Roth
Walk Rate -- Walks / (at bats + walks)
Whiff Rate -- Strikeouts / at bats

Al Melchior was recently a Fantasy columnist and data analyst for Baseball HQ and will be providing advice columns for CBSSports.com. Click here to send him a question. Please put "Melchior" in the subject field.