Back, back, back, back... not gone

Registration for Yahoo! fantasy leagues begins Thursday, and the fact that I'm giddy about being able to get on a fantasy-league message board and name my team tells you 85% of what you need to know about my personality. Sit next to me during a movie or a Maryland-Duke game to pick up the rest.

This will be the seventh year of my 10-team keeper league from my college newspaper. We're pretty far-flung by now -- over seven states! -- but it's still such a fun dialogue, with the right balance of civility and idiocy. I'm already poring over my 2006 roster in preparation for three things:

1. Choosing who to pursue and protect in the faux free-agent signing period. Any player a general manager (me) adds to his team once the season begins is classified as a free agent. When the offseason rolls around, the other nine teams can place bids on him. The more you want a guy, the earlier you'll commit to drafting him. So if the highest bid on Joe Blow is Round 3, I can either let him walk or I can keep him one round later, in Round 4. Conversely, if I want to pursue a free agent, I know I'm only allowed to bid on eight players in all. (We're allowed to keep 12 to begin the year.)
2. After we sign free agents, we decide who to keep in the 23-round draft. Players must be kept one round earlier than they were drafted the year before. So if John Smith was drafted in Round 20 in 2006, and I want to keep him, I forfeit my Round 19 pick this year. It gets a little more complicated when I keep multiple guys drafted in the same round or keep a guy several years in a row, but you don't give a crap. Actually, if you've read this far, maybe you do, but I need to move on.
3. The draft lasts 27 rounds, plus injury time. 2006 draftees can't be kept in Rounds 24 through 27, so this is the spot for rising minor-leaguers and veteran spare parts. After the 27 rounds, for every dude who's already on the disabled list, you get to draft another guy to take his active roster spot until he's healthy again.

The draft is March 31, but the free agent draft and keeper deadline are early next month, and I'm competing in a league chock-full of sports journalists, so I have to overprepare.

Here's my roster. It's an NL-only league. Who should I keep? If you have two guys in the same round, you have to draft one of them a round earlier. I can keep between six and 12 guys.

Oh yeah: I draft first in every round.

Round 1: Aramis Ramirez, Jason Schmidt
Round 3: Mark Mulder
Round 4: Armando Benitez
Round 5: Geoff Jenkins
Round 7: Austin Kearns, Brett Myers, Hanley Ramirez, Jon Lieber
Round 9: Ryan Dempster
Round 11: Brandon Claussen
Round 13: Ryan Madson
Round 14: Nick Johnson
Round 15: Adrian Gonzalez
Round 17: Dan Uggla
Round 21: J.J. Hardy
Round 22: Jeff Francoeur, Jeremy Hermida, Juan Encarnacion
Round 23: Anibal Sanchez, Taylor Buchholz, Dustin Nippert
Free agents: Oliver Perez, Aaron Cook, Cesar Izturis