Strasburg wept.

And so did his keeper league owners.

The right-hander who seemed sent from above -- the one you mortgaged the first half of this season on just to be sure you drafted him in your keeper league -- appears to be headed for Dr. Lewis Yocum's operating table. (Think of him as the Nationals' personal Dr. James Andrews.)

Hopefully you were preparing for this possibility from the first time you saw that ridiculous breaking ball fall off the edge of the earth, but no amount of preparation would make it easier to swallow losing the guy who could have been your ace for years to come.

Unless you have enough DL spots to justify stashing him for a full season, Strasburg has been stricken from your keeper list, and considering how early you probably had to pull the trigger to get him this year, there's a pretty good chance you don't have many more stud SPs on your roster.

So it's time to scour for a sleeper keeper to build around for the future.

It's a little outdated now because of injuries, but here's a pretty solid list of keeper rankings from ESPN.com's Tristan Cockcroft. Peruse it to see if any of the guys on your current roster are worth hanging onto, and if not, start working that waiver wire.

Here are a few names to start your search with:

If you're already out of the playoff picture and desperate for a young pitcher to take into next year, you could probably snag Mike Leake off the scrap heap. The Reds already have sent him to the bullpen, and now they're talking about shutting him down. If nothing else, maybe he gets off to a great start again next season and you can flip him for someone else.

The same goes for Reds teammate Edinson Volquez, who might land on the waiver wire (if he hasn't already) after rumblings the Reds would send him to the bullpen. Volquez isn't all the way back from his own Tommy John surgery, so you can expect him to improve next season from what he did after his return this year.

Along the same lines, the team in your league that snatched up Nationals P Jordan Zimmermann last week might dump him after he allowed five runs in four innings Thursday against St. Louis, but his numbers during his rehab in the minors were impressive and he's still hitting the mid-90s on the gun. Might be worth a flyer.

A few other guys who might have slipped from the grasp of a panic-stricken owner based on recent injuries or poor performance but still have great upside for the future include San Diego's Wade LeBlanc, Tampa Bay's Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann, and Florida's Ricky Nolasco.

Happy hunting.