On Saturday, we had our annual Tout Wars auction, this year in Rock & Reilly's bar in midtown Manhattan. It's a basic 12-team AL-only, 5 x 5 format with some odd rule quirks. The main one is we use OBP instead of batting average, and the smaller one is instead of a fifth OF, there's a second utility spot we call a "swing man," and that swing player can be a hitter or a pitcher.
Here are the results:
Pos | Liss | $ | Podhorzer | $ | Wolf | $ | Erickson | $ | Collette | $ | DiFino | $ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C | Sisco | 1 | Zunino | 11 | Lucroy | 25 | Martin | 17 | Narvaez | 1 | Gomes | 7 |
C | Vazquez | 1 | Soto | 1 | Ramos | 5 | Avila | 2 | Chirinos | 1 | D.Norris | 6 |
1B | C.Davis | 28 | Mauer | 12 | Abreu | 25 | Hosmer | 22 | H.Ramirez | 24 | Park | 6 |
3B | Cuthbert | 1 | Headley | 10 | Moosetacos | 16 | Donaldson | 38 | Valencia | 11 | Castellanos | 19 |
CI | Mi.Cabrera | 34 | Bird | 12 | Vogelbach | 1 | Healy | 10 | Gurriel | 8 | Beltre | 25 |
2B | Dozier | 30 | Saladino | 7 | Cano | 31 | Schoop | 15 | Altuve | 45 | Pearce | 11 |
SS | Correa | 32 | Lindor | 28 | J.Polanco | 10 | Simmons | 8 | Andrus | 23 | J.Igesias | 3 |
MI | Mondesi | 3 | M.Duffy (TB) | 4 | Pedroia | 22 | Colon | 1 | Beckham | 2 | Profar | 11 |
OF | Mazara | 17 | Trout | 47 | Betts | 40 | Revere | 6 | Cruz | 30 | Buxton | 21 |
OF | Moss | 10 | R.Davis | 17 | Pillar | 12 | Springer | 29 | Reddick | 13 | Sano | 22 |
OF | M.Upton | 9 | Choo | 16 | L.Martin | 14 | Calhoun | 19 | Dickerson | 13 | Haniger | 11 |
OF | Brantley | 8 | Judge | 3 | E.Rosario | 6 | Ellsbury | 16 | S.Smith | 11 | Soler | 11 |
UT | A.J. Reed | 2 | Holliday | 14 | Asche | 1 | Carter | 5 | Beltran | 10 | DeShields | 5 |
SW | Grossman | 2 | M.Joyce | 6 | C.Green | 1 | Aoki | 1 | Maybin | 7 | A.Garcia | 3 |
P | Verlander | 24 | F.Hernandez | 16 | Darvish | 28 | Cotton | 9 | Stroman | 16 | Tanaka | 23 |
P | Gausman | 13 | D.Price | 13 | E.Rodriguez | 4 | Piñata | 13 | Bauer | 5 | Bundy | 8 |
P | Keuchel | 13 | Karns | 4 | D.Norris | 5 | Quintana | 17 | Snell | 6 | Odorizzi | 12 |
P | McCullers | 9 | Shoemaker | 11 | Gregerson | 1 | Pomeranz | 4 | Triggs | 4 | Berrios | 5 |
P | Kennedy | 8 | Skaggs | 3 | Hendriks | 1 | Tomlin | 2 | Andriese | 3 | Richards | 8 |
P | Tillman | 2 | Severino | 2 | Madson | 9 | W.Harris | 1 | Devenski | 5 | N.Jones | 5 |
P | M.Gonzalez | 1 | M.Bush | 2 | Dull | 1 | Pressly | 2 | Brach | 2 | Strahm | 7 |
P | Vargas | 1 | Doolittle | 3 | Kela | 1 | Colome | 16 | J.Kelly | 2 | K-Rod | 14 |
P | Bedrosian | 11 | Kimbrel | 18 | M.Feliz | 1 | Kintzler | 7 | Allen | 18 | Robertson | 16 |
R | Marisnick | A.Hicks | Ma.Perez | Nolasco | De Leon | Gallo | ||||||
R | Tellez | Perkins | Ad.Mejia | Orlando | Ja.Jones | Shields | ||||||
R | Y.Diaz | T.Wood | A.Bailey | D.Barney | Hahn | L.Garcia | ||||||
R | J.Mont. | Romine | G.Torres | B.Burns | Chargois | Lawrie |
Pos | Davitt | $ | Schechter | $ | Leibowitz | $ | Trachtman | $ | Moyer | $ | Michaels | $ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C | Vogt | 12 | Castro | 5 | Gattis | 16 | B.McCann | 16 | Sanchez | 25 | Joseph | 1 |
C | Castillo | 13 | J.McCann | 5 | R.Perez | 2 | Perez | 15 | Maldonado | 1 | Leon | 3 |
1B | Encarnacion | 31 | Pujols | 21 | Cron | 12 | L.Morrison | 2 | Moreland | 4 | C.Santana | 26 |
3B | J.Ramirez | 23 | Frazier | 27 | Bregman | 20 | Moncada | 10 | Longoria | 20 | Plouffe | 10 |
CI | Napoli | 12 | Y.Escobar | 6 | Kung Fu Panda | 7 | P.Alvarez | 6 | Seager | 24 | Alonso | 4 |
2B | Kinsler | 24 | Merrifield | 1 | Kipnis | 16 | Odor | 26 | Segura | 26 | Travis | 15 |
SS | T.Anderson | 21 | Tulowitzki | 16 | Gregorius | 6 | Semien | 18 | Bogaerts | 28 | A.Escobar | 11 |
MI | Espinosa | 10 | Rosales | 1 | J.Lowrie | 2 | S.Castro | 16 | Machado | 35 | B.Miller | 19 |
OF | A.Gordon | 15 | Bradley | 20 | Bautista | 26 | Benintendi | 19 | Ad.Jones | 21 | Kiermaier | 19 |
OF | Tilson | 2 | Gardner | 16 | Dyson | 17 | J.Upton | 23 | J.Martinez | 21 | K.Davis | 23 |
OF | J.Marte | 1 | Trumbo | 20 | C.Gomez | 19 | M.Smith | 5 | Swihart | 1 | Kepler | 17 |
OF | Chisenhall | 1 | Me.Cabrera | 15 | Souza | 9 | Rasmus | 3 | Heredia | 1 | Naquin | 10 |
UT | Smoak | 2 | Morales | 20 | Vargas | 3 | Valbuena | 1 | Franklin | 1 | Refsnyder | 2 |
SW | Hardy | 2 | V.Mart | 14 | Cain | 20 | Kim | 1 | O'Brien | 1 | E.Escobar | 1 |
P | Porcello | 17 | Kluber | 29 | Fulmer | 15 | Sale | 27 | Hamels | 16 | Aa.Sanchez | 14 |
P | Duffy | 22 | Salazar | 14 | Carrasco | 20 | Paxton | 16 | McHugh | 6 | Archer | 22 |
P | Happ | 10 | Iwakuma | 3 | Musgrove | 7 | S.Gray | 4 | Morton | 5 | Cobb | 7 |
P | Liriano | 8 | Chavez | 1 | Rodon | 6 | Boyd | 3 | Hammel | 2 | E.Santana | 5 |
P | Manaea | 11 | Santiago | 1 | S.Wright | 4 | Fiers | 2 | Sabathia | 1 | J.Zimm. | 3 |
P | Estrada | 9 | Casilla | 1 | Giolito | 2 | R.Lopez | 1 | K.Kendrick | 1 | Graveman | 2 |
P | Smyly | 11 | Street | 1 | S.Dyson | 11 | T.Ross | 1 | D.Holland | 1 | Betances | 13 |
P | T.Duffey | 1 | O'Day | 1 | Givens | 2 | Chapman | 25 | Thornburg | 1 | A.Miller | 14 |
P | Gibson | 2 | Britton | 22 | Herrera | 18 | E.Diaz | 20 | Giles | 18 | Osuna | 19 |
R | Ma.Gonzalez | Guyer | Barreto | Rua | Pagan | Holt | ||||||
R | Carrera | Wendle | Davidson | Canha | Otero | Bourn | ||||||
R | Cessa | A.Griffin | Gallardo | Warren | B.Rondon | Mengden | ||||||
R | J.Jimenez | Miranda | Torreyes | B.Mitchell | Mancini | D.Paulino |
My aim was to buy a few big name players I liked at reasonable prices, then save some money for the end game where I had a few targets as well. I wanted one ace pitcher, and I knew I would probably punt catcher. I also wanted to roster Dellin Betances, Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller, like I did last year when they were Yankees, but all three went for more than I thought. (I was the penultimate bidder on each.)
The first player I bought, Brian Dozier for 30, was an accident. I don't love Dozier or have him anywhere else, but in an OBP league he's worth closer to 35 in my opinion. Same with Carlos Correa - not a target, but the price was right. I went after two of my favorite AL players, Chris Davis - no average downside in OBP - and Miguel Cabrera, one of the greatest right-handed hitters of all time still in his late prime.
After that, I got Justin Verlander for $24, a price with which I was happy, given Masahiro Tanaka went for $23, Danny Duffy $22, Yu Darvish $28 and Corey Kluber $29. I had a little money toward the end and was able to snap up Kevin Gausman ($13), Dallas Keuchel ($13), Michael Brantley ($8) and Lance McCullers ($9). People seemed to think McCullers was the steal of the draft at that price which almost certainly means he was not.
I'm shaky on saves with only possible closer Cam Bedrosian. and I don't have much speed unless Raul Mondesi sticks and runs, and Melvin Upton has regular at-bats. But this isn't the NFBC - I can trade for steals if need be.
One mistake I made was Ian Kennedy for $8. I have no problem with the price, but it was during the end game when people had overspent, and that money would have gone a long way at that stage. Still, I like my pitching, and while my hitting is stars and scrubs, there are a lot of upside bats in the mix like A.J. Reed, Mondesi and Robbie Grossman in OBP.