We did the AL Tout Wars draft Saturday morning, once again in "The Bubble" at the Sirius/XM studios. It was a different Tout experience than my usual drafts at Tout - lately I haven't paid for closers there, or spent much on my outfielders. But I'm also one to take the values where they fall. So to that end, here's my squad:
C - Joe Mauer, $21 - Two more bucks than Liss spent on him at LABR, but still a couple dollars under what I had for him. And I've been coming up a little short on BA, so going after him was a purposeful effort.
C - Matt Wieters, $19 - My first buy of the draft - you know me, I like to get productive catchers in these only leagues.
1B - Justin Morneau, $19 - I remain persuaded that his comeback is legit, and a possible midseason trade could only help.
3B - Kyle Seager, $21 - Also qualifies at 2B in Tout (15 games played is the floor). The power should be pretty good, the batting average might drop. Hidden factor - I think 3B is actually really thin in the AL, just as much as 2B.
CR - Adam Lind, $9 - Eh, he's taking yoga now! Not a target, but purely a "take what the draft gives you" play.
2B - Tyler Greene, $7 - Qualifies at both 2B/SS, could be a nice cheap stolen base play, could be benched in favor of the immortal Marwin Gonzalez. (Ed note: It appears I underestimated his downside - as he's been informed he won't make the team, losing out to Ronny Cedeno among others.)
SS - Jurickson Profar, $7 - Perhaps my favorite buy of the auction. He's not going to pull a Mike Trout, but he can flat out play. The Rangers at some point are going to have to find a way for him to play, and I don't think they'll pull a contractual reason to keep him down. Even if he comes up later, he'll earn it.
MI / SW - Alexi Casilla, $2 / Ryan Roberts, $2 - Coverage for when Profar is down, attempts for cheap speed and flexibility.
OF - Adam Jones, $29 - My most expensive player - pretty rare for me, usually I have a couple of $30 players. But I don't think that the AL is as top-heavy as the NL, so I don't mind living in the middle as opposed to buying the premium guys this year.
OF - Coco Crisp, $19 - Health is always the concern, but if he's out there playing, he'll get me 35-45 bags.
OF - Jeff Francoeur, $9 - The outfield version of Adam Lind - he stinks, but he'll get the ABs and give me 10-10 HR/SB production.
OF - Brandon Moss, $12 - Jeez, I end up getting him everywhere. Needed power from this spot. Playing time will be there, too.
UT - Justin Smoak, $7 - I'll either get a $7 profit or he'll earn $0. There's no in-between.
P - Fernando Rodney, $19 - With this price, I guess I'm showing that I believe his gains were real. I might have cost myself $2 by nominating him too high.
P - Joe Nathan, $19 - And once I had one closer, I wanted another, and I put Nathan in a small class of safe closers. For what it's worth, Joe Sheehan disagrees, and we have a bet on Nathan vs. Joakim Soria.
P - C.J. Wilson, $13 - His downswing last year was because of the elbow chips, not a change in skill. I expect a good rebound.
P - Doug Fister, $15 - If for no other reason, I was able to alter Larry Schechter's plan, as he was the $14 bid. He told me after the draft that it wrecked his plan ... so that made me pretty happy.
P - Andy Pettitte, $5 - If I get 20 starts out of him, this is probably a profit.
P - Brett Myers, $3 - He should benefit from the new park, and he's fine as a starter, but bidding the marginal dollar here was a mistake. I would have rather had a marginally better hitter in this spot.
P - Drew Smyly, $2 - He might lose out on the battle with Rick Porcello, he might end up getting 20 starts after a trade.
P - Koji Uehara, $1 - Just a good pitcher - not deluded that he'll close. Maybe a mistake, though.
P - Ricky Romero, $1 - Total Last Year's Bum buy, my last player.
RESERVES:
Joe Saunders
Brian Matusz
Dylan Axelrod
Brendan Ryan