Anatomy of a Crazy Auction (very long read)

[Ken]

If it makes you feel any better I would agree with you on Castro. Bidding should have been rolled back to the last legal bid (Dave for $1) and then anyone should have been able to bid.

Yes I agree with that too.

[chancellor]

Great stuff, Cavebird! We have an individual notorious for making illegal bids, so we added a rule to the constitution to cover the Castro issue. Not only is bidding rolled back to the last legal bid, the person making the illegal bid is fined $5.

I like how you finished out your roster - I'm not sure Happ will hit over .260 again, but he'll likely win the starting job and should provide really good counting stats, KSeager is totally unsexy but well worth $2, Stanek being fully healthy is a solid RP and could well sneak in saves, and being able to flip Marquez in and out of away starts is great. The longer layoff may well help Piscotty get and stay healthy and he could be a really good benefit on your reserves.

[cavebird]

Okay, attempt two at showing the relevant rosters. Keepers in bold. Not side by side, because, well, that doesn't work.

Me

C 1 Vazquez,Christian
1B 44 Freeman,Freddie
CI 13 Cron,C.J.
3B 19 Turner,Justin
2B 25 Moustakas,Mike
MI 21 Rosario,Amed
SS 33 Bogaerts,Xander
OF 11 Acuna,Ronald
OF 33 Meadows,Austin
OF 22 Castellanos,Nick
OF 7 Anderson,Brian
OF 1 Happ,Ian
UT 1 Seager,Kyle
SP 11 Flaherty,Jack
SP 6 Montas,Frankie
SP 11 Rodriguez,Eduardo
SP 4 Musgrove,Joe
SP 2 Sanchez,Anibal
SP 2 Marquez,German
RP 1 Stanek,Ryne
RP 2 Newcomb,Sean
RP 4 Karinchak,James
RP 6 Anderson,Nick
RP 7 Kennedy,Ian
RES 0 Abrams,C.J.
RES 0 Walker,Taijuan
RES 0 Bleday,J.J.
RES 0 Piscotty,Stephen
RES 0 Smoak,Justin
RES 0 Lopez,Pablo
RES 0 Treinen,Blake
RES 0 Thames,Eric
RES 0 Cruz,Oneil
RES 0 Fowler,Dexter

Jeff

C 2 Jansen,Danny
1B 4 Voit,Luke
CI 7 Murphy,Daniel
3B 23 Donaldson,Josh
2B 29 Merrifield,Whit
MI 10 Segura,Jean
SS 21 Lindor,Francisco
OF 16 Benintendi,Andrew
OF 36 Harper,Bryce
OF 12 Buxton,Byron
OF 13 Upton,Justin
OF 3 Puig,Yasiel
UT 3 Bohm,Alec
SP 20 Clevinger,Mike
SP 20 Castillo,Luis
SP 14 Ryu,Hyun-Jin
SP 13 Urias,Julio
SP 7 Weaver,Luke
SP 2 Samardzija,Jeff
RP 1 May,Trevor
RP 2 Harris,Will
RP 2 Kahnle,Tommy
RP 14 Kela,Keone
RP 19 Hand,Brad
RES 0 Dominguez,Jasson
RES 0 Skubal,Tarik
RES 0 Quintana,Jose
RES 0 Cabrera,Miguel
RES 0 Stripling,Ross
RES 0 Kikuchi,Yusei
RES 0 Kendrick,Howie
RES 0 Lopez,Reynaldo
RES 0 Bichette,Bo
RES 0 Bart,Joey

Dave

C 1 Molina,Yadier
1B 30 Goldschmidt,Paul
CI 55 Bellinger,Cody
3B 1 Castro,Starlin
2B 11 Albies,Ozzie
MI 11 Mondesi,Adalberto
SS 6 Gregorius,Didi
OF 26 Betts,Mookie
OF 6 Soto,Juan
OF 1 Reyes,Victor
OF 1 Heyward,Jason
OF 1 Kirilloff,Alex
UT 1 Solak,Nick
SP 11 Wheeler,Zack
SP 57 Scherzer,Max
SP 29 Darvish,Yu
SP 1 Kim,Kwang-Hyun
SP 1 Fiers,Mike
SP 1 DeSclafani,Anthony
RP 1 Liberatore,Adam
RP 1 Suter,Brent
RP 24 Giles,Ken
RP 12 Martinez,Carlos
RP 6 Hendriks,Liam
RES 0 Witt,Bobby
RES 0 Sanchez,Sixto
RES 0 Means,John
RES 0 Pujols,Albert
RES 0 Pineda,Michael
RES 0 Winker,Jesse
RES 0 Hayes,Ke'Bryan
RES 0 Robert,Luis
RES 0 Mesa,Victor
RES 0 Alvarez,Yordan

The Commish

C 2 Narvaez,Omar
1B 1 Moreland,Mitch
CI 2 Urshela,Giovanny
3B 40 Rendon,Anthony
2B 13 Lowe,Brandon
MI 5 Berti,Jon
SS 35 Baez,Javier
OF 57 Yelich,Christian
OF 6 Reynolds,Bryan
OF 11 Braun,Ryan
OF 5 Akiyama,Shogo
OF 6 Garcia,Avisail
UT 12 Ohtani,Shohei
SP 44 Verlander,Justin
SP 23 Woodruff,Brandon
SP 5 Tanaka,Masahiro
SP 1 Mikolas,Miles
SP 1 Hill,Rich
SP 1 Montgomery,Jordan
RP 1 Lindblom,Josh
RP 1 Petit,Yusmeiro
RP 1 Stammen,Craig
RP 5 Betances,Dellin
RP 7 Rogers,Taylor
RES 0 Happ,J.A.
RES 0 Longoria,Evan
RES 0 O Neill,Tyler
RES 0 Ahmed,Nick
RES 0 Bishop,Hunter
RES 0 Eovaldi,Nathan
RES 0 Gonzalez,Gio
RES 0 Nimmo,Brandon
RES 0 White,Evan
RES 0 Lux,Gavin

Mike (the other guy with a solid keeper list)

C 7 Perez,Salvador
1B 14 Bell,Josh
CI 2 Mancini,Trey
3B 22 Chapman,Matt
2B 6 Biggio,Cavan
MI 6 Wong,Kolten
SS 14 Tatis,Fernando
OF 1 Senzel,Nick
OF 13 Soler,Jorge
OF 10 Reyes,Franmil
OF 7 Grisham,Trent
OF 6 Peraza,Jose
UT 16 Andrus,Elvis
SP 6 Giolito,Lucas
SP 37 Strasburg,Stephen
SP 14 Paddack,Chris
SP 26 Syndergaard,Noah
SP 6 Smith,Caleb
SP 8 McCullers,Lance
RP 9 Jimenez,Joe
RP 2 Oberg,Scott
RP 6 Kintzler,Brandon
RP 16 Doolittle,Sean
RP 28 Osuna,Roberto
RES 0 Tsutsugo,Yoshitomo
RES 0 Long,Shed
RES 0 Tauchman,Mike
RES 0 Dyson,Jarrod
RES 0 Aquino,Aristides
RES 0 Mahle,Tyler
RES 0 Alberto,Hanser
RES 0 Wright,Kyle
RES 0 Diaz,Yusniel
RES 0 Astudillo,Willians


Those are the top five that I see, although others are close. For shits and giggles, here are the teams of Steve and Colin.

Steve

C 1 Smith,Will D.
1B 1 Tellez,Rowdy
CI 6 La Stella,Tommy
3B 16 Bregman,Alex
2B 3 Odor,Rougned
MI 2 Profar,Jurickson
SS 26 Correa,Carlos
OF 6 Gurriel,Lourdes
OF 6 Brinson,Lewis
OF 32 Judge,Aaron
OF 23 Pham,Tommy
OF 3 Polanco,Gregory
UT 2 Carlson,Dylan
SP 58 DeGrom,Jacob
SP 56 Buehler,Walker
SP 27 Nola,Aaron
SP 17 Luzardo,Jesus
SP 1 Pearson,Nate
SP 1 Gibson,Kyle
RP 1 Vazquez,Felipe
RP 1 Garrett,Amir
RP 1 Davis,Wade
RP 4 Givens,Mychal
RP 1 Burdi,Nick
RES 0 Larnach,Trevor
RES 0 Downs,Jeter
RES 0 McKay,Brendan
RES 0 Adell,Jo
RES 0 Pache,Cristian
RES 0 Gore,Mackenzie
RES 0 Kieboom,Carter
RES 0 Mize,Casey
RES 0 Puk,A.J.
RES 0 Whitley,Forrest

Colin

C 9 Grandal,Yasmani
1B 9 Walker,Christian
CI 7 Davis,J.D.
3B 2 Diaz,Yandy
2B 2 Gordon,Dee
MI 1 Adames,Willy
SS 1 Simmons,Andrelton
OF 4 Peralta,David
OF 2 Hilliard,Sam
OF 10 McCutchen,Andrew
OF 1 Santander,Anthony
OF 7 Renfroe,Hunter
UT 8 Davis,Khris
SP 35 Bieber,Shane
SP 22 Bauer,Trevor
SP 21 Glasnow,Tyler
SP 12 Carrasco,Carlos
SP 17 Gallen,Zac
SP 5 Bundy,Dylan
RP 7 Leclerc,Jose
RP 20 Iglesias,Raisel
RP 23 Kimbrel,Craig
RP 31 Yates,Kirby
RP 35 Hader,Josh
RES 0 Luciano,Marco
RES 0 Robinson,Kristian
RES 0 Brujan,Vidal
RES 0 Jones,Nolan
RES 0 Green,Riley
RES 0 Peralta,Freddy
RES 0 Margot,Manuel
RES 0 Taylor,Chris
RES 0 Mauricio,Ronny
RES 0 Pena,Erick

Fingers crossed on formatting.

[cavebird]

FWIW, the program standings (which are always misleading; for example, it cannot consider that I will use Marquez on the road) after putting the obvious free keepers (Bichette, Alvaraez, etc.) in teams' lineups has Dave at 113.5, me at 107.5, Jeff at 103.5, the Commish at 100.0, another team (Commish's wife) at 99.0, and Mike at 92.5. More or less as I expected. That, however, is using the projections from draft day---i.e. before Mike lost Syndergaard for the season. After updating, me and Dave are the same, Jeff is up to 106.5, Randy is up to 100.5 and his wife is up to 100.0. Mike is down to eighth at 83.0.

Of course, assuming there is a season, I have on problem compared especially to Dave. He has keepers to trade---Albies, Modesi, etc. I don't have much at all. Montas is about it. With our rules on dump trades (350 in-season salary cap and a max of 3-1), I can't get enough value to trade Acuna that I could fit in my lineup, and Flaherty and E-Rod are on final, expiring contracts.

So, my analysis of the draft is that more or less the top contenders all held serve. The commish and his wife both had good drafts. All up in the air---everything is tight, and the Syndergaard injury shows how volatile things could be based on injuries. I am happy that I got some depth in SP (Newcomb, Lopez, Walker) and hitting (Piscotty, Thames) in the reserve draft to help me out. On the other hand, the lack of keepers to trade might hamstring me--I would need a new keeper to pop up to help me, and given the prices I paid for my players, I don't know if that is likely. I am going to have to go for it the old fashioned way through the waiver wire.

So, what sayeth the pen?

[Erik]

Actually, no. This league has been around since the early 90's in one form or another. Baseball people, not football people. But they were doing 1 C long before most were, for reasons that pre-date my membership in the league. Lots of weird rules that relate to random experiences.

That's somewhat similar to my league. It dates from the mid-80s (there are no original members left) and the founders just cobbled together a bunch of rules on their own because things weren't really codified back then. Some of the unusual rules have been changed over the years to conform with standard Roto rules, but some of them remain, and 1 C is one of those.

[Hornsby]

Why would Mike keep Astudillo? That makes no sense...I have to assume a formatting error in that case.

Otherwise, I do like your team, solid to great at every position, with very good pitching, although a bit light on starters. You'll need Marquez to shine on the road, and maybe at home, and Karinchak to make a contribution. Lopez could be sneaky good, and I really like Treinen. He has the possibility to really take the job if the Jansen recovery hits the skids. Nice job...

[chancellor]

Overall, I agree with Hornsby - very solid team, some risk at SP. I think you're also light on speed - I'm figuring Acuna/Rosario for 65-70 SBs, Meadows for another 15ish, and Happ for about 10. You need a break or two to get some players to deal at dump time - like Happ doing well and generating interest, or, as Horns noted, Treinen taking over as closer, or Piscotty staying healthy and returning to 2018 form. But you look like you have a highly competitive team.

[cavebird]

Why would Mike keep Astudillo? That makes no sense...I have to assume a formatting error in that case.

Otherwise, I do like your team, solid to great at every position, with very good pitching, although a bit light on starters. You'll need Marquez to shine on the road, and maybe at home, and Karinchak to make a contribution. Lopez could be sneaky good, and I really like Treinen. He has the possibility to really take the job if the Jansen recovery hits the skids. Nice job...

He did keep Astudillo. He's a 10th round reserve pick keeper. Kept because, well, he's fun, I guess. He'll likely be dropped before the season starts.

[Sharky]

CB - thanks for posting! Great fun and well done (for a Braves fan!).

Good luck with your season!

[NL Only]

Thanks for the rundown Cavebird! I love reading these.