NL 12TO $50+ Club

[gcstomp]

Had our auction sunday. Our top end hitters went off, with a record number of $50+ prices in league history.

The "bargains" seemed to just be a relaxing of lower end SP's with softer prices, but the hitting bargains never did seem to pop up despite some robust final prices on the studs.

The $50+ club:
$51 Troy Tulo (freeze)
$52 P Fielder
$55 R Howard
$55 M Kemp
$56 H Ramirez (H Ram + M Kemp are both on 1 team)
$60 A Pujols

What does it mean that the top end guys are getting more expensive year after year, what would have been correct play to take advantage if you had known ahead of time there would be this many $50+ guys?

[gcstomp]

The closers getting so pricey after years of predictable mid 20's prices for top guys caught me off guard as well. I threw back a winged B Wilson $29 thinking maybe I would get him back at a couple bucks cheaper. He was the most expensive closer last year.

This year B Wilson $35, so clearly the injury was completely ignored. Yet on that same team w/ Wilson, owner has H Bell $26, C Marmol $31.

You would think that if the big hitters had crazy inflation, and the closers had a record run up price,that there had to be rounds filled with amazing bargains. Yet all I see is that, besides teams having uber studs that graduated from farm years back locked up in cheap contracts, a lil bit of SP softening on the non elite guys.

[joncarlos]

The closer thing wasn't totally unexpected for me. There was SO much inflation that the excess had to go somewhere, even beyond driving the hitters to insane prices. I was surprised the SPs weren't more expensive - I thought getting Cain at 33 would turn out to be a bargain, but it didn't.

[Big Tymer]

Considering both Keith and I punted saves last year and finished 1/2 I agree that the high price for closers was bizarre. Perhaps they are thinking they will command a lot in trade but personally that's not a very safe investment. I was hoping to sneak Wilton Lopez in their cheap to hedge on Lyon but even he went for $11 (serious wtf moment for me).

Beyond closer prices, I didn't find the auction to be wildly different from expectations. Holliday at $43 is clearly the best buy from a tier-1 player but at least on Sunday we weren't sure how long he'd be out so it was a gamble but certainly one that paid off.

I actually thought the mid-tier offensive players were decent value (guys like Chipper $19, Overbay $10, Alex Gonzalez $6, Hawpe $9) and at least personally felt good about getting Marcum for $17. All in all I think there are too many good managers in this league to have too many value guys right after the auction. Now, looking back a few months from now I'm sure we'll see other buys that were crazy good but that's another story.