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not so much a HDID, as i know pretty much where i fell down and where i did OK, but will post some observations and my roster and thoughts on it.
going in: i did predict inflation on pitching, and so was happy that i had kept a bunch of pitching (though you might argue it wasn't the right pitching
). but, like rick, i didn't predict it extending down into the mid- to even lower tiers. it really was a bit insane. we've had what i consider insane inflation on hitting before but never quite on pitching, at least like that (at least in the 6 years i've been in the league). i had intended to get one mid-level closer, and two $5-ish starters to bolster my keeper pitchers, but you'll see that that didn't quite work out. my pre-auction analysis showed a bit of a crunch in MI, which was not good for me as i needed all 3. CI and OF (and U) looked reasonable, and i expected there could be, if not bargains, decent prices had. C seemed bi-modal, with a couple of guys at the top and then i figured i could get a cheap one ($1 or $2).
going in, based on keepers + farm, i had the following tiers of teams:
T1 - rick
T2 - mike, hammer, brad
T3 - dane, sean, ed, paul
T4 - ray, michael, steve
T5 - me, andy, nate, frae
T6 - doig, jude, john
rick had a powerhouse of keepers + farm, and was clearly the front-runner going into the auction.
auction: stud hitters went for high values, which i expected. that extended further down than i thought it would, and i ended up even paying relatively high prices for T3 or T4 hitters, which i didn't expect. and the pitching inflation really was my achilles heel. i ended up overspending on what little pitching i thought i still needed, and then not being able to catch up on hitting. you'll see from my roster what i mean. rick price enforced, as he should as the front-runner going in, and that didn't help the inflation. in terms of auction mechanics, it was one of the smoothest i've been involved in on CBS, and i've probably done 30 or 40 of them. 4 hours for an 18-team league is impressively smooth. the only tiny hiccup was in dollar days - it'd be awesome if CBS would figure out that nobody can overbid a $1 nomination and just finish the player immediately. but that really only extended things by about 10 minutes.
roster:
C Yan Gomes $2
1B Tommy Joseph $3 (keeper)
3B Pablo Sandoval $1 (keeper)
CI Mike Napoli $18
2B Dustin Pedroia $23
SS Elvis Andrus $23
MI Josh Harrison $11
OF Steven Souza $1 (keeper)
OF Kevin Kiermaier $4 (keeper)
OF Melky Cabrera $16
OF Shin-Soo Choo $8
OF Matt Holliday $13
U Mallex Smith $9
U Michael Saunders $4
Bench Austin Barnes $1
Minors Josh Bell
P Madison Bumgarner $36 (keeper)
P Justin Verlander $18 (keeper)
P Dallas Keuchel $10 (keeper)
P Sonny Gray $9 (keeper)
P Collin McHugh $7
P Blake Snell $6 (keeper)
P David Robertson $19
P Wade Davis $10 (keeper)
P Ryan Madson $8
Bench Tyler Anderson $1
Bench Brad Hand $1
Bench Sean Doolittle $2
Bench Michael Feliz $1
analysis: strong in pitching, weak in hitting. it's a pretty easy analysis. i have myself middle-of-the-pack overall, carried by the pitching. but there are question marks there as well. you could question the sonny gray keep, but with the $5 keeper drop penalty, you have to ask whether you think he'll return $4 or not - i think he will (not much more, but might return the $9) - and whether he's occupying a critical keeper slot (he wasn't, for my roster). madson might not keep the closer role long, which is partly why i paid $2 for doolittle. mchugh is a question mark as he recovers from his injury (though all signs are positive currently). keuchel still has question marks surrounding him. but i think overall i compete well in pitching. hitting, well, is so thin that i will have to steal from the pitching to do much at all there. i'm happy with a couple of my purchases, but there's just not enough there. so, likely a rebuilding year, as much as i can.
ETA: my post-auction tiers are:
T1 - rick, mike, hammer
T2 - dane, michael, frae, brad, me, andy
T3 - steve, ray, paul
T4 - ed, sean, john
T5 - nate, doig, jude
with a lot of fuzziness at some of the boundaries.
going in: i did predict inflation on pitching, and so was happy that i had kept a bunch of pitching (though you might argue it wasn't the right pitching
). but, like rick, i didn't predict it extending down into the mid- to even lower tiers. it really was a bit insane. we've had what i consider insane inflation on hitting before but never quite on pitching, at least like that (at least in the 6 years i've been in the league). i had intended to get one mid-level closer, and two $5-ish starters to bolster my keeper pitchers, but you'll see that that didn't quite work out. my pre-auction analysis showed a bit of a crunch in MI, which was not good for me as i needed all 3. CI and OF (and U) looked reasonable, and i expected there could be, if not bargains, decent prices had. C seemed bi-modal, with a couple of guys at the top and then i figured i could get a cheap one ($1 or $2).going in, based on keepers + farm, i had the following tiers of teams:
T1 - rick
T2 - mike, hammer, brad
T3 - dane, sean, ed, paul
T4 - ray, michael, steve
T5 - me, andy, nate, frae
T6 - doig, jude, john
rick had a powerhouse of keepers + farm, and was clearly the front-runner going into the auction.
auction: stud hitters went for high values, which i expected. that extended further down than i thought it would, and i ended up even paying relatively high prices for T3 or T4 hitters, which i didn't expect. and the pitching inflation really was my achilles heel. i ended up overspending on what little pitching i thought i still needed, and then not being able to catch up on hitting. you'll see from my roster what i mean. rick price enforced, as he should as the front-runner going in, and that didn't help the inflation. in terms of auction mechanics, it was one of the smoothest i've been involved in on CBS, and i've probably done 30 or 40 of them. 4 hours for an 18-team league is impressively smooth. the only tiny hiccup was in dollar days - it'd be awesome if CBS would figure out that nobody can overbid a $1 nomination and just finish the player immediately. but that really only extended things by about 10 minutes.
roster:
C Yan Gomes $2
1B Tommy Joseph $3 (keeper)
3B Pablo Sandoval $1 (keeper)
CI Mike Napoli $18
2B Dustin Pedroia $23
SS Elvis Andrus $23
MI Josh Harrison $11
OF Steven Souza $1 (keeper)
OF Kevin Kiermaier $4 (keeper)
OF Melky Cabrera $16
OF Shin-Soo Choo $8
OF Matt Holliday $13
U Mallex Smith $9
U Michael Saunders $4
Bench Austin Barnes $1
Minors Josh Bell
P Madison Bumgarner $36 (keeper)
P Justin Verlander $18 (keeper)
P Dallas Keuchel $10 (keeper)
P Sonny Gray $9 (keeper)
P Collin McHugh $7
P Blake Snell $6 (keeper)
P David Robertson $19
P Wade Davis $10 (keeper)
P Ryan Madson $8
Bench Tyler Anderson $1
Bench Brad Hand $1
Bench Sean Doolittle $2
Bench Michael Feliz $1
analysis: strong in pitching, weak in hitting. it's a pretty easy analysis
. i have myself middle-of-the-pack overall, carried by the pitching. but there are question marks there as well. you could question the sonny gray keep, but with the $5 keeper drop penalty, you have to ask whether you think he'll return $4 or not - i think he will (not much more, but might return the $9) - and whether he's occupying a critical keeper slot (he wasn't, for my roster). madson might not keep the closer role long, which is partly why i paid $2 for doolittle. mchugh is a question mark as he recovers from his injury (though all signs are positive currently). keuchel still has question marks surrounding him. but i think overall i compete well in pitching. hitting, well, is so thin that i will have to steal from the pitching to do much at all there. i'm happy with a couple of my purchases, but there's just not enough there. so, likely a rebuilding year, as much as i can.ETA: my post-auction tiers are:
T1 - rick, mike, hammer
T2 - dane, michael, frae, brad, me, andy
T3 - steve, ray, paul
T4 - ed, sean, john
T5 - nate, doig, jude
with a lot of fuzziness at some of the boundaries.
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