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I always enjoy reading these from others, so figured I might as well write up my auction again from this past weekend. This is an online league that's been around since 1997. 10 teams, NL only, 5x5, 25 man roster plus 6 reserves that are drafted at the same time, so we get a total of $286 for 31 players ($280 for 25 plus $1 each budgeted for the reserves, though we can spend more on reserves if you want). We drafted on Opening Day this year (Sunday, April 2nd).
I came in with a pretty strong keeper list:
Keepers (F=Final year, can't extend):
C Francisco Cervelli, Pit $3F
1B Joey Votto, Cin $22 (1 year extension)
3B Anthony Rendon, Was $15F
3B Eugenio Suarez, Cin $5F
2B/1B Daniel Murphy, Was $15 (1 year extension)
2B Ryan Schimpf, SD $5
OF Bryce Harper, Was $18F
OF Billy Hamilton, Cin $15F
OF Odubel Herrera, Phi $11 (2 year extension)
OF Domingo Santana, Mil $5F
OF Adam Duvall, Cin $2
OF Denard Span, SF $5F
P Stephen Strasburg, Was $30F
P Johnny Cueto, SF $21
P Joe Ross, Was $5
P Kenta Maeda, LA $10
P Ivan Nova, Pit $5
P Brandon Maurer, SD $8
Analysis: I kept 18 for $200, leaving $86 for 13 spots. I needed a second C, a SS, a UT and 4 pitchers, plus 6 Reserves.
As I've mentioned in other threads, this league always seems to have something unpredictable happen with keepers. This year, we had one owner who missed the deadline, apparently due to a family obligation. Our commissioner offered to give him a short extension, but the owner decided that to be fair, he'd not keep anyone (he had no guaranteed contracts). This messed up my plans a little, both in that it now meant a couple of top tier SPs I hadn't expected to be available were back in the auction (which left me second guessing keeping Strasburg at $30), and meant that owner would have a TON of money to spend.
My goal going in was to try to grab a top SS (there were 4 available, Villar, Story, Baez, and Peraza, then a drop off to Brandon Crawford, and then pretty much nothing), a UT pick in the $15-$18 range, a $1 Catcher, 1 of the 4 named closers available (Melancon, W. Davis, Ramos and Feliz), and then hopefully a mid-teens SP and a $5-10 SP. I wanted to add a bit of extra speed (hopefully at SS, which would mean Villar or Peraza) after trading away Travis Jankowski before the auction, though I was already in pretty good shape there, and then a power hitter at UT.
The Auction:
As mentioned, this is an online league run through ESPN. Right away, I started feeling like things were a little off, as several position players I didn't have room for went under value, while other players I was interested in were well over my inflated values. I sat there for a while trying to figure out how to handle that, but didn't do a very good job of it.
Dee Gordon - $18 ($68 for 12). I wanted to add some speed as mentioned, and when Gordon came out and the bidding stopped here, I jumped. In hindsight, I'm not very happy about that choice, as it meant I both used up my last UT spot early, and shoehorned myself into only really being able to target Story or Baez at SS. The next player after Gordon was Baez, who ended up going for $18 as well. In retrospect, I think I made a mistake and should've bid more there, but didn't, figuring I'd target Story and still sort of recalculating from Gordon.
John Lackey - $15 ($53 for 11). A lot of bad things happened in succession before my next buy. After Baez, Villar came out and went for $33, which seemed a little low, but I couldn't really afford it, and didn't need his speed anymore. The top two closers, Melancon and Davis, also came up and went for, for this league, very high prices at $25 and $23. I can't remember any closer topping around $20 or $21 recently, let alone one not named Jansen/Chapman/etc. Then Trevor Story comes up, who I have valued in the mid $20s. Bidding is heavy, and I end up chasing him well beyond that, going as high as $30, but can't justify more after the guy with all the money bids $31. A few other SPs come off the board as well for more than I'm looking to pay, and I end up with Lackey, which seems ok, though not really who I wanted.
Robert Gsellman - $8 ($45 for 10). Now the other thing I'm worried about happens. There are two named closers left, neither of whom are anything special, Feliz and Ramos. Feliz comes up, and I bid past what I wanted to, but get outbid at $20. I'm resigned to now pretty much needing to buy Ramos, a position I hate being stuck in, but I don't want to go in with Maurer as my only closer, and I'm not sure exactly what else to spend on since my only hitter openings are C and SS, with little left at either spot (aside from Peraza, who I don't really need and figure will be subject to a bidding war anyway). I pick up Gsellman, who I was targeting for around $7, for a dollar over.
Carter Capps - $6 ($39 for 9). A little more than I wanted to pay, but there's been a run on closers in waiting at this point, and having Maurer's presumptive backup (and a very good reliever in general if he's back) seems like a good idea, even though the Padres may not offer a lot of saves.
A.J. Ramos - $23 ($16 for 8). I'm disgusted to have to pay this much, but as the only closer left (who I don't even particularly like), here we are. It could've been worse if someone bid me up more. That means I'm not going to able to bid much on anyone else at this point.
Brandon Crawford - $8 ($8 for 7). Peraza went a few picks earlier for $11, which was heart-breaking, but I couldn't bid. Not sure why no one else went after him. Crawford is not who I wanted, but I'm actually surprised to get him for this price. It leaves me at a max bid of $2, but at this point, I felt it was a better option than dealing with the remaining SS wasteland after him.
Grant Dayton - $1 ($7 for 6). I'm basically in dollar days, with several others still having money, so I just start throwing out decent relievers, and this one gets crickets. At this point I'm trying to figure out strategy about whether to bring up guys I want or guys I hope will use up some money. I try a combination of both, without a lot of luck either way. Having a top bid of $2 makes for slow going.
Brad Ziegler - $1 ($6 for 5). Possible backup for Ramos, though Barraclough was kept by someone else and could ruin my attempt to get the Marlin's saves.
Seth Lugo - $1 ($5 for 4). I was kind of hoping someone would bid here, but no one did. Given the recent injury news update, he may be a drop candidate.
Patrick Corbin - $1 ($4 for 3). One of my deep sleepers this year, the only one I ended up being able to grab. Not the best first start, but we'll see.
Hector Rondon - $1 ($3 for 2). I'm having no luck getting any position players at this range, and am starting to even run low on pitchers to consider. I like Rondon, but given that the Cubs seem to keep replacing him as closer despite good numbers, I'm not sure where he stands in the pecking order any more.
Manny Pina - $1 ($2 for 1). Yay, finally my second catcher. I've been outbid on every halfway decent catcher, so this is what's left.
Stephen Cardullo - $1 ($1 left over). There's pretty much nothing out there at this point, I look around for a hitter and just grab someone with the clock ticking down. A longshot to be anything useful.
Roster:
C Francisco Cervelli, Pit $3F
C Manny Pina, Mil $1
1B Joey Votto, Cin $22 (1 year extension)
3B Anthony Rendon, Was $15F
CI Eugenio Suarez, Cin $5F
2B Daniel Murphy, Was $15 (1 year extension)
SS Brandon Crawford, SF $8
MI Ryan Schimpf, SD $5
OF Bryce Harper, Was $18F
OF Billy Hamilton, Cin $15F
OF Odubel Herrera, Phi $11 (2 year extension)
OF Domingo Santana, Mil $5F
OF Adam Duvall, Cin $2
UT Denard Span, SF $5F
UT Dee Gordon, Mia $18
P Stephen Strasburg, Was $30F
P Johnny Cueto, SF $21
P Joe Ross, Was $5
P Kenta Maeda, LA $10
P Ivan Nova, Pit $5
P John Lackey, Chi $15
P Robert Gsellman, NY $8
P Brandon Maurer, SD $8
P A.J. Ramos, Mia $23
P Carter Capps, SD $6 (rotating spot)
Be Grant Dayton, LA $1
Be Brad Ziegler, Mia $1
Be Seth Lugo, NY $1
Be Patrick Corbin, Ari $1
Be Hector Rondon, Chi $1
Be Stephen Cardullo, Col $1
Thoughts:
I feel like I had a really bad auction as far as executing the plan I came in with. For some reason, it seemed every position/player I wanted this year, multiple other people were targeting, and good players I had no room for were all going under value. If I had it to do over again, I would've passed on Gordon and then bought either Villar or Peraza for speed instead, then saved my UT spot for later and gotten a power hitter. I also should've paid more attention to how many teams needed closers and probably bid more on Melancon or Davis instead of getting stuck over-spending on Ramos as the last closer. I'm also worried about my bench, which is mostly middle relievers at this point, as so far, I see next to nothing to FAAB bid on, though hopefully that will change.
Having said that, my keeper list was strong enough that I'd probably be in the running no matter what I bought at auction, and the auction wasn't a total failure. I definitely could've put myself in a stronger position than I did though.
I came in with a pretty strong keeper list:
Keepers (F=Final year, can't extend):
C Francisco Cervelli, Pit $3F
1B Joey Votto, Cin $22 (1 year extension)
3B Anthony Rendon, Was $15F
3B Eugenio Suarez, Cin $5F
2B/1B Daniel Murphy, Was $15 (1 year extension)
2B Ryan Schimpf, SD $5
OF Bryce Harper, Was $18F
OF Billy Hamilton, Cin $15F
OF Odubel Herrera, Phi $11 (2 year extension)
OF Domingo Santana, Mil $5F
OF Adam Duvall, Cin $2
OF Denard Span, SF $5F
P Stephen Strasburg, Was $30F
P Johnny Cueto, SF $21
P Joe Ross, Was $5
P Kenta Maeda, LA $10
P Ivan Nova, Pit $5
P Brandon Maurer, SD $8
Analysis: I kept 18 for $200, leaving $86 for 13 spots. I needed a second C, a SS, a UT and 4 pitchers, plus 6 Reserves.
As I've mentioned in other threads, this league always seems to have something unpredictable happen with keepers. This year, we had one owner who missed the deadline, apparently due to a family obligation. Our commissioner offered to give him a short extension, but the owner decided that to be fair, he'd not keep anyone (he had no guaranteed contracts). This messed up my plans a little, both in that it now meant a couple of top tier SPs I hadn't expected to be available were back in the auction (which left me second guessing keeping Strasburg at $30), and meant that owner would have a TON of money to spend.
My goal going in was to try to grab a top SS (there were 4 available, Villar, Story, Baez, and Peraza, then a drop off to Brandon Crawford, and then pretty much nothing), a UT pick in the $15-$18 range, a $1 Catcher, 1 of the 4 named closers available (Melancon, W. Davis, Ramos and Feliz), and then hopefully a mid-teens SP and a $5-10 SP. I wanted to add a bit of extra speed (hopefully at SS, which would mean Villar or Peraza) after trading away Travis Jankowski before the auction, though I was already in pretty good shape there, and then a power hitter at UT.
The Auction:
As mentioned, this is an online league run through ESPN. Right away, I started feeling like things were a little off, as several position players I didn't have room for went under value, while other players I was interested in were well over my inflated values. I sat there for a while trying to figure out how to handle that, but didn't do a very good job of it.
Dee Gordon - $18 ($68 for 12). I wanted to add some speed as mentioned, and when Gordon came out and the bidding stopped here, I jumped. In hindsight, I'm not very happy about that choice, as it meant I both used up my last UT spot early, and shoehorned myself into only really being able to target Story or Baez at SS. The next player after Gordon was Baez, who ended up going for $18 as well. In retrospect, I think I made a mistake and should've bid more there, but didn't, figuring I'd target Story and still sort of recalculating from Gordon.
John Lackey - $15 ($53 for 11). A lot of bad things happened in succession before my next buy. After Baez, Villar came out and went for $33, which seemed a little low, but I couldn't really afford it, and didn't need his speed anymore. The top two closers, Melancon and Davis, also came up and went for, for this league, very high prices at $25 and $23. I can't remember any closer topping around $20 or $21 recently, let alone one not named Jansen/Chapman/etc. Then Trevor Story comes up, who I have valued in the mid $20s. Bidding is heavy, and I end up chasing him well beyond that, going as high as $30, but can't justify more after the guy with all the money bids $31. A few other SPs come off the board as well for more than I'm looking to pay, and I end up with Lackey, which seems ok, though not really who I wanted.
Robert Gsellman - $8 ($45 for 10). Now the other thing I'm worried about happens. There are two named closers left, neither of whom are anything special, Feliz and Ramos. Feliz comes up, and I bid past what I wanted to, but get outbid at $20. I'm resigned to now pretty much needing to buy Ramos, a position I hate being stuck in, but I don't want to go in with Maurer as my only closer, and I'm not sure exactly what else to spend on since my only hitter openings are C and SS, with little left at either spot (aside from Peraza, who I don't really need and figure will be subject to a bidding war anyway). I pick up Gsellman, who I was targeting for around $7, for a dollar over.
Carter Capps - $6 ($39 for 9). A little more than I wanted to pay, but there's been a run on closers in waiting at this point, and having Maurer's presumptive backup (and a very good reliever in general if he's back) seems like a good idea, even though the Padres may not offer a lot of saves.
A.J. Ramos - $23 ($16 for 8). I'm disgusted to have to pay this much, but as the only closer left (who I don't even particularly like), here we are. It could've been worse if someone bid me up more. That means I'm not going to able to bid much on anyone else at this point.
Brandon Crawford - $8 ($8 for 7). Peraza went a few picks earlier for $11, which was heart-breaking, but I couldn't bid. Not sure why no one else went after him. Crawford is not who I wanted, but I'm actually surprised to get him for this price. It leaves me at a max bid of $2, but at this point, I felt it was a better option than dealing with the remaining SS wasteland after him.
Grant Dayton - $1 ($7 for 6). I'm basically in dollar days, with several others still having money, so I just start throwing out decent relievers, and this one gets crickets. At this point I'm trying to figure out strategy about whether to bring up guys I want or guys I hope will use up some money. I try a combination of both, without a lot of luck either way. Having a top bid of $2 makes for slow going.
Brad Ziegler - $1 ($6 for 5). Possible backup for Ramos, though Barraclough was kept by someone else and could ruin my attempt to get the Marlin's saves.
Seth Lugo - $1 ($5 for 4). I was kind of hoping someone would bid here, but no one did. Given the recent injury news update, he may be a drop candidate.
Patrick Corbin - $1 ($4 for 3). One of my deep sleepers this year, the only one I ended up being able to grab. Not the best first start, but we'll see.
Hector Rondon - $1 ($3 for 2). I'm having no luck getting any position players at this range, and am starting to even run low on pitchers to consider. I like Rondon, but given that the Cubs seem to keep replacing him as closer despite good numbers, I'm not sure where he stands in the pecking order any more.
Manny Pina - $1 ($2 for 1). Yay, finally my second catcher. I've been outbid on every halfway decent catcher, so this is what's left.
Stephen Cardullo - $1 ($1 left over). There's pretty much nothing out there at this point, I look around for a hitter and just grab someone with the clock ticking down. A longshot to be anything useful.
Roster:
C Francisco Cervelli, Pit $3F
C Manny Pina, Mil $1
1B Joey Votto, Cin $22 (1 year extension)
3B Anthony Rendon, Was $15F
CI Eugenio Suarez, Cin $5F
2B Daniel Murphy, Was $15 (1 year extension)
SS Brandon Crawford, SF $8
MI Ryan Schimpf, SD $5
OF Bryce Harper, Was $18F
OF Billy Hamilton, Cin $15F
OF Odubel Herrera, Phi $11 (2 year extension)
OF Domingo Santana, Mil $5F
OF Adam Duvall, Cin $2
UT Denard Span, SF $5F
UT Dee Gordon, Mia $18
P Stephen Strasburg, Was $30F
P Johnny Cueto, SF $21
P Joe Ross, Was $5
P Kenta Maeda, LA $10
P Ivan Nova, Pit $5
P John Lackey, Chi $15
P Robert Gsellman, NY $8
P Brandon Maurer, SD $8
P A.J. Ramos, Mia $23
P Carter Capps, SD $6 (rotating spot)
Be Grant Dayton, LA $1
Be Brad Ziegler, Mia $1
Be Seth Lugo, NY $1
Be Patrick Corbin, Ari $1
Be Hector Rondon, Chi $1
Be Stephen Cardullo, Col $1
Thoughts:
I feel like I had a really bad auction as far as executing the plan I came in with. For some reason, it seemed every position/player I wanted this year, multiple other people were targeting, and good players I had no room for were all going under value. If I had it to do over again, I would've passed on Gordon and then bought either Villar or Peraza for speed instead, then saved my UT spot for later and gotten a power hitter. I also should've paid more attention to how many teams needed closers and probably bid more on Melancon or Davis instead of getting stuck over-spending on Ramos as the last closer. I'm also worried about my bench, which is mostly middle relievers at this point, as so far, I see next to nothing to FAAB bid on, though hopefully that will change.
Having said that, my keeper list was strong enough that I'd probably be in the running no matter what I bought at auction, and the auction wasn't a total failure. I definitely could've put myself in a stronger position than I did though.
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