NL-Only HDID: Praise Or Bury My Team

[senorsheep]

11 teams, NL-only keeper league, $260 budget, 4x4 (ERA, HR, RBI, SB, ERA, Wins, Saves, K's)

Pre-auction landscape: Tons of elite power and production available, almost no top tier starting pitching or closers available, about half the ownership flush with spending cash.

Pre-reserve draft landscape: Since they were not on their MLB team's active rosters, Greg Holland and Jake Arrieta could not be selected in the auction, and would have to be selected in the reserve draft. I had the #2 overall pick, so I was getting whichever one was left for free - woo hoo! Sadly, I left myself no time to research prospects, so I planned to roll with MLB-ready bodies instead of minor league sleepers.

Strategy going in: Grab one ace, let others overspend on second and third tier starters, pile up cheap low-end starters behind the ace to roll up Wins and K's, and spend the rest on a powerhouse offense with a legit starting player at every position. Skip the category killing base stealers in favor of guys who can steal in addition to providing other useful stats, and avoid BA sinkholes.

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Active roster:

OF - Yasiel Puig, $28
OF - Tommy Pham, $28
OF - AJ Pollock, $10 (keeper)
OF - Dexter Fowler, $16
OF - Aaron Altherr, $5 (keeper)
1B - Paul Goldschmidt, $43
3B - Travis Shaw, $11 (keeper)
CR - Johan Camargo, $6
2B - Joe Panik, $6 (keeper)
SS - Amed Rosario, $5 (keeper)
MF - Ketel Marte, $4
C1 - Buster Posey, $26
C2 - Tucker Barnhart, $1 (keeper)
UT - Michael Conforto, $1

P1 - Yu Darvish, $31
P2 - Jon Gray, $10 (keeper)
P3 - Patrick Corbin, $10
P4 - Brandon Woodruff, $5 (keeper)
P5 - Brandon McCarthy, $4 (keeper)
P6 - Mike Foltynewicz, $3
P7 - Matt Harvey, $3
P8 - Dinelson Lamet, $2 (keeper)
P9 - Corey Knebel, $6 (keeper)

Reserves:

Chase Headley
Carlos Asuaje
Garrett Cooper
Travis Jankowski
Brett Phillips

Jake Arrieta
Dillon Peters
Pat Neshek
Tommy Hunter
Michael Feliz
Jordan Hicks
Cody Reed
Mark Leiter Jr

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The auction: There weren't a lot of offensive bargains to be had, so I paid the price for my powerhouse offense, but, damn, I really like it. The box scores are going to be fun to check every day. The starting pitching and closer bidding was a bloodbath, as expected - the prices for Bumgarner, DeGrom, Nola, Quintana, Jansen, et al were more than I could bear. I finally had to bite the bullet on Darvish out of necessity, then went underground on pitching until the endgame.

Oops: I didn't really want Dexter Fowler, but I got caught bidding him up early. I probably didn't need Buster Posey late, but there wasn't $26 worth of decent pitching left in the player pool at that point, so I figured that he was the best value for the money at the time. I'm not happy about Pat Corbin for $10, or Matt Harvey at any price, but desperate times call for desperate measures. After Darvish/Arrieta/Gray, I'm going to be playing the hot (and healthy) hand, so hopefully when Corbin and Harvey are sucking, some combination of McCarthy/ Foltynewicz/ Lamet/ Woodruff/ Peters will be on a decent roll.

WTF?!: Conforto for $1? Yep, you're reading that right. Our charter allows us to bid on guys on their MLB team's active roster, or who are protected on their team's DL. The rest of the league slept on Conforto the entire auction. Some thought he was in AAA, and thus ineligible for selection. Those who had money in the end didn't have the roster spots available, and those who had the roster spots didn't have the money to trump a $1 bid. So, there he was for a buck for my last pick, with no one able to stop me. That's how to finish an auction with a bang!

[Gregg]

I paid $30 for Conforto. Getting him for a buck is insane! Congrats.

Love your offense.

I know this may sound a bit weird. I like your individual pitchers, but not so much collectively. They all of potential to be good. They all have potential to break your heart.

But what a fun team to manage coming out of the auction. Well done.

[harmon]

I didn't blink so much at Conforto as you have him listed as a keeper, but wow....what a steal that was. Do you have an opening in your league for me? :-)

Great looking team. To nitpick, another 2nd tier SP would be nice. Hopefully Arrieta is solid and lessens that need.

How much did deGrom and Nola go for?

[senorsheep]

I didn't blink so much at Conforto as you have him listed as a keeper, but wow....what a steal that was. Do you have an opening in your league for me? :-)

Great looking team. To nitpick, another 2nd tier SP would be nice. Hopefully Arrieta is solid and lessens that need.

How much did deGrom and Nola go for?

Oops, my bad. Conforto was not a keeper going in. Fixed.

I agree on the 2nd tier SP comment. There will likely be a trade in my future, unless a few of the scrub starters step up and surprise, in which case the trade will be for a second closer.

DeGrom went for $35, Nola for $32. I'm pretty sure the bidding would have gone higher for both, if I had stuck around and pressed the issue. Those owners seemed pretty determined.

[gcstomp]

I also ended up locked in on Yu, in my case for $26 of a 260 budget in my NL only. I felt not great after I bought him, then Yu had that miserable 1st start where he looked feeble and lost, we are not talking just an unlucky game, and I feel well less great about Yu. Arrieta is a fine number 2. Your hitting is bizonkers, I would like to own this team and I quite like Posey at 26, Goldie 43, Puig 28. But lets both hope Yu finds himself as you can have all the Hulk smash hitting you want, you still need pitching.

[harmon]

Oops, my bad. Conforto was not a keeper going in. Fixed.

I agree on the 2nd tier SP comment. There will likely be a trade in my future, unless a few of the scrub starters step up and surprise, in which case the trade will be for a second closer.

DeGrom went for $35, Nola for $32. I'm pretty sure the bidding would have gone higher for both, if I had stuck around and pressed the issue. Those owners seemed pretty determined.

I'm in a similar league to yours and was pushed to $40 on deGrom, was hoping to get him for somewhere around $35, but i bit the bullet. I also got C-Mart for $31 to go along with my keeper Castillo at $10. This is more than I usually spend on starters but there were more hitting values than pitching for sure.

Kershaw went for $58 which is the most anyone in our league has spent on anybody since the Greg Maddux days.

[senorsheep]

I also ended up locked in on Yu, in my case for $26 of a 260 budget in my NL only. I felt not great after I bought him, then Yu had that miserable 1st start where he looked feeble and lost, we are not talking just an unlucky game, and I feel well less great about Yu.

A classic case where I should have spent a few extra bucks on a pitcher I believe in, rather than almost-as-much on a pitcher I don't. His first start made me ill.

[chancellor]

I'd feel badly for you on Darvish if you hadn't prison-raped the league on the $1 Conforto. I can only say:

You'll have the offense at price points to go get another SP. Probably two.

Very nicely done overall. I'm not high on Folty, but at $3, absolutely he's worth the risk. Harvey, admittedly, I think is trash at any price, but most others mileage varies from mine on him. But that offense...oh, my, that's really impressive for an 11-team only league.

[Judge Jude]

"Pre-reserve draft landscape: Since they were not on their MLB team's active rosters, Greg Holland and Jake Arrieta could not be selected in the auction, and would have to be selected in the reserve draft."

this strikes me as "letter of the law" and not at all "spirit of the law."

we don't have our auction until Sunday, but Holland won't be activated until Monday, apparently. we don't care; Holland will be in the auction anyway per our 'common sense' rule. haven't looked at Arrieta yet, but of course the same would apply.

I don't understand why leagues twist themselves into a pretzel to avoid making obvious choices given an unusual dynamic. Holland and Arrieta should be in every auction.

[harmon]

"Pre-reserve draft landscape: Since they were not on their MLB team's active rosters, Greg Holland and Jake Arrieta could not be selected in the auction, and would have to be selected in the reserve draft."

this strikes me as "letter of the law" and not at all "spirit of the law."

we don't have our auction until Sunday, but Holland won't be activated until Monday, apparently. we don't care; Holland will be in the auction anyway per our 'common sense' rule. haven't looked at Arrieta yet, but of course the same would apply.

I don't understand why leagues twist themselves into a pretzel to avoid making obvious choices given an unusual dynamic. Holland and Arrieta should be in every auction.

Our league is the same; a player must be on the Opening Day roster to be eligible at auction. I like it this way as there is no judgment call or grey area. It also makes for interesting auction dynamics as everyone's looking for the best angle to have a shot at them when they become available.

[Ken]

Our league is the same; a player must be on the Opening Day roster to be eligible at auction. I like it this way as there is no judgment call or grey area. It also makes for interesting auction dynamics as everyone's looking for the best angle to have a shot at them when they become available.

Agree 100%. Same for me and I like it. Gray areas don't belong in rules IMO.

[swampdragon]

my old NL was all gray area - you could throw out for auction any player you want NL, AL, minors, puerto rican leagues, pony leagues, independent it didnt matter
it was just that they weren't of any value until they made it to the NL and if they were traded to the AL or sent to the minors then they just went back to being on the bench or waived

[harmon]

my old NL was all gray area - you could throw out for auction any player you want NL, AL, minors, puerto rican leagues, pony leagues, independent it didnt matter
it was just that they weren't of any value until they made it to the NL and if they were traded to the AL or sent to the minors then they just went back to being on the bench or waived

Ok, but that's actually not gray area.

[senorsheep]

"Pre-reserve draft landscape: Since they were not on their MLB team's active rosters, Greg Holland and Jake Arrieta could not be selected in the auction, and would have to be selected in the reserve draft."

this strikes me as "letter of the law" and not at all "spirit of the law."

That sentiment does exist in our league. On the other hand, per our rules, the #1 and #2 reserve round draft picks went to the two owners who finished on the bubble last year, so the rule does reward the guys who stuck with it and managed their teams all the way to the end of the previous season, even though they didn't cash. I like that aspect of it.

The bummer is that another owner had Holland as a $15 keeper, and lost him because he wasn't on the active roster on auction day. That's the rule I'd like to change.

[harmon]

The bummer is that another owner had Holland as a $15 keeper, and lost him because he wasn't on the active roster on auction day. That's the rule I'd like to change.

Yes... if he never went over to the AL, then he should be considered NL and protectable. That's different than a Free Agent being eligible for auction.