NL 12TO STretegies and Battle Reviews

[gcstomp]

My main league, the NL 12TO. I think all the guys are readers of this site. Hope we can post some of our thoughts, and then maybe be mocked by the general populace at large. I am in 2 leagues but the other is an AL, and I am an NL guy, still learning who the AL fillers are. If a Mariners bench guy came up and kicked me in the shins I wouldn't even be able to tell you what kind of animal it was.

But I digress. Auction ran smooth, believe we did the whole enchilada in 4 hours. I was feeling good with what I had projected as the 3rd strongest keeper list, thanks to a sloppy rebuild I did, which lifted me from complete barren wasteland of dead last, zero keeps to something with less death smell.

Team Stomp (our hero) strategy: pretty standard, aimed to spend 70/30 hit/pitch split. Result, ended just about at that number. More important aim was to spend bucks on some big dogs. Our league is not one where a spread the risk strat can generally work, as there will be rebuilding efforts. If you are a money team, you need to have foundation players that you will keep thru the war, as well as drek low cost players that you will shed off to make room for the new high dollar foundation players, from the rebuilders.

Early on, I snagged the top 2 available OF guys, Holliday $50 and Victorino $41, + B Wilson $22. High cost, but as is everything in life, it is all relative. On balance, I like my team. But feel like another SP would be great, farm draft I may get T Bauer instead of A Rendon as Bauer could help me this year. I am still deciding what to do with my overall # 1 farm pick.

Other strategies that I observed, and I hope to hear from our weary combatants: 1 team spent 45%+ on pitching ($120), another 2 teams, who I had pegged as 1st and 2nd strongest keeper lists, spent $110, and $112 pitching, so 40%+ pitching each.

One team held money thru the high inflation fireworks and did not spend at all until between picks 55 and 69 they picked up 6 players and spent most of their money, and managed to get some solid values. No one left money on table.

It would be fair to say we had some hitting inflation. Notable names thrown in early going:

50 MC Crushers $32 Kubel, Jason (OF ARI)
49 Angry Young Man $15 Quentin, Carlos (OF SD)
46 Dangerfield Rodneys $14 Drew, Stephen (SS ARI)
45 Velvet Steamroller $38 Maybin, Cameron (OF SD)
37 Big Tymers $11 Carpenter, Chris (P STL)
26 Minor Threat $40 Ethier, Andre (OF LAD)
25 Velvet Steamroller $10 Jones, Chipper (3B ATL)
20 Stomp! $50 Holliday, Matt (OF STL)
19 Stomp! $22 Wilson, Brian (P SF)
18 Dangerfield Rodneys $33 Cain, Matt (P SF)
17 Franco Prussian Warriors $37 Weeks, Rickie (2B MIL)
16 Franco Prussian Warriors $23 Montero, Miguel (C ARI)
15 The Rats $34 Papelbon, Jonathan (P PHI)
14 Big Tymers $33 Bell, Heath (P MIA)
13 MC Crushers $14 Utley, Chase (2B PHI)
12 Minor Threat $15 Soto, Geovany (C CHC)
11 Dangerfield Rodneys $33 Gallardo, Yovani (P MIL)
10 The Rats $26 Gonzalez, Gio (P WAS)
9 Angry Young Man $30 Cabrera, Melky (OF SF)
8 Minor Threat $43 Wright, David (3B NYM)
7 MC Crushers $20 Belt, Brandon (OF SF)
6 Stomp! $41 Victorino, Shane (OF PHI)
5 Velvet Steamroller $40 Rollins, Jimmy (SS PHI)
4 Bucco Ball $59 Tulowitzki, Troy (SS COL)
3 Bucco Ball $45 Zimmerman, Ryan (3B WAS)
2 Angry Young Man $54 Ramirez, Hanley (SS MIA)
1 The Rats $29 Howard, Ryan (1B PHI)

[gcstomp]

Strategies. Misspelled title. Love it.

[cavebird]

Strategies. Misspelled title. Love it.

Strategy #1: Confuse opponents by misspelling strategy.

[joncarlos]

In previous years our league hasn't paid that much for saves, and aces have gone for a relatively reasonable price.

I went in with a pretty terrible keeper list, and my strategy was "punt something on offense" - I figured that my first couple picks on offense would decide what that would be (AVG, power, steals), but the most likely approach would be to load up on AVG and SB and try to dominate all 5 pitching categories as best I could, while still getting some good values that I could use to trade or build around.

To that end, I made a list minute decision to throw back a $33 Matt Cain. He went for $33 at auction (not to me) so it was the right way to go.

I went in with this list:

$23 McCann
$3 Ankiel
$37 Bourn
$8 Beachy
$23 Dan Hudson
$7 Dickey
$1 Charlie Morton
$6 Jorge De La Rosa that I was forced to keep

Since we play 1 catcher and 2 UT slots, no one ever pays for catching. Except for me, so as usual my first buy was Miguel Montero for $23. My next buy was a $37 Rickie Weeks. Neither gave me a lot of help in picking a strategy but the high-steal guys and high-AVG guys were going way too high. And then Papelbon went for $34 and I knew I couldn't get elite saves either. So I loaded up on mediocre saves with a $20 Francisco and $20 Marmol, and added a $13 Worley to my staff.

When Juan Pierre went for $15 I knew it was hopeless but I grabbed a $12 Parra and a $9 Andres Torres to get me a little more speed. Then I grabbed Josh Harrison $3, Hanigan $3, Theriot $3 and Darwin Barney for $4 to help the AVG. Rounded out the staff with a $2 Gee, $1 Arredondo and $1 Wang and the offense with $1 JB Shuck and $1 Jason Giambi. So I still have no power, my AVG is good but not great and my steals are very good but not elite. And my pitching is pretty good but definitely not elite either.

[Sharky]

Gcstomp, what were the "values" that you reference (the owner who picked up 6 players between nominations 55 and 69)?

JC, are you concerned about Beachy? It's early and it's Spring, but he has looked pretty bad so far!

[gcstomp]

Gcstomp, what were the "values" that you reference (the owner who picked up 6 players between nominations 55 and 69)?

The value patient guy was newcomer team Salamanders, I will leave the names alone there in hopes that Salamanders shows up and gives his recap. He is also owner of the golden egg, a farm B Harper who in our setup of extremely cheap and long ownership of newborn studs, Harper is worth imo more than anything in the league, besides maybe my $5 Stanton. But Salamanders owner is exact opposite of me.

I have been reactionary, aggressive, and extreme in the years in league, whether I am going for money spot or rebuild, I go all out. I burn the boats, charge the beach, lay waste to everything. Salamanders I can tell from my brief emails is reasonable, level headed, and patient. Sigh. He will have Harper for the next 99 years on the cheap.

I will post my team, maybe some NL 12TO guys will also pop in. * were keepers.

C J Buck $9
CI Lucas Duda $1*, D Descalso $1*, Garret Jones $13
MI R Furcal $10, A Miles $1, F Sanchez $4
OF M Holliday $50, S Victorino $41, C Hart $24*, Stanton $5*, Denorfia $3
DH K Banks $13, L Overbay $1
Bench Dom Brown $5, T Colvin $4

SP Strasburg $5*, Hamels $29*, Johan Santana $6*, Clayton Richard $2, J Guthrie $2, J Lannan $1
RP B Wilson $22, A Chapman $5*, D Hernandez $5*
Bench J Blanton $1, Rubby de la Rosa $1, J Westbrook $1

Like I mentioned, may add T Bauer in next weeks farm draft to shore up my pitching, or will take A Rendon. I have 4 first round farm picks, will definitely get some decent guys. Right now only really good farm guy I have is J Tailion.

[Erik]

Good to see you guys are keeping up with this. I don't have the time/patience to play NL-only anymore, but I like seeing how 12TO plays out every year.

[SeaDogStat]

I am too ashamed to post my team.

I had Holliday as my #1 target but could not justify going for more than $50 on him. I had him at $44 and threw him back in, mistakenly thinking that I might be able to get him even cheaper this year due to his 2k11 performance.


Edit: My team is Minor Threat above.

Did you yell at Casey for trading me Berkman in the RJEL? He was the owner of the Rats* team...



* - Are they called the Sh!thouse Rats? That's his team name in everything...

[gcstomp]

Yep that is Casey's team name. I just call them the Rats.

[Big Tymer]

1 team spent 45%+ on pitching ($120), another 2 teams, who I had pegged as 1st and 2nd strongest keeper lists, spent $110, and $112 pitching, so 40%+ pitching each.

I generally do not spend this much on pitching but I was in kind of a unique situation of ridiculously priced offensive players and pretty much close to the stats I needed before the auction began on offense. There was little to no premium pitching available so I decided before we began to buy a top closer (Bell at $33 which is where the top guys went LY) and then spread the risk a bit with 5 mid range SPs in the teens to go with Garza (Buehrle, Carpenter, Dempster, Nicasio, Bedard). These guys will at least form my core for SP and I'll try to trade for a stud or 2 in-season. All in all, I was pretty happy with how things turned out:

C: Jason Castro (2), A.J. Ellis (2)
1B: Ike Davis (5-keeper), Jim Thome (2)
2B: Dan Uggla (26-keeper), Neil Walker (5-keeper)
SS: Jose Reyes (40-keeper)
3B: Pablo Sandoval (12-keeper), Juan Francisco (7)
OF: Justin Upton (15-keeper), Jay Bruce (15-keeper), Alex Presley (7-keeper), Jason Heyward (5-keeper), Gregor Blanco (2), Scott Hairston (1), Travis Buck (2), Carlos Gomez (2), Nate McLouth (2)

SP: Matt Garza (12-keeper), Carpenter (11), Dempster (17), Bedard (12), Nicasio (12), Buerhle (11), Medlen (2), Estrada (2), Bass (1)
Closer: Heath Bell (33)

[Cobain's Ghost]

curious - can you guys talk about how the astros move to the al in 2013 affected your strategies going in? did you plan to avoid houston players going in? or take them only at steep discounts? or collect them at low prices to trade later? just wondering how that situation played out, since i have an nl-only keeper auction coming up this weekend.

[BubbaJack]

I liked my keeper list coming in, thought it was top 5. I kept 7 hitters, although not much star power. I also kept 3 good starters that I thought would be the basis of a pretty good starting staff. So my strategy going in was to get 1 stud hitter if I didn't have to overspend, and then a couple of the available 2nd tier hitters. I wanted to go cheap on saves if possible and then get a couple of decent starters to fill out my rotation. The big guns went for big bucks, which I think everyone figured, so I held on to my money til I thought the prices were getting more reasonable. I came out liking my team, but even though I stayed out of the bidding wars in the early going, I was still the first team to be down only a buck per player. That cost me on some late bargains, especially cheap relievers that may fall into saves and a couple hitters due more AB's than the couple guys I got in the end game.

Salamanders - a * denotes keeper
C - Wison Ramos 1*
1B- M. Morse 6*
3B - D. Freese 7*
CI - M. Cuddyer 32
2B - J. Turner 1
SS - E. Bonifacio 3*
MI - I. Desmond 23
OF - C. Heisey 5*
OF - L. Morrison 5*
OF - JD Martinez 7*
OF - C. Lee 28
OF - W. Venable 14
DH - A. Laroche 20
DH - A. Kearns 1
SP - Z Grienke 24*, M. Latos 10*, J. Zimmerman 10*, T. Hudson 13, T. Stauffer 13, B. Norris 11, C. Narveson 5, K. Lohse 1, J. Saunders 1
RP - J. Guerra 17, L. Gregerson 4, T. Saito 1
BN Taylor Green 1, C. Blake 1

[frae]

Well I came into this years auction knowing this is probably the last year I can consider myself a favorite. I have had a great run holding Braun and Fielder for less than 30 for 2 years and then another 3 years now of Votto and Braun for the same $30. Braun's contract finally ends this year. Anyway, I had those 2 for 30 and held Cliff Lee at $38 as my ace. Halladay only went for $43 so I probably didn't gain much there, but I didn't toss much back either on that last slot. I cam in pitching heavy actually as I lucked into two closers. Sean Marshall for $1 and Brett Myers for $11. If those two get me 60 saves I will be in a great spot. I also held Ted Lilly at $15 and James McDonald at $1. My 6th pitching keeper was Tyler Clippard for $1. With Braun and Votto I also held a $11 Jayson Werth and a $12 Aubrey Huff. So those 10 were my keepers. As the guys mentioned hitting inflation was crazy as usual.

I sat back for quite a while and held onto what money I had left. My first big move was to get $31 Brandon Phillips. It doesn't sound like a deal, but with the other prices flying around this was a pretty solid deal. I also invested in another starting pitcher getting Johnny Cueto for $20. I also grabbed a boring but hopefully productive Scutaro for $17 and Marlon Byrd for $10. The two offensive moves I kind of got cornered into was buying a $21 Jason Bay and a $15 Juan Pierre. I needed speed badly. I got Ramon Hernandez for $6 in my catcher slot and a next in line saves guy in Francisco Rodriguez fo $5. Anyway i was fairly happy with how it went and hope to contend again. Here is how it all looks...

C Ramon Hernandez $6
CI Joey Votto $15, Mark DeRosa $1, Jesus Guzman $8
MI Brandon Phillips $31, Marco Scutaro $17, Adam Kennedy $1
OF Ryan Braun $15, Jayson Werth $11, Marlon Byrd $10, Aubrey Huff $12, Jason Bay $21
UT Juan Pierre $15, Nate Schierhotz $3

SP Cliff Lee $38, JohnnY Cueto $20, Ted Lilly $15, James McDonald $1
MR Tyler Clippard $1, Francisco Rodriguez $5, Steve Cishek $1
CL Sean Marshall $1, Brett Myers $11

Reserves - Matt Guerrier, Alex White, Barry Zito, Jeff Baker, Ronny Cedeno

[Big Tymer]

curious - can you guys talk about how the astros move to the al in 2013 affected your strategies going in? did you plan to avoid houston players going in? or take them only at steep discounts? or collect them at low prices to trade later? just wondering how that situation played out, since i have an nl-only keeper auction coming up this weekend.

Astros players can be kept next year I believe and then have to be tossed back the following. Thus, didn't really effect auction at all though it will effect our minor league draft as there is no point to draft guys like George Springer.

[Erik]

Pierre for $15? You get extra credit for SB by pinch runners?