Awkwardly Positioning Myself with Sea Breeze (HBDID)

[Long John]

Did my first auction of the year yesterday in Boxscore Hungry Freaks. Keep in mind, I have not paid attention to much in baseball the past 2 years and it showed. This is a 15-team mixed 5x5 keeper with a 7 round reserve draft.

So how bad am I screwed for this year?

C Iannetta $2 (kept)
C Salty $1 (kept)
1B Pujols $60 (kept)
2B Omar Infante $1
SS Jimmy Rollins $24
3B Jack Hannahan $1
CI Prince Fielder $41
MI Mike Aviles $1
OF Brett Gardner $13 (kept)
OF Markakis $19
OF Logan Morrison $15
OF Bobby Abreu $1
OF Carlos Quentin $3
UT Seth Smith $1

P Garza $14 (kept)
P Josh Johnson $27
P Jair Jurrjens $3
P Mike Leake $6
P Josh Collmenter $2
P Ryan Vogelsong $2
P Jordan Walden $10 (kept)
P Chris Perez $9 (kept)
P Alfredo Aceves $4

Reserves:
Stephen Drew
Jed Lowrie
Jason Vargas
Clayton Richard
Derek Lowe
AJ Burnett
Nate Schierholz

I had a plan going in, but it didn't involve committing $102 to my Corner. I got caught price enforcing on Prince very early on and I had to scrap my plan.

So? How Bad Did I Do?

[virgonomic]

Likes:
balance of power and speed
$1 values

Dislikes:
Keeping Albert for $60 when Prince went for $41
Buying Johnson at value
only 2 closers

It looks like a stars and scrubs which works in a league that shallow. I like your $1 guys. $60 seems like too much for Albert when Prince went for $41, but hindsight is 20-20. If you trade him it will be difficult to get $60 in value for him. In a 15-teamer 2 closers won't be enough so I would troll the WW. Is H.Santiago (CHW) on the WW? I'd also look for a decent starter or 2.

[Lucky]

Although actual inflation in the league was only 20%, owners were bidding early on like it was closer to 40%. Many of the top and second tier guys went for between $6 and $10 above their inflated value. Inevitably, people ran out of money, and there were a ton of bargains late. Outfielders were going for half price. The only players who still commanded large bids were the guys who were the last decent players at the position.

I love your $1 guys, too, although Abreu might have been a bit too risky. Aviles, Seth Smith and Omar are all excellent bargains. Adding Fielder was overkill, but you already mentioned that.

You have a ton of starting pitchers. You just need to hope that some of them outperform their projections. It should take around a 3.50 ERA and a 1.20 whip to be competitive based on past years, maybe a little better. Some guys didn't get a lot of starters, so you might be able to trade a couple of average arms for an above average arm.

I thought it was a tough auction, with some fairly erratic bidding by some owners, and especially with the technological **** from CBS, but I thought you put together a good team. I like your catchers a lot, even though you already had them before the auction, but I thought they were both really good freezes.

Looking at the other rosters, I think you will be competitive. In hindsight you may have overspent for Pujols, but you have to remember that Miggy went for $49. If you could have gotten Pujols for that same $49, you would only have saved $11. Any everybody pi**es off at least $11 in a draft, so in my mind Pujols didn't hurt you at all.

Good luck. I may post my gaggle here in a little while.

[joncarlos]

You might get lucky with Aceves after all, but your ratios don't look good with that crew of starters. Other than Garza I don't trust any of them, and other than Richard and maybe AJ you don't really have someone "safe" to plug in if things start imploding. Other than Hannahan I really like your offense. A little light on speed even with Gardner but otherwise solid.

[Long John]

Yeah, Hannahan was supposed to be Lonnie Chisenhall, but I didn't know Chisenhall got sent down and wasn't eligible for the auction. I'm hoping I get a couple of gems out of my starting depth allowing me to trade for some speed. Once my MI gets healthy, I can use some of that depth to trade for another OF as well.

There are a number of teams in this league that have great keepers coming in (including minor leaguers) and I didn't think I'd really be able to compete this year. If things go right, I'll make some moves. If they go wrong early, I'm planning to dump and position my team for 2013.

[Lucky]

Should it become time to dump, and I'm hoping it won't, keep in mind guys like Giancarlo Stanton, Eric Hosmer, Desmond Jennings, Ian Kennedy, etc.