Thoughts on my team

[Blue&White]

Just finished my auction draft. Ended up with a lot of speed and probably not enough power, but would like some opinions on my team. It's a 10 team, NL only 5x5 auction league.

C LuCroy, Jonathan(C) MIL
C Thole, Josh(C) NYM
1B Freeman, Freddie(1B) ATL
2B Prado, Martin(2B,3B) ATL
3B Freese, David(3B) STL
SS Castro, Starlin(SS) CHC
MI Gonzalez, Alex(SS) ATL
CI Branyan, Russell(1B) ARI
OF Bay, Jason(OF) NYM
OF Bourn, Michael(OF) HOU
OF Brown, Domonic(OF) PHI
OF Huff, Aubrey(1B,OF) SF
OF Torres, Andres(OF) SF
U Venable, Will(OF) SD
Pos Edit Active Pitchers
P Broxton, Jonathan(P) LA
P Garcia, Jaime(P) STL
P Greinke, Zack(P) MIL
P Kuo, Hong-Chih(P) LA
P Lowe, Derek(P) ATL
P Marcum, Shaun(P) MIL
P Oswalt, Roy(P) PHI
P Putz, J.J.(P) ARI
P Sanchez, Anibal(P) FLA

[Judge Jude]

suggestion: list the pitchers with best to worst SP, then best to worst RP, thus roughly

P Greinke, Zack(P) MIL
P Oswalt, Roy(P) PHI
P Marcum, Shaun(P) MIL
P Garcia, Jaime(P) STL
P Lowe, Derek(P) ATL
P Sanchez, Anibal(P) FLA

P Broxton, Jonathan(P) LA
P Kuo, Hong-Chih(P) LA
P Putz, J.J.(P) ARI

this way we can immediately see that the starting pitching looks pretty good (granting it's only 10-team and not 12/13/14), and you were able to pair the 2 Dodgers RPs and also get HQ darling Putz.

offensively, I try to maximize my guys with 2+ years experience at their predicted level of performance. You've got LuCroy, Thole, Freeman, Freese, Castro, Brown, even Venable on offense, though there's less unpredictability in pitching.

I'm not up enough on 10-team to have a great feel, but those 1st and 2nd-year men will make you or break you. Best of luck....

[Gregg]

Ok, you asked for our thoughts. Not trying to be rude. These are my thoughts:

I am worried about Marcum and Greinke. You need them to get healthy in a hurry. I like your relief pitchers.

Is this a keeper league?

When I look at your offense, I wonder where the studs are? If you use a $260 budget and have 10 teams and no keepers (even with keepers) there should be some studs. Take a Freeze out and put in a Zimmerman or a Freeman out and put in one of Votto Pujols Howard, Fielder. Or SS one of Tulo, Hanley, Reyes, Rollins. OF Holliday, Kemp, Braun, Young, Stubs...well you get the idea.

Brown should not even be rostered (unless you have a reserve) in a 10 team NL only.

This team does not add up. I am thinking you filled many positions that might make a few bucks, but you do not have anywhere near what you need to compete. My guess is that you got caught up in the auction values rather than getting the stats you need.

I would also bet you left more than 10 bucks on the table.

Sorry man without seeing what you spent, I don't even know if you can use this team for rebuilding. I do not see you finishing in the top 5.

[onejayhawk]

I can echo that. This looks like a rebuilding team in a dynasty league. I like the RP, and the SP is good once the headliners come online. On the offense side, the speed is OK, and BA is your best stat, but there is NO power.

J

[chancellor]

I don't see it as bad as Gregg and J, but you have some issues. Starting pitching should be strong, RPs very good. BA is good, speed is good, runs are middling, and you're probably a bottom feeder in HR/RBI barring one of your guys turning in a Jose Bautista like performance this year. IMO, it's time to go all-in on your strengths and look for deals that will:

- Lock down your BA/SB advantage.
- Accumulate even more runs
- Upgrade one SP.

You need to position yourself to be top 2 or 3 in all pitching cats, SB and BA, and at least top half in runs.

[Blue&White]

Thanks for the comments (even the harsh ones). I agree that my team has a huge power void and I need a lot of guys to step up in order to have a chance to keep up in those categories. I need Bay to have a huge come-back year (and I think he will be a lot better but he's no more than a 20 - 25 HR guy in Citi Field) and a few other guys need to hit for more power than is realistic. I like my pitching and my speed.

It was a weird draft. A lot of power guys did get kept and I made a mistake when guys like Holliday went early as I was not willing to seriously over pay for them. What happened was it got late in the draft and I had to make moves like pick up Branyan (who I got for $5) and Bay (who I paid $19 for). Freese was an end-of-draft guy. I could have put Prado in my 3b spot but I was able to pick up Freese for $1 and move Prado back to 2nd. There was not much else available for either spot yesterday so I figured that was the best I could do. Chipper Jones went for like $10 which I thought was crazy. Pujols was kept for $52. Fielder and Holliday both went for $38 and I definetely make a mistake not taking one of them. Kemp went for 37 and I liked him more than Bay.

Btw, I ended up with about $5 left over but that's because things got a little stupid at the end. There were a few of us with money left and a couple of players got bid up really high because people got desperate. I paid $31 for Michael Bourn and 30 for Sean Marcum. After them, the pickings got really, really slim.

It was not my best draft. I did not do a good enough job keeping track of how much money everyone else had, and I made 2 or 3 poor choices on power guys early on. I think my team is ok, and I think I can compete but I need to trade for some HRs and RBIs.

Oh, and I've obviously got some real risks here too with some young guys and injuries. I'm aware of that. A lot of things have to go right for me this year.

[Gregg]

First let me say I hope the season works out well for you.

And thank you for giving an explanation. It serves as good reminder to spend some cash early.

It is one of the reasons I try always to to have a plan to buy a stud and then a back up plan on stud #2. I would rather be part of the reason guys are overspending for mediocre talent instead of being in the thick of that bidding.

Again thanks for sharing and good luck in the season.

[Judge Jude]

This is why I don't necessarily rail against someone freezing a high-priced player - while dumping him allows for more flexibility, it also can lead to this scenario of being "too sensible."

Did you estimate an inflation rate, or at least think about it? Fielder, Holliday and Kemp may have been quite sensible at those prices given inflation, even if they are only "really worth 32." If the alternative is spending 30 on Marcum late, of course you'd rather 'overspend' early.

Not a terrible team given the circumstances; possible you can turn Greinke or Oswalt into a true power hitter if there's a suitable trading partner. Give it a month or two, anyway, to see if you can compete...

[Blue&White]

I find inflation is really tough to judge in my league. What really made it difficult was all the keepers were not set until late Friday night so I only had about an hour to look at who was even in the pool and who was kept. Once I saw guys like Reyes ($35) and Pujols ($52) were kept, I figured that people would run out of money quickly and I could pick up some studs cheap at the end. But, from a power perspective, the pickings were pretty thin. I probably could have picked up an Adam LaRoche for $9 but he's a really streaky guy and I was happier to have Branyan at $5.

To the point Gregg made above about spending cash early, I think that is a huge lesson to learn here. And, I make this one mistake every year because there are usually bargains to be had. But, sometimes you've got to spend, especially on offense. I'm not upset I missed out in Fielder for $38 but Holliday at that price was well worth it.

The biggest price yesterday was Halladay at $42. In comparison, I paid $24 for Greinke which I thought was a steal. He went for less than Lee (which makes sense), Hamels (which doesn't make sense) and the same as Billingsly. Pitching started to seriously inflate at the end of the draft, as evidenced by my Marcum price. But, I was thrilled with my Greinke buy at $24.

Anyway, for those of you still waiting to draft, my 2 lessons from this year are: 1) pay careful attention to who needs what and how much money they have and 2) don't be afraid to buy a stud hitter early and at a premium (which is the lesson I never seem to learn).

[virgonomic]

What really made it difficult was all the keepers were not set until late Friday night so I only had about an hour to look at who was even in the pool and who was kept.

That's insanity. Our keepers were due a week before the auction, and the window is usually 2 weeks.

[bryanbutler]

That's insanity. Our keepers were due a week before the auction, and the window is usually 2 weeks.

agreed. how is anybody supposed to do any prep with that short a window. wow...

[Judge Jude]

Ours are due 4 days before the auction, which used to be 4 days before the season. This year we have the auction on the 3rd day of the season, so they are due one day before the season.

The owners like to have a little more time to weigh position battles and player health before having to make the freezes, and there's still enough time over the course of 4 days to make all the minor adjustments to the freeze lists that we all had guessed at tentatively.

Sounds like a lot of owners don't even look at other rosters before the freezes are announced? That's another way of doing things, but my group at least feels like it's a "best of both worlds" doing it this way....

[DMT]

agreed. how is anybody supposed to do any prep with that short a window. wow...

That is ridiculous, I would be lobbying for an earlier freeze date henceforth.

[MagSeven]

My NL only has a 1 week window and we draft the weekend after the season starts. My other league's keepers are due at the draft. You do have a lot of younger players and I'm in the same boat with my keeper list in my NL only.

[Gregg]

If the short time is an intended part of the game than you have to be ready for that. You have to guess or call your league mates and swap info.

If it is not an intended part of your game bring it up to a vote for next year.

It is not part of our game. We turn our keepers in one week before the auction. We do get one muligan meaning we can pull back or cut one player on draft day.