12TO NL Only 15th Auction Results...

[frae]

My final auction of the year started last night around 7 PM Est. I think JC and I are now the only 2 members that have been in the league since 2000. I was a sophomore in college who spent most of my days sleeping in until 11 and most of my nights wondering up and down Court Street drunk off my ass. I am now a "responsible" father of 3 who has been teaching high school for 12 years. Anyway, onto the craziness that is a 12TO auction.

You just haven't seen insane hitting inflation until you have sat in on one of these. I knew it would be bad with a number of teams carrying over $200 into the auction, I came in with around $170. Here were my keepers...

Yonder Alonso 5
Dee Gordon 11
Anthony Rendon 5
Jhonny Peralta 16
Andrelton Simmons 5
Charlie Blackmon 3

Aroldis Chapman 10
Mark Melancon 8
Madison Bumgarner 15
Stephen Strasburg 15

So i have attached the actual results of the auction, if I can I'll attach the full rosters in a different post. So the big name hitters went fast and furious...

Tulo 59
C Gomez 63
Ian Desmond 47 (SS was really thin)
R Braun 53
M Kemp 54
J Upton 49
B Posey 45 (We are a 1 catcher league)

A few pricey pitchers went as well

Scherzer 49
S Cishek 34

I sat through all of this even though I really needed an OF'er as I came in with only 1. I just couldn't convince myself that paying over 50 for one of those guys was worth it. Hell I threw Tulo back at 43 because I was too risk averse to own him. Anyway, my first buy wound up being Joey Votto for $41. This is by no means some great value, but you have to get your money in somewhere and Votto has been healthy this spring. I think it was the very next player I was back in on, Yadier Molina. I wound up winning with a bid of $18, as I mentioned we are one catcher, but I thought the price was still pretty fair.

You can usually get decent pitching deals and in the end I thought I missed out on two I probably should have bid an extra few bucks for Jordan Zimmerman, he went for 31 and Adam Wainwright went for 27. I had come in with 2 top 10 starters and was hesitant to invest money here. I probably should have bought one of them even if it cost me a hitter.

Anyway the auction rolled on as we hit the point where a lot of us had punched our selves out of hughe cash, but there was still money to be spent and most of the studs were gone, but a few remained and money was spent....

R Zimmerman 43
Mark Trumbo 44 (this one surprised even me)
Ben Revere 37
Matt Holliday 39
David Wright 38
Jay Bruce 36
Neil Walker 33
Howie Kendrick 31
J Morneau 31

Then some more pitching prices

James Shields 26
Gio Gonzalez 27
K Jansen 30
J Papelbon 24
J Lester 31

This is where we reach the flawed player phase. Since I didn't spend over 50 on a player this year I decided I would fill my offense out with these flawed players that would come cheaper. I needed OF'ers so that is where I looked. I now own Hunter Pence in 2 leagues, this time for 31. Pence for 31 or bidding more on a guy like Bruce is something I will regret if Pence never comes back fully healthy, but in this league sometimes you have to chase a guy like Pence. The next flawed guy I grabbed was Jayson Werth for 28. Again, not a great deal, but he should be back by week 2 and will hit in an RBI position on a team that when healthy will have a pretty good lineup. These two aren't perfect, but I got them for 59 which I don't see as too bad.

Pitching you ask? You mean I can't just trot those 4 out there and win whip, era, and saves? Ok fine I admit it I bought some guys that call themselves pitchers. The first one I bought was another flawed guy, Hun-Jin Ryu for 11. It isn't a buy I am jumping up and down about, but I had to buy someone. Next up Mat Latos for 17. As the auction moved along I had decided I needed to buy Cashner (18), Latos (17), or L Lynn (21). I regret not going an extra buck on Cashner, but maybe the move to Miami and the NL East will do Latos some good. I only had 2 non $1 buys after that, Brad Ziegler for 2 and Scott Van Slyke for 9.

Now to some of those entertaining we have money left to spend and no one to spend it on buys and other interesting buys I forgot to mention

Dexter Fowler was the last big name OF'er and he went for 26
Nick Markakis was the best OF'er after Fowler and he went for 21
Will Myers went before these two for 27, but he has upside so maybe not too bad
Derek Norris 16, made me feel better about Yadi.
Pedro Alvarez 29, this one was much earlier and even as a Pirate fan I don't know how i feel about this one.
Martin Prado 21, this one was later and one of the last guys worth spending on, not too bad can't remember who had what to spend
D Span 28, another flawed guy with a flawed price, good or bad? We will see.
T Lincecum 2, how the mighty have fallen
Cliff Lee 1, IF he pitches this could help someone. I just don't see him pitching again.
Y Tomas 10, poor Steve can't catch a break on these rookies. Tomas got sent down so he loses him.
Kang 11, he's a Bucco so I had to list him as interesting


Ok so what does that make my team look like...

Y Molina 18
Y Alonso 5
D Gordon 11
Jh Peralta 16
A Rendon 5
A Simmons 5
J Votto 41
C Blackmon 3
H Pence 31
J Werth 28
S Van Slyke 9
M Den Deker 1
J Francouer 1
J Maxwell 1

RSV
D Kelly

Pitching

Bumgarner 15
Strasburg 15
Chapman 10
Melancon 8
H Ryu 11
M Latos 17
J Motte 1
B Ziegler 2
J Hellickson 1

RSV
J Marquis 1
Bry Morris 1
JJ Hoover 1

Possible Farm help this year

T Glasnow
JP Crawford
J Winker
Jon Gray
N Kingham

Ok I hope you enjoyed that, I know auction season is over and it likely won't help you, but I wanted to write it. 15 years of keeping a keeper league together is not too bad. Especially since they have had me in charge for almost 10 years now. Good luck everyone!

[Judge Jude]

it worked
but it took me a minute to realize that does not include the keepers (which is not a bad idea)

scary, scary prices considering I draft next week
do you have insane inflation? any rule that makes that so, like 1-unit FA contracts or something?

[Big Tymer]

50% inflation for both hitters and pitchers and most owners deploy some derivative of a stars and scrubs approach so prices are always crazy and power is most in demand. We have 8-man minor league rosters which drives a lot of the inflation and heavy trading with multiple teams routinely playing for next year by May. This makes the stars and scrubs strategy more viable since you can trade stud prospects to fill in.

[Big Tymer]

RotoLab had Gomez at $77 so I tossed him first hoping to get him under $60. Didn't happen as he got bid to $63 and I didnt hit $64 fast enough. From there, prices just stayed high and so I ended up with Kemp at $54 which is near where RotoLab had him but still don't feel great about that. That said, got Granderson/Lind/Aramis all for under $30 each so was ok with that as I wanted power having kept Hamilton/Lagares/Heyward.

On the pitching side, I wanted Gio or Lynn for under $25 and happy with Lynn at $21. Favorite buy was Romo at $3 towards the end as can't see him not getting 10 or so saves. On the whole, I spent less on pitching than I ever have (~60) but had Storen at $2 and Wacha at $5 so that is a little misleading.

Happy with my team but need some luck in Avg and SP to make a run.

Full Team:

C: Montero $9 (keeper)
1B: Lind $27
2B: Amarista $3 (keeper)
SS: Crawford $5 (keeper)
3B: Arenado $5 (keeper)
MI: Cozart $7
CI: Aramis Ramirez $26
OF: Heyward $15 (keeper)
OF: Hamilton $5 (keeper)
OF: Lagares $4 (keeper)
OF: Kemp $54
OF: Granderson $27
UT: David Peralta $9
UT: BJ Upton $4

Bench: Nieuwenhuis $1

P: Wacha $5 (keeper)
P: Lohse $10 (keeper)
P: Lynn $21
P: Burnett $12
P: Tim Hudson $3
P: Colon $3
P: Barrett $1
P: Romo $3
P: Storen $2 (keeper)

Bench: Delgado $1, Treinen $1, Vincent $1, Ramos $1

Farm: Addison Russell, David Dahl, Julio Urias, Alen Hanson, Roman Quinn, Dominic Smith, 2 picks remaining

[frae]

Full rosters in PDF.

[gcstomp]

Stomp! staggered in from a 6.5 hour auction earlier in day from the Chris new 16 team mixed, into 12TO with a terrible keeper list, thanks to a failed "go for it" attempt last year and giving away the farm, most notably J Soler. Offseason included me freakin giving away a $5 T Frazier for a toy that broke a few hours later, thanks. My farm K Bryant gives me hope. I spent 90% on hitting, leaving a stellar under 10% for pitching. Wanna see what that staff looks like(* keeper)?
*F Rodriguez $2 (closer?)
*J Mejia $1 (closer?)
*T Watson 1
D Thayer $1 (so thats 4 non sp, overboard?)
T Cahill $3
R de la Rosa $3
D Gee $5
J Locke $3
J Niese $6
Bench T Lincecum $2, P Corbin $4
Farm AJ Cole, J Tailion

90% on hitting. I have been in league many years and I was still amazed by the hitter prices, actually the big pitcher prices were crazy as well. The particular league parameter of having 8 man farm, 5 man bench, promoted farm as year 0 at $5, with new contract not up until after year 2, makes for some awesome level inflation. Basically many rosters have their meat and potatoe value set pre auction, so their budget is just thrown at the few remaining true stars. Right after auction, one team, the new guy announced rebuild, so I assume the aggresive $49 he spent on Schezer was a why the hell not I am trading it for rebuild chips.

I consider this my main league, and think it runs very well so dont need to hear how it can run better via your vanilla league rules, our different isnt bad, its challenging.

[Hornsby]

Honestly, given the wild spending in the auction, I don't view Trumbo at 44 as a gamble at all. All things revolve around health, right? So a healthy Trumbo is a pretty fair bet for 35/100, and there's potential for upside after that. And again, there's always at least 1 guy going to a buck under the buying price the way that we bid, so it shouldn't come as such a shock. Other than that, my hitting is questionable...Got Kendrick for 31, like Hundley for 2 bucks in Colorado, Middlebrooks for 11 is a reach, but maybe the guy has found his swing. Kept Josh Harrison, Corey Dickerson, Gregory Polanco, EY, and...Alex Guerrero. Yeah, I kept him at a buck rather than Kemp at 39...big mistake. Also have Jace Peterson and Soler coming up from the minors in a week.

My pitching is pretty good...bought Lester for 31, Worley for 3, Reed for 15, and then a quintet of lottery tickets: Jansen for 30, Bailey for 13, Parnell for 3, Minor for 2, and Josh Johnson for 1. Kept Wood, Archie, and Brett Anderson.

I'll need some of the luck that Rick needs at average, and probably some K's, at least until my broken pitchers get back.

Oh yeah, I also lost Tomas, so together with Castillo in the RJEL, that's 21 dollars worth of Cuban phenoms down the crapper...i'll always be that guy you can count on at the auction to do the wrong thing.

[Judge Jude]

I consider this my main league, and think it runs very well so dont need to hear how it can run better via your vanilla league rules, our different isnt bad, its challenging.

if your owners are happy with it, then enjoy it. I mean, we haven't lost an owner since 2002, so that's a pretty good indication that our approach works - for this particular bunch of owners. sounds like you don't have a lot of turnover, either. the one extra challenge might be getting new owners to buy in, to where you'd first want to explain the unusual issues like 'immediate dumping.' once they confirm they are comfortable with that - and for those who play multiple leagues, some would prefer a different style - you'll be fine. in fact, I imagine that's what you guys probably already do.

[Sharky]

frae, that's a pretty sweet team for a 12-team NL only league. Nicely done.

[frae]

frae, that's a pretty sweet team for a 12-team NL only league. Nicely done.

Thanks, my keeper list was good going in so that helped. The key will certainly be the injured combo of Werth and Pence coming back healthy and Votto bouncing back. Stras and Bumgarner can cover a lot of warts on my pitching staff. We will see though, I hope you enjoyed that very long read.

[Buzzfish43]

Frae. This the same league we did in like 2000 via instant messenger .? I remember those days and all the fun you had before kids that was...... But having some of my own there are days (and nights) when those kids make one want to return to the shot after shot sort of evening no doubt. Nice work on the draft how long from start to finish on the draft?

[frae]

Frae. This the same league we did in like 2000 via instant messenger .? I remember those days and all the fun you had before kids that was...... But having some of my own there are days (and nights) when those kids make one want to return to the shot after shot sort of evening no doubt. Nice work on the draft how long from start to finish on the draft?

Same league Buzz, I just posted in the rj history thread to yours there. The auction took 3.5 hours, not quite the 10 hour marathon of 2000. That 2000 AOL IM auction will live in infamy. If you ever want to come back we have an opening now and then. Hope things are well.

[joncarlos]

This league always makes me crazy. I went in this year with a plan of waiting out the crazy stud prices, but it became pretty clear that people had too much money left over, and things like paying $28 for Denard Span were going to happen. My big purchase was a $38 David Wright and then I filled in with 10-20 dollar guys. It was tough since I came in with a LOT less money than most other teams.

Any time you have an NL only team with the best pitcher and one of the best 2-3 hitters, you've got a good start, but I don't feel like I did a good job filling in. Pitching is strong, but I don't have a lot of trade bait for the dumping teams and I'm somehow light on power even with Stanton.

C Salty $7 (waited until everyone had their catcher, since it's a 1-catcher league)
1B Frazier $15 keeper
2B Lemahieu $14
SS Owings $6 keeper
3B Carpenter $16 keeper
CI D Wright $38
MI Rollins $20 keeper
OF Stanton $15 keeper
OF Jon Jay $6 keeper
OF M Byrd $3 keeper
OF Inciarte $10
OF G Blanco $5
UT Y Escobar $11 (yeah, that was the best hitter I could find in that range)
UT Ethier $3

Reserve - Brayan Pena, Sean Rodriguez

P Kershaw $40 keeper
P I Kennedy $14 keeper
P Shelby Miller $13
P Y Petit $5
P Haren $6
P Chase Anderson $2
RP Strop $1
RP J Walden $5 (felt like I had to get him)
RP Rosenthal $7 keeper

Bench Beachy, Mike Dunn, Chris Hatcher (come on, saves!)

[Big Tymer]

I went in this year with a plan of waiting out the crazy stud prices

JC - this is the exact strategy I deployed in RJEL and in Keith's AL in terms of holding back from the true studs and living in the 2nd / 3rd tier but I knew that would never fly in 12TO knowing our history and reviewing the player pool. Thus, I led out the gate by tossing Gomez who went for $63. I debated trying to toss someone like Ryan Zimmerman 1st thinking maybe I could get him for a relative bargain but I think too highly of our compatriots to think that would ever happen. There were no bargains to be had for the first hour (and very few even after that) so while it made me a little nauseous to pay $54 for Kemp the money had to be spent somewhere.