In Which We Get to Mock My Other Fantasy Draft

I have no delusions that any of you care about my fantasy baseball teams, but the amount of time I put on this site allows me these occasional self-indulgent posts.

So TCR founder and all-around good guy Christian Ruzich invited me to join his auction league and I accepted because...what the hell? I played a few roto leagues before and always hated them, but the auction style was new to me, might as well try it. Here are the pertinent league rules:

* 24-man roster (C C 1B 2B 3B SS CR MI OF OF OF OF OF UT + 10 pitchers)
* 5x5: OBP, HR, RBI, R, SB-CS // W, ERA, K, SV, WHIP
* Auction with keepers - $270 auction budget
* Drafted players get a two-year contract, with option for a 3rd year at salary +10

This was the team I was inheriting and the keeper rule is between 5-10 players and at least $40 of salary, otherwise it comes out of your auction day draft.

Players are listed with name, team, contract, salary, and position eligibility.

Contract statuses:

2 = 2nd year, eligible for an option in 2012 at salary + $10
2N = 2nd year, not eligible for an option
O = option year

J Castro HOU 2 5 C
J LuCroy MIL 2N 1 C
B Allen ARI 2 1 1/O
R Weeks MIL 2 20 2
P Sandoval SFG 2 27 3
E Cabrera SDP 2 21 S
C Johnson HOU 2N 1 3
J Bruce CIN O 36 O
L Morrison FLA 2 6 O
C Young ARI 2 15 O
R Gload PHI 2N 1 1
M DeRosa SF 2 16 2/O
S Pearce PIT 2 1 1
J Bay NYM 2 28 O
T Gwynn LAD 2N 5 O
E Velez LAD 2 2 O

J Hanrahan WAS 2N 2 P
J Happ HOU O 17 P
J Johnson FLA O 27 P
J Karstens PIT 2N 0 P
R Lopez ATL 2N 5 P
E Mujica FLA 2N 0 P
S Olsen PIT 2N 1 P
B Zito SFG O 11 P
J Ely LAD 2N 8 P
B Lincoln PIT 2N 11 P

I used the Baseball Prospectus fantasy rankings and recommended dollar values as a guide through the process. Bruce and Sandoval were two I wanted to keep but they seemed too expensive. I was right about Bruce (went for $24), not so much on Sandoval(went for $26).

• Rickie Weeks (2B) $20 - BP had him at $18
• Chris Johnson(CI) $11 - could care less abot him, but BP had him at $14, so seemed like value. I'm already regretting it.
• Logan Morrison (OF) $6 - seems to be somewhat of a forgotten prospect this year, well until he started lighting it up in April. $6 was too much of a bargain for an OF with a regular job.
• Chris Young(OF) $15 - power and speed and a $23 suggested value
• J. Johnson(P) $27 - one of my favorite pitchers
• Hanrahan(P) $12 - seemed like what closers were worth

That's $91, leaving me $179 to fill 18 spots. I decided I'd like to go about $180 on hitters and $90 on pitchers. I'd like to say I had a strategy beyond that, but as you'll see, I did not.

To the draft in the order I got them:

• Hanley Ramirez (SS) $42 - I made some runs at Votto, Halladay Cliff Lee , Soto and McCann before this and BP had him at $37. He ended up being the 2nd most expensive player to go in the draft behind Pujols at $43 (Votto was third at $41). I figure it's harder to find a shortstop.
• Chipper Jones(3B) $22 - Meh, BP had him at $13 and by this point their one league value for players was generally being outbid by $8-$10. I was hoping to keep it under $18, but alas let the auction get the best of me. Ian Stewart just went for $16 and I wasn't sure any other good third basemen were left. I should have kept bidding up Stewart, but for some reason I thought Stewart's injury was more serious. Then of course Stewart seems to be fighting for playing time under Tracy, so maybe this will work out still.
• Starlin Castro(MI) $22 - BP had him at $19, so I was willing to go up to $25 here. I get him for two years with a third year option at $10 more, so seemed like good value.
• Alfonso Soriano(OF) $15 - If he can steal a few bases this year, he still has 20 home run pop. Marlon Byrd went for $17 the pick after, so I felt much better after that.
• Stephen Strasburg(P) $7 - That means $7 next year and $17 the following year. I also made a run at Johan Santana but my budget was dwindling by that point and more worried about Santana's shoulder surgery then Strasburg's TJ surgery.
• Javier Vazquez(P) $13 - Well I know he'll be pitching in a friendly park at least, so far he's been pretty terrible.
• Matt Garza(P) $8 - That seemed like a steal to me with most #2/#3 starters going over $10. It was around this point that I had calculated how much I could afford on each pitcher and hitter and was looking to not spend too abundantly over that average.
• Todd Helton(1B) $5 - one of the last first basemen left and they were all going for over $10. At the very least he'll help my OBP.
• Kerry Wood(P) $3 - high K's and next in line for saves as most of the closers were gone by then.
• Aaron Harang(P) $6 - like my other league, looking for the Petco bounce back.
• Domonic Brown(OF) $7 - I'm not sure when he'll be back and if he'll play much this year with the Phillies, but seemed like a good shot beyond this season.
• Jonathan LucRoy (C) $4 - broken finger shouldn't linger and in a good lineup with a little home run pwer
• Bill Hall(2B, 3B, OF) $7 - Plays a bunch of spots and hopefully some home runs with the Crawford boxes.
• Humberto Quintero (C) $3 - Having to carry 2 catcher spots is 'effin brutal.
• Sergio Romo (P) $1 - siphon off some saves until Brian Wilson is back, which happened sooner than I hoped and he didn't get any.
• Russell Branyan (UT) $5 - a few garbage home runs and I don't think Juan Miranda is all that secure with the first base job.
• Andrew Cashner (P) $5 - not a lot of folks had money left and at the least the upside is high and hopefully the K's. A good keeper option for next year even if the injury lingers.
• Mike Adams (P) $1 - could be next in line for saves if Bell gets hurt and tons of strikeouts.

There's a $100 free agent budget to work with during the season and a $330 in-season salary cap to try and make things interesting. My final roster with a * indicating disabled list and I'll have to find someone on the waiver wire.

LuCroy*, Quintero, Helton, Weeks, H. Ramirez, C. Jones, Castro (MI), C. Johnson (CI), Morrison, C. Young, Soriano, B. Hall, D. Brown*, R. Branyan (UT).

J. Johnson, J. Vazquez, M. Garza, A. Harang, A. Cashner, S. Strasburg*, J. Hanrahan, S. Romo, M. Adams, K. Wood

As you can see, my pitching staff is a hot mess. I don't really have enough closers for saves and not enough good starters for wins. My K's and WHIP should be alright. Remarkably I am in second place right now without Hanley doing anything.

Some players I had proposed or made strong runs at:

• R. Halladay - went for $36
• B. McCann - went for $23
• Geovany Soto - went for $18
• Cliff Lee - went for $33
• Joey Votto (nominated by me) - went for $41
• Chris Iannatta - went for $17
• Pablo Sandoval (nominated by me) - went for $26
• Zack Greinke - went for $29
• Carlos Pena - went for $25
• Tommy Hanson - went for $23
• Lance Berkman (nominated by me) - $16
• Yovani Gallardo (nominated by me) - $23
• Jay Bruce - $24
• Chris Carpenter (nominated by me) - $24
• Ubaldo Jimenez - $21
• Brad Hawpe (nominated by me) - went for $12
• Ryan Franklin went for $13
• Leo Nunez - went for $13
• Francisco Cordero - went for $16
• Adam LaRoche - went for $16
• Kosuke Fukudome (nominated by me) -$7
• Todd Helton ((nominated by me) - and got him for $5
• Sean Burnett (nominated by me) - $4 (I should have kept bidding on him)
• Quintero, Romo, Branyan and Adams were all also nominated by me and I won the bids.