So what did everyone think of their auction?
Here are my thoughts on my picks:
Lucroy ($42) – My dream would have been to get Lucroy and McCutch, but Lucroy was the one player i absolutely wanted. Best cacher card in the draft, just ahead of martin (who is older, has a C durability). Martin for $27 was definitely a nice pick and I reached higher for Lucroy than I wanted, but I’m ok with that.
Stroman ($10) – I’m happy with stro at this price, his card is pretty nice (he’s likely one of my long men in the bullpen) and in year 3 he’ll be worth the price
Dickey ($13) – Happy with Dickey at 13 as well; he’s not the greatest fit for Fenway with the big DD window vs RHP, but he’s a jam/30 endurance and could be in for a nice year in toronto with Martin as his catcher
Benoit ($15) – Definitely overpaid for Benoit, no question, but the card is pretty nice and I believe he was one of the last elite RH RP left.
Snider ($1) – He’ll take some AB away from Heyward against LHP and he’s a bit of a sleeper to have a nice year in Baltimore. Happy to have him at a buck
Tolleson ($1) – He’ll platoon with Seager (at least up to his AB limit); was happy to get him for a buck.
Left $24 on the table which I’m not thrilled about, coulda been in on some of the guys I dropped out early on.
Overall I’m reasonably happy with my auction; didn’t hit a home run but came away with some solid cards and some holes filled. Likely give myself a B or B+ in the report card but we’ll see.
Now your turn: What did you think of your auction?
Mike
BEER LEAGUE BASEBALL 
I came into the draft with a nice offensive nucleus in place (Posey, Adam Jones, A-Gon, Pence) with almost the entire starting lineup covered. I needed a 2B but it was low priority because I needed arms. Rotation-wise all I had in place was Tillman and an unsatisfying Yovani Gallardo. Bullpen-wise I had jam Glen Perkins and cheap Jason Grilli. $92 to spend, 12 players total to buy. And I’m kind going for it this season.
Bought some stock in Jacob DeGrom ($29) and Collin McHugh ($35), not chump change, but two young pitchers on the rise. If they’re for real this MLB season and I get good cards for next BLB season I’ll consider the deals a success.
McHugh was the 22nd player selected in the draft. I didn’t get another until pick #99 when I got Billy Butler for $2, who will help late in games when A-Gon comes up and you remember A-Gon stinks vs lefties. A few picks later I paid Solarte $4 to switch hit a little and gimme that hit & run rating whilst being awful in the field.
A few picks later I started what would turn out to be a very pleasing run on bullpen arms for me. Coming into the draft I wanted Betances or Giles. Got neither. Started with plan B by getting Anthony Varvaro for $1. I sidetracked a little to overpay for Sam Fuld ($6) but A range and -1 arm in all fields might be worth it. Then back to relievers with Sipp ($3), Atchison ($1), Morin ($1), De Fratus ($1) in what rounded out to be a nice bullpen for me. Perkins who I came into the draft with is a jam, everyone else in the bullpen has at least an on of an off button, and I should hold runners ok.
I took Mike Moustakas ($1) to be a late game defensive replacement , then finished with SP Shane Greene ($1) which I think has the chance to be a steal. Decent card this season, only a 20 durability and pen eligible, but I liked what I saw of him with the Yankees and he’s pencilled is as a starter in Detroit.
Overall very pleased with my draft and I hope to contend for the division vs. Edmonton. I’m a little irritated I left $7 on the table, wish I could’ve gotten Ender Inciarte (if whoever has him wants to trade, I’m deep in the pen and can eventually move one for the right OF) but pleased overall with how I did.
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Yeah you and I were bidding each other up on a few guys; you bid me up on Benoit and I bid you up on Fuld and Solarte a bit (i wanted both but a few bucks cheaper). Like you, I wanted Betances and Giles and like you, I got neither….
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I hadn’t taken a full look at the division when I made my post – Peter’s Anteaters will be right there too in the mix for the division. Miggy and JD back-to-back in picks 4 and 5 in the draft, that great Sean Doolittle card, snagging that A range 2B LeMahieu, Hardy’s clutch rating at SS, Boxberger…..very good draft for Peter as well.
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Only needed 4 players, and got Arrieta early. I then nominated Barmes, and thought someone would bid at least $2, but was happy to sneak him away for $1. Once I got Barmes cheap, I felt more comfortable going in on another starter, and got Ervin Santana for $18. Finally, Freese at $5 was good, too. An improvement over Dominguez. I don’t expect to win the division, but hope to be mildly competitive.
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In other news, Dan is planning to petition for a name change. Under consideration: New Glarus Mildly Competitive. Or New Glarus 73 Wins.
In all seriousness, good to see you adding some quality pitching. Gives you a little more hope. Now about Puig….
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Yeah I had Arrieta as the top starter card for this draft, all things considered, but I wasn’t sure on a 3-year investment on him. That said, I wasn’t sure on the 3-year investments for McHugh and deGrom either, so hard not to like the Arrieta pick for Dan. Ervin Santana at $18 is a good price I think, he could have easily gone in the mid-20s.
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I got cano but paid $47.
Martin was good at $27 I wanted Lucroy but dared not to go higher.
Ortiz $26 was too expensive but I like him. Big lefty clutch bat.
Gordon was again more than I wanted to pay at $27 but he’s the guy I wanted.
Gio was a bit of a miss que at $15… But he’s good. Wanted a righty.
Got Hendricks at $8 hope he’s for real. But good ace for play off run.
DeAza at 1 was good. Nice platoon OF for me.
Negron was a reach at $3 but needed his D on 3b.
Taylor 1 and McKennay 1 was a whoops thought if be out bid.
Happy with my pen spent $15 on neshek, Felix, abad. Jepsen, quack and holland.
Left $10 I think. I ran out of room. Lol
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This was, I believe, the first time Cano was ever drafted by someone other than me. I had to leave the room just to make sure I didn’t draft him out of instinct.
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i went into the draft looking for a frontline SP and a quality CF as my primary targets.got my SP in hamels tho at 33$ was a bit pricier than i wanted to spend.failed miserably in finding my CF.coco crisp isnt anyones idea of a good time but at least he plays the position.ian desmond was totally out of the blue.didnt expect to even bid on him but he came in at a decent price(money i probably should have spent on my CF).he becomes my SS with castro moving to DH(or traded ifanyone needs a offensive SS.ackley gives my OF depth and im hoping he follows seager with a breakout yr in seattle.morse was the only player i ended up with that i actually targeted as i had no 1stB and i figured he could be serviceable and still be cheap.trumbo was an option as a platoon bat with morse so that kinda worked out.i like zimmerman at 1st this yr for the nationals.hopefully he can stay healthy and have a good yr.watson was a random decent reliever that i wanted to pick up so thats where he fits in.
i grade myself out with a “C” for the draft.covered everything i was trying to cover,probably could have done better if i had planned it out better but whats a rookie to do.
dakota expects to finish last again for the upcoming season but hopefully we ll manage a few more than 48 wins.
team strength should be the starting rotation:hamels,lester,samardzija,weaver and gausman need to keep the nightstalkers in the game.the offense is steady if unspectacular we no real automatic outs in the lineup.
defense is average ,about the same as last yr.the bullpen below average compared to the rest of the league with no dominant pitchers to hang its hat on.
i had fun as usual with drafting and i guess its time to see what the minor league draft brings us.
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Coming into the draft I knew my team wasn’t a serious contender for ’15, so it was definitely all about ’16. My minimum needs were 2B and CF, and I wanted to add a C and a couple SPs. I also wanted RP in what I considered to be a deep RP draft, but as always I’m willing to forego a reliever if I like someone at another position.
Every draft is wildly different. Unless I’m a contender I rarely am in on players in the first segment. This year was no different. Michael Pineda was the only player on my list brought up before the first break. It worked out that most of my guys went later and for the most part a little cheaper than I budgeted, which meant I got a couple guys I didn’t expect to be in on.
SP: I wanted two SP. My targets coming into the draft were Andrew Cashner and Matt Harvey. My secondary targets were Taijuan Walker and Michael Pineda. I landed Cashner ($12), Walker ($6), and Harvey($14). Most of the guys I landed won’t help me this year, but I got three guys I consider to be upper half rotation starters. Add them to my current mix of Scherzer, Archer, Odorizzi and Shelby Miller, and I have the makings of a great 2016 rotation.
2B: Overall I wasn’t too excited about the options, but I thought highly of Odor. I mostly wanted Odor for the combo of Odorizzi and Odor. But when Odor got around $10, I reminded myself that I needed to factor in the increased fart spray budget so I stopped bidding. I ended up with Schoop ($5). great D. Big power. Maybe a little upside, but I view this more as a stopgap. He’s also rated at 3rd, and I have Machado’s F injury there so that helped.
OF: I really only had three main targets for the OF. Number one priority was Desmond Jennings. I think he’s solid overall with a little room to grow. Not terribly sexy, but if I could get him in the $10-15 range I thought that would be good value. If I didn’t get Jennings I thought I’d go after the limited Michael Taylor (who has the inside track to start for WAS with the Span injury) or Joc Pederson, and figure out a full time CF in the minors draft. I ended up with all 3 (Jennings – $14; Pederson – $10; Taylor – $3). Similar to my SP, my OF is pretty exciting now with Jennings, Pederson, and Taylor joining Bryce Harper, Stanton, and Yelich. All under contract for next year.
C: I came into the draft looking at Christian Vazquez and Tuffy Gosewich. I like Vazquez upside. And I’m a fan of Gosewich since he was a student in my accounting class at ASU and has great D numbers. Later in the draft I saw Yasmani Grandal hanging out there and thought I’d see what he’d go for. I got him for $5. His D is atrocious. But he’s got a stick. So I’m hoping he develops the tools of ignorance a little bit, but with Mesoraco I have a year to see if he can develop as a C or as a VicMart. Either way, at 5 bucks I’m cool with it even if I lost out on my former prospect Vazquez and my former student Gosewich.
With one spot open late in the draft I had three players on my board I liked: Cory Rasmus, Chris Owings, and Ruby de la Rosa. I literally just got done telling Ron E and Dan those three names and that I was researching them when Dan says Owings got nominated. My head told me I needed a reliever with only three on my roster (Go after Rasmus dammit!). But the heart wants what it wants (cue Selena Gomez), so I got Owings ($4). I love his upside, and he could end up at 2B long term with his shoulder issues. His downside is his shoulder issues. If this fails there’s not much downside risk, but can’t help but thinking I probably should’ve gotten a reliever.
Overall, this was an unusual year for me in that most of my Plan A came to fruition (aside from 2b where I preferred Odor, and RP where I preferred to actually get one, especially Boxberger), and I ended up with a couple players I didn’t think would fit my budget (Grandal, Pederson, Taylor, Walker). I think this has the potential to be my best draft overall, but the grade will be determined in October since most of my guys were taken with 2016 in mind.
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In rebuild mode and with limited cash i keyed on only one offensive guy to fill my hole at 2b and go with my young roster so I was happy when Craig stopped bidding Oder.
I needed a crap load of pitchers so i was very happy to get the quality guys i got.
Despaine ($8), Eovaldi ($10), and Hutchison ($12) are solud guys at solud prices and join Ventura and Collmester to form a much more solid rotation than i thought I’d have.
Getting Hughes ($1), Pomereranz ($1), Neil Ramirez ($1), Jumbo Diaz ($1) and Fiers ($8) are really solid pen guys. Fiers is a 40% guy I’ll hold off using with a trade deadline deal a possibility.
Jason Castro for ($1) was another quality pick.
I’m very happy with my draft and don’t dread the upcoming season now.
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Shiner went into the draft with starters at all positions except SS and 3B and a lack of power hitters. With only 7 positions available to fill, I decided to partake in overspending for a frontline starter and an additional closer;
Aroldis Chapman; $21 Even though that is a huge amount to spend on a closer, I have never seen that many K’s on one card, and with his ability to overcome such a devastating injury, I feel assured his future is still bright.
Matt Shoemaker; $35 My fragile rotation forced my hand to get another ace and I had Shoe on my board just after Greinke. I was willing to pay 35 since I had the bucks, and that’s exactly how much he cost. I’m thrilled.
Danny Santana; $17 He was the highest ranked SS on my board, and no one else was really close as far as offense+defense, so I was happy to win another overpay
Brock Holt! $12 As far as 3B goes, I was hoping to enter the Miguel Cabrera sweepstakes, but the price was simply to high for what I felt was a sub par offensive year from the aging stud. I decided to go my number 2 route and go with the average glove, but all around very good numbers of the versatile Holt.
Justin Turner; $10 This was actually somewhat of a mistake as I thought Turner was a C+55 at SS even though I plan to get his B75 plenty of time at 3B. Even though it’s 10 dollars for a part-time player, his OPS (on the card) was higher than anyone else on my board except JD Martinez. I’ll take it.
Angel Pagan $8 / David Peralta $3 ; Even though I need more power in the OF, I am a sucker for an OB guy (especially one that gets on vs RHP) and has speed to boot. For 8 bucks, I’m happy. Peralta; Another part time OFer, but this time with power vs RHP and at 3 bucks he fits the bill nicely.
Overall I am very pleased, even though I left money on the table, I got the guys I wanted except Miggy and JD. I still need some power sticks, but since I have about 8 CFer types now, hopefully I can make a trade happen 🙂
Great Auction everyone!
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I wanted Brock Holt. Sweet, sweet Brock Holt.
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The Woodbury Governors came in with some big needs at 2B,SS,CF as well as needing another SP.
Ian Kinsler at $17 was first. I knew coming into the draft that Cano was out of my price range so Kinsler was pretty high on the list. Good stick, better glove happy with the price tag as well.
Jacob Ellsbury at $23. I had 3 players I liked for this OF spot the other 2 being Leonys Martin and Alex Gordan. Ellsbury went out first and I was happy to get him at $23
pretty happy at this point in the auction, filled two big holes up the middle for $40.
Next up was Tyson Ross at $26. I honestly dropped the ball on de Groom at $29, still not sure why I did not go to $30. Plan was to get a solid number 2 behind Kluber. Ross should be a nice addition to the rotation for next season.
The next player I selected was Austin Jackson at $7, at least this pick gives me reason to watch the Mariners games late at night now. Honestly I think he is an excellent fit at the top of Seattle lineup this season. Woodbury is hoping for a bounce back season in 2015. For BLB purposes he will be a part of the three headed monster in LF with Rajai Davis and David Lough for the Governors in 2015.
The goal was to add a left handed hitting 1B to platoon with Mike Napoli. The three guys I hate targeted were Matt Adams, Joe Mauer and Eric Hosmer. Very glad to get both Adams at $8 and then picked up Mauer a little later at $5.
Jason Hammel at $15 was not in the game plan coming into the auction. I had more money than I expected at this point in time. Hammel has a solid card for 2015 and will slot in well as the Governors number 4 starter for this season.
the last three selections were filling needs and spending the last $7 available
John Jaso at $3 was taken before Mauer, If I knew I would have gotten Mauer at $5 I would not have taken Jaso. Live and learn I guess but Jaso still has value.
Adam Warren at $3. He looks like he has a chance to break spring training as the Yankees number 5 starter. For the Governors he adds nice depth to the bullpen.
Marwin Gonzalez at $1. missed on my SS at this point so I figured I would go with a utility guy here and hope in the minor league draft to find something to match with Marwin.
All in all I am very happy with the draft, the early part went as well as could be expected. Only move I do not like was the Jaso selection.
Bryan Richert
Woodbury Governors
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I wanted Kinsler but needed to make sure I had the arms I needed – happy to have outbid you for deGrom though, I thought for sure you were going to $30.
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The Crows needed to fill 15 spots with $160. The building blocks were Duda, Gennett, Holliday, Jay as a competent CF, a rotation with Roark, Koehler and Colon and Robertson at closer.
Priority #1: an elite switch/RH bat to put in front of Duda (who I’ve slotted as my clean-up hitter) v RH. I identified Cabrera, McCutchen or Vic Martinez and put a $35 price tag on the slot. I was very pleased with Martinez at $38 – because he offers pos flexibility and his offensive card is elite.
Priority #2: a top-line starter. Roark is better as a 2. Richert got better value with Ty Ross but $37 for Greinke was fair.
I wasn’t wedded to Longoria but at $17 I was willing to make it work. With the number of lefty starters in our league, I prioritized a lefty killer. I’m hoping he’s got more better years ahead of him than Wright (who I’m skeptical does anyway) – though the price differential was not great at any rate.
I targeted a JAM lefty reliever because there were plenty of them and had pegged $15 as my budget. I was more than willing to take back $7 to deploy elsewhere and settle for Andrew Miller.
I targeted Gosewich coming in but was more than happy to settle for Suzuki at $18, as much for his A-1b and very nice splits v lefties (see above).
For my last starter, my goal was to push Colon back to the 5 slot at $15 or less. Volquez at $11 did the trick.
I wanted Nava from the get-go and had hoped to sneak him through at $10 or less (got him at $6). He’ll be my lead-off hitter v RH and a good defensive RF.
I had pegged Espinosa to platoon with Scooter and was counting on paying more than $3. I thought I was lucky to get him at that price – in part because he’s a passable defensive SS as well.
I coveted Rojas’s B+/70 SS rating from the start. When the cards came out, I was shocked how horrific SS defense was across the board. In this case, I was willing to sacrifice offense to get Rojas’s defense. I would have paid more than $1 for him and paying less allowed me to stash money for Cor. Rasmus – who I was willing to stretch for.
I had my eye on some of the more elite OF range ratings but Ichiro as a defensive sub at B/-2 across the board and pinch-runner at $2 worked fine for me.
Nava needed a platoon partner and Gomes with a .373 OBP v lefties worked just fine at $1.
Rutledge will warm the seat for Jose Ramirez until Ramirez’s 50% is up.
I exited the auction with 6 CLUTCH bats, 3 JAM starters and Andrew Miller and Cor. Rasmus to back up David Robertson. I left $5 on the table but had not thought I’d kept enough dry powder to land Rasmus anyway.
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A damn fine draft for the Crows. Lots to like but getting that Andrew Miller card for $8 is a sweet deal, especially when Aroldis Chapman goes for $21. Chapman’s card is better but I don;t know that it’s $13 better than Miller’s.
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Just to verify, Aroldis was NOT worth $21, but I had the bucks and am willing to overpay for an elite strikeout jam closer who’s K per IP IS THE best in major league history. he averaged 100mph per fastball last year. And even more impressive, allowed no hits on his change up! I’m in love, mancrush style, all in a year when he had to overcome a devastating injury. I’m not sure his ceiling goes higher, but I’m willing to pay to see
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