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so far the boys have rostered

Tulo $31
Castro $27
Sandoval $23
Greinke $20

Matt Holliday $26

Wainwright $21

Gyorko $10

wow, they are being super aggressive

Goldschmidt $27


they have $55 left for 15 roster spots

and they pick up Adam Eaton for $18

$57 left with a max bid of $38

Childs is trying to figure out who they can get for $38

Tulo huh, that's a shock

$18 for Eaton seems awfully high.

Uggla for $14 and Minor for $12


$31 left

Love the pitching staff.

Hundley 2
Mesoraco 2
Goldschmidt 27
Sandoval 23
Gyorko 10
Uggla 14
Tulo 31
Starlin 27
Holliday 26
Eaton 18
G.Brown 2
Cowgill 2
Yelich 2
Rendon 1

Wainwright 21
Greinke 20
Minor 12
Cahill 9
Volquez 4
D.Hudson 3
Teheran 2
Villanueva 1
Wacha 1

Haven't seen the Reserves.

The $15 spent on Minor / Teheran / Villanueva was money well spent. Solid staff, guys.



Vlad

Is it me?
I like the N.L. a lot more than the A.L.

Really love that pitching staff. Childs mancrush on Tulo continues!

CALI CARTEL wrote:
G.Brown 2
Cowgill 2
Yelich 2
Rendon 1


Haven't seen the Reserves.

I have...

BEF wrote:

CALI CARTEL wrote:
G.Brown 2
Cowgill 2
Yelich 2
Rendon 1


Haven't seen the Reserves.

I have...

Leake, Pomeranz, Chacin, Blackmon, Federwicz, Sands

I just got home from a great weekend of auctions in Phoenix, while Shawn is flying back now. Shawn was great to have as a partner again as he was super aggressive in both auctions and he did a nice job on the back end. It's not easy to have $31 with 12 players left like we had last night or $20 for 11 players like we had in the AL and still finish okay, but he does pretty well. That might explain how he's won 4 NFBC Auction League titles.

Anyway, anyone doing both the AL and NL Auctions in the NFBC will notice a sizeable dropoff in depth in the NL compared to the AL. Man, the outfield is thin in the NL and so is the starting pitching. Just crazy how weak the NL is to the AL when it comes to depth of talent. The top talent is there, but we knew the depth was going to be rough, especially at outfield. We decided to dive in for the stars, punt saves if closers went too high and try to fill in later. Again, this is a trading league so we stored up the pitching assets and we hope to make up some statistic shortfalls with trades during the season. Not everyone left with the type of staff we have.

But this was like sitting in the dentist's office for 4 hours. It was a fun first hour as everyone was super aggressive and Perry Van Hook kept the auction moving. I think half the money was gone in the first hour. We price enforced early and got the guys we targeted and even got some we didn't target (Uggla, Holliday). We again sat for more than an hour without getting a player as we had $22 for 11 players at one point. I think we have more holes in the NL than the AL, but I think everyone who was in that auction left with holes. The depth just isn't there in the NL.

Okay, I'll post our roster and the top NL guys shortly.

Here is the draft board:

http://www.rtsports.com/labr-nl-auction

Okay, the link above shows our team, but here it is anyway:

C - Devin Mesoraco $2
C - Nick Hundley $2
1B - Paul Goldschmidt $27
2B - Dan Uggla $14
SS - Troy Tulowitzki $31
3B - Pablo Sandoval $23
MI - Starlin Castro $27
CI - Jedd Gyorko $10
UT - Anthony Rendon $2
OF - Matt Holliday $26
OF - Adam Eaton $18
OF - Colin Cowgill $2
OF - Gary Brown $2
OF - Christian Yelish $1

P - Zack Greinke $20
P - Adam Wainwright $21
P - Mike Minor $12
P - Trevor Cahill $9
P - Edinson Volquez $4
P - Julio Teheran $2
P - Michael Wacha $1
P - Carlos Villanueva $1
P - Daniel Hudson $3

Reserves:
Jerry Sands, Mike Leake, Jholys Chacin, Drew Pomeranz, Tim Federowitz, Charlie Blackmon

Thoughts?

This was an extremely aggressive group of owners and that first hour was one helluva battle. When we looked at the lineup card for this one, we knew that the top stars would go for big dollars. This isn't a group that sits on $20 players. Half the field isn't afraid of starting out with a $40 player. Interestingly, those owners who did hold onto their cash battled for second-tier players later on. One owner even held onto his money too long and got burned at the end.

Anyway, here were the top bids in the NL:

Ryan Braun $40
Joey Votto $38
Giancarlo Stanton $36
Matt Kemp $35
Justin Upton $35
Andrew McCutchen $34
Bryce Harper $35
David Wright $32
Clayton Kershaw $32
Troy Tulowitzki $31
Jason Heyward $31
Stephen Strasburg $31
Jay Bruce $30

That's 13 players of $30 or more. In the AL, there were 9 players of $30 or more.

Greg Ambrosius wrote:That's 13 players of $30 or more. In the AL, there were 9 players of $30 or more.

Yes, but the AL has the Astros and Twins, so that kind of evens things out in the talent pool...

http://advice.sportsdraftdaily.com/2013 ... abr-recap/

The NL LABR auction was night and day from the AL league. We did a much better job evaluating our opponents. We thought the change in owners would lead to higher prices early. We also thought there was a huge drop off in the offensive player pool which really made it difficult to fill out the back end of our roster. Based on our research, we decided to pull back on the front end talent. Our goal was to roster two players for the $30 range. We were punting saves and we went in with a 185/75 split.

When the lights came on, the owners were ready to spend. The action was electric in the first hour. The first player called was Clayton Kershaw. We went into the auction wanting build our pitching staff with two solid starters from the $18 to $24 range. Grienke was our target ace, but we were fearful that he would go for $26 or more. We wanted to keep an open mind about Kershaw and Strasburg as there was a chance they would go for less than $30. Kershaw was being counted off for $30 and we decided to push him to $31. Derek Carty came back with an overbid and he won him for $32.
Most of the players called in the first round were high priced talent. We never even made a bid on most players as they quickly rose into the 30’s which knocked them out of our price range. We knew early that we had no chance on Justin Upton or Bryce Harper.

Our first purchase was Pablo Sandoval for $23. I thought the price was fair and he was a player with plenty of upside.
For the first time in four years, we weren’t the most aggressive player at the table early. It was good see that there were teams that were willing to pay a premium for starting pitching, closers, and batters.
The players we wanted didn’t get called out and we were willing to wait out the first couple of rounds. When our players were called out, we spent freely. In about a two round span, we bought five high priced players which led to us being one of the highest spending teams in the auction.

We purchased Troy Tulowitzki for $31 which seemed reasonable to our plan. Hanley Ramirez went for $29 a couple of rounds later. We thought at that moment that Starlin Castro may be undervalued and we needed to replace the speed we lost by not purchasing a top 20/20 outfielder.

When Zack Greinke was called out, we thought it was a key moment for us in the auction. We bid $18 and then $20. I could just sense there wasn’t as much interest in him in the room. I thought we bought him at a slight discount and I was extremely happy with his price. By saving a few dollars on him, we were able to raise the value of our number two targeted pitcher. Later in the auction, we purchased Adam Wainwright for $21. I think he will work well with Grienke.

The next player we were interested in was Castro. He really didn’t have the ideal skill for our team structure. We didn’t have any speed with our first two players, but we were looking for more of a 20/20 player. Castro is young player with upside. If he can hit 15 HR’s with 30 SB’s, I think we made a good buy and we bought him for $27.

We really didn’t have an exact target at first base, but we wanted to get one of the top five or six options. We didn’t bid on Votto, but we did make a $27 bid on Adrian Gonzalez. We had $25 slotted for first base. Paul Goldschmidt was the next top first baseman called out. I thought we should bid on him as the next couple of options could match him in price plus Goldschmidt would help with our speed. After some back and forth action, we jumped in at our target number ($25). Brad Evans of Yahoo really wanted him, but he let us have him for $27.

I made a detour when Matt Holliday was called out. He was dying in the mid 20’s and I thought he was solid buy at that price point. We bid $26 and we won him. Just like the AL, we were now short money for the rest of our offense. After five batters, we had spent $134. This left us with $51 to build the rest of our offensive team.

I really wanted to own Jedd Gyorko so I called him out with our next call. I thought we couldn’t afford him if we waited until later in the auction. There wasn’t a ton of interest so we were able to buy him for a fair price of $10. He will qualify at 2nd base after he plays five games this season. We should have the strongest middle infield in the league.

With our next call, I called out another player of interest – Adam Eaton. I felt he would have a higher level of attraction, but there were a lot of players with a similar skill set still on the table. Brad Evans knew we wanted him and he price enforce us to $18. I know we overpaid a couple of dollars, but he was the last key piece to our offensive plan. I was asked by a couple people about similar players with the same price point. I wasn’t interest in Dexter Fowler as he has injury risk and he hasn’t shown enough speed at this point of his career. I like Ben Revere, but I thought he would cost more than we could afford.
At this point of the auction, we had the core of our offense and we had the base of our pitching staff. We had $34 to finish our staff and $23 for hitting.

The auction took a strange turn over the next hour or so as we were again sitting on the sidelines. I thought there were couple player that were extremely discounted. I really wanted to bid on Ryan Howard as he was dying at $16. I really thought he was undervalued. The same thing happened with Ben Revere. Both players went for $17. The only reason these players were going so low was Derek Carty failed to realize the inventory was drying up. His lack of interest led to a buying opportunity by the other owners. When Dan Uggla was about to fall into the same mode, we were ready to make a move. He was dying at $11 which led to us bidding $12. We really couldn’t afford to bid more, but I decided to try $14 which ended up being the winning price. This left us with $9 for the rest of our offense.

Here’s in our offense:

C - Devin Mesoraco $2
C - Nick Hundley $2
1B - Paul Goldschmidt $27
2B - Dan Uggla $14
SS - Troy Tulowitzki $31
3B - Pablo Sandoval $23
MI - Starlin Castro $27
CI - Jedd Gyorko $10

OF - Matt Holliday $26
OF - Adam Eaton $18
OF - Colin Cowgill $2
OF - Gary Brown $2
OF - Christian Yelish $1
UT - Anthony Rendon $2

I was very happy with our two catchers for short money. We wanted Cowgill and Brown as our backend outfielders. I think Cowgill will get plenty of at bats near the top of the Mets lineup and he will offer the complimentary speed we are looking for. Brown will start the year at AAA. I think he may be the best option in centerfield by midseason for the Giants. We really wanted a better third outfielder, but we lost our leverage when we purchased Uggla. We decided to roster Yelish even though we thought he had a slim chance of making the majors this season. He had more upside than any of the remaining outfielders. We also went into the auction wanting to roster Rendon. He is a high upside player, but he has no clear path to playing time. He will get a chance to play multiple positions. I think his best chance of at bats is at 2nd base. I have a feeling Danny Espinosa will breakdown at some point this season.

I was ecstatic to hit on our top 3rd and 4th choices on our pitching staff. When Mike Minor was called out, I thought we would have a tough time purchasing him. We made the last bid at $12 as Lawr Michaels was ready to write him down on his roster. Cahill ($9) landed right in our price range.

Here’s our pitching staff:

P - Zack Greinke $20
P - Adam Wainwright $21
P - Mike Minor $12
P - Trevor Cahill $9
P - Edinson Volquez $4
P - Julio Teheran $2
P - Michael Wacha $1
P - Carlos Villanueva $1
P - Daniel Hudson $3

Volquez wasn’t in our original plan and his walk rate does scare me. He has a plus arm with upside with better command. His price point was more than fair for a 200 K pitcher. I though Teheran was a gift at $2. I didn’t want to own Villanueva. I was looking for a player that would draw a bid, but we heard crickets when we called him out.

Our reserve players were Jerry Sands, Mike Leake, Jhoulys Chacin, Drew Pomeranz, Tim Federowitz, and Charlie Blackmon.

This team has a solid pitching staff and we may have three additional starters on our bench. We may be a batter or two away on offense if Cowgill doesn’t get a high % of at bats. At some point during the year, we will need to trade for a second tier bat.

Shawn two questions regarding this team

1) Do you like your pitching staff having to use two of Leake, Chacin, or Pomeranz to replace Wacha and Hudson?
I liked your pitching staff until the last three spots

2) How are you going to replace three clear holes in your offense in Yelich, Brown, and Rendon? And you have the possibility for two more if Mesoraco and Gyorko start the year in the minors?

Captain Hook wrote:Shawn two questions regarding this team

1) Do you like your pitching staff having to use two of Leake, Chacin, or Pomeranz to replace Wacha and Hudson?
I liked your pitching staff until the last three spots

2) How are you going to replace three clear holes in your offense in Yelich, Brown, and Rendon? And you have the possibility for two more if Mesoraco and Gyorko start the year in the minors?

1- I will pickup a reliever to replace Daniel Husdon. I will reserve Wacha and call up Leake as I think he is the safest of three reserve starting option. Each week I will the opportunity to rotate between Leake, Pomeranz, and Chacin. LABR rules for reserve players are different than most leagues.

2 - I'll activate Blackmon to replace Yelish. If he isn't getting at bats, I'll try to find a better option on the waiver wire. For the first week, I'll insert Sands to replace Brown even if he doesn't make the team. I'll try to hold onto both players. If Mesoraco is sent down, I'll take a zero. Rendon and Gyorko are stuck in my lineup until I can make a trade.

CALI CARTEL wrote:Love the pitching staff.

Hundley 2
Mesoraco 2
Goldschmidt 27
Sandoval 23
Gyorko 10
Uggla 14
Tulo 31
Starlin 27
Holliday 26
Eaton 18
G.Brown 2
Cowgill 2
Yelich 2
Rendon 1

Wainwright 21
Greinke 20
Minor 12
Cahill 9
Volquez 4
D.Hudson 3
Teheran 2
Villanueva 1
Wacha 1

Haven't seen the Reserves.

Sorry Shawn, I couldn't hold it in anymore!! This team has a chance to make history this year...in a good way, that is. Just three more days to hold on. It was a wild ride in both LABR Leagues, but this is the one that is going to make history if we have a good weekend.