Week 1 Waivers - From the IL

Greetings Super Friends from the scenic river town of Moline, IL.  I know that the week 1 waiver add update is like 5.6 days late and that no excuse can possible make up for the hours of anticipation and anxiety that all of you have undoubtedly been dealing with.  Unfortunately, the same reason that I am staring down the barrel of the IWireless Center and the John Deere Pavilion is why I am been delayed getting this recap done and posted.  The company I work for got a new project with the Deere peeps (which is for a not yet released product, so I cant really tell you about it at this point, other than to tell you that it exists and its cool as hell, or I would have to end you...and I like most of you enough that I dont want to do that) that I am basically in charge of...so...ipso facto...free time is at a premium for the next few months at least.  I will still try to make sure that this blog gets updated in a timely fashion, but the updates may be a little sparse at times...which sucks because I am pretty sure that you all like reading this as much as I like writing it.

Anyways, before we get to the waiver adds, lets pause for a ceremonial first beer from our league champ, LC Tomsula.

 

Waivers this week are going to take on a little different format.  I am going to group the moves by team instead of individually, since the moves this early in the season are usually connected to one another...and apparently everyone was terribly unhappy with their auctions...sweet 10 lb 9 oz baby Jesus...all laying in your manger with your Baby Einstein Developmental books...how many transactions are there this week?  And none of them were by the guy who wasnt at the draft and was accidentally not given a catcher?

 

Lets call this format preparation H (preparations A through G were good, but we really needed something now) and lets see how it feels on the whole...if it sucks...well, then it sucks and I'll have to try something different next time.  On with the show:
 

Les Moles

SP/RP Josh Collmenter - $4 - Drop OF Coco Crisp

SP/RP Hector Noesi - $4 - Drop 3b Matt Carpenter

We start with LC Tomsula.  Josh Collmenter is the awesomest.  He throws axes.  He grows terrific facial hair.  He wears fantastic hats.  He is also one of the worst MLB opening day starting pitchers in the history of the world not named Kyle Kendrick (seriously...Kyle Kendrick is starting on opening day for an actual major league baseball team and it isnt on a dare nor is the former stripper owner from Major League involved...that we know of).  He does offer the illusive SP/RP designation that some of us (who me?) chase like catnip and have been known to overpay for and he was an above average pitcher last season because he bascially walked about 1 batter per start.  Unfortunately, his cost was the player that LC Tomsula was most excited about during the draft.  Now, I dont know if it was the beer talking, but LC Tomsula chastized the rest of us repeatedly for no one bidding over the top of his like $2 bid for Coco.  If Coco and his Afro arent back on Tom's team before the year is over, I may have to make an executive decision to add him back.  Some things are just meant to be.

As for Noesi, my mother taught me that if I didnt have anything nice to say, that I shouldnt say anything at all.  Noesi was on 3 different teams last year, including getting released by the Texas Rangers. The Rangers, for those of you who cant recall a couple of months ago, had more injuries than just about any team in MLB last year and they didnt think that giving Noesi the ball every 5th day was a better idea than giving it to Joe Saunders, Robbie Ross or something called a Miles Mikolas.  If Noesi is on Tom's team in June, I would be very surprised.  We're done here.
 

Bob's ATers

SP Kyle Hendricks - $10 - No Drop

RP Darren O'Day - $4 - Drop SP Jesse Hahn

 

Kyle Hendricks is a Cub.  That is really the only reason I can possibly come up with that Bob would have bid $10 on him.  Maybe he was trying to channel last season, when he posted a $20 bid on Yordano Ventura right after the draft and that worked out well?  Hendricks had a great run of starts at the end of last season, turning in a 1.08 whip over 80+ innings, but he has never been seen as that strong of a pitcher. His minor league track record looks strong (his statistical profile and "stuff" actually are fairly similar to those of blog favorite Mike Fiers), but his strikeout rate ranked somewhere between poor and homeless Greecian last season.  I am not saying that he can't be a useful pitcher in the ratio categories, but I am doubting that the $10 investment will be worth it.

 

The Hendricks pickup created a logjam of SPs and Bob addressed that by adding O'Day for Jesse Hahn.  I love O'Day.  He has been consistently great over the past several seasons (he has a little gopher problem, but you take the bad with the good).  He will be in a prominent spot in a decent bullpen for a slightly above average team.  He wont blow the league away with holds or saves, but he should ahve great ratios and decent Ks...as long as he doesnt splode his elbow.

UCCMA

RP Joel Peralta - $5 - No Drop

RP Jordan Walden - $3 - No Drop

 

Jim wanted relievers. Jim got relievers. El fin.

 

Javy Bombs

3b/OF Yasmany Tomas - $3 - Drop C Miguel Montero

SP/RP Carlos Martinez - $2 - Drop RP LaTroy Hawkins

RP Jeurys Familia - $1 - Drop SP Zach Wheeler

2b,3b, OF Martin Prado - $1 - No Drop

 

I am not surprised that Attack of the Zach was one of the most active teams in the first waiver period.  Hawkins is the oldest player in the Bigs...and he pretty much sucks it...Wheeler's elbow ligament is now elbow ligaments... and Montero is a second 10 catcher at best.  In their places, Zach adds Martin Prado, who offers the ability to play multiple positions poorly while maintaining a decent batting average, Familia, a borderline RP for fantasy with some upside potential, Martinez, who offers a ton of upside (he has been called baby Pedro, and not just because of the Jheri Curl) and Tomas. 

 

If Martinez can finally harness his potential, he will be a terror, but will still be blocked by a pretty stacked Cardinal rotation.  The real potential season changer, here, is Tomas.  The 24 year old Cuban defector has big time power potential, but didnt put up the same type of video game numbers that fellow Cubans Jose Abreu or Yasiel Puig put up before they came over and immediately found success in the Bigs, so there could be some adjustment period.  Also, the D-Backs are trying to teach Tomas to play 3b...and it isnt going well.  I believe "wildebeest trying to catch eggs in a frying pan" is an apt description.  A move back to the OF (where he belongs) would create a logjam of OFers on the AZ roster and could lead to Tomas beginning the season in the minors due to issue with other players not having options remaining.  Even if that's the case though, Tomas's potential would be well worth a NA spot and a "watch and see" approach.

 

Dust Bunnies

1b Eric Hosmer - $1 - Drop Billy Butler

I am pretty sure that the league is responsible for this transaction.  After Dusty picked up Billy Butler, he got so much shit that he basically had no other option but to dump the Butler stink and pick up anything else.  Congrats Dusty, you get points for dumping Butler.  The problem is that Hosmer might not be a ton better.  If its the Hosmer who came to life at the end of 2013 or during the 2014 playoffs, he is easily a rosterable 1b, if not a starting 1b.  But if he is the Hosmer who played at every other moment over the past 2 years, he is nothing but a better fielding, skinnier Butler who does nice things like buying drinks for fans at clubs and wear Ambiguously Gay duo outfits with Mike MooseTacos.

MTMTAS

SP Drew Hutchison - $1 - Drop SP Tanner Roark

SP Kevin Gausman - $1 - Drop RP Sean Doolittle

 

I want to get excited about Drew Hutchison and Kevin Gausman.  I really do.  They are both 6'3" 190 pound right handers who happen to bat left handed, even though they play in the AL and dont have to bat much, if ever.  They are both 24 year old, hard throwing guys coming off of strong seasons in the AL East (which isnt what it used to be folks).  I just cant bring myself to get excited about either of them.  They will likely both be solid pitchers and have the chance to be much much much more than that over the course of their careers, maybe even this year.  Maybe I'll come around on Gausman.  He is an Oriole...and Adam Jones seems to like him, so he has to be at least somewhat awesome.

Hitless Bastards

SP/RP Marcus aStroman - $1 - No Drop

SS Jed Lawrie - $1 - No Drop

 

Finally the end. 

Dear league-

Thanks for voting for the extra DL spot so that I can park aStroman there for the entire season and not completely destroy my competitiveness and end up having to trade a $20 Anthony Rizzo for Aramis Ramirez and never get a chance to use said Ramirez so that I can keep an injured Matt Harvey on my team.  Long live aStroman.

Thanks.

Commish

 

Stroman will spend the next 8 months parked in the DL spot (when it becomes available) and will be the leader in the club house to take the newly added 11th keeper spot heading into next season.

 

As for Lowrie...well...I hate my SS life.  Having a Jose Reyes is nice, but requires an adequate backup.  I had my eye on Jhonny Peralta as a wire add, but then we gave him to John and left the SS landscape really really ridiculously barren.  I mean, were talking Lawrie, Marcus Semien, Jean Segura, and Didi Gregorius...is death an option?  Can I take the Dusty route and start a blank spot or someone who isnt on an active roster?  Are Shawon Dunston and his cookie duster available? (The answer is yes...its always yes for Dunston.  I actually learned that Shawon Dunston Jr is a minor league OFer in the Cubs system.  He stole 27 bases for Kane County last year.  If he is there again, someone needs to go to a Kane County Cougars game and get his autograph for me so I can pretend that its his dad's). 

 



Draftnanigans

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day… (I'll get some pictures on here of Tom's crispy crowning soon)

I’m sure that most of you are familiar with 16^th century political and philosophical writer, Niccolo Machiavelli (not to be confused with Tupac’s assumed persona, Makaveli, who was responsible for the album, The Don Killuminati – The Seven Day Theory, which provided us with the excellent “To Live and Die in LA”).  The term Machiavellian has come to mean something a bit different than what man wrote in the original work, Il Principe, but the main emphasis is similar.  Machiavelli posited that people who aimed at getting or maintaining power or glory (the princes) were justified, or even required, to use immoral means to achieve those goals.  Now, in the Tot league, we have our very own league champ, LC Tomsula, who, I would guess, is keen on maintaining that title.  This weekend, we witnessed the first of what will likely be a number of Machiavellian moves on the part of the LC.  With his team mostly set and the auction winding down to where most of the nominations at $1 were being won for a dollar, LC Tomsula nominated Ben Revere at $1.  This led to a cry of outrage from Twins/former Twins-collector Dusty, who couldn’t bid more than $1 himself.  At the time, we all laughed and Tom played it cool like he didn’t know what was going on.  But, when I entered LC Tomsula’s team, I found that, not only was Revere his 7^th OF eligible player, but that he only has 2 RPs…meaning that he is going to have to drop 3 players in order to field a starting lineup.  Looking back, I am now pretty sure that Tom looked at the remaining players and realized that he could gain a psychological edge on Dusty by taking a player Dusty was likely to want, even though he didn’t need him.  Well played Tom, but now I am on to you.

Voting results:

1)      Add a DL spot to rosters immediately.  PASSED and we now have 3 DL spots.

2)      Add a bench spot to rosters immediately. PASSED and we now have 24 roster spots

3)      Cash in trades. MODIFIED AND PASSED.  Cash from the next season’s auction can now be included in trades but there is a $75 limit on the amount 1 team can receive in a single season.

4)      Carry over NA players without counting towards the limit of 10.  VETOED.  MODIFIED – Change number of keepers to 11.   PASSED and will be implemented for 2015 to 2016 offseason.

 

Anyways…the much anticipated auction weekend extravaganza is now behind us and the MLB regular season is quickly approaching.  But before we look forward to each team’s auction high and low moment, a couple of more thoughts from the auction.

-          I mentioned this during the auction, but having keepers really changed things in terms of cost.  with the majority of keepers being underpriced, the rest of the player pool should have been a bit more expensive (an entire team’s worth of money not being in the pool helped alter costs as well), but no one noticed it until we got closer to the end and everyone realized that several teams were going to end up with lots of money left over.  The subsequent run on RPs who we knew we wouldn’t be keeping led to some completely crazy prices (Matt Shoemaker, I’m looking at you buddy).

-          Don’t ever, ever, ever let Dusty eat Cheez-Its in your house.  Somehow both Kyler and I ended up with Cheez-It crumbs in our laptop keyboards even though neither of us can remember a time when Dusty was near our computers.

-          If you ever play a hockey video game with LC Tomsula, be prepared for him to start as many fights as possible, including fights that involve his team’s goalie and one of the opponent’s forwards.  Also be prepared for him to giggle uncontrollably while these fights occur.

-          Bob is still a dick.

-          Kyler is to multitasking what Kris Bryant is to hitting baseballs…lots of unproven potential.  Just kidding… he somehow managed to bid for his own team while texting information to both Tyler and Zach and receiving their bids to relay to the rest of us.

-          Kertie and Allie are saints.  The official wives of You Can Call Me Al and Huckleberries, respectively, put up with their husbands sitting in front of a computer for 3ish hours while we made terrible jokes and they had to handle parenting duties.

-          And last, but certainly not least, if you see or talk to my wife, please thank her.  Not only did she take 2 kids and leave her home for the weekend so that we could have our fun, but she did it while not feeling terribly well and dealing with a teething 10 month old who wasn’t happy with anyone but mom holding her.  Nothing that happened this weekend would have happened without her willingness to let me (and by extension you…but really she did it for me) skirt my normal responsibilities and have a good time without having to worry about anything.  I am lucky to have someone who understands and encourages me to occasionally spend time doing silly things with the guys, even though she knows that it will make things tougher on her.

 

And now…on to the teams (the evaluation is based on player talent, not cost, even though they are largely tied together.

Les Moles- Tom

Best auction pick up – C Russell Martin – While I don’t think that Martin is going to perform as well as he did last year, he should be able to rack up the runs and RBI playing in an absolutely loaded Toronto lineup.  Also, he is terrific insurance in case Devin MesoHorny doesn’t bounce back well from his concussion or turns out to not be as good as he showed last season.

Worst auction pick up – OF Coco Crisp’s Afro – For some reason, Tom was really excited when he won Coco Crisp for $2.  The rest of realized that he was more like Coco Puff last year, hitting under .250 and slugging barely more than the powerful Ben Revere, who had 30 more stolen bases.

Javy Bombs (formerly Zach Attach)- Zach

Best- SP Colin McHugh –  McHugh was phenomenal last year for a terrible Astros team.  Combine his stuff and control with an improved lineup and a bullpen that features MLB caliber relievers and I don’t think that I am alone in thinking that McHugh is this season’s Cory Kluber breakout superstar.

Worst- SS Andrelton Simmons – As I said during the auction, Simmons is a player whose real life value far surpasses his fantasy value.  He isn’t a terribly great hitter to begin with and he is now hitting in what is perhaps the Majors’ worst lineup, meaning his runs and RBI chances are likely to dwindle, even from last season’s lows.

Bob’s AutoTrackers- Bob

Best- SP,RP Carlos Carrasco – Carrasco was one of the top pitchers in the AL over the second half of the season last year.  If he truly found it as a pitcher, he should add to an already solid staff.  And he has the coveted SP/RP designation that seems to have been reduced drastically from a season ago.

Worst- C Yan Gomes – This one is more of a “Bob should have kept him” kinda thing.  Just before the keeper deadline, Bob decided to keep Jason Heyward and throw Gomes back.  He then paid several times the price for Gomes in the auction…and picked up a 4^th OFer, Billy Hamilton, for a bunch of money.  As much as Hamilton can suck from time to time, he can singlehandedly win SBs for any given week (especially combined with Dee Gordon again).  That means that one of the 3 OFers Bob kept will be riding the pine every week.

BySs- Kyler

Best- 1b Edwin Encarnacion – Big Eddie was the top position player available by almost any measure (other than SBs…he sucks at SBs) and Kyler got him for extremely cheap.  It would not surprise me to see Eddie as a keeper moving forward.

Worst – OF Alex Rios – Really, there aren’t a whole lot of questionable selections here.  Rios could get back on track, but his terrible OBP and SLG and general dickishness (he was such a dick they kicked him out of Canada…and Canadians love everyone – havent you see Canadian Bacon?) make him the choice here.

Dust Bunnies – Dusty

Best- SP Kyle Lohse – Dusty had the fewest dollars available at the start of the auction.  And he got pushed off a number of guys I know he would have loved to have (most of them were Twins or ex-Twins…don’t be surprised when Justin Morneau ends up on his team in 2 weeks).  But picking up Lohse, coming off a really solid year, with his last nomination was a great move.

Worst- 1b Billy Butler – This was a more questionable move…especially with Miggy and Joey Bats already on the roster and 1b eligible…and about 102 more qualified 1b playing humans still available.  Butler’s once great hitting skills eroded last year, and now he calls the fringe A’s lineup and massive O.Co Park home.

KEODL – John

Best- 3b ARod – A little juice should make everyone else on the team a little better.

Worst – Since John didn’t actually pick any of his guys, I’ll go with a keeper…Kennys Vargas.  I know that John loves “Little Papi” but I don’t think that anyone else in the league would have bid more than a dollar on him, if anything at all, meaning John threw back a player for someone he could have gotten back for the exact same cost anyways.

MBHB – Lou

Best- 3b Josh Donaldson – Donaldson was the second best position player available and went for less than expected.

Worst- I bet youre all expecting me to say Matt Shoemaker here, aren’t you.  Well I am not going to give you the satisfaction.  Instead I will go with the Kold one.  I don’t know what it is about me and the damn Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, USA, Earth, Milky Way but apparently I cant quite certain members of their team.

Huckleberries – Kevin

Best- RP Aroldis Chapman – The best RP available and a literal one man wrecking crew of strikeouts and awesomeness.

Worst- RP Fernando Rodney – His skills are dwindling to the point where he is becoming a liability at the end of games (his save numbers are bolstered by the games he comes in with 2 or 3 run leads and gives up a run or 2 but wiggles out of it before giving the game away) and he seems like a d-bag…and I don’t like d-bags.

MTMTAS – Tyler

Best- C Matt Wieters – Wieters was once one of the best offensive catchers in baseball…and then he got hurt in a way that shouldn’t really affect his hitting…and we all forgot about him. 

Worst- 2b, OF Arismendy Alcantara – It might be the .250ish OBP…that’s on base %, not batting average…  it might be the super high strikeout rate.  It might be that he doesn’t really have a position to play, especially once Kris Bryant masher of baseballs arrives on the north side.  Alcantara might fill the Ben Zobrist role all over the place for Joe Maddon, but he will have to have a serious improvement in OBP…and there were similar players available.

UUCMA – Jim

Best- 3b, OF Ryan Zimmerman – Zimmerman will man 1b for the Nats this year, giving Zimmerman 3 position eligibility and keeping him from having to do things like play defense, which often led to him getting hurt.  The one thing that Zimmerman has always done is hit, and that should continue this season.

Worst- RP Addison Reed – FTH?  Addison Reed was one of the worst closers in baseball last season and news out of camp is that he is altering his release point to put less stress on his shoulder.  Lets see…bad year…altered delivery from what he has done his whole life…sore shoulder…  red flags all over this one.