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.