2011 Tout Wars mixed: Team Carty
by Derek CartyMarch 24, 2011
Last weekend, I traveled to MLBAM's offices in New York to participate in Tout Wars. This is my second year in the Tout Wars mixed league, and I think I came away with a pretty good team. The setup is a 15-team, 5x5, roto-based mixed league with a $260 budget.
Tout Wars Mixed Roster
+-----+--------------------+-------+ | Pos | Player | Price | +-----+--------------------+-------+ | C | Mike Napoli | $20 | | C | Ryan Doumit | $2 | | 1B | Luke Scott | $3 | | 2B | Aaron Hill | $13 | | 3B | Jose Bautista | $27 | | SS | Tsuyoshi Nishioka | $9 | | CI | Juan Uribe | $9 | | MI | Ryan Theriot | $9 | | OF | Mike Stanton | $20 | | OF | Juan Pierre | $16 | | OF | Vladimir Guerrero | $16 | | OF | Adam Lind | $13 | | OF | Bobby Abreu | $10 | | UT | Denard Span | $11 | +-----+--------------------+-------+ | SP | Colby Lewis | $9 | | SP | Ted Lilly | $9 | | SP | James Shields | $7 | | SP | John Danks | $6 | | SP | Ricky Nolasco | $5 | | CL | Joe Nathan | $11 | | CL | Jose Valverde | $10 | | CL | Joel Hanrahan | $13 | | CL | Frank Francisco | $4 | +-----+--------------------+-------+ | BN | J.D. Drew | -- | | BN | Phil Coke | -- | | BN | Chris Capuano | -- | | BN | Justin Duchscherer | -- | +-----+--------------------+-------+
Thoughts
I think I did a pretty good job accomplishing what I wanted. I found last year that the top stars all went for a lot of money. Yes, they're supposed to, but I feel like most cost $10 more than fair value. And since I don't like paying fair value to begin with —I try to fill 80-90% of roster with players I consider bargains —these kinds of players just weren't appealing to me.
Sure, you can get away with a stars and scrubs approach in a mixed league (Andy Behrens basically did stars and scrubs last year when he won the league), but I don't think it's necessary in order to win and think it's actually sub-optimal.
I did end up leaving $9 on the table and, in retrospect, could have gotten another hitter in the $20s or a better second catcher. It's always hard to judge an auction like this, though, especially when you see so much inflation early. You don't want to overpsend too much in the early going, but you also don't want to end up having money left over.
Facing inflation, my plan was to wait a while before buying too many players and eventually buying the guys I did get at big bargains, and I ended up doing that. Some came at much bigger bargains than expected, though, which left me with extra cash.
Juan Pierre, for example, went for $16 when other speedsters like Ichiro Suzuki ($25), Jacoby Ellsbury ($25), and Rajai Davis ($20) went for a lot more. I also saved on my closers, who I thought would be in the $12-$13 range, and on Colby Lewis and Ted Lilly, who I thought would be around $15 and $12. And my final pick, Frank Francisco, went for $4 when most closers went for double digits (even Brandon Lyon went for $13 just 20 minutes prior).
Concluding thoughts
That wraps things up for now. Let me know what you think of my team in the comments. Tomorrow, be on the lookout for an article comparing my team to Paul Singman's team in the Yahoo! Friends & Family expert league, and be sure to vote for who's team you think is better (hint: mine).
Derek Carty, 23, has also been published by NBC's Rotoworld, Sports Illustrated, FOX Sports, and USA Today. This season, he'll be contributing to FanDuel and will be linking to all of his work at DerekCarty.com. In his three years competing in expert leagues, he has won 2 titles with 4 top three finishes, including a LABR NL title in 2009, making him the youngest person to ever win a major expert league title. Derek is a proud graduate of the MLB Scouting Bureau's Scout Development Program and is a firm believer in the importance of combining stats and scouting. He welcomes questions via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter.
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