Like Rotoman and Alex Patton, I participate in a long-standing 4x4 Rotisserie League that has been around for over 20 years. It's not as famous as their league, and only has one celebrity in it, but it is also a competitive league filled with savvy owners.
After winning last year, I came in with one of the thinnest teams I've ever had. After a few off-season trades, it wasn't any better and looked like this:
1B Carlos Pena $10
SS Tony Pena Jr. $1
OF Emil Brown $6
OF Jose Guillen $9
CL George Sherrill $10
CL Joakim Soria $20
Two teams definitively had better freeze lists, and one team had a killer freeze list I didn't think I'd be able to compete against without category optimization. I toyed with the idea of dumping batting average/steals and buying pitching, but then decided to spend $7 on my remaining seven pitchers and load up on offense. My thinking was that I'd get 10 points in saves with Soria/Sherrill and - if I could get lucky with some of the pitchers - I might wind up with 25 points in pitching. Of course, I'd have to clean up on offense.
Players I bought are in bold, while players I had the last bid on are in italics. The number next to the player is where he was called out in the auction.
Round 1
4. Roy Halladay $32.
Of course, Halladay almost made me abandon my strategy entirely. He was the fourth pitcher in a row called, and Francisco Rodriguez ($37), Erik Bedard ($40), and Joe Nathan ($40) went for about what I would have expected given the 20% inflation. The bidding on Halladay was suddenly lackluster. He was sitting at $25 so I said $27. His buyer jumped to $32, which made me breathe a sigh of relief. A good price, but one that didn't compel me to alter course.
6. Joe Mauer $26.
Since I needed to spend $223 on offense, I probably should have pushed Mauer to $29. But he's injury prone, doesn't have a lot of upside at this price, and is only a strong contributor in two categories when he is healthy. Pass.
7. Derek Jeter $34.
I liked Jeter at $34, but was looking for more of a pure speed play at SS, and already had T. Pena at my SS slot. There were a lot of SS available and I didn't want to get locked in this early.
Round 2
17. Michael Young $28.
Of course, Young wasn't the SS I wanted either, and at $29 I probably would have let him go. The price was fine, but I probably should have waited for something else. On the other hand, I had $204 to spend, hadn't bought a player, and was starting to feel the pressure of all of the money I had.
22. Brad Wilkerson $12.
This is a case where I almost got caught price-enforcing on a player I really didn't want. Wilkerson at $11 would have been OK, but there were better options at 1B still on the table, and I didn't want to put Wilkerson in an OF slot.
Round 3
27. Magglio Ordonez $33.
In hindsight, another mistake, even though I wouldn't have been thrilled with Ordonez at $34. Again, though, when you're spending $223 on offense, you want to spend money on some players. I was sitting next to the guy who got Ordonez; he was very unhappy with this bid, and would have let me have Magglio.
35. Richie Sexson $16.
Not a thrilling price or a thrilling player, but I'm hoping the average is not horrible and the power is there. He can still earn this money, and now the 1B options left are thinning. Casey Kotchman went five players before for $23, so I'll live with Sexson at this price.
Round 4
38. Travis Hafner $27
I don't think I would have gone to $28 on Hafner, but this is where I decided to fill my DH slot with a specific player...I'll get into this later.
40. Jason Varitek $11
A bargain here. I think the room fell asleep. There were only seven catchers on my sheet with an inflation bid over $2, and Varitek was one of the two cheapest at $11.
41. Gary Sheffield $13
It was tough to let Sheff go at this price, but I didn't want to lock up my DH just yet.
43. Julio Lugo $24
An ugly price, but when you're trying to sweep offense, you need to at least buy a middle-of-the-pack team in steals. Brian Roberts ($33) and Carlos Gomez ($25) went for prices I thought were worse, and Lugo was the last everyday player out there with a chance of stealing 30-40. What was worse about this move wasn't Lugo's price, but that it locked me out at SS and 1B.
48. Jeremy Guthrie $3
I called Guthrie out at $1, the next owner said $3, and that was it. I don't love Guthrie, but thought this was a good price.
Round 5
49. Manny Ramirez $31
I'm as down on Ramirez as the next guy, but I couldn't let him go at $31. I probably would have gone $33 if the other guy had kept pushing.
53. Asdrubal Cabrera $19
More ugliness. The only other decent 2B left out there was Jose Lopez, who I didn't want. My inflation price for Cabrera was $17, but I was hoping to sneak him in for less, not more. One other owner, though, kept pushing the button. I would have let Cabrera go at $20 and figured something else out, and I think my rival knew it. I have to hope Cabrera runs like he did in the minors last year; otherwise, he's got no chance of even sniffing this price.
Round 6
61. Hideki Matsui $24
I probably should have taken Matsui up another tick. Oh well.
68. Scott Rolen $11
I like this price. Rolen isn't going to be the world beater he was in his prime, but if he gets 400 AB this year, he could still earn $15. The position was thin after Miguel Cabrera, and I liked this better than Hank Blalock earlier at $22.
Round 7
76. Garret Anderson $12
At this point, I had two OF slots and a catcher to get. Anderson was $2 lower than my sheet price, but not one of the best OF on the board, and my goal was to spend my money on the best players on the board.
80. Luke Scott $17
Scott went $1 beneath my inflation price. Scott could hit 25 HR, but I'd be happy with 17.
Round 8
86. Gary Matthews $19
Matthews was $2 over my sheet price, but he was the best OF left on the board and I probably would have pushed him to $23 at this point. Matsui was the better bargain but, again, the speed was probably a more important component for me than the pure power play (the team I bought was projected to finish first in HR/RBI in the Patton software).
96. Al Reyes $3
I was hoping to sneak Reyes in at $1 after his bad outing this week. Didn't work.
Round 9
98. Kenji Johjima $22
One of the ugliest moments of my day. I had $28 left to spend on seven pitchers and a catcher. I was waiting for Johjima, but so were two other owners who had more money than I did. The owner who bought him stuck him at DH, things were so thin at this point. My inflation price for Johjima was $19, but I should have either called him out earlier or starting filtering my money into pitchers at this point.
105. Kurt Suzuki $13
I don't like the price, but given what the other catchers went for, I'll learn to live with it. Then again, some people are higher on Suzuki than I am.
107. Dana Eveland $1
I threw him out either thinking I'd get him at $1 or get the money left into the room into a silly bidding war. I like Eveland at $1.
Round 10
110. Jake Westbrook $6
114. Kevin Slowey $6
Here's where I had a choice of either spending my money or waiting for other pitchers I liked as much or a little better than Westbrook and Slowey and leaving a little money on the table. Paying $13 for Westbrook or Slowey wasn't going to change the fact that I spent $8 too little on my offense, so I chose the latter.
117. Jose Contreras $1
My worst pitching buy of the day. He'll be the first to go when I find a starter I like better in the free agent pool.
118. Cliff Lee $3
The only pitcher I went over $1 on. I like Lee, and took Aaron Laffey in my farm auction as a hedge if Lee doesn't work out.
Round 11
127. Scot Shields $6
The same owner who out bid me on Westbrook and Slowey did it again with Shields. Again, I like Shields, but there were other pitchers floating around who I liked just about as much.
Round 12
135. Rafael Perez $2
He would have been my ninth pitcher at $1.
142. Jesse Litsch $1
Another guy I like at $1. He was at $6 with inflation on my sheet.
Round 13
149. Fernando Rodney $1
I like guys you can reserve and then sit on for two plus weeks and decide whether or not they're worth bringing back. In our league, you can also reserve someone at the auction and then pick someone and his stats from the first week up. I grabbed Boone Logan and his garbage win; I'll be waiving Logan tomorrow.
154. Leo Nunez $1
He looked filthy against the Tigers, and could wind up getting saves if Soria gets hurt.
159. Eddie Guardado $1
I'm not sold on Guardado, but I'm not sold on C.J. Wilson either.
So how did I do?
Eh, OK. I got all of the power I wanted, though not quite as much of an excess as I should have. I might have been better off getting Miguel Cabrera at $43 (assuming the bidding would have stopped at +1) and going dollar derby on my second base and catcher slots. However, when you're trying to maximize offense, you're also trying to maximize production per position. If Kurt Suzuki goes down, my season won't end. If Cabrera went down though, well...
I'm light on speed and my batting average projects terribly. My biggest surprise is that I actually like my $37 pitching staff. Litsch, Lee, and Eveland actually aren't a horrible front three, and I can tolerate Contreras for a while as I push toward the IP requirment. I'm one of four teams with two closers, but one of those teams has Putz, and another has C.J. Wilson/Todd Jones. If I can get some garbage time/injury saves from Guardado, I could actually sneak the category.
I suspect I could have done better, but I feel I put myself in position to compete, which is all I was hoping for in a competitive dump league after winning last year. It will be tough sledding once the competitors start making dump trades; somehow, I don't think Carlos Pena by his lonesome is going to be enough for me to compete in the dumping market. I do think I've got an outside shot, though, which is more than I would have expected if I had had a straight value auction.
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