We here at RotoBaller HQ held our big writers’ league auction draft last night with some of the finest in the biz. We ran a 12 team roto league with 2 catchers, a CI and MI, 5 OFs, 8 P slots, and 5 bench. The auction budget was $260. Here are the results.

Here’s the league roster in nomination order:

• Bill Dubiel (Cap’s Crackerjacks)
• Sam Nedimeyer (Fascist Nerds)
• Ed Suletan (Suletans of Swing)
• Max Petrie (Bitches On My Joc - inapprops gosh)
• Uncle Leo (Uncle Chico)
• Tom Bellucco (The Searage Effect)
• Jeff Kahntroff (Jeff’s Majestic Team – I hope he keeps this name)
• Alex Roberts (Sonny Gray Pubes – ugh)
• Nick Mariano yours truly, with the GOAT team name (YouLikeKrabbyPatties)
• JB Branson (Dee’s Nuts – because you can’t own Dee Gordon without that)
• Kyle Bishop (Bird Person)
• Real Talk Raph himself (Real Talk Raph – duh)

The Draft Breakdown - AKA The Good Stuff

First, the preliminary caveat. Every league, every group of owners, every auction draft with their respective nomination orders, will be different. This is our story.

It started like most auctions do, innocently enough with Mike Trout going for $55. Paul Goldschmidt for $48. Bryce Harper for $52.

Well somewhere it all went wrong as the pricing curve for upper level talent dropped off the table. Were we all afraid to make a mistake? Heck, I didn’t nab a player until pick #29. Are we cheapos? Maybe we all just have commitment issues - who hurt you, RotoBaller writers?

In lieu of a personal expose on my own answer to that, let’s just poke around and check out some notable picks and intriguing trends by position or else this is going to get messy.

Shortstop

Shortstops housed the early highlight for me, as Manny Machado went for $46 to Jeff whose groans shook the chat room when many of the other top shortstops went for less than half of that. Carlos Correa went for $37 but Corey Seager was put up at pick #27 and sold for $16 to Max. Xander Bogaerts went for $17 and I got Francisco Lindor for $14. Every pick was accompanied by a bid these guys up you bums. After that it was a long while until other shortstops went, though I did put up Trevor Story ($6) to get that out of the way, which ended up being the same as Ian Desmond and Brandon Crawford. Buzz, buzz. All things considered, those "Tier Two" shortstops appear to be the best value.

Catcher

It was a two-catcher league and Buster Posey ($31) and Kyle Schwarber ($23) went fairly early only to give way to a large, fairly predictable, gap until the next guys came up. It almost seemed as though we had a tacit agreement to just wait there. I didn’t particularly like that so I nominated Jonathan Lucroy ($13) and Salvador Perez ($12) around pick 100 so they might still draw some extra dollars.

I ended up getting Yan Gomes and Yasmani Grandal for $4 apiece and I will take that any day of the week. I also snagged Nick Hundley late for $2 because I’d like to get the most out of the C-slots but also because some still didn’t have their two catchers and I saw him as the last “worthy” catcher on the board. Waiting on catchers was a wondrous strategy here.

First Base

The top first basemen went fairly early and had normal prices in my eyes. For quick reference, Edwin Encarnacion ($33), Joey Votto ($30), and Chris Davis ($27) were the last “big buys”. Adrian Gonzalez then went for $18, Freddie Freeman - $14, David Ortiz - $19, Brandon Belt…$6. There was some solid value at the position to be had, first base itself was so deep where enough of the top-30 guys, who can return 20+ homers, were there for the bargain bin rounds.

Second Base

Second base saw Jose Altuve ($34) go first, and then I finally saw Robinson Cano ($26) go for more than Dee Gordon ($25) despite Gordon being nominated earlier. The thermometer is really starting to rise on Cano as the season nears. I got Jason Kipnis for $11 as the fourth 2B off the board which I was thrilled about.

Matt Carpenter ($16) went next, followed by Brian Dozier ($15), Anthony Rendon ($13), Rougned Odor ($16), and Ian Kinsler ($12). Getting Kipnis for the least amount out of that bunch has me writing myself a nice ol’ back-pat here. Wonderboy Jonathan Schoop went for $7 very late as his power bat out of the MI slot was clearly a sought after commodity.

Third Base

Third base saw the aforementioned Machado go for $46, Josh Donaldson and Nolan Arenado both went for $43 while Kris Bryant only drew $34. While Bryant is in the top tier of 3Bs, it’s clear that he’s fourth to most. Miguel Sano then went for $23 and with the next pick I got Todd Frazier for $21.

When that happened I thought those were ridiculously good values (and I still do), but then Kyle Seager only went for $11 as wallets tightened and that became the pick to envy. Evan Longoria ($8) and Mike Moustakas ($4) were solid later picks and the perennially underrated and ignored Justin Turner went for $3 late for those who like to wait.

Outfield

Outfielders are a funny bunch, especially in a format where we’re starting five of them. Every auction will be different when it comes to outfielders, but for our purposes most of them seemed to follow the same price curve (even if it was a uniformly depressed one after the top tier went). I admit to overpaying a bit for J.D. Martinez ($31) when most in that second tier went for $25-$27 but I needed his power, he was my first bat at pick #31. Still a steal according to Raph’s draft motto of “a dollar per bomb” which was uttered at least 25 times.

Some values I liked: Starling Marte ($25), Adam Jones ($21), Matt Kemp ($12), and Kevin Pillar ($4). I got Ben Revere for $6 and seven picks later Billy Burns went for $7. Give me Revere any day, but I might regret not just waiting for Pillar.

Pitchers

Starting pitching was kicked off by Kyle taking Clayton Kershaw for $41 in a move that surprised even himself. I can’t hate on getting Kersh, but I loved Max Scherzer at $33, Chris Sale at $29, and Jake Arrieta at $27 relatively. After that everyone above the proverbial “ace-line” (read: SP18 Carlos Carrasco and up according to our staff ranks) went for between $19-26 with Zack Greinke the lone $19 man.

Cole Hamels for only $10 drew a lot of “oohs” and “aahs” (especially when Raisel Iglesias went for $13 very early in a buzzy move) but I personally see the steal as being Masahiro Tanaka for only $5. The risk/reward with that is beautiful. You can’t wait on pitching anymore thanks to the high bar set by the top talent, but there were still many, many names in the ~$2-$4 rounds that you could build an entire staff with.

Nobody paid for relievers, and none were even nominated until pick #64 when Aroldis Chapman went to Max for $8. Wade Davis was the most expensive closer at $14 a few picks later. Only seven closers went for $10 or more. Ken Giles, who is just mired in controversy (unless you ask Brian McTaggart on Twitter) thanks to his poor spring and a non-committal closing answer from manager A.J. Hinch, only went for $6 which will probably be a ridiculous steal. Most closers went for $3-$5 with each of us taking the respective players we like, with the one oddity to me being $8 late for Glen Perkins.

Summary

That'll wrap this up, but rest assured other writers will drop their knowledge on the matter and it will be a season-long source for further content and all of us roasting each other. Look out for my championship retrospective piece in October.

Below is the obligatory FantasyPros projection picture, with "Steel Rain" being JB's team name before he fully committed to the Dee Gordon experience. I obviously disagree with the overall projection by a smidge, but I do enjoy seeing something that reaffirms my goal being reached in cornering hitters as we all know pitching gaps can be closed much more readily during the season. Enjoy.

Projected Results

MLB & Fantasy Baseball Chat Room

[iflychat_embed id="c-12" hide_user_list="yes" hide_popup_chat="no" height="400px"]