FSWA Auction Recap

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The other night I participated in a FSWA (Fantasy Sports Writers Association) auction with Yahoo’s Scott Pianowski and others from around the industry. This is a 14-team, mixed, head-to-head categories (standard 5×5) league with deep rosters (2 C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, MI, CI, 5 OF, UTIL, 2 SP, 2 RP, 5 P and 4 BE) and it was an auction with a $260 budget. We also have a transaction limit of 50 for the season and three per week.

Because the league is as deep as it is, and because the transaction limit is as strict as it is, I wanted to make sure I had upside on my team but I also wanted to make sure that I had guaranteed at bats. I went into the auction with a pretty specific strategy and with one exception (which I’ll get to later) I think I executed it almost exactly like I envisioned it (so that must mean I’m going to win, right?).

Before I dive into the strategy, here’s the squad:

Basically, I had a three part strategy: a beginning, middle and end.

Beginning

I had every intention heading into the auction of being the guy that gets Mike Trout. Trout went for $48 in the Tout Wars mixed auction (15 team league with the same positions) and my auction calculator had him going for just over $50. If Trout was going to go for less than $50 he was going to me, it just wasn’t in the cards though. I ended up going all the way up to $54 on him, and then someone hit $55 and I was out.

I always knew there was a chance that I wasn’t going to land Trout and I was prepared for the scenario. If I wasn’t able to get Trout I wanted to get two out of: Jose Abreu, Carlos Gomez, Paul Goldschmidt, Giancarlo Stanton and Andrew McCutchen. Those guys would occupy the two through six spots in my rankings — if I were doing rankings — and if I couldn’t get Trout I wanted to have two of the top six. I was willing to commit $80 to get two of them and I ended up snagging them for $72. Two top six players in a 14-team league for just $17 more than Trout alone fetched? At that point I was thrilled.

In addition to landing those two, I also wanted to make sure I snagged one true ace. I knew I wasn’t going to get Clayton Kershaw or Felix Hernandez (Kershaw went for $46 and Felix went for $34) but I wanted at least one out of: Matt Harvey (went for $23), Max Scherzer ($33), Chris Sale ($26), Stephen Strasburg ($26), David Price ($26), Corey Kluber ($24) and Madison Bumgarner ($22). It didn’t really matter to me who out of those seven that I got, I just wanted one of them. So I was happy that I was able to get Bumgarner, especially when I was able to get him as the cheapest of the bunch.

59 picks in I was sitting there with Gomez, Abreu and Bumgarner feeling pretty good…

The Middle

For the middle of the auction I wanted to find two things: value and upside, and I think I accomplished that. I loved getting Gio Gonzalez for $10 (especially when James Shields went for $13 right after); I budgeted out $20 for Brian Dozier and only paid $14 for him; I think Chris Davis could have a big bounce back year; I thought $12 was a very fair price to gamble on Jorge Soler; I’ve already confessed my admiration for Rusney Castillo; and I couldn’t pass up Lance Lynn, Melky Cabrera or Yordano Ventura at those prices.

The End

After I established my core I spent the rest of the auction trying to find some value in some upside plays, find some cheap guys who could at least guarantee me some decent at bats/innings and I still needed catchers and closers. I’m very high on Rougned Odor this season so I was fine spending an extra buck or two to make sure that I got him to be my middle infielder. I’m also big on James Paxton so I didn’t mind getting into a bidding war on him (it was towards the end of the auction and I had some extra money left over anyways) but looking back on it I think I might have rather had his teammate, Taijuan Walker who went for $10. Michael Morse is currently projected to hit cleanup for the Miami Marlins and I needed some power at my corner infield spot so I was happy to get him.

I wanted to be as cheap as possible with my catchers and I was able to get John Jaso for $5 (he was a specific target of mine going into it, should get regular at bats for Tampa Bay at DH this season — I love using guys who qualify at catcher but don’t actually have to play catcher) and Jason Castro for $4 (projected for over 400 plate appearances and he’s hit 32 home runs over the last two seasons and is still just 27 years old). With my closers I just wanted to make sure I got two solid guys and not have to overpay for them.

Real quick I’m just going to list off why I got my dollar guys:

• Bartolo Colon: Could do a lot worse with a dollar pitcher than a guy who had a 3.57 FIP last season, walked just 3.6 percent of batters and plays in the same division as the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves.
• CC Sabathia: It was the end of the draft and I figured the slim chance that he bounces back and has a semi-decent year was worth the buck. The one regret I had leaving the auction was that I did not snag another pitcher in the $10-$15. As I picked CC the only thought running through my head was, “man this team would look so much better if I had a $12 Garrett Richards instead of CC.”
• Alejandro De Aza: I needed plate appearances and De Aza is currently projected to leadoff for the Baltimore Orioles. De Aza could end the season with 30+ home runs + steals (he hit 17 home runs and stole 20 bases in 2013 and had eight home runs and 17 steals in 2014), he is going to get a ton of plate appearances in what should be a very solid lineup, and he’s going to hit for a decent average.
• Jarrod Dyson, Everth Cabrera, Nick Swisher: I wanted to fill out my bench with guys who had either speed or power upside. Dyson and Cabrera could (and I believe both will) steal 30 bases this year, and I could easily see Cabrera displacing Jonathan Schoop from Baltimore’s starting second base job. Swisher at pick 366 simply had the most power upside.
• Jordan Walden: I don’t believe Trevor Rosenthal holds onto the St. Louis Cardinals closer job, and I think he loses it fairly early. Rosenthal had a 1.41 WHIP last season, that’s brutal. Rosenthal’s walk rate soared last season all the way up to 13.6 percent (the seventh highest among 142 qualified relief pitchers and the highest among closers) and his 25.1 percent line drive rate was the 12th highest among relievers. Walden also had some issues giving up some free passes last year but he has the repertoire and the pedigree to close and he was a pretty important piece in the Jason Heyward/Shelby Miller trade.

Final Thoughts

All in all I was pretty happy with how the auction went. I had a strategy going in and I was able to execute it, I just really wish I had had the foresight to grab one more mid-level starting pitcher. How do you think I did? Have any questions about your upcoming auction? Feel free to drop a comment below or find me on twitter @william_moy6.