13 team 5x5 mixed auction

[stevelabny]

1/2 the league was in a rush, pretending to be important. this drives me crazy in general, and drove up inflation ridiculously. After getting hosed in seasons past waiting for the price crash that never came, I think I did ok overall.

C K Suzuki $8 - next 6 catchers went for more. thrilled.
C Y Molina $2
1B J Votto $31 - Morneau went for 30, Youklis 33,
2B R Weeks $9 - passed on Zobrist at 19, then Cano went for 30! , J Lopez for $18. Hopefully this works out.
SS Tulo $35 - targeted as my anchor at 35 pre-draft.
3B R Zimmerman $30 - targeted as my co-anchor at 25.
MI E Andrus $ 13 - with Votto, Zimm and Lind, decided to get a apeed guy
CI Ad Laroche $3 - was ripping Ciano fof MLB's Fantasy Focus for his man-crush, but the more I looked at it, the more I like him in the middle of AZ lineup
OF A Lind $26
OF MCCutchen $25 - probably a bit high, but really needed to run with the inflation somewhere.
OF N Morgan $4 - i'm afraid of Pierre, and think that Nyjer has the best chance of maintaining an average and running like mad out of the pure speed guys
OF K Blanks $3 - Matthew Berry loves him, so I almost got scared off, but maybe Berry finally got something right?
OF C Rasmus $5 - Ludwick went for $10, so I'll take this
U M Bradley $2 - not again. I am an awful human being. How do I always let this happen?

P J Brozton $23
P C Billingsley $16
P R Wolf $7
P K Slowey $4
P J De La Rosa $4
P J Frasor $2
P J Racuh $2
P L Nunez $2
P H Bailey $2

I wanted to back up Broxton with another solid closer but B Wilson went for $19, and when the prices finally collapsed, I still passed on Qualls at $8 because I realized I'd be able to load up on scrubs. With one more in the reserve rounds, I wound up with FIVE closers, but 4 of them could lose their job at any moment.

Billingsley was a target, but I missed out on all my others. I thought I'd get to nab Liriano once I had the most money for the end game, but one owner wound up bringing up tons of scrubs on offense and blew $17 on him when no other player was more than $5. If I passed on Nunez, I could have max bid Stubbs at $5 for my U spot, and picked up another $1 pitcher, which probably would have been my best option, but maybe I'll get lucky and Milton Bradley will be awesome!

R M Lindstrom
R F Pie
R G Meche
R B Crosby
R M Rzepcinski

We do an S-draft for our bench, and I wound up with the #9 slot... for the first time in recorded history, the owners in my league actually grabbed the best players remaining, as Sean Rodriguez, Travis Snider, Fausto Carmona, and Lastings Milledge all got taken, leaving me with my 5th closer.

By the time I took Meche, I was already scratching my head, which has never happened to me in the reserve rounds. Assuming Rzepcinksi gets put on the ML DL, I'll be able to stash him on IR.

Looking at my team, I feel it's pretty good for a 13 team league. I probably have enough power/speed to finish in the top 3-4 in HRs, RBIS and SBS. possibly higher in runs and BA.

With other teams throwing out 7-8 starters, I'm figuring I should be decent in ERA and whip, but lag in Ks and Wins... until some of my closers fail or get traded and I go searching for starters.

The team that finished last in the previous 2 seasons paid over $40 for Pujols, Utley AND Arod, and then $28 more for Adrian Gonzalez. However, the rest of his team TOTALLY sucks.
One owner spent 55% of his budget on pitching and probably has the best staff, but his best offensive players are Mark Reynolds, Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran YUCK.
There is one team who has TEAMLESS Carlos Delgado and Jeff Clement as the only 1B on his roster.

What does that cafe think?

[tecmobowl12]

I've never done an auction before so this is pretty interesting...your team looks pretty good, but do you normally spend so little on pitching? What price did the top pitchers go for?

[stevelabny]

They usual mix on hitting/pitching is 65/35. I personally usually do spend less on pitching. Except last year when I got busted bidding someone up on...Brandon Webb! (combined with David Wright and I was dead in the water from go)

I felt that there was a ton of good pitching available this year, and that I'd be able to load up on offense and still get a good staff.

Best pitchers: Lincecum $35 , Halladay $32, Sabathia $30, Carpenter $20, Cliff Lee $15, Kershaw $17, Santana $23, J Johnson $20, Beckett $19, Nolasco $17, Haren $25, Wainwright $22, Lester $22, Verlander $30, Felix Hernandez $27, Peavy $20, Grienke $31, Hanson $16, U Jimenez $19

Guys I had targeted and passed on:

Wandy $15
Garza $13 - I feel this was high compared to the guys below:

Best deals that maybe I shoulda stayed in on:

Hamels $13
Gallardo $12
Cain $14
Burnett $9

And Ben Sheets somehow went for $1. Which I hope I don't live to regret, but I was really trying to stay away from walking injuries.