Fantasy Baseball Today - 03/03 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Live Auction!

Episode Date: March 3, 2018

Join us for the first hour of our 12-team auction! Find out our nomination strategies, how much the elite players are going for and when to spend ... Should you adjust how you value players as the auction unfolds? If all of the elite players are overpriced, should you pay up for one or save your money and get the values later in the auction? ... We'll tell you why it's important to use tiers during auctions ... Email us at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, it's our auction podcast. Yes, you people wanted it, so we are giving it to you. This auction will probably last about four or more hours. This podcast will last a little bit more than one hour, I assume. We'll get to whatever we can. Adam Scott and Chris here. We're recording on Thursday, March 1st, so you're going to probably hear this on Saturday or later. If we miss any news, please just remember it's Thursday, March 1 p.m. as we speak.

It is a 12th. Well, you know what? We'll get into the specifics in a second. It's 12-team Roto with two catchers for some reason because two catchers are stupid. Or right now. Well, we'll get more specifics. I want to bring something up before the auction starts, which is going to happen shortly. I've thought about pitching.

We haven't done our starting pitcher preview yet. I've thought about pitchers and the big four, Kershaw, Scherzer, Klobber, sale, and then the rest of the group. And that's the best way to say this. I think that there is such a major drop-off at hitter in, like, the middle of the third. third round of a 12-team league. I know this is not a round. We're doing auction, but still, like, after the top

20 or 24- or so hitters, I think there's such a big drop-off that I might be a little bit lower on the four aces than you guys. Maybe not Kirschaw, but the others. It's interesting because when we, you know, the thing that separates the big four is not just the quality

of the innings, but the quantity of the except you know clain kershaw hasn't thrown more than 180 in the last two seasons right right but that's that's because of health reasons and start by start he certainly gives you plenty of less oh he's incredible but i just i don't know is the gap between those four and maybe the next three starting pitchers really that big see i think it probably is i think it is big and that's not even why i'm like maybe lower on them it's because I'm so worried about not having two great hitters in my lineup. And if I go pitcher, if I go hitter in round one, pitcher in round two,

and then my third pick might be like Brian Dozier. Who might be, I mean, he's like a top 15 hitter usually, but, you know, you know what I'm saying? Well, yeah, I know what you're saying. Most of the mixed league hitter pool is more or less as valuable as the rest. But there are those 20 options at the top of the draft that legitimately do. stand out. And, you know, that's why my rankings don't go, Kershaw, Kluber, Shursar,

their sale right at the top of the draft, because those couple dozen hitters are still worth paying a premium for, at least on the same level as the four super aces. But, you know, usually in a draft context, you probably only getting a shot

at one of those pitchers, just one. So it's easy to sacrifice one hitter spot for that big pitcher advantage. It'll be interesting in auction is if somebody makes play for two of that big four. Yeah, I won't be doing that, no way. So here are the specifics. That's just something to think about in terms of balancing,

hitting, and pitching. We talk about the drop-off at pitcher. We don't always talk about the drop-off at hitter. And it is a 12-team, rotissory league, five-by-five, batting average, home runs, RBIs, stolen bases, and runs scored. Pitching stats are ERA, whip, strikeouts, wins, and saves.

there are nine pitcher spots, and you can have as many starters, as many relievers as possible. Standard, conventional wisdom is probably six starters, three relievers, but that has been, that has changed, I'd say. Especially remembering this auction last year where Heath was at least one team that went kind of reliever-heavy to win whip and ERA. And then changed his strategy, I think, later in the year to sort of catch up in strikeouts and wins. And it worked pretty well for him. And then the hitter spots are two catchers, because if one catcher is not bad enough, let's have two. First, second, third short, five outfielders, a middle infielder, a corner infielder, and a utility. So nine pitcher spots.

How many hitter spots is that, Scott? There are 14 hitter spots. Okay. 14 hitter spots, nine pitcher spots, and seven bench spots, which we will do a snake draft for after the auction is done for 23. And by that point, it will be 8 o'clock at night. We'll all be ready for dinner. Right. We're already a half hour late on this draft.

When are we going to start, Scott? As soon as the final owner gets in the room. We had a no-show, which is always wonderful, especially with an auction. But we've hunted down a replacement, and we're just waiting for him to hop in the room. Okay. So I am going to pause the podcast now and rejoin when we start the draft or the auction. And none of you out there are going to be... You're wiser.

So you just told them. Yeah, BRB. Men in Black, that. Erase it from your memory. BRB. Hey, guess what? We're starting the auction. There was no pause or anything, people.

I don't know what you're talking about. All right. Let's see how this goes. Now, this is a real draft that we're playing. Adam, I'm still making sure everybody's paying attention. After half an hour, they've probably wandered off. That's fine, Scott. I'll just ramble on.

Don't worry about it. This is going to be a very off-the-cuff podcast, so maybe a little unprofessional at times. So, yeah, I don't want you guys to give away too much of your strategy because I respect the fact that this is a real league that we are playing out. And it's probably my favorite and most valued league. We have really, really good people in this league that are very smart, very good at fantasy baseball. So for me, it is really a test of my skills. We have one listener in the league.

His name is Matt. We'll tell you how he does. And I think what we'll do is we'll evaluate the players. We'll talk about the players that get auctioned off, they get bid on. probably for most of them after they are on a team, after the bidding ends, because I don't want you guys to have to give away who you like and don't. But I will also talk about bidding strategy,

and I'll just tell you, Chris, you can comment on this. I almost always nominate players that I don't want on my team, especially ones that I think are going to be expensive that I don't want on my team. I think that's a smart strategy. That's actually more of a concern for me, once we start getting into the point where people have to be a little more frugal, especially because I'm the type of owner who tends to splurge on a few big players,

especially in a mixed league where there's more options on the waiver wire. And then I reach a point where I've got a queue of 29 players, and I want all of them for $3, and I'm afraid to put any of them out there because there's always some chucklehead who's got $15 max bid to screw me all. Oh, Scott White, nominating Mike Trout. Let's set the market here. I've seen Scott White's cheat sheet. He does not want Mike Trout.

Oh, don't I? $50 bid. Well, Paul Martin just jumped in with a $50 bid, so no, I do not. I forgot to mention it's a $260 budget for 23 starting players. So Trout will not necessarily be the most expensive because you never know. But, oh, now it's $60. I'm out. I'm out, no chance.

That's too much. Yeah, well, that's, you know, we have been doing, we've done the AL-only version, the N-L-only version of this draft already. Same depth, 12 teams, standard Roto. And what you see in the mixed league auction compared to those, a lot of times, is the super elite players go for a super elite premium

because, you know, the quality of the one to $2 players is so much higher than in a league-specific format. All right, my money is on Heath. getting Trey Turner, and Trout did go for 60 bucks. Turner's up to 50. You know, if Trey Turner's the number one player, according to Heath, he needs to bid at least 61 on Trey Turner, right? Scott moved Trey Turner up to third in Roto.

I did. Yeah, that's big. I finally relented there. He's at 50, two, one. Sold for $51. Which is still high. I mean, it's not, like, I'm looking, this is one way you can use Roto values, because obviously all auctions are,

auction values because obviously all auctions are different and nobody's auction's going to follow the letter of our projected auction values but when you see guys going for consistently higher than we have them and in this case I had Mike Trout for 40 I had Tray Turner for 39 so they both went for a lot more and if that keeps happening with these elite players I'm going to know that there's going to be not much money left for the mid-tier players, and that maybe that's the time to bid aggressively, as opposed to right now, where a lot of these guys look like overpaced. All right, so, here's Chris Towers nominating Buster Posey.

I'm sitting this one out. I'm just not spending, you know, right now it's at $17 to H. Here's the thing I run into is I know... 19 for Chris. Heath's valuation of Buster Posey is higher than the current bid. 20 for Posey now. So Heath is lying on his rankings because he says Buster Posey is a $28 player and he has not bid higher than 17. Now, it is worth noting if you're looking at Heath and Scott's rhodo valuations.

Heath is much more aggressive on the higher end. His top players are in the high 40. Scots are topped out at 40, right? Yes. Yeah. But you'll bid more than 40. Right. In this format, I do go with a higher ceiling in a points league, a head-to-head league.

where a lot of the players you draft are going to be on your bench and who wants to spend on bench players. So Posey ended up going for 20, which was actually $1 less than I project for him to go. That seems fine. Yeah, yeah, that did not continue the pattern of overpays, I would say. Carlos Correa right now is at 32, 33. I'm pretty interested in this. So this is where I say, okay, remember, Trey Turner went for $51. So right now, like, 34.

I'm going to go 35 on Carlos Correa. And Chris just did 36. Huh. Yeah. Yeah, this is another... Tough one. I have him going for 32, so he's at $5 over. It definitely seems like people are going very aggressively for the elite hitters we were talking about at the very top,

that couple dozen that really stand out. 37 hours for Correa. It's not wrong, but it probably means I'm going to like the value of the next tier better. But I think it means that you also have to adjust and get one. I'm going to have to overpay for one of the elites. If everybody's overpaying, I'm going to have to do it too. We're all going to have values in the middle. Not necessarily.

I remember two years ago, Scott, I made that mistake as Max Scherzer now. It's what Heath did in the Dynasty League that we're in on Sunday. He had the second most amount of money. I think I had the most. I spent huge on three players and then had to fill out my lineup with cheap guys. And Heath was scared off of the prices early on. And ended up missing out on good players. That's a different scenario because that's a keeper league where guys are getting kept for next to nothing.

But the same dynamic is still at play. I don't really think it is. There's always someone in an auction who doesn't spend because the value isn't there on the name brand guys. Right. And you need some of those guys. You don't need some of those guys. No. You do need to get good players eventually.

But when they're consistently going for $10 higher than I have them projected for, That's going to be a lot of, a lot of unclaimed. Would you trade your first, second, and third round picks in a snake draft for five picks between 10 and 17? I think it's going to be more than five. I don't think that math works. I don't know. So, actually, all right, I made that mistake a few years ago. This is what I'm talking about, right?

All the elite hitters were going for higher than I expected. And I got, I pretty much got left out. I remember I think I got one guy and it was A.J. Pollock and he got hurt. And then what you find out is like there are values all over the draft because people spent so much on the elite hitters and even the elite pitchers. We just saw Max Scher by the way go for $43, which is currently what Giancarlo Stanton is at. Now he's at 44 and I am out on John Carlos Stanton. But look, at some point you have to make a list of all the elite hitters, maybe some of the elite pitchers. You have to have one.

You don't have to have one. I think you do. How can you win in fantasy if you don't have a first or second round draft pick? Like, you're screwed. 23 line-up spots to fill. I think you got to have an elite. If you have eight third round picks, I mean, you probably still have a three round. You're not going to have eight. That's an exaggeration.

You're not going to do. Well, I don't know that it is. These prices are really high. But, but the, you know, you get to a point where, like, the 20th hitter, at some point, like, he's so much better than the 23rd hitter, you know. Everything can't be value. Like, you can't, everything can't be a return on your investment. Would you guys stop lecturing me and let me try and pick up.

We're not lecturing you. We're not going to judge it afterwards. That's four hours from now. I'm talking philosophically. I feel like you guys are lecturing. I'm not listening. I'm never lecture you. I think that the listeners need to understand where Chris and I are coming from and where Scott's coming from.

I think that you have to have in an auction that this is the point of auctions is get as many elite players as you want. I have to have at least one. That's right. Scott doesn't think that Chris and I do. All right. Well, we'll end it there. I'm at $40. Screw you, Chris.

I was at 40 now. At least that wasn't the jerk who waited until there was one second left like you. All right. I'm at 42 on Charlie Blackman. Chris is at 43. All right, I'll go 44. Remember, John Carlos Stanton just went for 46. Is anybody going to beat my $44 bid on Charlie Blackman?

Charlie Blackman going once. I think you got him. All right, I got a player. I'm on the board. And I did that because I like him better than Stanton. And I just got him for $2 cheaper than Stanton. $1 more than Scher. And I like him a lot better, but certainly I like Blackmun better than Scherzerzer.

All right. Scott, what can I lecture you on? Oh, I have to nominate. That was a mistake. Think of all the third round players you could have gotten instead. Here's who I'm going to nominate. I'm going to nominate somebody I don't want. I'm going to nominate Reese Hoskins.

Actually, I don't really want to nominate. You did not nominate Reese Hoskins. You got timed out. Jose Altuva. We're going to see how much Altupe goes for. Does he break? the 50 threshold like Turner and Trout both did? He will.

Trow went for 61 and Turner, no, Trow went for 60 and Turner. No, Trow went for 51 and Altuvei. There it is. Man, I might get in on this. I just put in 51 for him. That's, I'm done now. Yeah, he's going to, he's going to cruise by that. I don't think I can justify two players at nearly $100.

He's at 55. Remember I got Blackman for 44. Neither Scott nor I has a player yet. That's fine. They've only been seven players. So for all Chris is lecturing, he's here doing the same thing I'm doing. No, he's not. There's only seven guys off the board.

Now eight. Altube went for 55. Yeah. Oh, interesting one. This is where it gets interesting. We've had nothing but studs plus Buster Posey. Here comes Billy Hamilton. Who some might argue is a stud.

in his own right I think because of the steel scarcity he's probably going to push 30 especially as aggressively as the bidding's been early on and I think this is a good a good little tip

once you get a sense of how what the auctioning behavior is going to be because every auction room's different but you know we're eight picks in And so we have a pretty good idea. People are going really hard after players right now.

That's when you nominate a guy who, you know, maybe even you consider him a mid to late round pick and just see if somebody will overspend for that guy. Not somebody who might accidentally get for a dollar. Somebody trendy, though. Yeah, yeah. Like, what would be a good example? Maybe somebody like Trevor Bauer.

He's pretty trendy. I know exactly who I'm going to go with. And it's the guy who I've been. arguing is overvalued on Twitter for the last couple of days, and I'm nominating Jose Barrios. You guys can pay up for him. See, it's just so hard to know what to pay for Jose Barrios. We've had one pitcher come off the board,

Max Scherzer for $43. Top of my head, I don't want to spend more than $7 or $8 on Jose Barrios out of $2.60. Like, what do you guys think? I agree. But where he's being drafted in ADP is probably like a $15. player. I would guess that's what Scott and Heath have him as. Well, Scott's boy is being bid on right now. Tommy Fam.

Unfortunately, our resident Cardinals fan is a part of this auction, and I'm going to concede to him. Oh, no. Oh, no. He's pushed up to 27 now for Tommy Fam. Billy Hamilton went for $24. Tommy Fam went for 27. We have 10 players off the board. You got to be patient in auctions.

You got to remember. I know it's fun to get in there to get a great player. But like Moogie Betz just got nominated. I have Charlie Blackman. There's almost no chance I'm going to be getting Moogie Betts. Now let's see where Betz goes. I have Blackman at 44. Betz is up to 41.

They should be around the same price. Now he's up to 43. But be patient. Fast 45. We're going. 46, 47. 47 to the guy who just bid 27 on Tommy Fam. Tim, I'd say his last name if I knew how to pronounce it.

McCloid, McLeod, I don't know, M-C-L-E-O-D. Now it's 48 to Chris Mitchell. McLeod? McLeod, yeah, it's probably McLeod. As many McLeod athletes as there's been? I mean, come on. 48 for Mokey. Not to Tim McLeod, though, to Chris Mitchell.

So now I feel warm and fuzzy about Charlie Blackman in 44, because he's $4. Yeah, that was one of the better ones. I think Charlie Blackman's a better player than Mokey Betts right now for fantasy. Sure. Toss up to me, but sure. I'll save the four bucks. Four bucks means a lot. We're getting these elites.

We're starting to get them out of the way now because Bryce Harper's up. He's up to 45. And Harper's the one. I finally, I think for the first time drafted him in this really big league that, Adam, are you in the great fantasy baseball invitation? It can't be that great if I'm not in it. All right. And I'm not in it.

Scott Heath and I are, and it's like 12 leagues combined or something. It's kind of like the Scott Fish Bowl and football. 12, 15 team leagues. And there's going to be individual. league winners and there's going to be one overall win. Yeah. And I finally took Bryce Harper with the number five overall pick. That was the first time. But I'm

wary of him because he's just been so all over the place. All right, Bryce Harper went to 48. I'm going to test it out now because it's my turn to nominate. I'm going to throw Trevor Bauer out there who I project to go for I project Trevor Bauer to go for

$7. Yeah, that's what I was saying. And that's with people not going crazy. for the high guys consistently bidding like $10 over what I happen for. So in theory, that should mean Bauer should be like a two or $3 guy. But Adam's bidding on him. It's up to six now, seven. He's going to go past my projection too.

So, yeah, now's this is a good point to nominate guys you don't really want. And Bauer... Because, you know, people are just going to spend on whoever they see. Bauer is certainly talented, but he's in that range of like 40 to 80. where I don't know how much differentiation there is between the starting pitchers. Right. You're going to be able to get somebody

with Trevor Bauer's skill set. What did he go for? He went for nine bucks. 80, 90 picks from now. He went for $9. Yeah, you're going to get guys for $3 that are potentially as good. I want to read from last year, like Scott White's team.

I'm looking at your team from last year. This was your pitching staff. Chris Archer, 15, Rick Porcelo, 12. Masahiro Tanaka, 12. Jay Hap for two, Ian Kennedy for one. Robbie Ray for four. Nice work. Come on, Scott.

Alex Colomé for four. So, like, if you think that Tanaka last year went for 12, Archer went for 15, Trevor Bauer is not a $9 player, in my opinion. Nope. Based on that, so that's an overpay. My team last year, Chris's team last year. Paxton for five, Dallas Keiko for seven. $9.

So I said earlier $7 or $8 for Jose Berrios, that's probably too much. That's probably a $5 player. I'm just looking at last year where these guys went. For me, I had Lester for 26. Cole Hamels for 17. Great pick. All right, let's try it out. Will Jose Burrios go for more than Trevor Bauer?

He's being drafted about 50 spots ahead of Trevor Bauer. Oh, I missed the player. So you would think. Francisco Lindor just went for $34. Compare that to a turn. who went for 51 and Correa went for 37, Lindor for 34. Seems pretty reasonable. I think we can get Jose Barrios above 10 with Heath.

Somebody bid. I'm not doing that. I don't like him. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. I will never prize in force again in an awkward. When it burns you, every dollar is precious. You end up with Steve Pierce? Oh, Jedjerko, that's right.

The famous Nando Defender. Oh, it was awesome. So friend Nando Defino was obsessed with Jed Jerko, as Nando has a tendency to do. He has a tendency to obsess over players and to get them at all costs. I knew this about Nando. I'd worked with him long enough. I'd drafted with him long enough. We could have absolutely priced and forced Heath on that.

He has Barrios as a $13 player. Missed opportunity. Oh, yeah. All right, go ahead, go ahead. I had a plan in place to bid on the Gell Cabrera and Mike Trout back when they were clearly the two best players and to overpay as much as I needed to to get them. But that was with the understanding that

I'd have to be careful with my dollars at every other position. So instead I got a $24 Jet Jerko because Nando bailed. After I'd bid him up a few times already. You thought you could get, you thought Nando would go to 25. So you go to 24, Nando was like, no. That was the peak

of Jek Jerko hype. That was the year he went for the most, but that was still too much. All right. Scott almost got J.D. Martinez. As he had him at 37, Heath swooped in and took him for 38. So the last few nominations, the last two players have been Lindor at 34, Burrios at 9, and Martinez, J.D. Martinez at 38. And now Clayton Kershaw is up.

And Max Scherzer went for 43. So here's Kershaw. Heath is being aggressive right now. He's got a bad back. He might just want to go to sleep. He's at $46, and he did not get him. Paul Martin comes in at 47 for Clayton Kershaw. You know what's really interesting about this draft so far?

the amount of money that's flying around and not a single third basement or first baseman has been nominated. It is interesting. Arguably the two deepest positions on the board. Well, that's kind of what I feel like. And eventually, to get back to your guy's original point, eventually, if there are no discounts,

I'll have to jump in on one of these high guys, probably. But there are still a lot left is the thing. Yeah, there are. And I'm not necessarily looking for a discount. I should rephrase that. just not what I see is a drastic overpay. All right, so Kirschild went for 47, Scherzer went for 43. Here's Noah Cindergarde.

Chris is at... No, Chris was at 17. Now, Chris at 19. George is at 20. Heath is at 21. 22 for Cinderguard. 23, 24, 25, 26 for Cindergard. Chris Towers has the high bid.

27 to Heath Cummings. Do I have 28? Do I see 28? Do I see 28? 28 to Paul Martin here for Noah's Cindergars. 29 for Noah Cindergard. Heath, I'm telling you, Heath wants to go to sleep because he is trying to get everybody. right now. Cinderguard is up to 30. I'm telling you, Heath is trying to avoid what happened to him in the auction that we did on

Sunday. That is absolutely what's happening right now. I think it's a really bad idea to spend a lot early. I think it's a really bad idea. I think it depends. If you can get, like, in this league where Mike Trout went for 60, Altuve went for 55, Turner went for 55, it's probably a bad idea to spend on multiple players early. Turn their way for 51. Because you have to leave. You know, I actually am fine with the studs and duds approach in an auction when the prices are more reasonable on the high end. And I was actually using Heath's auction values to set my guide because I know his were a little higher on the price on the high end.

So I was willing to stretch to get to pair like Jose Altuve and Mike Trout. But I wanted to get them for $45 each. You know, I think it makes sense to spend when you can. do that. But to throw 60 at one of them, that's a crap. I got busy talking and just a guy I want for less than I was going to get him for.

Matt Olson for $12. Noah Cindergarde ended up going for 33. This is why I didn't want to do this podcast. All right. So. I care about the state of my team. I'm going to nominate J.T. Rayal Mutto. I was going to go 15 on Olson. He went for 12. I nominated J.T. Reaumuto.

I'm not really interested at him. His value could go way up if he gets traded. way up, but he ain't traded yet. So Rehian Mutu's at. So recapping the last two bids or players, Cinderguard for 33, Matt Olson for 12. So the reason why I don't like spending that much early is I've always found that the middle of an auction,

let's say hours number two and three, are great values. And sometimes there are stud players there. A lot of times it's kind of like mid-round player. A lot of times it's like fourth-round players. You know, Christian Yellich might go for $16 or something like that. That could be a great value. Because guys are like, oh, man, I just spent so much on the elites, and I want to save some money for the end.

I always find that the, often fine, the middle of the auction is where I get the best value. So I like to load up there. J.T. Riamuto for $12 is cuckoo bananas to me. I don't like it. Matt Olson also went for $12. D. Gordon. There we go. All right.

I think I'm going to be in on this. Yeah, well, he just zoomed fast. It was in the low 20s for a while. He should go for more than Hamilton, obviously. Hamilton went for what was it 24. And this is the last of the elite stolen base guys. Oh, Chris goes for 33. Well, Starling Marte is still available.

Yeah. 33. As we talked about on Thursday's podcast, Byron Buxton maybe needs to be among that group, maybe. Got my first player. Chris, on the board. I have 32 on D. Gordon. You went 33.

Why didn't I go 34? I don't really know. A lot of it is just sort of like feeling Feeling it out in the auction? Yep. You know, right? Totally understand that. There have been a few players

that I've been right there at the end, and then I just can't quite. I think I was at 31 on Cinderguard. He went for 33. Right. Kenley Jansen is up for bid. I don't think I would spend more than 20 on a closer. But he's already a 22.

I have trouble justifying spending more than about... I'll go up to 100 on my pitching staff. But that's probably the extreme. Okay. And I'd prefer not to. Jansen at $24. I think I'm going to prioritize the saves category more than like the elite ERA whip. Like, I just want to get saves.

I'll save money and get saves. Gary Sanchez, on the board. So D. Gordon went for 33. Kenley Jansen went for 24. Here's Gary Sanchez. $20 bid from Scott. He's up to 22 now. J.T. Raamuto just went for 12.

Gary Sanchez at 24 to Chris. Scott and Chris both in on this. Scott to 25 on Gary Sanchez. Chris to 26. Gary Sanchez had a home run on Wednesday. What about 700 feet? Chris is at 29. That was a nice reminder that, like, as good as Stanton and Judge are,

Gary Sanchez might not be that much behind them. Yeah. Just as a hitter. 31 to Chris. Will Scott go to 32? Well, Mike Cuchera did? I think I'm backing off. Chris is up to 33 now.

I thought Mike Coucher wasn't in the draft. Scott? I think that might be our... Oh, that's our listener who's drafting under Mike Cicera's name. All right. Noted. $36? Are you kidding?

36? Yes, it's a big joke. For Gary Sanchez? I mean, it's in line with the way the other early rounders have been going about. I had him for 27. He went for nine more. Heath has him for 31. Like, that's within the realm of...

Like... You know my strategy on Gary Sanchez. I'm going to have a higher valuation on him than anybody else. He went for more than Francisco Lindor. So Lindor went for 34, Gary Sanchez for 36, J.D. Martinez for 38. And Josh Donaldson is on the board. So I had always said like Gary Sanchez versus Josh Donaldson is a very tough call for me. By that logic, if I can get Josh Donaldson for less than $36, I should like that.

You should probably be in on this Josh Donaldson bidding then. He's up to 29. But Josh Donaldson is also the first third baseman nominated. And there are... Which always makes you wonder. There are two first round caliber hitters left. Maybe three. All right, I'm in on Donaldson.

31. How many players do you have at him? One, Charlie Blackman at $44. Yeah. There might be eight first round caliber hitters left. Oh, damn you, Phil. $32 to fill. So first round caliber hitters left from my perspective would include Goldschmidt,

And all of these guys obviously don't go in the first round, but I think they're of that caliber. Goldschmidt, Freeman, Votto, Rizzo, Aeronado, Bryant, Machado. Scott, you better get Aaron Otto. And you are nominating right now. Aaron Judge is on the fringes there. I am going to nominate a player I don't want in this format. You're about to run out of time.

He's the commissioner. He can do whatever the hell he wants. No, because I couldn't back out that Olson bid. Oh, I like this. Matt Carpenter. I don't want Matt Carpenter, but I'm confident I won't get him for a dollar. If I did get him for a dollar, okay, I do want him. But, oh, straight to 18.

Oh, 19. Yeah, that is 19 now for Heath. Matt Olson went for 12 bucks, remember. I'm guessing Heath did not expect that to be 18. I'm guessing not either. And this is something. Yep. Ah, damn.

That's unfortunate what just happened to Heath. So, yeah, talk about what just happened, Scott. Carpenter went for $19. Are you going to back it out? I might do that. No, I don't think you should. No, that happens in auctions. So what happened was he kept hitting the button.

He was going $1 up. And this is the risk when you go $1 up. Is someone else types in an auction? It's really a failure of technology is what that is. Here's how it works, in case you're not familiar. There is at the top right of the screen, a player is nominated, and there are two buttons. There's one button.

There's a add $1 button. And there's a box where you can submit your own custom bid. So if you don't want to go one, two, three, four, five, you can just put ten. So it started at one, and everybody's hitting plus one, plus one. Somebody put in $18. And simultaneously, or just after, Heath hit plus one, and he went to $19 on that carpenter, which was way more than he wanted to spend. And Scott is backing it out.

So now Carpenter's a show. I disagree with the commissioner's decision. If your commissioner isn't as forgiving as me, and you should never assume he is. I think you have to look with that. That's why I just never use that button. Unless you're down to your last $2 and you want to get from $1 to $2 very quickly. Only bad things can happen if you use that button. Just type in the number you want to bid.

Carpenter and Olson went for $12. It seems totally reasonable to me. Right? Sounds good. I had Matt Carpenter going for 12. So yes, that's exactly where he should have gone. It was not an overpay. But it was not an underpay, which I feel like hitters in that range should be

with the amount of money being spent here at the top. Aaron Judge is going for a very reasonable $37 right now. Yeah, that's why I put in a bid for him. Now, Scott did too. I don't really want to spend big on two outfielders, but I think I'm going to let Scott have them. 38 bucks, same as J.D. Martinez. Yeah, my first player.

All right, you're on the board. See, you got one. Is that higher than you wanted to go for? for Judge? 38 bucks? Yes, it was. Yes, but I'd rather go too high in the 30s than too high in the 40s. We still have just Cluber.

We have Cluber and sale left. How many pitchers so far? We have Jansen, Scherzer, Kershaw, Trevor Bauer, who went for nine, Jose Berrios, who went for nine, Cindergarde, who went for 33. Here's Manny Machado, who is only going to be third base eligible for the first week of season and then he'll be shortstop eligible. All right, Machado here. Aaron Judge just went for 38.

How much did Correa go for? Correa went for 30. Let me see. Korea went for 37. Machado's probably going to go for less. Yeah. He's at 31 right now. Do we all have just one player?

I have two. Who do you have? Gary Sanchez and D. Gore. Okay, I have Charlie Blackman, Scott is Aaron Judge. All right, Scott has got some work to do in one category at least. With batting average. Yeah. Heath been 37 on Manny Machado.

And Heath's going to get him. Yeah, I would have rather had Machado for 37 than Judge. I mean, for 38. Yeah. But I didn't want to spend 38 on both, so I back down. Now here's Chris Bryant, second third basement to be nominated. Donaldson went for 32. I might be willing to go 40 on Bryant.

Because I, unlike you guys, don't view third base as such a deep position. I said it a million times on the preview. Well, if you're going to go 40, you need to start bidding. Well, believe me, I'll be it on that. See, I'm slow-playing it a little bit. I don't want to seem too eager. Heath goes 35. It's not asking somebody on a date at him.

I'll go 37. I might stop there on Chris Bryant. Tobin 38. Do I go 39? Judge went. Yes. Yeah. Oh, crap.

Now I'm at 40. You hit the plus one button at him? I'm at 40. Come on. I'm at 40. I said I might go 40. I'm not going to back this out because it was just $1. Yeah, that's fine.

Back it out. No. I'm good. I'm good. All right. I got Chris Bryant for 40. Wow. Two $40 hitters.

That's a lot, but maybe it's not. I don't know. They're pretty good. Chris Brian for 40 and Blackwin for 44 for me. And by the way, Nolan Aaron out of Stalton. I think Chris Bryant's going to be better than his draft position. I'm very optimistic for him. Here's Verlander.

Yeah, I think I said on the third base preview, he's the guy I think has the best chance to break into the Trout Altuve mini-tier. How fun is this? How fun is this? Auctions are the best. Oh, they're way more fun than anything else. Yeah, just don't have dinner plans because you won't make them. They take forever.

We've had 28 players drafted, and we have been on the air for 36 minutes, but five of that was pre-auction. That's not that bad. Yeah, 31 minutes for 28 players. Not bad. Yeah, no, the auction, especially when you're in a league, like your home league, my home football league, we do an auction.

It's all my friends from college. And, you know, like half the league lives in South Florida. We get together. You know, we're drinking beers. We're having food, making fun of people. We've got, like, a Google hangout. It's great. It's the best way to do a mock draft.

Or a draft. All right. Verlander went for 26. Noah Cindergarde went for 33. That's probably a pretty good value then for Verlander, right? $7 cheaper than Cinegard? I mean, again, it's more than I have them going for, but only $1 more. Freddie Freeman, 33. That's nice.

Yeah, $5 cheaper than Judge. Every time there's somebody I want to bid on, I'm caught in the middle of talking. $5 cheaper than Judge, $1 more than Donaldson. Oh, Freddie Freeman at 33 might be the best value so far. $3 less than Gary Sanchez. Here's Marwin Gonzalez, who is eligible at first. Second, shortstop, outfield, middle infield, corner infield, very versatile player.

He's at $8 right now. He's at $9. He's at $10. He has been worth starting at all of those positions exactly once. Yeah, that's why I'm not in on it. $10 for Tobin. I'm Marvin Gonzalez. And sold.

We're going pretty quickly here. I like this pace. All right. Scott, we screwed you up with Matt Olson and Freddie Freeman. We were only going to take one again anyway. Adam, it's your turn. Oh, it's my turn. I shouldn't have been 38 on Judge.

Who's the starting pitcher I don't want? That's really the most frustrating part because the $34 Freddie Freeman was exactly what I was waiting for. Who's the starting pitcher I don't want? Who's the starting pitcher I don't want? I don't really want. Dan Strait. Jake Areeta. I will nominate Jake Areeta.

Why don't I want Jake Arrieta? Well, we haven't really talked about this. He might get signed by the time we air this auction. Players that aren't signed, the later and later it gets, the more of a disadvantage they're at. Plus, the strikeout rate went way down last year. And if he goes to the American League, that's bad. I posted on Twitter a comparison of five starting pitchers over the last two seasons. It was Jake Arenda, Jose Barrios, Alex Wood, Kyle Hendricks,

who are all going between 87 and 98, plus Jameson, who's going 189. Okay, now that's a steal. Is that a steal or what? Jake Arenda, $13? Yeah, that's pretty good. I probably should have been in on that. That was my bad. $13.

It's the amaran. Like Trevor Bauer went for what? Nine? Yeah. Ferrios went for the same, I think. Oh. Rap. One dollar button, but I can't back it out.

I'm stuck with it. No. No, you weren't getting No one Aronado for 41. Mike, our listener. What is his name, Scott? Matt. Matt. Matt is.

Leckner? Matt was at 42. Now Phil has a $43 bid on Nolan Aronado, up to 45 to Heath. He just thought... He had to go for that much. We couldn't have collectively let him go for the same as Blackman if everybody thinks he's just as good, if not better.

Okay, well, I don't know that many people do. So 46 right now for Aronado? Yeah, they're basically the same. Pick an order. So Aronado goes to 46. Blackman went for 44. How much did bets go for? Also 46, right?

Betts was 48, and Harper was 48. Zach Granky. I know Scott loves Granker. And Verlander for 26. So Granky should be a $30 guy around there. Yep. Around 25. This is a dilemma.

See, Scott, I like Granky here. You're not in a bidding, so I'll talk to you. Chris and Heath are going back and forth. He's up to 26. but I have spent $84 on two hitters. The $260 budget, like, I don't know what to do at Pitcher. I'm thinking...

I'm thrilled to get Zanky for a dollar less than Justin Verlander. I love that. 26. I think it's the same price, 26. No, no. Verlander was 27. It was 26 for Rihlander. My be. Adam, you're leading everyone astray.

Might be. All right, Anthony Rizzo. Yeah, anyway, I don't really know what I'm going to do. Since I got two elite hitters, I don't know. know that I'm in on sale or cluber. I'll probably out on them. So I'm probably looking at the de Grom, one of like DeGrom, maybe

Archer, Tanaka, just looking at the who's available. If I can make my pitching staff and what I expect to spend on them, I'd love to have like Carlos Carrasco for about 25. Carlos Martinez for maybe 21,

and Dallas Kiko for 17. I don't know if that's true. Tanaka for 17. Rizzo's about to go for less than Freeman. Rizzo's at 31. Good value. Rizzo's at 33 now to Chris. This pushes it to 33, which is the same that Freeman went for.

But still a good value because still less than Donaldson. Now 34 to our listener. What was his name again? Matt. Matt. You want to call Mike. We want to give his last name. I've given it five times.

Matt Klechner. He's a good guy. Did he win him? Yes, he did. $34, Anthony Rizzo. All right. Now, here's Chris Archer. All right.

What are we going to do here, Chris Archer? Really interesting player this season. Nobody really knows what to do with him. I'm going to go for it. Is he a 4ERA guy? No, I don't think he is. Oh, but here, real, how about this take? He's going to face the Yankees and the Red Sox this year, like a lot.

They might have the most runs in baseball. Until he's traded. All right, 21. The Cubs, a bunch. I think I'm done. 22 for Archer. Granky went for 26. Yeah, more less than Granky and Verlander.

That seems about right, just relative to the prices in this auction. And he goes for 22. My turn to nominate again. All right, Scott. Scott, does that put sealing in your avatar? No, that's me. Oh, okay.

It's very small. It is small. Scott has one player here, There's Aaron Judge so far. We've had 36 players off the board. The high is Mike Trout at $60, and Tray Turner at 51, Altuvei 55. Yuenas Cespitus.

I guess you don't really want him? Yeah, once again, I'm hoping there will be some overly aggressive bidding on a mid-tier player. Went up to 16, so I have him at... You have him at, like, 14. 15, yeah. 17 right now for Cespitas. If he plays 150 games, he's probably going to be worth 20-something,

but he went for 17 bucks. Could be a good buy. Yeah. Let's see through 37 picks, which fantasy owner has the most players? That'll be Phil. Phil has Arieta and Scher, Harper, Donaldson, and Reaumoto. Areeta, Scherzer, Harper Donaldson, and Reamuto. and how much money does Phil have left?

It's hard to find him here. Some amount. $112.95 max bid. And then we have an owner who has only $79 left. Paul. Corey Seeger is on a... Paul right now has four players. Oh, he has five players.

I'll get to him in a second, but I might be interested in Corey Seeger. All right, Corey Seeger is 21. Like Corey Seeger... I was bidding on him up to about 20. Come on. There's no good short stops. You guys got a bid on him.

I agree. I expect at least $30 for Corey Seeger. Well, I'm at 24 right now. If Chris Archer went for 22, then... Damn, you... Not completely healthy this spring. Literally put your money where your mouths are, guys. Scott's at 25.

You can have them. Oh. I literally am putting my money where my mouth is. That is my second player. Azer wouldn't. That's a good... I love it. It's a great value.

I didn't get any of the $40. I didn't get any of the $40. guys but I got a consensus second rounder in Judge a consensus third rounder in Seeger You did well sir And I think Yeah I don't think that's going to be my last

There's big dollar person There's three 35 dollar caliber players left Who? Paul Goldschmidt, Corey Klooper and Chrisill Yeah Now let's not even mention the fact that

Judge and Seager both are not playing in Spring games Yeah Because of her And you won't Offseason surgery for both? Did Seeger have surgery? Let me check.

I know he had the elbow injury, and now he's got a back thing, right? $13 for Trevor's story, the most recent one. That was my I don't want this guy nomination. I feel okay about somebody spending $13 on a guy I have no interest in. Those guys at this point are just going for like $2 or $3 more than what I have them for, Again, it goes back to, with the massive overpays up top, those guys should probably go for much less than I have before. Paul Goldschmidt now.

I have Chris Bryant and Charlie Blackman. I don't have any pitchers. There's no way I'm bidding on Paul Goldsmith, just because I can't afford it. Heath is at 36 on Goldsmith. Chris was at 35, I believe. Yeah, he is zoomed by Rizzo Freeman, even with the humor concern. I thought they'd go for about the same.

I went to hit the plus one button just as it disappeared. I was going to go 37, but I couldn't pull the trigger on it. Yeah. Now, obviously, in a roto league, Goldschmidt's going to give you steals when those other won't, and Humidor shouldn't impact that. So it's, you know, it's probably fine, 36. I certainly would have rather gone 37 on him than 38 on Judge. So that is a mistake right now to me.

Not so much ignoring the $45 plus dollar guys, but making Judge in all likelihood my most expensive player. And Severino on the being bid on now. I want to bring something up here after this Severino. I thought I might get him for 20, not a chance. He's at 23. I'll bid 24.

I think I'd be willing to go, nah, I'm good here. Who do you think's better? Severino or Granky. I'm good here. I'd rather have Granky. Scott goes 25. You shouldn't have said it out loud, Azer.

What? No, I'm not probably. enforcing here. I was lying. I was lying. I was willing to go higher. I went to 26. Oh, George, you go to 27.

We're done here. We are dead. Cerino more expensive than Justin Verlander and Zach Granky. And he was probably better than both last year. At some point. I mean, it's the same tier to me. At some point, like, I have to just accept that Zach Granky was a great value at 26, and not everybody is going to be a great value.

as Severino went for 27. Thanks, Adam. Yeah, it was a great value. Pre-humidor, I don't know if it was, but post-humidor. All right, so here's what I was going to say. Paul Goldsman went for 36. I took Chris Bryant, it seemed like ages ago, for 40. I don't believe $4 really separate them.

I think third base is a lot is shallower, for sure, than first base. But it might have just been a timing thing. Like if Chris Bryant, Paul Goldsett was the 40th player off the board, Chris Bryant was the 28th. Possible people just got tired of spending money. And 12 picks later, you get a similar player for $4 less. Here's Starling Marte. We're up to 30.

Yeah, we're getting a bit off between Chris and Heath. I'm trying to price and force Heath, and I'm happy to take him if I get him. 30's a lot. There you go. 31 to Heath. Presumably. I didn't want Starling Marte dego for that much less than D. Gordon. Which was, what, 33 for Gordon?

33. All right, Marte went for 31. All right, Scott, you and I are going to have to figure out a way to get steals. Uh-oh, Scott. But so is everybody else. I don't want to miss this one. Zach Godley. He's got nominated.

Lar Michael's is not here, so you better get him. So Trevor Bauer went for nine. I think Godley should probably go for like, I don't know, for eight. Even though you'd probably like him better than Bauer, but... Oh, he's up to 13. Oh, yeah, I definitely like him better than Bauer. Got him as a $15 player, Scott. He's up to $13.

But auctions, you know, auctions, are different. 14 on God's because you have to think about the full spectrum of bidding. Does this make you consider that... Does this make you consider

that you should push the price of your high guys up? Those guys are never going to go for $40. Oh, they do sometimes. They particularly... I don't think I've seen Mike Trouco for less than 50.

Particularly in more... And this is an expert league, but I've played in expert leagues where people are more driven by the spreadsheets, I guess. and they they don't go as overboard for those guys

and you know what it's fine if I don't get any of them like I'm going to have a lot of goodbyes later I think Gore's Seeger at 23 at 25 was 25 that was awesome

that was excellent I got to say I just nominated Votto because I don't want them not that I don't like them just I can't afford them Scott's at 34 on Votto did you got 36?

I don't know I can go 36. That's a great buy. 34 on Joey Votto. Well done. 8.0. $34. Votto.

I mean, Freeman was 33, so it's not like... So now I got... Stop dancing. Yeah, Rizzo Freeman and Votto all went for like right around 33 bucks. I got Votto and Seeger counteracting the judge batting average concerns. So that's... Good. That's good.

Nice. I feel good about that. All right. Here's Corey Klober. The last of the big four. Oh, Sail already went? Did that the sale going? The second to...

last of the big four. Corey Klouber up to 33. Max, how much was Scherzer? Like 37, I think. All right, well, Cluber's at 35. I think I'm sitting out the 40s. Oh, Scherzer was 43. Kirschall was 47.

Nice discount on Cory Klooper so far. Klover's at 39. Is that 40? I'm going to try to approach it like I'd rather have I'd rather have like the Carasco, Strasbourg, De Grom-Darvish range at around $25 rather than Cluber at 40.

Personally. Yeah. Now here's the thing. My budget is so screwed up because I wanted to get two of the big four. Really? You probably wanted to get them for about 70. Right.

Yeah, combined seven. Oh, you wanted to do that, huh? There's Robbie Ray. Yeah, I did. I did. But, you know, the problem is now there's only one left and already we've had

Granky, Verlander, Severino, Cindergarde go in the mid-20s. I think Cindergarde was a little higher than mid-20s. So they're not like this is the danger of an auction and timing and why sometimes it makes sense to nominate players you want because if you're waiting around

for a particular guy, all your potential fallbacks are going off the board. And it's not, hasn't happened all the way yet, but it's getting dangerously close to that. Robbie Ray, I'm at $23. Now he's at 24. I think I've got to sit this out.

I don't think I want to go 25. Scott goes 25. So I think what you have to do is you have to look at the tier, and now we're up to 26. Chris Sails in his own tier. And then we've got Bumgarner, Strasbourg, Carrasco, Darvish, de Grom, Robbie Ray. Robbie Ray just went for more than Zach Rankie. Hang on, hold on let me finish this point Because he's still on the he's still being bid up

Bumgarner, Strasbourg, Carrasco Darvish de Grom, Robbie Ray That's six players that I consider to be in the same At the same level Not to say they should all be the same price But same tier And you don't want to wait too long You don't want to be the last one to take somebody in the tier

Because that's the guy who ends up going for way too much I don't think you wanted to be the first guy To take someone in that tier You're not the first guy Based on what just happened Robbie Way went for a little bit too much He went for 29 But you're not the first guy

It's a big tier I mean, that's like great. Yeah, no, he was lumping Robbie Ray in with like the Verlander class, right? Yeah, I think so. I think he's the last one for me. I do, too. But there are several others remaining, including the one up for nomination now, Strasbourg. You might have to get a little aggressive now because once they start coming off the board,

we still have five left, but Strasbourg's one of them. And we're up to 28 on Strasbourg, 29 on Strasbourg. Ray went for 29. The Verlander, Granky and Verlander went in the perfect spot in the auction. Right, right. Everybody was holding out for better. And as much as you want to preach, like, this is what you want to preach, what you should do, you just never know.

You just never know. That's the fun thing about auctions. That's what's really fun is that they can just change. Like the shape of an auction, the shape of a draft you can pretty much predict, but auctions because you can throw out Jose Burrios or Trevor Bauer early and make people spend, it ends up kind of screwing things up. Here's Chris Sale. So Ray and Strasbourg went for 29.

Savarino went for 27. Granky went for 26. Archer for 22. There's some others. Sales up to 36. Cluber went for 40. Sales up to 37. 38 to Heath.

Come on. Cluber went for 40. Scott's at 39. Heath's at 40. All right. All went for at least 40. That's a little too much for all of them. But at least it's a little too much for all.

Right. At least there wasn't one who only. he went for like 32. Yeah. Like that, that makes sense. What just happened makes sense. All right, this will be an interesting one. And you could argue Chris Sale went for more than 40 in practice at the point of the

draft where he went. Scott is nominating. Does that make sense? Paul the Young. Oh, he. And that's another thing with an auction is you can directly troll another person. Yeah. So I have the Young going for fun.

Again, he should probably go for less than what I have him going for. He's at five now. So I feel good about this nomination. It's going past five. Well, I know we've got Heath, who loves the young. I know we've got a Cardinals fan. Right now it's only, okay. All right.

We're pushing 10 now. So this, yeah, this is. I at least feel good about my nomination approach in this auction. There's one thing I can say. To show the range, Scott, you have him as five. Heath has him as 12. Yeah. Which is interesting because,

in this range of players, his dollar values are lower than mine since he went higher at the top, and it has to add up to the same number. So, you know, that just means he ranks DeYoung a lot higher than I do. All right, so here's Anthony Rendon. I got Chris Bryan for $40. I anticipate Rendon in, like, the 18 to 20 range. Scott and Adam, don't bid on Rendon. He's not a contributor in home runs, remember.

So I changed my mind mid-podcast as I convinced myself that third base wasn't that deep, that I am totally fine with Rendon. He's a good player. But I think I'd rather my corner infielder be a first baseman. I feel like there is more value there at late. So I am not going to tie up corner infield with Rendon. I feel like that would be a waste of money. So right now he's at 23 to Chris Towers, 24 to Tobin.

Scott wasn't on the bidding. Rendon, with five seconds left, he's at $24, $25. And my bid was strictly price enforcement. I just wanted to get him up a couple bucks. You know the better? Yeah, go ahead. This is where I got Seeger for, 25. That's what Rendon ends up going for.

And I think that we need to... Proportionate. We need to probably stop referencing Seeger just because, honestly, I think you got to steal. I think that's one of the best values we've seen. I think Rendon is about as good as Seeger. You do? Yeah. I wasn't trying to trumpet the Seeger picture.

A little, probably the same batting average. A little less power, more stolen bases, but probably the same amount of home runs plus stolen bases. Yeah. And probably similar runs in RBI, right? But not a shortstop. But not a shortstop. That's the biggest difference, which Chris doesn't care about, and that's fine. You know, but you got middle infielder's, corner infield.

You got more hitter spots here. So it doesn't matter a little bit more. This is a somewhat deep league. I mean, this is a 30 roster spot league, 12 teams. A lot of players being drafted. Yeah, but, you know, at shortstop, I don't mind the later guys. There's a lot of upside in the late rounds at shortstop. Rendon went for 25, and Jonathan's scope just went for 18.

If I, yeah. Like you would nominate it DeYoung, then I saw Scope. There's some guy, I'm just like, I don't want them. I don't want anything to do with it. Unless I got to steal. Excuse me, somebody talk. Losing my voice. Yeah, that was, you know, the good thing about that is if you hit a point in the draft

where it's just players that you're not interested or you don't have any money, and you just get up, go get a sandwich, get some water. Exactly. Sounds like you need some water. Yep. Yeah, this is going to be tough. We're almost done with the podcast, luckily. All right, Chris and I are bidding on Cody Bellinger.

Does Chris have the stones to go to... All right, now it's 27 on Bellinger. Yeah, I got him for 28, so this is not. Very reasonable here. Yeah. Bellinger at 28 to Chris. I'm really debating. Do I get in there?

What am I waiting for? No, I'm letting Chris have him. 28 bucks, Cody Bellinger. Good job. I would have most certainly rather had Cody Bellinger for 28 and judged for 38. I got. They might be the same guy. Yep.

Good job. So as careful as I was trying to be, I still managed to be impatient. Oh, $10. Let's see. Scott, you're wearing the shirt. Yeah. I want to see it at least $14. Ronald Acuna here, who could be a really good steel source.

As much as we've talked about the steel scarcity, I don't know that that aspect of his skill set has been played up enough. The problem I think is that he just got nominated too early. Yeah, the one thing I will say is in a season long roto, the fact that he's not going to be up at the start of the season probably matters a little bit less. I don't think it matters much because I think

it'll just be mid-April. I think, but I don't really know, and there's always the risk gets more. Is he going to wear his hat straight? I got it for 12 bucks. And 12 bucks was a specific number I was looking at for Acuna because Carpenter and Matt Olson went for $12

and in any type of draft I'm taking Akuna ahead of them. In a vacuum, I think it's a good price, but in the context of this league, I think similarly ranked players are going to end up going for much less. Probably true. But they won't have the upside that Akuna has.

Right. But he's probably not going to be that good. What the hell did I just do? He's too young. I wasn't trying to make you feel bad. No, I got... That happens to me at least once every auction. I just feel like I need to get this guy

and then I get him, and then I'm like, I immediately regret this decision. So here's Ozzy Albies, $14. So he's already more expensive than a pool of. And I love Ozzy Albies, but that's a little too price. See, they're nominating those mid-tier guys that we keep seeing go for too much, but they're nominating ones that want. So I don't like that one bit. Albies goes for 14.

I'm going to go ahead and say that was three straight Scott White's trolling picks, nominations. Bellinger, Acuna, and Albies. Bellinger, Acuna, Albies, and Sunny Gray. Oh, yeah. That is the Scott White Man Crush Brigade. And although I basically ignored Godly, that's when I thought I was going to get two of the Superaces, and I got zero. So maybe I should bid a little on Mr. Sunny Gray here.

Throw ten bucks his way. I will say, we're going to discuss this early next week. There's a lot of risk with Madison Baumgartner just because of his shoulder. On the other hand, yep. He was the, he was one of the big four

this time last year. He sure was. He was the, he was the quantity guy. And then before the injury, we're starting to see the strikeout rate was climbing. Massimum where might, might belong in that tier.

Sunny Gray goes for 16. All right. So I'm going to nominate someone now that I don't want, but I don't want necessarily to be a great value. Like, let people spend, I'm fine with not having Craig Kimbril. All right, I will nominate Craig Kimbril for $10. I'll take him a 10, but he won't be 10.

Let me find out what Kenley Jansen went for. I think it was over 20. Jansen was $24. So Chris is at 16 for Craig Kimbril. Now we're up to 18. 1920 on Kimball. 21. Following the pattern.

And I like the nomination. As somebody who doesn't like to spend on closers, they like the nomination. Right. 22 for Kimbril. That seems about right. Yeah. 24 for Jansen, so Kimbril will go for 22. And there we go.

All right, we'll do, we're at 56 players. Well, let's do 60, and then we'll call it a day here on the podcast. Brian Dozier. How much money do you guys have left? I have, I have a hundred. $164 left. I think you're the big pile. Barely.

I have 163. So you're... I'm at 137, max bid 119. There are so many good players left. We haven't gotten to Yelich and Benintendi and Ozuna and all those guys. We haven't gotten to Kiko and Paxton and Chapman. There are so many good players left.

I like having the big stack. Curse you, Aaron, Judge. Curse you. Brian Doja. Brian Doja. A very slow volley here for Brian Dozier. $21. $1 at a time.

See, I think he's, I'm going to put in $23 for him. I think he's worth it. I already have a second baseman. I don't want to draft a middle infielder right now, but 23, 22, 24. That's too little for Brian Dozier. It's too good. It's only relative to where other players have gone, though, because I actually have him as a $24 player,

which is what he ended up going for. He went for a dollar less than Corey Seeger. And they go similarly in drafts. All right, here's a fun one. Reese Hoskins. So Hoskins is extra valuable here because he's first base, outfield, and, of course, corner infield eligible. So you can move him around.

Well, if Doger went for 24, so Hoskins is already at 20, 21. Seems a little risky to me. This is about where he should stop, I think. Yeah. 22 to Chris. This goes one more. I really like Reese Hoskins.

Well, go 24 then. 24 to Tobin. Yeah, I'm not sure Dozier should be more expensive than Hoskins. 25. Oh, man, a lot of people like Reese. See, this is, like, I got my victory lap for Reese Hoskins late last year. I'm good now. Like, I think, not that I'd have a problem taking him where he goes.

26 bucks. Not a priority for me. Yeah, so. There's other good players left. Makes you feel better about Dozier at 24. All right, now, Jose Ramirez should be pretty expensive because he's second. second base, third base, middle infield, and corner infield. Putting him at middle infield would be awesome.

Jose Ramirez. I got to say, if the baseballs change, I have identified Jose Ramirez as a guy I'm a little bit concerned about because the home run totals went so, so high up last year. He's at $26.6 right now and no end in sight. And my thing with him is I wish he ran more. I would feel a little more confident about spending the money on him if he was a 25 He's probably better in points because he is so good at doubles. And Jose Ramirez is up to $29.

Dozier went for 24. Now he's up to 30. So he's in like Freddie Freeman. He has 102 doubles over the last two seasons. Yeah. I want to keep bidding, but... 31. It's fine, but it's not a value.

It's not a bargain anymore for Jose Ramirez. He's going to go to Heath. How many top in? He's down to 38 bucks. Wow. So he's back He has Paul Goldschmidt Jose Ramirez

Mani Machado Starling Marte Jady Martinez Chris Salon Jose Berrios And I know what he's going to do With his pitching He's going to go reliever heavy And just get like

He'll probably get like Chad Green And guys like that Like the Yankees bullpen Those guys will go for just a few bucks And this might work for him It might work Yeah no I mean Mix Leagues you can go studs

You can All right here's I like Carlos Martinez How do you guys feel about him We haven't talked about him much this offseason. Who's got the high bid? I think he's pretty good. I think he's just below that second tier for me.

Strikeouts went way up last year. I think he can be better than what his ERA was. Do I want to go 21 on Carlos Martinez? And he's also the guy who, when you watch him, looks like the best pitcher in baseball. Yes, exactly. So he went for 20. Maybe I could have gotten him for 21.

12 wins last year. That should go up. 364 ERA. 1-2-2 Whip. He's never going to be great in Whip. All right. That was player 60. Scott, when are you planning on taking a break from the auction?

When you plan on pausing it? Not for a while? Maybe after 100 picks. All right, so then we definitely can't wait that long. We also know it's on the clock. All right, let's recap what we have. Chris Towers has a $3 bid on Sano. That went way too long without somebody bidding four.

So I bid four. Now he's up to six. I'll go seven on Sineau. Carpenter was 12 and Acuna was 12. This is interesting. I got to start looking for bargains, though. He's going to get suspended. I feel...

I'm leaning toward he will get suspended. Yeah. $10 bidded from Tobin on Sineau? Yeah, he had an interview for the first time with them. I'll be... $10. Officials, I think, on Monday. Oh, boy.

$10 for Sino. Oh, $2 less than what I got a cune you for. And that's $5. That's a mid-tier player who went $5 less than I have them for. So we may have reached our breaking point. People may have spent so much money that at this point, they can't just throw it at whatever they see. There are still a few.

Yeah, they may be holding out for the elite guys. The big chips. Scott, you and I can be kind of a bully here because we have the most money. You guys need to be bullies. We can be bullies. I don't know that I want to be, but we'll see. We'll see Matt Bummerner. We'll see Matt Bum's up.

I'm in on 24 on Bumgarner. 26 to Chris. 27. Yeah, this is about right. 28 to Chris. I wish I could reconfigure my budget here. 29. I'm trying to multitask.

I'm trying to take part in a podcast. I know what I'm going to end up doing. So I don't really feel confident. I know how much I can spend on all of these guys. But, oh, this podcast is done. So let's recap. It's done. Yeah.

I'll recap my team. I have the most money left, and I only have three players. Chris Bryant, Charlie Blackman, and a questionable Ronald Acuna. Is Bumgarner still going? Holy crap, he's at the 33. I thought I was bidding on George Springer. Oh, boy. Well, you're off the hook.

You're off the hook. $33 to Madison Bumgarner. Chris Towers has Sanchez, Bellinger, D. Gordon, and Zach Granky. I have Bryant, Blackman, and Acuna. Towers has Sanchez, Bellinger, Gordon, and Granky, Scott has Votto, Seeger, and Aaron Judge. All right. Not to, just remember to tier players in auctions.

And you could kind of figure out if you need, I want one from this tier, I want one from that tier, that will help you. Very important in auctions. Any final thoughts, guys? Pay attention to who you're bidding on. Don't accidentally bet on the wrong player. Sousa to the Humidor Arizona

This is working out exactly how I hoped it would. I was perfectly willing to take a $1.00. I'm glad someone else took him for $6. Now it's up to $7 for Sousa. I think the most important thing is just

setting the tone, figuring out what the tone with the mood of the auction is going to be early on, knowing if people are overpaying and underpaying because that really changes your strategy going forward. All right, and we end it with Chris's turn who finally bid on George Springer.

Good luck, sir. For Scott and Chris, I'm Adam. Thank you very much for listening. Enjoy your weekend. We'll talk you Monday.