Mastersball

I am often asked what I do to prepare for an auction.

I don't really think I do anything other than write about ballplayers somewhere between five and seven times a week, depending upon the time of year. That is pretty good prep work in my universe.

But, at least for auctions, there is one other exercise I put myself through, and for this year's NL LABR draft, I split from my hotel around 3:15 and went to a little restaurant in Phoenix--Giuseppe's on 28th, which has fantastic Ragu Bolognase with fresh pasta--and carbo loaded while I went through my routine.

What I do is pull out a yellow legal pad, and list the positions for the league:  in the case of LABR NL 14 hitters and 10 pitchers. Then I plot out reasonable statistics for the spot, such as catcher #2 should have a line of .257-8-53-0 with 47 runs, and should cost around $3. Meaning Humberto Quintero might be a logical fit.

I do this for the entire roster, but, the trick is I do this completely out of memory. No magazines. No computers. No cheat sheets. Just me and my yellow leagal pad.

I have actually performed this exercise in front of other humans before, and what is scary about it is that it is scary how close to prices and baselines I can come. (Odd, the gifts we are blessed with in this life, no?)

Now, before I go into the difference between the exercise and reality, I should also mention that I am a newbie to LABR NL. I had always played in the American League before, but issues with my mate Perry Van Hook's schedule, couple with I do like to mix things up suggested changing leagues was a good idea. That said, I have not played in an NL only format for over ten years, and in this environment I was a little antsy just to see how it would go.

So, the following table represents the names I wrote down on the tablet, and the names I actually got on my roster (note, I realize the numbers work out $1 over, but again, I used no calculator or tools, and simply filled out the potential roster, adding up the totals after the fact).

Interesting how close I was able to come to the actual prices paid for players I thought would work, and though my team is a little light on power, it is heavy in speed, whiffs, saves and pitching in general. And that means I will have some commodities to swap as the season progresses.

A couple of other notes.

Heyward went for $25, and Cuddyer $27, and that was pushing it too far relative to the time the players were nominated. But by the time Prado came up, it was clear I needed to spend the money and take advantage of the situation.

As for Brian Wilson, I had no intention of getting two closers, but a handful of stoppers, including Axford, went before, all around $19. And, well, it seemed a mistake to let a bargain in a potentially scarce category get by, knowing I could probably trade one of my stoppers during the season. I had not planned on Bonifacio at all, but his speed, position flexibility, and the fact that I did not land either Cuddy or Heyward pushed to this alternative route.