Mastersball

Each week, your friends at Mastersball will post the results of the weekly Tout Wars FAAB run, featuring the winning bid as well as the runner-up bids. There are four Tout Wars leagues, a 12-team AL only, 12-team NL only, 15-team Mixed Auction League and 15-team Mixed Draft League. The Mixed leagues use on-base-percentage instead of batting average. You can see the complete standings for each league by clicking on the appropriate heading, located just under each player photo.

Tout Wars uses a Vickrey system to award bids. For a complete description of the Vickrey system, click HERE for the Tout Wars constitution.

Included with each league report will be commentary from a Mastersball staff member participating in that league. We invite you to ask questions and post comments at the bottom of the report.

All contingency bids for awarded players are included. Sometimes, this is a bid tied to a player that the owner received, so at times the bid amount is larger than the winning bid. We are including it to provide as much information and context as possible with each report.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Rob Leibowitz' Commentary

Scott Kazmir drew some attention this week and it was actually surprising there weren't more or higher bids. The lefty has missing bats at a rate higher than his prime and throwing strikes more often then ever. While he does not throw as hard as in the past, Kazmir’s approach is unchanged with a fastball/slider/change combination. The lefty’s first start of the season continues to make his numbers ugly, but Kazmir’s allowed just 5 ER in 3 starts since then and walked just three. This is the healthiest Kazmir’s been in several seasons and it shows. The skills and stuff, over the teeny tiny sample are all encouraging, so expect more for now as long as his shoulder and elbow hold out.

Jimmy Paredes has been thrust into the Astros starting outfield and is worth a flier in AL only formats. A switch-hitter, Paredes main asset is speed. Throughout his career Paredes has been an aggressive hitter who has not been able to translate his contact-making skills to the Majors. If he plays well, he could stay with the team even after Justin Maxwell returns later this month.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

 Brian Walton's Commentary

My $4 offer for Cincinnati's Donald Lutz was trumped by Steve Gardner of USA TODAY, who was willing to spend up to $15 (Vickrey), but only paid $5. Even if the outfielder, who launched a three-run homer on Sunday, is sent back down when Chris Heisey returns this week, he will be back later.

With opportunity to earn playing time on a struggling Cubs team, outfielder Ryan Sweeney is getting another MLB life. Peter Kreutzer bid $4 and won. Speaking of Rotoman, Peter also took a $1 flyer on the potential return to the majors of Roy Oswalt later this season.

And speaking of Rockies starters, my general worry about playing them along with the undependable early performance of Juan Nicasio led me to release the right-hander last week. Following a five-inning, two-run outing against the Mets, the right-hander went to Lenny Melnick for $4 this time around.

MIXED LEAGUE AUCTION 

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Zach Steinhorn's Commentary

Just in case I would somehow forget to bid on Heath Bell come Sunday, I made sure to enter in my bid earlier in the week. And it was $43. I figured that since Bell carried a considerable amount of closing experience and, despite last season’s disaster, had pitched fairly well so far this year, a generous bid was warranted. Plus, the saves category was so bunched up that by adding a third closer, I could gain a lot of points very quickly. Oh yeah, and then there was the fact that as a David Hernandez owner, I would be able to corner the market on Diamondbacks’ saves. But after seeing Bell blow up on Sunday, I began to think that Hernandez will be closing games sooner rather than later, so why waste nearly half of my remaining FAAB on Bell? So I lowered the bid slightly, to $37. Turns out that Derek Van Riper bid $41, so that last second decision of mine cost me Bell. So now I’m just hoping that he blows up one more time in the near future. Or maybe two more times. And I think it’s very possible.

Considering my recent starting pitching woes, I was scared off by Scott Kazmir and Ubaldo Jimenez. I know that both have been on a roll of late, but what if the inevitable stat correction comes while they are on my roster. Well, both went for a decent amount of dough, so I’m perfectly content with my $2 purchase of Mike Leake, who has a tasty road matchup vs. the Marlins this week. I like Ray Flowers’ Ricky Nolasco pickup and I feel that he’s a better long-term investment than Leake. And Nolasco is a two-start pitcher this week, which seems like an added bonus. But the Tout Wars rule that you must leave your FAAB pickups active for at least one week was the deciding factor here. Nolasco’s matchups (vs. CIN, vs. ARI) concern me, particularly the Reds, who are very lefty heavy. I guess it’s safe to say that my recent starting pitching woes scared me off.

MIXED LEAGUE DRAFT

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Perry Van Hook's Commentary

I had bid $15 on Bell, knowing it wasn't likely enough but worth the try. But my $2 underbid got me John Gast the minor league pitcher the St. Louis Cardinals will call up to replace Jake Westbrook in a start at home versus the New York Mets - thus my interest. Gast was off to a very good start at Triple-A Memphis with a 1.13 ERA and 35/13 K/BB ratio in his 38+ innings pitched.

I also wanted to have another middle infielder and thought there was some possibility that the Pirates would shift Jody Mercer to shortstop when Neil Walker returns this week. Alas it doesn't look like that will happen as the last note I saw from KFFL said Mercer was going to be sent down - well at least that will prohibit me from getting zeroes for the entire week from Mercer.

Each week, your friends at Mastersball will post the results of the weekly LABR FAAB run, featuring the winning bid as well a the runner-up bids. There are three LABR leagues, a 12-team AL only, 12-team NL only and 15-team Mixed League. You can see the complete standings for each league by clicking on the appropriate heading, located just under each player photo.

Included with each league report will be commentary from a Mastersball staff member participating in that league. We invite you to ask questions and post comments at the bottom of the report.

All contingency bids for awarded players are included. Sometimes, this bid is tied to a player that the owner received, so at times the bid amount is larger than the winning bid. We are including it to provide as much information and context as possible with each report.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Perry Van Hook's Commentary

With Chris Young joining Kevin Youkilis on the DL, Ray Flowers (SiriusXM) needed another hitter and chose to bid $7 on new Yankee Chris Nelson. If Nelson plays enough it will give him other lineup options down the road.

I didn’t get the hoped for results with Brandon Laird as Houston just didn’t give him the at bats needed to keep him in the lineup. I also had Julio Borbon in an outfield slot but he doesn’t get enough at bats for the Cubs (but will as soon as I drop him and they trade someone). So I bid $3 for Jeff Baker who is getting more at bats for the Rangers than either Laird or Borbon. I also bid $2 for J.B. Shuck of the Angels but lost that bid. Still I had Conor Gillaspie to slide into the UT slot moving Baker to the outfield.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

 UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Lawr Michaels' Commentary

Clearly the Fish are in the early throes of a serious rebuild, and they have been aggressive, tossing young Jose Fernandez into the rotation, and Ozuna is next.

With a minor league line of .274-85-326 over 466 games, along with a .316-5-16 line so far this year the future does look bright. However, 157 walks to 467 punch-outs is the question. However, over his first five games, Ozuna is .478-1-4 and that piqued the interest of no fewer than nine owners to submit bids from $4, to the winning $19 for Nate Ravitz and his ESPN squad.

That means 75% of the league coveted the young flychaser.

The big questions this leaves are, how soon with the Fish promote Christian Yelich, and how much FAAB will he generate?

The other interesting player is Cody Ransom, a journeyman, now 37 years old, and with the Cubs.

Only twice over his 11 year career has Ransom received more than 100 at-bats, however, he does have some major pop when he does. As in 24 homers over his 614 at-bats, and that includes three this year over 20 at-bats.

Rick Wolf and Glenn Colton nabbed Ransom, his power, and limited playing time for $2, outbidding a pair of other big spenders (both of whom were willing to risk a buck).

What can you say? Ransom has a .900 SLG so far this year, so what can Rick and Glenn lose?

MIXED LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

 UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

 Todd Zola's Commentary

I thought about it - I really did. This could have been the big splash as I admittedly could use a middle infield upgrade and there he was, Dee Gordon, but in the end I decided he may not be that much different than Chris Getz (pauses for laughter) so I passed. I did pick up stop-gap Adam Rosales who I like a little, but not so much for a mixed league. You want full time at bats in a 15 team mixed and Rosales will fill in here and there, but will not get regular at bats.

The other potential impact player is Marcell Ozuna, but in this case, I actually prefer my acquisition of J.B. Shuck to save a few sheckles and get a regular in the likeup (at least until Peter Bourjos returns.) Ozuna is a nice talent, but his price is inflated from recent success.

Ryan Raburn has been hot as a pistol and it's no surprise Baseball HQ picked him up as he was indentified as a black swan candidate at the spring Baseball HQ First Pitch Forums.