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 three LABR leagues, a 12-team AL only, 13-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.

Tout Wars uses a modified 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

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Todd Zola Commentary

They say everything is bigger in Texas and that appears to include the AL Tout FAAB bids as a pair of Rangers led the charge this week. Our own Lawr Michaels is hoping that Texas either delays the debut of Roy Oswalt or remembers that Scott Feldman isn't very good as he picked up Justin Grimm who was quite impressive upon his promotion from Double-A, fanning seven Astros while walking nobody in his first six innings in the bigs.

Rotowire's Chris Liss then took a chance that Leonys Martin's stay would be longer than Josh Hamilton's visit to the hospital. This is a typical move for Chris - in the industry, taking a chance is affectionately known as "taking a Liss." Chris plays to win, following the mantra of second place is first loser.

Our own Rob Leibowitz has been snake bit recently when it comes to starting pitching as Drew Smyly, Drew Hutchison and John Danks have all hit the DL forcing Rob to pick up some band aids until his guys heal. Mark Melancon has been lights out at Pawtucket since his early season disaster in Boston and while he will not be closing any time soon, Melancon will be used in high pressure situations so he may vulture a win or two

NATIONAL LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Brian Walton's Commentary

The problem this time around was the lack of living, breathing, potentially contributing players.

The only bids over $1 were made on two pitchers. Houston's Brandon Lyon went for $4, while his owner waits for the seemingly-inevitable trade of Brett Myers. Colorado's Christian Friedrich fetched $2 after having been thrown back into the pool by his frustrated prior owner last week.

One Tout warrior, apparently hoping Jair Jurrjens' major and minor league numbers were just a mirage, threw out a $1 bid for the Atlanta hurler and got crickets. I had thought about going there, but didn't have the guts to absorb his upcoming Friday start in Boston. Jurrjens had fetched $8 on draft day.

I had an open roster spot from Houston's reliable reliever Wilton Lopez hitting the disabled list. My additions this week are a couple of $0 options in Florida outfielder Scott Cousins and Cincinnati reliever Alfredo Simon. Though it remains to be seen if he gets a real shot, Cousins would love to be the next to try to hold down centerfield until Emilio Bonifacio returns. Yes, Simon is the same guy you remember. He is sort of like the pitching version of Fernando Tatis, except without the two grand slams in one inning, hopefully.

MIXED LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Zach Steinhorn's Commentary

Not too long ago, Carlos Marmol was a clear-cut top-5 fantasy closer. This week, he drew the highest bid in Mixed Tout FAAB. Now that Marmol is back in his familiar closer role following an early-season demotion, Eric Mack valued him at $46. Luckily, he only had to shell out $19 thanks to the Vickrey bidding procedure. Marmol still has electric stuff, but his inability to control it makes each one of his outings a roller coaster ride. But if he holds onto the job for the rest of the season, Eric’s investment will prove to be worth it, though Marmol’s ratios might not be pretty.

Mack wasn’t done shopping, as he also grabbed Oakland’s Brandon Moss for $10. Moss has shown plenty of pop since his June 6^th call-up, belting six homers over his first 11 games, and for now he should see regular playing time at first base, as there’s little competition for at-bats. That said, Moss has failed to capitalize on numerous opportunities to stick around in the big leagues over the past few years, so it remains to be seen if this is just an isolated hot streak. The other double-digit dollar purchase this week was Tony Campana, snatched up by Ray Flowers for the Vickrey-adjusted price of $12. Players who can carry you in a certain category always offer significant roto value, and Campana, who has already swiped 23 bags, fits the bill. Considering that he is playing almost every day, I’m actually very surprised that he was not owned.

The 4-man bench has become a big issue for me in FAAB, as I’m not quite ready to give up on most of my current players. I entered in only one bid this week, $18 for Carlos Marmol. Turns out my bid was the second-highest, but nowhere near Mack’s bid. So basically, my only accomplishment this week was squeezing a few extra bucks from Eric’s budget!