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

Rob Leibowitz Commentary

This week's FAAB bids targeted young talent in Tampa Bay's Chris Archer and Oakland's Derek Norris. While Archer had a nice first start and has good upside, his tenure with the Rays is likely limited and his overall skills and consistency at the minor league level make me rather wary, so I elected not to bid despite watching as my once 8-man starting pitching staff deplete to just 4 due to injuries.

Norris certainly has pop as was displayed last night and might someday be a 20+ per season guy at the MLB level. The righty has been making more contact this season, so there is hope he could be a .270 guy, so I bid $9 and was somewhat surprised that ended up being the second highest bid with Kurt Suzuki’s name being bandied about in trades to allow Norris a full-time shot.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Brian Walton's Commentary

A rebounding pitcher elicited the most activity in NL Tout this week. The Dodgers’ Ted Lilly, on his way back from shoulder inflammation, drew four bids. There seems a general agreement as to the veteran left-hander’s current value, with three owners bidding exactly $4, likely due to the inherent risk. The winner paid $10, which will still be a bargain if the old Lilly will be the one coming off the disabled list.

Colorado’s Rex Brothers received only two non-zero bids and went for $5. Since returning from Triple-A at the start of the month, the right-handed reliever has been a strikeout machine, with 17 punchouts against just three walks in 11 innings of work.

Houston is remolding infielder Brian Bixler into a utility player, with him playing some outfield as well. He had opened the season with the Astros, but spent all of May in Triple-A, where he batted .302 and went 6-for-6 in stolen base attempts. Whether the right-handed hitter will see regular at-bats in Houston’s lineup remains to be seen, but at least one Tout warrior was willing to pay $6 to find out.

Jason Marquis, potentially returning to the bigs to augment San Diego’s injury-riddled rotation, drew several offers, with the winner being $4. It only seems a matter of time until Marquis exhausts his allocated nine lives.

MIXED LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Zach Steinhorn's Commentary

Now that Frank Francisco is headed to the DL with an oblique strain, I knew that Bobby Parnell would draw the highest bid in FAAB this week. I knew that it would be in the double-digits. With my FAAB budget dwindling and saves not being a desperate need for me, I decided to not even bother putting in a bid. Turns out I was right about all of this. The Mets’ fill-in closer landed up going to Fred Zinkie for the Vickrey adjusted price of $10 (his $15 bid was the only double-digit bid). Parnell could be worth it, as Francisco’s return timetable is up in the air and his performance in the stopper role this year has been rather shaky. Parnell certainly has the stuff to succeed in the ninth inning (he did save six games last year) and his significantly improved walk rate bodes well for his chances of holding onto the job even after Francisco comes back.

The Phillies’ Joe Blanton, who has a two-start week on tap, and Mariners’ outfielder Franklin Gutierrez, shared second place honors, each going for $7. In fact, I am the thrilled new owner of Gutierrez! Well, cautiously optimistic would be more accurate. The bottom line is that my offense, specifically my outfield, needs a boost, and Gutierrez has been plenty productive since coming off the DL last week. A career .256 hitter, he might not help me much in batting average. He does, however, offer some power and speed potential. Not a bad investment, I hope.