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

Dominating the FAAB bidding period was Oliver Perez after he picked up a save for the Mariners on Friday. Most bids were tepid, “meh, Its Oliver Perez, but he got save bids”, and only one bid was over $10 dollars (Moyer $26) which ultimately resulted in the Vickery price noted above.

Perez actually has had a nice resurgence, thanks to a healthy shoulder, which once again allows him to pump up fastballs in the 92-93 mph range along with his still plus slider. Interestingly, Perez has been more effective against righties with a .170 batting average against and been striking them out more than 12 righties per innings pitched. The chink is in the walk rate where Perez has been allowed 8 walks in 14 innings against righties to go along with a .240 BABIP. At some point this small sample size will correct itself, but that does not mean a $10 bid or more is not a wise one given the state of Tom Wilhelmsen.

Wilhelmsen has blown four saves this year. The righty’s control is way off and his strikeouts down over 2 points from last season, though his velocity is fine.  One has to wonder whether there is a physical issue going on in the background. As such, there is no guarantee Wilhelmsen will return to the role. Bid on Perez, but also give close consideration to Carter Capps (already rostered in Tout  Wars) as well.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Brian Walton's Commentary

It was a quiet week in NL Tout Wars - at least in terms of free agency. The big action was in reaction to the San Francisco Giants losing half of their infield due to injury - second baseman Marco Scutaro and third baseman Pablo Sandoval.

Their replacements, Tony Abreu and Joaquin Arias, received a pair of $11 bids from Yahoo's Scott Pianowski. Due to Vickrey Rules, the total cost for the two was just $7. With Scutaro out possibly longer, Abreu may have a better chance at longer playing time, but neither are locks.

The combination of rotation uncertainty in Arizona, Archie Bradley's success at Double-A and the reality that most other top prospects close to the majors have already having been taken led me to drop a $1 bid on the hurler.

MIXED LEAGUE AUCTION 

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Zach Steinhorn's Commentary

Not a whole lot happened on the FAAB front this week, with only two players receiving winning bids exceeding $1. Mike Carp, who is getting fairly regular playing time these days, is swinging a red-hot bat in June (.405 AVG, 5 HR, 12 RBI, 1.302 OPS), this coming off a dreadful month of May, which was proceeded by an impressive April. The point is that Carp has been very streaky, and considering the crowded outfield/first base situation in Boston, he will need to produce to earn enough at-bats to be mixed league relevant going forward.

Jordan Lyles is a guy who has been hanging around the waiver wire for much of the season, and this is a bit surprising being that he has allowed two earned runs or less in seven of his nine starts. With a two-start week on tap in which he will face a pair of mid-pack to low-end offenses in the Brewers and Cubs, Lyles could turn out to be a nice pickup for Paul Singman, though $8 does seem a little pricey.

I was surprised that no one else put in a bid for Carter Capps, and the $1 I shelled out for him could turn out to be a waste of a dollar, though as a Tom Wilhelmsen owner, I’m kind of hoping it will be. But I felt I had to cover myself in the event that Wilhelmsen’s “break” from the closer role becomes a lengthy one. As for the small detail that it was Oliver Perez, not Capps, who recorded the Mariners’ last save, let’s just forget about that! There’s no way I’m owning Oliver Perez.

MIXED LEAGUE DRAFT

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Perry Van Hook's Commentary

With only three teams bidding for players this week, everyone pretty much got their first pick for a Vickrey dollar. Charlie Wiegert was the "high" bidder putting $13 on Boston 1B/OF Mike Carp (I had a two dollar bid on Carp until he was removed from Saturday's game with what was first reported as hamstring problems and later designated as cramps - glad it wouldn't have been enough). I bid four dollars on what I thought was the best available SP - Giant's Chad Gaudin who will start against the Marlins on Thursday.

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

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Perry Van Hook's Commentary

No fresh faces for the ALers to get excited about so the high bids were a trio of $3 players:

I needed to replace Mitch Moreland again and bid $2 and won Chris McGuiness, TEX hoping he will get enough at bats this week in Arlington against RHP. I thought he would help my team more than activating Conor Gillaspie at corner.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Lawr Michaels' Commentary

A lot of the tension of the FAAB market this week was removed on draft day, when a couple of gambles paid off brilliantly.

The first and most significant was Rotowire’s Jeff Erickson nabbing Dodgers flavor of the now, and maybe future in Yasiel Puig for $5 during the auction, and then Greg Ambrosius and Shawn Childs selected Anthony Rendon for their reserve list.

For me, looking  to try and gain a little pop over Justin Turner, who was sitting in the corner in lieu of the demoted Ike Davis, this turned my world somewhat upside down.

For Cody Ransom had been benignly sitting in the reserve pool for the past three weeks, meaning my $1 bid for him should be a sure thing.

Additionally, with A.J. Ellis also on the DL (joined by Carl Crawford on my team), I also required a catcher, and again, thought the $1 bid on Humberto Quintero was a no brainer.

So much for those best laid plans, as Doug Dennis (Baseball HQ) landed Ransom for $4, outbidding two of us, while Glenn Colton & the Wolfman swiped Quintero from beneath my wings for $2.

In the mean time, so sure no one in the world would ever have an interest in either Ransom or Quintero, so I traded Turner for Neil Karns (to Rick and Glenn, oddly).

What that means is though I do have an overload of pitching, of which you can never have enough, I have no one starting at the corner for me, or at #2 catcher for a week.

So, it seems time to trade one of my hot starting pitchers for a bat.

By the way, Ransom tied for the highest bid of the week with Ryan Sweeney, also grabbed by Baseball HQ for $4.

MIXED LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd Zola's Commentary

Yasiel Puig can cut through a hot knife with butter.

Yasiel Puig does not sleep, he waits.

Yasiel Puig does not wear a watch, he decides what time it is.

When Yasiel Puig is at bat, Chuck Norris takes himself out of the game for a reliever.

I didn't have enough FAAB to acquire Puig, but when you really think about it, does anyone?

I settled for Kyle Blanks who should see considerable time at his natural spot of first base as Yonder Alonso mends his broken hand (rumor has it he high-fived Puig and broke it). Blanks had a great series in Coors Field and I'm hoping he funnels that confidence forward. It really doesn't matter where he plays, if Blanks connects, it will leave any park. Unless Puig is there to scale the wall and make the catch.

For probably the first time all season, there wasn't a single bid on a speculative closer. However, rumor has at least one team that bid on Puig petitioned league commissioner Steve Gardner of USA Today to let Puig be eligible at pitcher in case he is named the Dodger's closer.

As usual, there were several starting pitchers picked up. I opted to sneak in Chad Gaudin who may continue to see some rotation duty while Ryan Vogelsong is out). The most noteworthy acquisition is Stephen Fife because as a teammate of Puig, he is spared from facing him.

You probably think I'm getting a little carried away with the Puig stuff. Well, this is nothing compared to the attention he's received on Twitter. For those not used to my not so subtle use of hyperbole to make a point, Puig is good. But he's not THAT good - yet. As Lawr discusses in his Hotpage, Cuban imports arrive with a bit more polish so he can indeed hit the ground running....and throwing

Puig's still raw. After all, he's no Mike Trout.