Auction recap

So, as I said Thursday, both of my baseball selection gatherings were this weekend.  Since there are many of you out there that may still have their drafts and auctions to come, I thought I'd share my feelings on the two events I took part in this past weekend.  I'll do the auction (keeper) today and the draft (also keeper, with a hint of dynasty) tomorrow.

I did not like what I did in the auction yesterday.

It has been a long time since I've felt that way about a baseball auction, but it just didn;t work out for me.  Let's start at the top.  I kept Albert Pujols at $55.  My other keepers were Hanley ($45), Lincy ($20), Kershaw ($15), Pedroia ($13), Rasmus ($6), and Heyward ($5).  If we could have stopped right there, I'd be golden.  However, I proceeded to get only one bargain during the whole auction (Chipper at $3) unless you count a bunch of crappy $1 closers.  And, while I was overpaying left and right for guys I really liked like David Price ($12), Travis Snider ($5), and Rickie Weeks ($13), others were gobbling up Matt Holliday ($26), Jimmy Rollins ($25), David Wright ($36) and Carlos Lee ($15) for WAY less than they should have gone for.

I clearly miscalculated the market when it came to stars.  What should happen is that the more stars that are kept at good values should increase the prices on the few reamining stars.  What did happen was that the some of the owners with all the cash became gunshy quick, and the savvy guys with cash to burn (which wasn't me because of the stars I kept) absolutely killed it.  Two teams left the auction with $20 of their $230 unspent.  Think that extra $40 would have changed things around a bit?  Yuck.

So, I'm left with my stars and a bunch of upside plays, which I like, but I have almost no stable influences other that the guys I kept.  If my young guys go belly up, I'm in trouble.  Here is what I did.

C Posada 4
1B Pujols 55
2B Pedroia 13
3B Chipper 3
SS Hanley 45
CI Loney 4
MI Weeks 13
OF Heyward 5
OF Rasmus 6
OF Reimold 4
OF Snider 5
OF Pierre 3
U CBY 1
P Lincecum 20
P Price 12
P Webb 3
P Kershaw 15
P Cueto 4
P Capps 1
P Dotel 1
P Nunez 1
Bench H. Bailey 1
Bench D. Jennings 1

Don't get me wrong, I love all the guys I got except for Brandon Webb (it's hard to pitch without a shoulder), but I was just crushed to see all kinds of high profile guys go for less than value.

Here were five other bargains (other than those I mentioned above)...

Slowey (3)
Coghlan (1)
Torii (9)
Alexei Ramirez (4)
Sheets (2) -- I'd still gamble on his potential.

And five overpays...

Berkman (22)
Y. Escobar (7)
A. Cabrera (9)
Howard (50) -- He was the only star that went for value, and he went over.
Montero (12)

Cheers,
TFAM