Tout Wars kicks off its season with the 15-team Mixed Draft league on Tuesday night, March 6 at 8:00 PM ET. The draft will be covered live on SiriusXM Fantasy by Glenn Colton, Rick Wolf and Jeff Erickson.
Tout Wars allows the participants to select their draft spot based on last year’s finish. The 2017 champion, Razzball’s Rudy Gamble opted defend his title from the top spot. The rest of the picks were far from chalk (last year’s finish in parentheses):
1. Rudy Gamble (1st)
2. Ray Murphy (3rd)
3. Tim McCullough (9th)
4. Greg Ambrosius (10th)
5. Perry Van Hook (12th)
6. Tom Kessenich (14th)
7. Jeff Boggis (15th)
8. Gene McCaffrey (8th, Mixed Auction)
9. Michael Beller (9th, Mixed H2H)
10. Adam Ronis (5th)
11. Charlie Wiegert (7th)
12. Scott White (2nd)
13. DJ Short (6th)
14. Anthony Perri (8th)
15. Corey Parson (4th)
Keeping in mind this is an OBP league, Gamble cited Mike Trout as his reason for wanting the first pick. Was he on the up-and-up? Scott White from CBS Fantasy hopes so, as he elected to slide to 1.12, wanting the option of an elite arm, depending on how things go.
Baseball HQ’s Ray Murphy was prepared to opt for the back end of the snake, but when the second pick fell in his lap, he decided not to overthink things and start near the top.
Tim McCullough from Rotoexperts and Greg Ambrosius from NFBC/SportsHubTech parlayed mid-pack finishes into Top-5 picks, saying they want a shot at the best available player left on the board.
After examining the results from the recent FSTA and Mixed LABR drafts, CDM Sports Charlie Wiegert used the 7th choice to slide to the 11th pick. One spot later, Anthony Perri from Fantistics/Insider Baseball chose to pick 14th, feeling the end of the round is optimal for OBP leagues.
While others were jockeying for early or late starts, Fantasy Football Empire’s Jeff Boggis was perfectly content to be left with 1.07, in a great spot not to miss out on a run.
So far in early drafts, the consensus top-two picks are Trout and Jose Altuve. However, after that, over ten players have been selected from the three-hole, helping to explain the motivation behind the Tout Mixed Warriors selections. This promises to be a wild 2018 campaign, with a myriad of approaches as everyone has their sights on wresting the championship from Rudy Gamble.
Next week we’ll introduce you to the 15 combatants, a day in advance of Tuesday’s festivities where you’ll be able to follow along and comment.