Day: October 3, 2018

Jake Ciely Wins Tout Wars Head to Head in 2018!

Jake Ciely has been one of the most energetic owners in Tout H2H, talking about the rules and format of the league. After a couple of years trying experimental hybrids of category based standings as well as points, Tout H2H went full points in 2018, and Jake soared.

All the talk after the March auction was about Justin Mason’s pitching heavy strategy, which turned out to be right, but wasn’t as well implemented as Jake’s was. With Monday and Friday roster resets, the game was obviously to load up on quality innings and have a decent offense.

Jake’s team did that better than any others. Which makes him the 2018 Tout Wars Champ. Well done.

Here are the final standings.

 

Doug Dennis’s First Tout AL Season

My story starts in early March when Steve Moyer died.  It made the entire 2018 season very strange/odd/bad for me.  The high point was probably drafting a Tout-AL team in his place and I wish I had done him more justice.  The projections after the draft (but before the season started (from both “Toybox” sources on the onroto.com website) projected me to come in first.  But I could hear Steve’s voice in my ear: “Oh no, Doug you did it all wrong!!  No one ever wins after being projected first!!” Probably true, too. I had very terrible pitching from Marcus Stroman, Mike Leake and from assorted relievers early on and I could never scramble it back into anything useful.  I won’t be as patient next time.  I did ok on offense at first, with the worst part there being Dee Gordon cratering and having to trade him at a discount and letting go of incremental SB points. It all led to me staggering around between seventh and ninth until the final week where I free-fell into a tie for tenth. Ugh. All around, a poor season, but I am hoping to be invited back in 2019 so I can get back on the horse—perhaps with a little less emotion this time.

 

Doug D.

Tout Wars 2018 End of Season Recaps

Here we collect the writings and multimedia of the Touts about their seasons, good or bad. If you see a piece that’s not linked here, please let us know.

Tout Mixed Auction: Jeff Zimmerman | Al Melchior Part 1 Part 2 | Zach Steinhorn |

Tout H2H: Clay Link

Tout Wars Mixed Draft: Rudy Gamble |

Tout Wars NL: Steve Gardner’s Post Auction Writeup (March 18, 2018) |

Tout Wars AL: Doug Dennis | Glenn Colton/Rick Wolf | Erickson

Clay Link’s Head to Head Season Recap

My second year in Tout Wars H2H was a big improvement on the first.

The move to a points-based scoring system (from categories), with every out recorded being worth a point, played into my strengths as a player. I’ve found that I am better at finding an edge on the pitching side, and in this format, I was rewarded greatly (more so than in standard 5×5 leagues) for my pitching finds. I finished second, and while it’s sometimes said that second place is “first loser,” I consider this a great accomplishment given the quality of the field.

I won six consecutive matchups to close out the season and felt like I really had the league down from a roster-construction standpoint late in the year. Unfortunately for me, by the time I had the pieces in place, it was too late to catch Jake Ciely. I emerged from the auction and reserve draft with a poorly constructed roster — four hitters on my bench. By the end of the season, I did not have a single hitter on my bench, and I think that’s the way you have to play this 12-team points format. With two lineup periods per week — Monday and Friday lineup submissions — it’s important to just have a slew of arms to rotate into your lineup to maximize points. I learned to treat the waiver wire as my bench for hitters, picking up hitters only when there was a need in my starting lineup.

 

My highest scorers:

    • Justin Verlander – 732 points
    • Aaron Nola – 665 points
    • Blake Snell – 639 points
    • Carlos Santana – 466.5 points
    • Xander Bogaerts – 461 points
    • Dallas Keuchel – 440 points
    • Jesus Aguilar – 439.5 points
    • Lorenzo Cain – 430 points
    • Stephen Piscotty – 423 points
    • George Springer – 420 points
    • Tyler Anderson – 387 points

Notable pickups:

  • Steven Matz ($1)
  • Tyler Skaggs ($61)
  • Tyler Glasnow ($0)
  • Hyun-Jin Ryu ($57)
  • Willy Adames ($0)

Interestingly, James Shields, who I streamed for only one week, would have ranked 12th on my team in points had I left him in for all of his starts (384 points), highlighting the importance of innings.

Busts: Willson Contreras ($11), Nomar Mazara ($11) — not a terrible year for Mazara in standard roto leagues, but he finished with fewer points than Kyle Seager in this format — Luke Weaver ($10), Dinelson Lamet ($5), Scott Kingery ($5).

–Clay

We’ve Got Doubt Wars Winners Here!

Yes, with the end of the Tout Wars season comes the end of Doubt Wars, the game where people buy the players bought in Tout Wars (+$1) and try to put together better teams.

Only one team, The Good Doctor in the Mixed League, was able to beat the Tout Champ this year. The Good Doctor did it with a pitching staff that included Trevor Bauer, Gerrit Cole, Patrick Corbin, Justin Verlander, Blake Snell, Charlie Morton, Blake Treinen, Brad Boxberger, and Sean Doolittle. Wow!

The Good Doctor is Robert Mirshak, and he edged Tout Champ Tim Heaney’s team, which finished second.

In Doubt NL the top three teams beat the top civilian, Splinters. Steve Gardner, Tristan Cockcroft and Grey Albright repeating their order of finish, with the Splinters just behind Albright. The Splinters is Warner Lewis.

Rick Wolf and Glenn Colton, Tout AL champs, trounced the AJ Puks, who finished second with the top civilian score.  The AJ Puks were played by Mark Fass.

Robert Mirshak, Warner Lewis and Mark Fass will be receiving a collection of baseball annuals and online memberships this winter to help their preparation for 2019. But that isn’t why we play, is it?

You can see final standings and point totals for all three leagues by clicking here.

Congratulations to all the winners.