Mastersball.com keeps compiling our FAAB reports, as we head into the season’s last three weeks (only two more FAAB periods).
Unless something dramatic happens, our AL winner will be Rick Wolf and Glenn Colton, while the NL will fall for the third straight time to Tristan Cockcroft.
But you can follow the tight races in Tout Mixed Auction (Zinkie leads Van Riper by a half point, while Al Melchior and Zach Steinhorn trail by six and seven points respectively) and Tout Mixed Draft (Tim McLeod 109, Brent Hershey 107, Perry Van Hook 106.5 are clustered up top) by clicking the links.
Zach Steinhorn is one of a half dozen owners in contention for the Tout Wars Mixed Auction title.
Standings as of September 2, 2014
Zach writes:
Although most of my Mastersball column space this season has been devoted to Mixed Auction Tout Wars, I’ve made a conscious effort to avoid patting myself on the back, mostly for superstitious reasons, of course. And I’m not about to pat myself on the back now, not with less than a month remaining in the season and with six teams within 11 points of the lead and a mere four points separating second place from fifth place. I’ve been in that top six for the vast majority of the season, and just to enter September having a legitimate chance to win this league is pretty special. The “second place is first loser†line is nonsense, especially when competing against the best in the business. Would I be bummed if I fall a few points short of first place? Sure. But would I remember 2014 the same way as I remember my first two Tout Wars seasons, in which I finished in 10th and 11th out of 15 teams? Absolutely not.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from league mate Fred Zinkie, and when I saw the subject line, “Toutâ€, I was positive that it was yet another one of his weekly trade proposals. Instead, Fred noted that while scanning my current roster and comparing it to my post-auction roster, he noticed that almost every player I purchased in the auction was still on my roster. I think the figure was 20 out of 23. He went on to say that this kind of roster stability was something he had never seen in a contending team and that he would not offer me any more trades because he was curious to see how things play out should I continue with virtually the same roster.
I knew I was a patient owner, but even I didn’t realize that the numbers were this extreme. So I guess it’s fair to say that my auction performance is the main reason for my success this year. Adding Mark Buehrle for one FAAB dollar in early-April and benefiting from the good part of his season before cutting ties with him at the right time certainly helped. Picking up Henderson Alvarez for $9 in early-June was nice. But nothing can compare to drafting Nelson Cruz for $10. Or Denard Span for $1. Or even Jose Altuve for $16.
I’m going to stop here though, for superstitious reasons.
Mastersball.com does its usual bang up job on this week’s claims. You can read them here.
I do think there’s a bit of a story about Dilson Herrera. I track minor leaguers, but I’m not obsessive. A 20 year old in the Mets organization, Herrera wasn’t on my short term radar. And obviously he wasn’t on anyone’s, because Tout NL has been sucking up minor league talent weeks before they get called up all season long.
When Herrera was called up I looked at his stats and was sure he was worth a claim. As I went over the options, I moved him to the top of my list, past Tabata and Grichuk. As I looked at it closer I upped his bid from minimal to the teens. I thought he had some chance of being something, and we don’t get that many chances for that. Especially in September.
I made some trades, which negated my bid for Herrera, but the bidding on him is instructive. This is a young hitter without much experience. The odds yesterday were that he would not be a big contributor. But the odds yesterday were that there weren’t many major players coming. Herrera ended up being the object of much affection.
Herrera homered today, which has to make Seth Trachtman happy. He’s clearly a major prospect, but he wasn’t coveted. What was his market value? At this time of year, golden, at least for a team that needs help and has nothing to lose.
Friday’s big news became a big snooze over the weekend, as Larry went up by four and a half points on Saturday and withdrew, then fell back into a dead heat on Sunday. Larry said it was like the Universe speaking that the time is right, but at that point Shandler wasn’t so sure.
By the time the two reconnected on it the midnight trading deadline had passed, and the two will have until next Sunday to come to an agreement.
Today, before Tuesday’s games, Schechter leads Shandler by two games. Here are their rosters:
The wires started rumbling earlier today. With Glenn Colton and Rick Wolf’s Tout Wars AL team lapping the field more times than, um, Mario Andretti, Larry Schechter proposed to Ron Shandler—one point and place behind him in the standings—a swap of their entire teams. Ron says he rejected the proposal as ridiculous, but then found the possibilities gnawed at him.
He’ll explain why he liked the deal, whether or not he does it, later, I’m sure. One of his reasons, however, was surely the possibility of turning things upside down, and having something novel to write about.
Support for a deal from members of the LLC and some tout owners has been immediate. Larry tweated:
