This is the place for links to analysis of the 2017 season by the Touts. Read what they had to say before the season here. This page will be updated from time to time, as there are more submissions.
Mixed Auction: Jeff Zimmerman (winner) | Ray Flowers
AL: Mike Podhorzer (winner)
NL: Mike Gianella (this is behind the BP paywall as I post, but that should be lifted later today)
At the end of April, Vlad Sedler, Andrea LaMont and Howard Bender were tied for second place, behind Peter Kreutzer’s hot start. But Kreutzer stumbled the next week, and so did Sedler and Bender, leaving LaMont alone in first.
By the end of May, Sedler had climbed back up to second place, four games behind LaMont, and in the last period in June he moved ahead by three games. While his lead seesawed from series to series, Sedler didn’t reliquish the lead the rest of the way, and finished with a three-game lead over LaMont in the end.
Sedler’s team was built around the power of Paul Goldschmidt and Giancarlo Stanton. He bought Noah Syndergaard as his ace, but when Syndergaard went down he relied on break seasons for Robbie Ray and James Paxton, and the reemergence of Dallas Keuchel as an ace to carry his staff. Plus Craig Kimbrel as a closer.
Grey Albright had a last-place finish in his first year in Tout NL, and was looking to improve his lot. He aced his auction, buying a Draft Day Roster winner, an easy one, and moved past Tristan Cockcroft into first place the week of May 7, opening up a seven-point lead. It was one he never relinquished.
Gamble built his team around three star offensive players: the reliable Paul Goldschmidt, second-year superstar Trea Turner, and the enigmatic and injury-prone Giancarlo Stanton.
To be able to afford the stars he went cheap and wide with his pitching, missing on John Lackey, getting mixed results from Jeff Samarzdija, and hitting it big on Robbie Ray and pretty big on Aaron Nola.
His only closer on opening day was Jim Johnson.
But the hits kept coming. He added Tommy Pham and Scooter Gennett in the reserve rounds. He also hit with modest buys Zack Cozart and Michael Conforto. And his $1 buy of Felipe Rivero resulted in 21 saves and a championship.
He was in contention all year, in fourth at the end of April, in second behind Charlie Wiegert at the end of May, and in second behind Ray Murphy at the end of June, but by the All Star break Rudy Gamble was in first place all by his lonesome. By the end of July there was only dust in his rear view mirror.
After finishing in second the preceding two years, behind Adam Ronis, Gamble finally ended a season in Tout Wars in the driver’s seat.
The result was a bit of draft day magic (he finished first in the Draft Day Roster standings, slightly ahead of Corey Parson, behind a team that featured Bryce Harper, Giancarlo Stanton, Chris Sale and Craig Kimbrel. But it was some breakout years, from Mike Moustakas and Keon Broxton, plus late May trade for Dee Gordon that bumped Gambles team to slight favorite to monster.
At the end of April, Mike Podhorzer was in second place, a few points behind Jason Collette. By the end of May he was solidly in first. By the end of June his lead was pretty much insurmountable. In any case, it was never surmounted.
Podhorzer’s team was built on two big stars, Mike Trout and Francisco Lindor, and a solid closer, Craig Kimbrel, but his season’s success depended on a pair of young Yankees, Aaron Judge and Luis Severino, and the emergence of Matt Olson as a power hitter in Oakland.
Podhorzer built his pitching staff on the back of David Price, but when Price went down, he was able to sustain because of the continued excellence of Severino. The result wasn’t a ton of innings, but it was top finishes in ERA, Ratio, Saves and, surprisingly, a second-place in strikeouts despite only putting up 1100 innings. That’s thanks to Severino and Kimbrel.
His season started slowly. At the end of April he was in 11th place. But by the end of May he was in sixth, and in the week ending June 25th he’d climbed into first place. For good.
While a team built on Corey Kluber and Buster Posey, Ken Giles and Jose Ramirez, has talent, the difference came with the breakout season of Robbie Ray, the freakishly good season of Chase Anderson, and the Dodgers callup of Cody Bellinger.
In the end, Jeff won the league in his first season in Tout Wars Mixed Auction, and has finished first in both of his Tout Wars seasons (he won Tout Head 2 Head in 2016).
It is almost midnight. Here is the top 10 in tonight’s Championship match:
It’s all Todd Zola and Derek Carty tonight, as it has been all season. We’ll update with the final results in the morning.
UPDATE: Derek Carty is Tout Wars champion.
At midnight Carty emailed the league: Man, we’ve really got a sweat going on here. Can we end the games now and just call it?
Todd Zola replied: No.
No.
And…No
It was that close between the three teams of Zola’s and two of Carty’s, but when the evening was done Carty had held on. Here are the final standings (and Carty is already working on the sandwich that will be named after in at the Foley’s NY dinner on Tout Weekend 2018).
The current standings, on the morning of August 28th:
Jeff Zimmerman, last year’s Head to Head winner, has been in first place pretty much all season, and has a commanding lead. Who is winning Tout AL? Jeff Zimmerman is.
But Zimmerman’s dominance came in the first half. Since the All Star break Ron Shandler’s team has been a little better than Zimmerman’s.
A quick survey of the current standings shows that if everything broke incredibly well for Shandler, he could potentially add 16 points, and would pass Zimmerman in a few categories. That would put him just a few points behind.
It’s a long shot, for sure, but this isn’t over yet, at least not completely.
