TOUT WARS!

Question posed to the Touts this week:

If your team is destined to not win this season, will you trade with a competing team to improve your finish?

Larry Schechter (Winning Fantasy Baseball, @LarrySchechter): Yes, definitely…although my motivation to trade is much less than if I’m in contention, I’m competitive enough that I’d rather finish as high in the standings as I can. Similarly, in non-trade leagues, I will keep managing my team even when hopelessly out of contention. Tout Wars also has a unique rule, where if you don’t reach a certain threshold in the standings, you lose some FAAB money for the next season. This adds motivation to finish as high as possible.

Jeff Boggis (Fantasy Football Empire, @JeffBoggis): Absolutely! We all play for pride and want to be able to finish as high in the standings as possible. It’s all about next year’s FAAB dollars as incentive. I play to the end, regardless of the league standings. I can’t stand a league manager that is out of contention and starts to abandon their team. It’s not fair to the other teams that need your help in all categories. You can get a lot of pleasure by moving your opponents down in a specific category. Making a trade with people in contention may pay dividends in years to come when you reach out to them when you are in contention.

Rick Wolf (Fantasy Alarm, @RickWolf1): This is a good question in there is some ethics to it. You are NEVER out of it in July. At least I cannot remember believing that for the most part. I will definitely trade to get better in July, but NOT as the trade deadline approaches in my leagues, I will look to see if the trades that I make will affect the race for the final month. It is not a simple yes or no for me. There are situations where you can move from 10th to 5th with a trade, but can make it 100% sure who wins the league. That to me is VERY bad form. Getting your team to be better in July is way different than on August 29th when there are five weeks left. You cannot change the balance of the league in July. You can ruin the league in August with a king maker trade. Let the teams in the Top 3 or 4 fight it out. Trade with others to move up when it is that late.

Michael Beller (Sports Illustrated, @MBeller): Rick beat me to a lot of what I wanted to say, but I’ll still echo some of his comments. None of us is out of it, no matter how far back, in late July. I could be in last place in a redraft league right now, and I wouldn’t feel guilty about trading with one of the teams at or near the top of the standings. We’re getting close to the end of that window, though. If mid-August rolls around and it becomes clear that this just isn’t your year, then I think you need to turn off the deal-making portion of your fantasy baseball brain for the rest of the season. This obviously changes in a keeper format, but in redraft leagues where you’re not taking any of your players into the next season trading with a contending team once you’re out of the race can undercut the competitive integrity of the league. This is fantasy, not real life. You’re not trying to sell tickets to fans or convince impending free agents that you’re building something special. Time to turn your attention to football. There’s always next season.

Doug Dennis (BaseballHQ, @dougdennis41): I am a cautious trader by nature, but I will always take an opportunity to improve my place in the standings and I will not begrudge others doing the same when I am in the top 3 and one of my competitors gets a deal from someone low in the standings. It has happened that way on several occasions, in fact.  That is part of the game like every other part.  Self-censure and not making a trade that makes sense for both sides affects the standings too–just in the opposite direction.

Michael Rathburn (Rotowire, @FantasyRath): I am looking to finish as high in the standing as I can, so if I trade will improve my team yes I will pull the trigger. Also, usually those trades for 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 in which you can make the competing team pay a premium.

Rudy Gamble (Razzball, @RudyGamble): In a redraft league, I try to avoid trades if I am out of contention. Rightly or wrongly, I scrutinize contender w/ non-contender trades to a greater degree. My sniff test on a standard trade is “Did this trade help both teams?”. On a contender w/ non-contender trade, my sniff test is “Is this a fair trade outside of both teams’ context?” It is valid trading $.80 on the dollar sometimes if it helps you in the standings. But that type of trade by a non-contender is awfully annoying (bordering on amoral not as far as immoral) to me if I am contending in a league.

Fred Zinkie (Rotoworld, Baseball HQ, @FredZinkieMLB): I’ll definitely make the trade. For the sake of personal pride, I’m trying to finish as high in the standings as possible in every league. My team is open for business right up to the trade deadline for all of the contending teams, and my hat goes off to the owner who finds a way to propose a deal that makes my team more successful and their team more successful at the same time.

Ron Shandler (RonShandler.com, @RonShandler): Tout Wars has its own built-in incentives to keep playing. Final season standing determines seeding for the following season’s reserve round snake draft. Each league has a points threshold that determines how large of a FAAB budget you take into next season. So, if pride and being a good roto-citizen are not enough reasons to make these types of trade, there are always other reasons to keep plugging away.

Derek Carty (RotoGrinders, @DerekCarty): Absolutely. I may be a little less proactive if I’m really towards the bottom of the pack in a league (but more so in a league like Tout Wars where there’s incentive to move up in the standings), but I’ll always engage in trade talks with anyone who wants to, especially if they’re competing. Nothing frustrates me more than the owners who won’t do this. I’ve been competing at times in the past in Tout Wars and LABR and have had owners straight-up refuse to trade with me not on the merits of the trade itself but on the actual principle of trading because they “didn’t want to have an undue influence on the final result of the league” or something like that, which I found absolutely ridiculous. Or they wouldn’t want to trade with me because it would be unfair to the guy I’m competing with who wouldn’t be making a trade too. I was furious. This goes against the entire spirit of competition of these leagues. We all play in this league, we all have the same opportunities to trade, and if the people at the top want to win the league and put in the effort to make a trade, I’m very much in favor of helping them as long as the trades are fair. I’ve had a ton of injuries this year in Tout Wars NL and am pretty far out contention, but I’d be more than willing to make trades with anyone competing, and I feel very strongly that’s how it should be.

Phil Hertz (BaseballHQ, @prhz50): I have a firm rule: my job is to try to improve my team at all times. Indeed, I believe failure to do so can impact things just as much as making a trade or a free agent acquisition. I note that most of my leagues have incentives – or disincentives – to keep trying to improve your finish.

Andy Behrens (Yahoo! Fantasy Sports, @andybehrens): In Tout Wars, where it is clearly not my year, we have no shortage of incentives to compete until the end. So the obvious answer here is “Yes, definitely.” All redraft leagues should incentivize competition up and down the standings, through the end of the season. I’ll trade at any point up to the deadline, from any position. That said, we’ve certainly reached the point in the season where my focus is on leagues in which I’m clearly competing for a title. I’m less likely to actively seek out a trade partner in an effort to vault myself from, say, ninth place to sixth place. Still, if a reasonable deal presents itself, in Tout or elsewhere, I have no reservations about trading to improve.

Charlie Wiegert (CDM Sports, @GFFantasySports): Depends on the league! If it is a partial keeper league, and a trade with the top teams would gain me a keeper for next year, YES. If a trade could get me into a money spot, Yes. If a trade causes the integrity of the league to be questioned by helping one person win with no benefit to me, then NO! In Tout Wars, where there is a penalty for a bad finish, yes I would trade if it improved my position.

Tim McCullough (Rotoexperts, @TimTenz): Dynasty and keeper formats demand that you play right to the finish and at least try to build or rebuild your team to go get ’em next season. Since Tout has the penalty for finishing below a set threshold, there is an incentive of a different sort that you need to address. So, I am always open to trades even if I’m out of contention for a title. If you’re not going to try and finish as high in the standings as possible, why are you playing? At the very least you can learn something by tweaking your team to improve in the standings and apply that knowledge for future teams/leagues.

Lawr Michaels (CreativeSports2, @lawrmichaels): i will always do everything i can to finish as high as i can in any league, irrespective of format. that said, i do try to be careful to not make a trade that overtly does tip the scales among the contending teams if that makes sense.

Glenn Colton (Fantasy Alarm, @glenncolton1): what is the point of playing if you fail to compete as best as you can and do as best as you can? The only caveat is that if my team cannot win, I will likely make sure I let the whole league know a player is available before just pulling the trigger with one competing team. That way, the other teams cannot complain if they failed to make a better offer.

Patrick Davitt (BaseballHQ, @patrickdavitt): Yes, for all the reasons listed above by the touts.

Bret Sayre (Baseball Prospectus, @BretSayreBP): Even if a league does not have any incentive for owners who have no chance of winning, whether it’s the FAAB incentive like Tout has or a second-half prize like some of my home leagues have, I will continue to try to improve my teams until the bitter end. Of course, all leagues should have those types of incentives (as they make for a better overall culture throughout the season), but that’s a separate topic. As a personally competitive person when it comes to fantasy leagues (as all of us certainly are), an eighth place finish certainly feels better to me than a tenth place one, and I act accordingly.

Ray Murphy (BaseballHQ, @RayHQ): I think the Tout Wars rule re: deduction of next year’s FAAB is a valid reason for non-contenders to be dealing with contenders, but I’ll go against the grain here. Sure, I’d rather scratch out every standings point. It’s (a little) better to finish 8th than 10th. But (in re-draft leagues) I am very leery of playing king-maker, too. If my marginal gain downward in the standings means that I’m gift-wrapping a title for my trade partner, I’m inclined to not make the deal.

Jeff Zimmerman (Fangraphs and Fantrax, @jeffwzimmerman): My goal is to win the league. With next year’s FAAB total tied to this year’s finish, I sure in the hell going to try anything to move up. If it means giving the flag to someone else this season so I can get it next season, so be it. It’s a harsh stance but sticking to my goal is key.

Todd Zola (Mastersball, @toddzola): To be candid, I continue to struggle with this. My head says very point counts. My heart says don’t influence the top of the standings in a redraft format. Then the head says by not making a move, I’m in fact influencing the results. So while I usually won’t seek out deals to move me from 13th to 11th, I’ll consider them if approached, with the condition I let the league know I’m open for business. This way, if the consummated deal indeed aids someone at the top of the heap, the other contenders had an equal chance to work something out with me. This said, all bets are off it Tout Wars where I want every FAAB dollar I can muster and assume my brethren do as well.

Welcome to the weekly Tout Wars FAAB report, on its new home right here on the Tout Wars site. Each week, we’ll review the free agent acquisitions from all five leagues, with commentary from a league member, as well as yours truly. We changed the timing of the weekly run to 1 PM ET every Sunday, with the report posted later that afternoon so you’ll have time to digest and apply to your own leagues. In addition, I’ll be joining Lawr Michaels and Justin Mason on the Tout Wars Hour on the FNTSY Network every Sunday at 3:20 PM ET to discuss the results.

You can find the complete list of Tout Warriors here. Everyone starts with 1000 FAAB units, less any penalty incurred by finishing below a designated point in the standings. This is a means of keeping everyone motivated to keep playing all season long. The minimum bid is $0. FAAB units can be traded as well as rebated for players released off the DL.

The report will list all winning bids along with unsuccessful tries and contingencies. This provides the maximum level of information to help gauge interest on the players.

The American and National League only formats are 12-team leagues, as is the new points-based head to head league, The Mixed Auction and Draft each have 15 clubs. All the leagues have four reserves with an unlimited DL, expect the head to head league, which allows six reserves.

The headings above each league are links to publicly accessible sites where you can see standings, roster and a complete review of transactions. The initial auctions and drafts can be found here.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

AL only leagues are faced with a huge conundrum. If you have the hammer, do you go all-in on Brian Goodwin or hope someone else comes over prior to Wednesday’s deadline? Goodwin is a nice player, likely to get regular playing time with the Royals but is he a difference-maker? I think it comes down to deciding if Goodwin is enough to get you where you want to go or if your forced to hope for a miracle at the deadline.

Part of the problem is there aren’t any rumored players crossing over from the National League. This isn’t to say it won’t happen, but this is the classic bird in hand scenario.

Nick Martini wasn’t traded into the league, but a solid week as him a hot commodity. He’s bumped Dustin Fowler from the leadoff spot, which is key in front of the power-laden Athletics lineup. Despite social media pointing out I had the metaphor reversed… Martini may not shake things up with power, but he can certainly stir stuff up with his on base ability and speed.

Brett Phillips also crossed leagues. Phillips is still young enough to figure things out, especially contact. He’s been given a couple of chances with the Brewers, with patches of mediocrity before getting exposed. To be honest, I have a feeling another B. Phillips, namely Brandon, may end up being a sneaky AL only pickup.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

It’s pretty much chalk at the top with some decent consolation prizes after Manny Machado was purchased last week. The only question was whether someone on the top three wanted pitching more than hitting. Speaking of which, I know Cole Hamels has struggled lately but I’m intrigued by the park/league. Overall, the move to Wrigley Field is huge, at least according to park factors. Hamels lines up to allow fewer runs, fan more and walk fewer – and that’s without even considering the lack of the DH.

Most of the other hitting pickups are injury replacements, including my all-in bid for David Bote who is picking up some extra time with Kris Bryant out. Mason Williams is getting some run in the Reds outfield with Jesse Winker out for the season and Scott Schebler on the shelf, though the latter is on rehab and could be back this week. Jose Osuna is another injury fix with Josh Bell on the DL.

As opposed to the AL where it’s hard to envision someone of consequence coming over by the deadline, we could have another set of spirited bidding in the Senior Circuit next week.

MIXED LEAGUE AUCTION

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

This week’s flavor of the week in terms of closing is Jace Fry, replacing Joakim Soria. This is an intriguing pickup as the White Sox play the Royals and Rays next week, on paper a couple of lesser teams. The problem is Fry blew Sunday’s save chance, well before the bids were finalized. It’s not like the South Siders have a treasure trove of options, but Sunday’s events are discouraging.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has been seeing regular playing time which shouldn’t be hindered with the Blue Jays acquisition of Brandon Drury. Gurriel Jr. profiles as a high average without much power or speed, though he’s shown some pop in his rookie campaign.

Derek Holland was the most sought after starter, for good reason. He’s over 100 innings into the season, still maintaining over a whiff an inning. This week, Holland has a good pair of starts, first facing a weak Padres lineup followed by a manageable Diamondbacks offense.

MIXED LEAGUE DRAFT

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

It’s a little surprising Jeff McNeil didn’t garner more attention. It appears the Mets will play McNeil regularly after dealing Asdrubal Cabrera. His .268/.427/.600 line in Triple-A looks impressive, but keep in mind Las Vegas is one of the best hitting venues while McNeil is a little old for the level at 26 years old.

Don’t look now but Sonny Gray is relevant again. The veteran righty is sporting a 1.10 ERA and .92 WHIP over his past three outings, featuring 19 punch outs in those 16.1 frames.

HEAD-TO-HEAD MIXED AUCTION

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

There’s still plenty of season left but my spring declaration that Matt Chapman would have a better season than Matt Olson doesn’t look as outrageous as some made it out to be, especially after Chapman missed some time due to injury. OK, Olson will outpace Olson in terms of homers and RBI, but by triple-slash, Chapman can be considered to be having a better campaign. This isn’t an indictment of Olson, just another reminder how sometimes outstanding fielders can translate their superior hand-eye coordination and timing to the dish, most notably with respect to contact.

Rick Wolf lead three FSWA Hall of Famers a top the standings in the week’s Tout Daily Contest, the initial week of Period 5. This is the last chance for the Touts to gain entry into the Survivor Tournament finals.

Fantasy Alarm’s Wolf posted an impressive 159.6 total, followed closely by Lenny “The Legend” Melnick’s 155.6. ESPN’s Stephania Bell’s 148.9 placed her third. All three Hall of Famers were sage enough to click in Masahiro Tanaka and his complete game effort.

Rick’s lineup also featured a pair of Twins with Eduardo Escobar and Eddie Rosario having big nights along with a late home run from Khris Davis. Check out the Wolfman’s entire roster below.

Not only is Rick leading the final period, his first weekly winning score propelled him back on top of the overall standings, almost 45 points in from of Todd Zola. Check to see how your favorite Tout is doing on the Leaderboard.

Be sure to come back for the rest of our great content, beginning Sunday with the Tout Wars FAAB report, then Monday for the ToutTable, Tuesday with our Tout Daily picks and Wednesday for the Tout Daily wrap.

Here’s Rick’s lineup – ART ART OOOWWOOOOOO!

It’s the first week of the final period for Tout Daily. The final three Golden Tickets for entry into our Survivor Finals will be awarded. Here’s some picks we hope will bring home the Golden Tickets.

Jeff Boggis (Fantasy Football Empire, @JeffBoggis)

Shane Bieber: Shane Bieber ($8,100) – Going with one medium priced starting pitcher tonight. Cleveland’s Shane Bieber is at home tonight against Pittsburgh. He has 13 strikeouts in his last two games combined. All of this has me with Bieber fever tonight.

Jonathan Schoop : Jonathan Schoop ($3,700) has hit successfully in 14 of his last 15 games. He is breaking out of his first half slump, so get him while he is still this cheap at $3,700 tonight.

Charlie Wiegert (CDM Sports, @GFFantasySports)

Bieber & Lauer: Went Cheap! Bieber will stop Bucks at home and Lauer will dominate hapless Mets

Davis, Judge & Springer: 3 if’s that will go deep plus offense stacked with Carpenter, Gattis and DeDe

Lawr Michaels (CreativeSports2, @lawrmichaels)

Gerrit Cole:Rockies hitting a sorry .224 against right-handers

Wil Myers: Facing the hittable Zack Wheeler (4.44 ERA, 1.34 WHIP), Myers is in the midst of a hot period, batting .317-3-7 over his last 10 games with a season OPS of .910.

Todd Zola (Mastersball, @toddzola)

Felix Pena: 32 to 9 K per BB in 26.1 IP, at home vs. White Sox for 5.5K? Drooooooooooooooooooool.

Matt Carpenter: Stacking Astros, using Carp as a one-off against Everyone Hits a Homer off Bailey.

Gene McCaffrey (Wise Guy Baseball, @WiseGuyGene)

Lauer/Buchholz: Going super-cheap in hopes of two 15-20 point starts, which seems like a strong possibilty. Buchholz was on top of his gane he got hurt, and the Mets are floundering.

Mookie Betts: I’m loading up on Coors’ hitters and adding the super expensive ($6200) Mookie in hope that few will be able to afford him.

Rick Wolf (Fantasy Alarm, @RickWolf1)

Zach Wheeler: Wheeler is lower priced than Zimmermann and I almost took both of them. Wheeler has six or more strikeouts six times in his last ten starts. He faces the Padres who have been lame with a K percent that is more than one to four vs RHP. He was slightly less than Zimmermann so I took the value and upside.

Khris Davis: Super hot with 3 HRs in the last two games and facing a LHP in Texas. Good spot for all the Oakland RHH so I am stacking them all. If you are batting 1-4 for the Athletics tonight, you are also playing from team CTW.

Vlad Sedler (Fantasy Guru Elite, @Rotogut)

Eric Lauer: Hard to pass on a minimum-priced southpaw against a hapless Mets squad that can’t hit them. Can fit all the offense you want with him in your lineups.

Jonathan Schoop : Totally off the grid today since I love all the Cardinals against Homer Bailey, but Schoop is getting warm at just the right time and as long as the weather cooperates, I’d expect Schoop and the O’s to give Pomeranz a not-so-pleasant return to the bigs.

Jeff Erickson (Rotowire, @Jeff_Erickson)

Zach Wheeler: I get the idea that Lauer + Paxton/Cole is going to be widely owned, so I wanted to go against that. So I’ve got Wheeler with a high-K potential tonight paired with Tanaka.

Matt Chapman: I’m going back to the well from yesterday and running an A’s stack – five RH’s against Mike Minor.

Jason Collette (Rotowire, @jasoncollette)

Jordan Zimmermann: The Royals just aren’t good

Gary Sanchez: just kidding. Jake Bauers — he’s been excellent vs Yankee pitching this year and Tanaka has been extremely homer prone

Welcome to the weekly Tout Wars FAAB report, on its new home right here on the Tout Wars site. Each week, we’ll review the free agent acquisitions from all five leagues, with commentary from a league member, as well as yours truly. We changed the timing of the weekly run to 1 PM ET every Sunday, with the report posted later that afternoon so you’ll have time to digest and apply to your own leagues. In addition, I’ll be joining Lawr Michaels and Justin Mason on the Tout Wars Hour on the FNTSY Network every Sunday at 3:20 PM ET to discuss the results.

You can find the complete list of Tout Warriors here. Everyone starts with 1000 FAAB units, less any penalty incurred by finishing below a designated point in the standings. This is a means of keeping everyone motivated to keep playing all season long. The minimum bid is $0. FAAB units can be traded as well as rebated for players released off the DL.

The report will list all winning bids along with unsuccessful tries and contingencies. This provides the maximum level of information to help gauge interest on the players.

The American and National League only formats are 12-team leagues, as is the new points-based head to head league, The Mixed Auction and Draft each have 15 clubs. All the leagues have four reserves with an unlimited DL, expect the head to head league, which allows six reserves.

The headings above each league are links to publicly accessible sites where you can see standings, roster and a complete review of transactions. The initial auctions and drafts can be found here.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

The league leaders, Colton and the Wolfman went all-in on Brad Hand. There’s no assurance he’ll be the full-time closer for the Indians, especially since he surrendered a homer in his first appearance with the Tribe. Glenn and Rick are on top of the saves category so Hand may be an odd choice, but the seasoned duo could be playing defense, blocking a competitor from gaining points or they could be setting themselves up for a deal. Regardless, they don’t make any moves without thinking things threw so expect some sort of follow-up move by Glenn and Rick.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

While it may seem like a no-brainer for the FAAB leader to bid what it takes to get Machado, it may not be that cut and dried. With the early deal, Machado is the only prize available this week. It’s unlikely someone better will cross leagues, however if you need help[ in pitching, there could be someone more helpful. It’s a conundrum – take the bird in hand (pun intended) or roll the dice a hurler is dealt into the Senior Circuit. Trading isn’t always the answer as there’s no guarantee you can work out a deal or it could be a no-trade league, like the NFBC (I was faced with this exact conundrum several years ago).

MIXED LEAGUE AUCTION

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Jeff Zimmerman’s Commentary

Besides some injury roster fillers, three signings stood out this week. First, Ray Flowers picked up Kevin Gausman ($86) who Tim Heaney (leading league by ~25 points) dropped last week. Four teams bid on him so there was some league-wide interest. Gausman’s been OK this season with a 7.8 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 but his 4.33 ERA and only four Wins has limited his value. Ray is hoping Gausman comes through with his normal second-half improvement where his career ERA has dropped from 4.77 in the first half to 3.58 in the second half.

Tim McLeod was able to take home the Rockies Garrett Hampson for $129. While three other owners and myself put in bids, McLeod is hoping DJ LeMahieu will have a long DL stint. It’s tough to know how the situation will play out.

Fred Zinkie gambled $22 on Dakota Hudson for the week. With Carlos Martinez heading to the DL, some rumors place Hudson pitching on Monday or Tuesday while others have Daniel Poncedeleon and Austin Gomber as the options. It’s not a horrible gamble by Fred as even if Hudson doesn’t start, he can take the zero’s for the week (all free agent pickups must start for a week) and get him cheaper than if he was guaranteed to start.

Todd’s Take

For what it’s worth, it’ll be Poncedeleon for the Cards on Monday, but that doesn’t mean Hidson won’t get the call down the line.

When a Rockies prospect is called up, the first thought is POWER, WOO HOO! While Hampson has a little pop, his primary fantasy asset is speed, though he’s also hit over .300 at every level. The expectation is for DJ LeMahieu not to miss too much time but obliques can be tricky.

MIXED LEAGUE DRAFT

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

Is Willie Calhoun up to stay this time? Help was needed with Nomar Mazara on the shelf but Calhoun has been tearing up Triple-A so the summoning was warranted.

HEAD-TO-HEAD MIXED AUCTION

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

It’s an odd week for two-start pitchers. As is often the case the week after the break, there’s fewer off days than most other weeks, rendering a larger array of options. However, since teams can shuffle their rotations to have their better arms work the first weekend out of the break, double-dippers are mostly back-end pitchers. Still, in a league like this, that can be important. Justin Mason took advantage with Felix Pena and Drew Pomeranz. Pena has quietly been fanning a ton of hitters (32 in 26.1 innings) while Pomeranz is coming off a solid rehab effort.

On a rare Friday night edition of Tout Daily, Jake Ciely from FNTSY Network and the RotoExperts lapped the field, putting up an impressive 157.95 total. Despite a mere 2.05 points from Domingo German, the All In Kid rode Nate Eovaldi and Ronald Acuna Jr. to victory. Check out the rest of Jake’s lineup below.

Lawr Michaels from CreativeSports had his best showing of the year but still fell 12.4 points shy of Ciely’s score. Howard Bender edged out Brian Walton for the third spot.

This was also the final week of the fourth Tout Daily period, meaning three more Golden Tickets into the Survivor Tournament Championship are awarded. The first belongs to the top scores, SI.com’s Michael Bellar. Bellar also receives a complimentary T-shirt from Rotowear for his efforts. The second ticket is awarded to the golden voice of Rotowire, Derek VanRiper. Todd Zola captured his third entry into the finals as well as leapfrogging Rick Wolf for the overall points lead and earning a wild card entry into the playoff round.

So far, tickets have been awarded to Zola (3) and Clay Link (2) with Wolf, Ray Murphy, Derek Carty, Steve Gardner, Bret Sayre, VanRiper and Bellar, all with one.

Follow your favorite Tout’s plight on the Leaderboard.

We’ll be back to our normal night next Tuesday. This will be the final chance for the participants to win a Golden Ticket. As always, we’ll post our favorite pitching and hitting picks around 6 PM ET that evening. Don’t forget to pop back Sunday for the Tout Wars FAAB report and then on Monday for our popular Tout Table.

Here’s Jake’s full week-leading roster:

It’s a special Friday edition of Tout Daily to make up for the Tuesday night All Star game and if the following is an indication, choices will be all over the place tonight. This marks the final week of Period 4 so there’s a lot on the line with the next three Golden Tickets awaiting to be awarded along with a t-shirt courtesy of Rotowear.com for the points leader this period.

Phil Hertz (BaseballHQ, @prhz50)

Robbie Ray: He had a nice outing against the Rockies already this year. Like him in Phoeniex

Anthony Rendon : Consistently underrated. A big second half is coming.

Lawr Michaels (CreativeSports2, @lawrmichaels)

David Price: Price gets to face Detroit who do hit left-handers at a reasonable pace, but with very little pop (just 22 homers). I am guessing Price, with a long rest, can do his thing against the generally punchless Tigers.

Colin Moran: Moran faces Tyler Mahle (4.02, 1.44) who gives up a lot of dingers (17 over 100.2 innings) in a game that should be fun to track with potentially a lot of points.

Todd Zola (Mastersball, @toddzola)

Jake Arrieta: He’s better at home, I’ll take that on a weird slate with most good pitchers drawing tough matchups, many on the road

Mike Trout: Should be able to fit him in, hoping for low ownership, yet of course I’m going public with my recommendation. What a doofus.

Rob Leibowitz (Rotoheaven, @rob_leibowitz)

Robbie Ray: I like him at home against one of the higher-strikeout rate offenses. Less risk than other, more epxensive starters in terms of how deep their teams may let them go

JD Martinez: Boyd doesn’t have much in the way of righty/lefty split, but Martinez has a good one vs. lefties. I’ll go with his.

Gene McCaffrey (Wise Guy Baseball, @WiseGuyGene)

Dylan Bundy: Tough contest tonight and in the tournament I’ll enter at least five teams. Bundy will be on some of them, at a good price against a weak offense.

Kike Hernandez: He doesn’t really hit a home run every game he starts against a lefty. It only seems that way, and he’s mighty cheap. And the lefty is, I am told, Wade Miley.

Stephania Bell (ESPN Fantasy Sports, @Stephania_ESPN)

Noah Syndergaard: I know. Trevor Bauer is pitching if want to pay for a premium arm. And he’s pretty good. But Syndergaard costs less and despite the potency of the power in the Bronx, it’s inconsistent. So I’ll take my chances with a guy who ranks among the five best in both chase rate and swing-and-miss percentage since he came into the bigs (qualifying min 400 IP)

Nicholas Castellanos: Castellanos has been raking against lefties all season and I thought he’d be pricey against Price (see what I did there?). But he’s not top dollar price (like Betts, for instance) and since I saved a little in the pitching department, I’m willing to give a little more for the upside potential he brings.

Charlie Wiegert (CDM Sports, @GFFantasySports)

Gaviglio, Mahle : Going cheap with two guys that can both get me 20 points

Trout, Harper, Arenado: Using saving on pitching for big three

Mike Gianella (Baseball Prospectus, @MikeGianella)

Kyle Gibson: Outside of one shaky outing Gibson has looked great in his last few turns on the hill. Hoping he can capitalize against a weak Royals lineup.

Jesse Winker: The power hasn’t come yet but Winker’s getting on base at a .400+ clip and is going to provide points/fill up a box score even if he doesn’t deliver the dongs.

Jeff Erickson (Rotowire, @Jeff_Erickson)

Robbie Ray: When’s the last time you saw a COL-AZ game with the lowest O/U on the board? Ray might not have staying power, but at least I’ll get K’s.

Edwin Encarnacion: I’m running three Indians (Lindor, E5, Guyer) against Martin Perez, who has been miserable at home and against RH’s this year.

Welcome to the weekly Tout Wars FAAB report, on its new home right here on the Tout Wars site. Each week, we’ll review the free agent acquisitions from all five leagues, with commentary from a league member, as well as yours truly. We changed the timing of the weekly run to 1 PM ET every Sunday, with the report posted later that afternoon so you’ll have time to digest and apply to your own leagues. In addition, I’ll be joining Lawr Michaels and Justin Mason on the Tout Wars Hour on the FNTSY Network every Sunday at 3:20 PM ET to discuss the results.

You can find the complete list of Tout Warriors here. Everyone starts with 1000 FAAB units, less any penalty incurred by finishing below a designated point in the standings. This is a means of keeping everyone motivated to keep playing all season long. The minimum bid is $0. FAAB units can be traded as well as rebated for players released off the DL.

The report will list all winning bids along with unsuccessful tries and contingencies. This provides the maximum level of information to help gauge interest on the players.

The American and National League only formats are 12-team leagues, as is the new points-based head to head league, The Mixed Auction and Draft each have 15 clubs. All the leagues have four reserves with an unlimited DL, expect the head to head league, which allows six reserves.

The headings above each league are links to publicly accessible sites where you can see standings, roster and a complete review of transactions. The initial auctions and drafts can be found here.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

Let’s look at everyone’s place in the standings along with remaining FAAB.

Colton and the Wolfman are mid-pack in terms of FAAB. Mike Podhorzer has the 4th most but it’s unlikely a significant player will fall to him. It looks like this isn’t the year to be hoarding FAAB in AL only with the likelihood of scant crossover help.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

I’ll go out on a limb and predict Tristan Cockcroft will bid $972 on Manny Machado on Sunday night.

The top is interesting as the front two teams are 4th and 3rd with respect to remaining FAAB units. The league may come down to the acquisition by each after the deadline deals flesh out.

For what it’s worth, when looking at the AL FAAB totals, I didn’t suggest it was a mistake for the lowest teams to still have a ton of FAAB left, knowing all too well where the bottom clubs are with the rest of their budget.

MIXED LEAGUE AUCTION

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Fred Zinkie’s Commentary

In what was likely my biggest overpay since I joined Tout Wars in 2011, I grabbed Yu Darvish at $174 with a runner-up bid of $12. Perhaps some of my leaguemates didn’t realize that Darvish has been returned to waivers, and others likely doubt that he will amount to anything in the second half. Still, his upside is probably greater than that of anyone else who will be on waivers from this point forward, and I had more FAAB than I knew what to do with. And grabbing injured players during the abbreviated week is generally a solid plan, as I can move Darvish to my DL in just a few days. I made a similar move with Ryan Braun, who cost me $2 and will effectively cost me three days of Denard Span before I can stash him on my DL. Finally, I made a low-cost acquisition of Elias Diaz, who has been respectable at the dish this year and should play regularly until Francisco Cervelli recovers from (another) concussion.

Amed Rosario garnered a bid of $46 by Ray Flowers. The 22-year-old is going to be a liability in the OBP category (lifetime .283 mark), but he was a coveted prospect at this time last year and has some speed. Dan Straily also garnered a significant bid, fetching $33 from Zach Steinhorn, who is likely looking to fill out his rotation and pick up extra whiffs and wins in this short week. Straily faces the Rays on Friday. My favorite bid by a leaguemate was Ron Shandler’s $8 acquisition of Jeff McNeil, who is thriving in the Minors this year (1.043 OPS) and should get a shot with the Mets by the beginning of August. Other players who were targeted as stash additions during this short week were Jung Ho Kang (Bret Sayre, $6), Peter Alonso (Sayre, $6) and Julio Urias (Tim Heaney, $1).

Todd’s Take

Obviously, mixed league formats don’t deal with crossover players which is why the totals are much lower.

MIXED LEAGUE DRAFT

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Rudy Gamble’s Commentary

Todd’s Take

Look like we’re in for a fun finish with the top couple of teams also having a lot of FAAB to take advantage of the impending players yet to emerge.

HEAD-TO-HEAD MIXED AUCTION

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

Keep in mind even though this is a head to head league, there’s no playoffs, best record wins.