Auction Mock Draft: NFBC

The following auction took place on the night of March 12. The format was mixed league, 15 teams, 23 rounds, 5x5 scoring with a $260 budget for each team.

This auction wasn’t just a mock, it’s an actual real money league that will play out the season. It was done through the NFBC (National Fantasy Baseball Championship) with 14 other extremely strong competitors. This is a stand-alone league and does not compete with any other leagues for overall prizes.

The one caveat with this league is that there are no waiver moves in-season. After the 23-round auction portion of the draft where all starters are secured, there was then a 27-round reserve draft, leaving each roster with 50 total players. It doesn’t change much, but it may have pushed stability or players with multi-position eligibility up an extra dollar or two.

I’m going to leave out the names of the competitors in this league (aside from my own) out of respect for my fellow drafters and the fact that many of them still have other high-stakes auctions to do in the next couple of weeks and I don’t want to give away any information.

Team 1 (Offense $165 / Pitching $95)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Yasmani Grandal	$13
C2	Stephen Vogt	$6
1B	Miguel Cabrera	$32
2B	Neil Walker	$4
SS	Marcus Semien	$8
3B	Adrian Beltre	$15
MI	Asdrubal Cabrera	$6
CI	Hanley Ramirez	$16
OF1	Charlie Blackmon	$29
OF2	Carlos Gomez	$13
OF3	Kevin Kiermaier	$12
OF4	Randal Grichuk	$5
OF5	Joc Pederson	$5
UTIL	Matt Duffy	$1
		$165

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Alex Colome	$16
P2	Kenta Maeda	$16
P3	Gerrit Cole	$15
P4	Ian Kennedy	$13
P5	James Paxton	$12
P6	Aaron Nola	$8
P7	Jharel Cotton	$7
P8	Dallas Keuchel	$5
P9	Nate Jones	$3
		$95

Best Buy: At a glance, the value on Dallas Keuchel is absurd. It wasn’t even dollar days at the end of the auction, he just squeaked by with no one seemingly noticing. I personally blame myself for this one. I wasn’t as engaged as I should have been with players that were not active targets of mine. I was searching for Keuchel on my spreadsheet to see my value for him and by the time I clicked back he was already gone. 58 starting pitchers went for more than Keuchel while he’s the 35th guy according to ADP. Absolute steal. Honorable mentions to Joc Pederson and Stephen Vogt who went at tremendous discounts late in the auction.

Worst Buy: I honestly don’t see a terrible purchase in the bunch. If I had to pick one, it’s Kevin Kiermaier. Only 30 outfielders went for higher than $12 in the auction while he’s the 40th ranked guy at the position by ADP. It’s splitting hairs though, because if you need speed (which Team 1 did at the time), it makes sense. Gerrit Cole is a few dollars higher than I would have gone, but is certainly justifiable given his upside.

Analysis: Overall I think Team 1 did one heck of a job in this auction. He secured a pair of high-end bats at very reasonable costs (Blackmon and Cabrera). He found nice bargains throughout the roster which allowed him to add considerable depth without any real holes in the lineup. He didn’t land an elite-level starting pitcher, instead opting for four quality arms in the $12-$16 range. This hurt my team specifically, as I got stuck hunting in the same price range and was the runner-up bid on a few of them (Maeda, Paxton).

Team 2 (Offense $224 / Pitching $36)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Gary Sanchez	$23
C2	Tom Murphy	$11
1B	Byung Ho Park	$1
2B	Rougned Odor	$22
SS	Trevor Story	$27
3B	Nolan Arenado	$42
MI	Javier Baez	$9
CI	Ryon Healy	$10
OF1	Mookie Betts	$41
OF2	Jackie Bradley Jr.	$8
OF3	Hunter Renfroe	$4
OF4	Tyler Naquin	$1
OF5	Jose Peraza	$22
UTIL	Brandon Drury	$3
		$224

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Kyle Hendricks	$21
P2	Joe Musgrove	$4
P3	Junior Guerra	$3
P4	Daniel Hudson	$2
P5	Michael Wacha	$2
P6	Ryan Dull	$1
P7	Koda Glover	$1
P8	Seth Lugo	$1
P9	Luke Weaver	$1
		$36

Best Buy: When you spend $224 on offense there’s no real need to be thrifty, as your split will push your offensive values much higher than the market on many players. Still, Brandon Drury was a great pull for $3 near the end of the auction. I had two hitter spots left on my roster that I wanted for Drury and Mitch Haniger. I couldn’t afford to nominate a player I didn’t want or else risk getting stuck with them for $1. In hindsight, I should have waited another round or two before throwing Drury out and maybe I could have wound up with him instead.

Worst Buy: Looking at the roster in a vacuum, it would seem as though Jose Peraza is overpriced. Only six shortstops went for more money than the rookie speedster in the auction while he’s 10th at the position via ADP. Again though, when devoting so much money to offense, Team 2 could afford to spend up and get the players he wanted.

Analysis: Holy offense Batman. Team 2 decided to go with Kyle Hendricks and a bunch of bargain basement pitchers while loading up on offense. He already appears to have scored some value, as his speculative add of Koda Glover may pay huge dividends early. How this team eventually does will depend on how the rest of his pitching staff rounds out. Just projecting based on the roster accrued in the auction, Team 2 sits in the bottom third of the league.

Team 3 (Offense $176 / Pitching $84)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Mike Zunino	$4
C2	Travis d’Arnaud	$3
1B	Paul Goldschmidt	$39
2B	Joe Panik	$1
SS	Xander Bogaerts	$22
3B	Jose Ramirez	$17
MI	Tyler Saladino	$1
CI	Wil Myers	$25
OF1	George Springer	$22
OF2	Kyle Schwarber	$15
OF3	Byron Buxton	$9
OF4	Rajai Davis	$8
OF5	Domingo Santana	$6
UTIL	Greg Bird	$4
		$176

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Jacob deGrom	$22
P2	Rich Hill	$15
P3	Vince Velasquez	$13
P4	Julio Urias	$9
P5	John Lackey	$7
P6	Matt Moore	$7
P7	Jeff Samardzija	$6
P8	Robert Gsellman	$4
P9	Mike Foltynewicz	$1
		$84

Best Buy: The foundation piece on this roster, Paul Goldschmidt, also looks to be one of the best buys of the draft at only $39. That sum was the seventh largest paid for any player in this auction, but more than justifiable given his ADP. My biggest regret in the entire draft is not going the extra $1 here. It was early, and I was still working on the basis of my valuations being correct, when in reality I was pretty far off from where the market split between hitting and pitching was.

Worst Buy: Even with the inflated prices on many of the high-end and middle-tier starting pitchers, Velasquez went for a few more dollars than I would have been willing to go. The 48th starter by ADP, Velasquez was paid as if he was a top-30 option at his position. I also love Wil Myers, but $25 is a few schillings more than I would have gone.

Analysis: From top to bottom, this looks like a very solid if unspectacular team. My projections seem to agree as they have Team 3 finishing in the middle of the pack.

Team 4 (Offense $155 / Pitching $105)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	James McCann	$2
C2	Wilson Ramos	$1
1B	Edwin Encarnacion	$30
2B	Starlin Castro	$3
SS	Chris Owings	$3
3B	Todd Frazier	$15
MI	Brad Miller	$6
CI	Mitch Moreland	$2
OF1	Starling Marte	$31
OF2	Nelson Cruz	$27
OF3	A.J. Pollock	$26
OF4	Max Kepler	$6
OF5	Leonys Martin	$1
UTIL	Manuel Margot	$2
		$155

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Madison Bumgarner	$34
P2	Seung Hwan Oh	$18
P3	Julio Teheran	$17
P4	Sam Dyson	$13
P5	Tanner Roark	$8
P6	Cam Bedrosian	$7
P7	Francisco Liriano	$4
P8	Lance Lynn	$3
P9	Wei-Yin Chen	$1
		$105

Best Buy: I get that he’s a tremendous drain on batting average, but Todd Frazier for only $15 looks to be at least a few dollars too cheap. He was paid as the eighth-best player at the hot corner while he ranks fifth there in terms of ADP (excluding Machado who I have listed as a shortstop).

Worst Buy: There’s no glaring overspends that I can see on this roster. On the surface it may look like an overpay to spend $34 on Madison Bumgarner, but again it depends on the split being employed and how he slots in relative to the rest of his position. He went as the second highest starting pitcher, but a full $12 less than Kershaw which is very reasonable. Personally, I’m not a huge Starling Marte fan and would have topped out around $26-$27 there, but that’s just personal preference.

Analysis: Another non-traditional split where Team 4 spent over $100 on his pitching while skimming back on the offense. With several squads employing similar strategies, it can throw off the values on both the hitting and pitching markets, and if you aren’t paying close enough attention to it before it’s too late (like me), it can negatively impact your draft.

Dave Shovein’s Team (Offense $173 / Pitching $87)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Austin Hedges	$2
C2	Derek Norris	$1
1B	Jose Abreu	$24
2B	Trea Turner	$35
SS	Tim Anderson	$15
3B	Justin Turner	$12
MI	Dustin Pedroia	$9
CI	Yangervis Solarte	$1
OF1	Ryan Braun	$28
OF2	Eric Thames	$14
OF3	Keon Broxton	$14
OF4	Stephen Piscotty	$12
OF5	Hunter Pence	$5
UTIL	Mitch Haniger	$1
		$173

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Cody Allen	$15
P2	Kelvin Herrera	$15
P3	Rick Porcello	$11
P4	Michael Fulmer	$10
P5	Kevin Gausman	$10
P6	Matt Shoemaker	$9
P7	Jon Gray	$7
P8	Marco Estrada	$6
P9	Anthony DeSclafani	$4
		$87

Best Buy: Obviously, I like the prices that I got on most of my players and think that the majority of them were good purchases relative to my own valuations. Dustin Pedroia at $9 is one of the discounts that I got to enjoy by having money and flexibility left over as the draft was winding down. I love the fact that I was able to land Shoemaker for only $9 as I was willing to go as high as $12 or $13 on him, even before realizing that all of my SP valuations were too low. I also think that Mitch Haniger will be a steal at $1.

Worst Buy: I like Marco Estrada a lot and he was a late-round target of mine going into the auction, but I had hoped to nab him for $2 or $3. Given the depleted inventory at the position I was forced to go a few dollars higher than I would have liked here. It ended up costing me the ability to go an extra buck or two on Stephen Vogt and Brandon Drury who both ended up selling for tremendous discounts.

Analysis: Looking at the big picture, I’m happy with how the offense turned out here. I came into the auction looking for a $172/$88 split between my hitting and pitching and I almost hit that mark exactly. As I’ve already alluded to though, I made several key mistakes. First and foremost, I should have gone the extra $1 to get Goldschmidt. He was a top target of mine entering the auction, but was nominated very early and at the time I thought that I was going to stay disciplined, rely on my values and take the value as it came to me. The other key mistake was not recognizing the prices of the starting pitchers. By the time I realized that all of the top-tier starting pitchers were going at a huge premium from where my values were, there was nothing left resembling a SP1 or SP2. I entered the draft with $20 slotted for my top pitching slot, which I assumed would be Darvish or Verlander, then watched them climb to $29 and $24 respectively. I improvised by re-allocating my pitching budget and having a much deeper SP1 – SP6, but I’m sorely missing that top-end talent.

Team 6 (Offense $135 / Pitching $125)

C1	Brian McCann	$8
C2	Matt Wieters	$8
1B	Daniel Murphy	$23
2B	Devon Travis	$11
SS	Dansby Swanson	$7
3B	Nick Castellanos	$7
MI	Logan Forsythe	$6
CI	C.J. Cron	$7
OF1	Andrew McCutchen	$21
OF2	Adam Eaton	$12
OF3	Adam Duvall	$8
OF4	Kole Calhoun	$7
OF5	Dexter Fowler	$4
UTIL	Marcell Ozuna	$6
		$135

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Max Scherzer	$32
P2	Chris Archer	$28
P3	Roberto Osuna	$16
P4	Jeurys Familia	$13
P5	David Robertson	$11
P6	Shawn Kelley	$9
P7	Joe Ross	$6
P8	Carlos Rodon	$5
P9	Taijuan Walker	$5
		$125

Best Buy: Given the inflated prices that many top hurlers fetched in this auction, it actually looks like a steal to snag Max Scherzer at only $32. It was the fourth highest price paid to a starting pitcher, but one that looks like a very nice value on the surface.

Worst Buy: I have to go with Chris Archer on this one. Listen, I like the guy. I understand that he has all of the talent in the world and was much improved in the second half of 2016. The issue is that only seven starting pitchers fetched higher prices during the auction. Sure, he could justify this cost and looks tremendous as an SP2, I just feel it’s a slight overpay.

Analysis: Another day, another team spending way more on pitching that I had expected or planned for. Team 6 devoted 48% of his budget to the arms race. I’ll be honest though, I’m impressed by the offense that he was able to assemble on the limited funds. My projection system tends to agree, putting him in the upper half of the league.

Team 7 (Offense $155 / Pitching $105)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Jonathan Lucroy	$21
C2	J.T. Realmuto	$15
1B	Anthony Rizzo	$30
2B	Jedd Gyorko	$5
SS	Aledmys Diaz	$10
3B	Manny Machado	$42
MI	Alcides Escobar	$1
CI	Jose Reyes	$3
OF1	Yasmany Tomas	$4
OF2	Kevin Pillar	$3
OF3	Melky Cabrera	$2
OF4	Matt Holliday	$2
OF5	Michael Brantley	$1
UTIL	Willson Contreras	$16
		$155

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Noah Syndergaard	$33
P2	Johnny Cueto	$27
P3	Masahiro Tanaka	$20
P4	Francisco Rodriguez	$10
P5	J.A. Happ	$5
P6	Brandon Kintzler	$4
P7	Fernando Rodney	$4
P8	Matt Bush	$1
P9	Lucas Giolito	$1
		$105

Best Buy: Not one player specifically, but I think that Team 7 did a nice job complementing his three ace pitchers with three closers entering the year with ninth-inning jobs. Being able to secure K-Rod, Rodney and Kintzler for a combined $18 is a job very well done.

Worst Buy: Not that it’s a bad buy necessarily, but I’m not sure that I fully understand the motivation behind the three star catchers. Sure, in a league this deep that starts two catchers, the pool gets thin very quickly and most teams are left holding the bag with scraps behind the plate. If the goal was to protect him from injury and always have tremendous production behind the dish, I can understand it. In fact, all three went at discounts relative to my valuations. If it was done with the idea of playing Contreras in the outfield though, I take offense. I have him valued as a $17 player behind the plate. If he’s played in the outfield full-time, he’s a replacement level player worth just over $1.

Analysis: Sensing a pattern here, Team 7 joined the parade of team’s spending over $100 on pitching. Look at that front three though! Syndergaard, Cueto and Tanaka are as good of a trio as you’ll see in a 15-team league. I’m not sure if the plan going in was to spend $52 on three of the top catchers in the league and invest just $12 in his five-man outfield, but that’s the way it played out. I’ll be curious to check in and see how he built up his outfield depth in the slow draft portion as it looks woefully thin at a glance.

Team 8 (Offense $159 / Pitching $101)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Yan Gomes	$3
C2	Tony Wolters	$2
1B	Eric Hosmer	$16
2B	Jose Altuve	$37
SS	Carlos Correa	$31
3B	Kyle Seager	$19
MI	Brian Dozier	$22
CI	Adrian Gonzalez	$9
OF1	Jacoby Ellsbury	$6
OF2	Jay Bruce	$5
OF3	Alex Gordon	$1
OF4	Anthony Gose	$1
OF5	Cameron Maybin	$1
UTIL	Victor Martinez	$6
		$159

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Carlos Carrasco	$27
P2	Mark Melancon	$18
P3	Aaron Sanchez	$14
P4	Zack Greinke	$13
P5	Jose Quintana	$13
P6	Robbie Ray	$7
P7	Jeanmar Gomez	$4
P8	Adam Wainwright	$4
P9	Jordan Zimmermann	$1
		$101

Best Buy: In my opinion, the best purchase here is clearly Victor Martinez. Often times, players who are eligible at utility only get overlooked in drafts and auctions as people don’t want to tie up that spot unnecessarily. Martinez is a $14 value on my board and went for one of the biggest discounts out of any player in the auction. Shame on me for having my utility spot already filled and being unable to take full advantage here.

Worst Buy: I have combed over this roster and don’t see any glaringly bad purchases. I think that Carlos Correa went for a few dollars more than I would have liked, I have him more in the $26 range, but given his pedigree and immense upside, it’s hard to fault him. Anthony Gose looks like a completely wasted pick for $1 at the end.

Analysis: The overall roster construction here looks good to me, but the absence of anything from Anthony Gose brings him way down in my projected standings. The outfield looks very thin and could be a problem area throughout the season. The pitching staff is an intriguing blend, but it’ll require strong bounce-back efforts from Greinke and Wainwright if this team has visions of competing for the league crown.

Team 9 (Offense $180 / Pitching $80)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Buster Posey	$25
C2	Cameron Rupp	$5
1B	Freddie Freeman	$29
2B	Jonathan Villar	$28
SS	Troy Tulowitzki	$9
3B	Anthony Rendon	$15
MI	Josh Harrison	$4
CI	Tommy Joseph	$11
OF1	Ian Desmond	$23
OF2	J.D. Martinez	$21
OF3	Hernan Perez	$5
OF4	Scott Schebler	$3
OF5	Gerardo Parra	$1
UTIL	Josh Reddick	$1
		$180

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Stephen Strasburg	$21
P2	Kenley Jansen	$20
P3	Lance McCullers	$10
P4	Felix Hernandez	$9
P5	A.J. Ramos	$9
P6	Jerad Eickhoff	$4
P7	Addison Reed	$3
P8	Dylan Bundy	$2
P9	Sonny Gray	$2
		$80

Best Buy: The award for the best purchase on this squad has to go to Felix Hernandez. Shame on me for letting him get by for $9 and not at least price enforcing a bit. He was an $11 pitcher on my board, even with my outdated pitching split. With the increased velocity that he has shown this spring, this could wind up being one of the best purchases in the entire draft.

Worst Buy: I should fault him for not catching the Ian Desmond news that broke earlier in the day, but he’s only missing a few weeks and could still easily return profit on that number. The head-scratcher for me is Tommy Joseph for $11. While I like the power potential, he shouldn’t be fetching higher prices than proven sluggers like Albert Pujols and Adrian Gonzalez.

Analysis: Now this is what I was looking for, a much more traditional split between the hitting and pitching budgets! This looked like a relatively strong team on paper, but Team 9 is already getting hit hard by the injury bug. The news on Desmond’s injury broke earlier in the day before this auction, but unfortunately he didn’t get word until after he had been taken. The J.D. Martinez injury since is just bad luck.

Team 10 (Offense $198 / Pitching $61)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Jett Bandy	$1
C2	Andrew Susac	$1
1B	Joey Votto	$28
2B	Robinson Cano	$25
SS	Elvis Andrus	$10
3B	Eugenio Suarez	$6
MI	DJ LeMahieu	$16
CI	Matt Carpenter	$16
OF1	Mike Trout	$45
OF2	Billy Hamilton	$25
OF3	Jose Bautista	$19
OF4	David Peralta	$4
OF5	Shin-Soo Choo	$1
UTIL	Mark Reynolds	$1
		$198

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Justin Verlander	$24
P2	Danny Salazar	$13
P3	Matt Harvey	$9
P4	Jim Johnson	$9
P5	Mike Montgomery	$2
P6	Brett Anderson	$1
P7	Carter Capps	$1
P8	Mike Leake	$1
P9	Tyler Skaggs	$1
		$61

Best Buy: It’s difficult to call a $1 purchase someone’s best buy of the draft, but I see several dollars of profit coming here for Shin-Soo Choo. Given how the pitching market played out here, Danny Salazar looks like a very nice purchase at $13 as well.

Worst Buy: I’m sorry, maybe he proves me wrong, but in this market Jose Bautista is simply not a $19 player. Only 19 outfielders went for more in this auction and I can’t fathom Bautista finishing as a top-20 outfielder this year. On my board, even giving him 27 bombs and 92 RBI, he’s a $10 player.

Analysis: Team 10 was one of the few squads to go the other way on the budget split, hammering offense with 76% of his money and figuring out pitching with the rest. As it should be, the offense looks very strong, though I’d have looked for more out of the catcher position than the Brewer tandem when devoting so many resources to bats. It will depend what kind of pitching depth he can build up in the draft portion, but this looks like a bottom-third team on paper.

Team 11 (Offense $164 / Pitching $96)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Russell Martin	$8
C2	Welington Castillo	$7
1B	Chris Davis	$22
2B	Dee Gordon	$27
SS	Eduardo Nunez	$13
3B	Jung Ho Kang	$5
MI	Orlando Arcia	$3
CI	Miguel Sano	$11
OF1	Mark Trumbo	$20
OF2	Adam Jones	$17
OF3	Khris Davis	$14
OF4	Travis Jankowski	$4
OF5	Curtis Granderson	$1
UTIL	Kendrys Morales	$12
		$164

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Jon Lester	$25
P2	Zach Britton	$19
P3	Cole Hamels	$19
P4	Tony Watson	$11
P5	Michael Pineda	$7
P6	Raisel Iglesias	$5
P7	Garrett Richards	$5
P8	Jeremy Hellickson	$3
P9	Zach Davies	$2
		$96

Best Buy: Khris Davis for $14 looks like a nice value to add power to the team. Garrett Richards could end up being an absolute steal for $5 if he can stay healthy. Though I’m not a big Travis Jankowski guy, he should be able to easily pay off that $4 price tag with his legs alone.

Worst Buy: Team 11 remained very patient and disciplined throughout the auction and didn’t seem to overpay often. The one spot that I could fault him for would be Chris Davis. He’s being counted on to be a foundation piece of the offense, with his $22 tag representing the second-highest expenditure on that side of the ball. This team would look a lot better if that had been Eric Hosmer or Hanley Ramirez for $16 with the extra money used to upgrade elsewhere.

Analysis: Not as extreme of a split here, but still a much greater focus on pitching than I had anticipated. Overall, it looks like a pretty well-executed spread the wealth strategy. No player was acquired for more than $27 and the bottom end of the roster looks relatively strong. I’d be surprised if this team finished in the bottom third of the league. At the same time though, I don’t know if there’s the necessary upside to bring home the hardware.

Team 12 (Offense $167 / Pitching $93)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Yadier Molina	$7
C2	Tyler Flowers	$1
1B	Carlos Santana	$14
2B	Ian Kinsler	$15
SS	Corey Seager	$28
3B	Alex Bregman	$16
MI	Francisco Lindor	$24
CI	Albert Pujols	$10
OF1	Kris Bryant	$40
OF2	Yasiel Puig	$5
OF3	Carlos Beltran	$2
OF4	Brett Gardner	$2
OF5	Jason Heyward	$1
UTIL	Brandon Phillips	$2
		$167

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Corey Kluber	$30
P2	Aroldis Chapman	$21
P3	Jameson Taillon	$13
P4	Steven Matz	$11
P5	Andrew Miller	$7
P6	Gio Gonzalez	$4
P7	Daniel Norris	$3
P8	Hisashi Iwakuma	$2
P9	Hector Neris	$2
		$93

Best Buy: The trio of Albert Pujols, Ian Kinsler and Carlos Santana each went $1 or $2 too cheap. I was in the bidding for all three and just couldn’t pull the trigger on the extra buck at the end. Jason Heyward for $1 and Daniel Norris for $3 also look like they could pay off big time.

Worst Buy: It’s hard to argue with paying a premium to acquire elite offensive talent. Team 12 went a few bucks over my valuation to snag Kris Bryant with this thought in mind, and I can’t fault him for that. Paying the same premium for Corey Seager though, isn’t something that I would have done. While he’s a tremendous young player, I have a hard time seeing how he delivers profit from $28 given his lack of stolen bases.

Analysis: This is another team that looks very well constructed from top to bottom. There’s a reason that these leagues are considered the pinnacle of fantasy competition. He paid a premium to get Kluber as his ace though and it may have cost him the ability to secure a second closer. With no in-season moves, that could be a category that comes back to hurt his overall chances of a title.

Team 13 (Offense $159 / Pitching $101)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Salvador Perez	$10
C2	Francisco Cervelli	$3
1B	Justin Bour	$3
2B	Jason Kipnis	$6
SS	Brandon Crawford	$4
3B	Josh Donaldson	$30
MI	Cesar Hernandez	$4
CI	Mike Moustakas	$7
OF1	Christian Yelich	$23
OF2	Carlos Gonzalez	$20
OF3	Justin Upton	$19
OF4	Matt Kemp	$15
OF5	Lorenzo Cain	$12
UTIL	Didi Gregorius	$3
		$159

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Chris Sale	$29
P2	Carlos Martinez	$19
P3	Edwin Diaz	$17
P4	Craig Kimbrel	$17
P5	David Price	$11
P6	Ivan Nova	$4
P7	Alex Cobb	$2
P8	Collin McHugh	$1
P9	Ervin Santana	$1
		$101

Best Buy: Can I nominate this entire roster as its best purchase? Seriously, this guy is one of the best in the business for a reason. If I had to pick one, it’s clearly Josh Donaldson. It was still very early in the auction when his name (minor calf injury and all) came onto the block. Team 13 jumped him right to $30 and... crickets. A consensus first round pick deftly swiped for the 17th-highest price paid for any player in the auction. Honorable mention to Jason Kipnis who was stolen for $6 which is absurd even with his shoulder issues.

Worst Buy: I honestly don’t see a bad purchase here. There’s nothing but profit up and down the roster. Didi Gregorius looks bad in hindsight now that he was injured in WBC play, but he was purchased at a $2 discount at the time.

Analysis: Team 13 has to be considered the odds-on favorite to win this league heading into the season. To understand how good of a job he did, his team projects better than mine using my own personal projections. Think about that for a second. It’s like I went into an exam with a cheat sheet and he still did better than me. Given the fact that he utilized a $160/$100 split rather than what I had thought would be the standard, I’m likely to adjust my own to something closer to this split going forward for my 15-team auctions.

Team 14 (Offense $170 / Pitching $90)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Evan Gattis	$12
C2	Devin Mesoraco	$1
1B	Brandon Belt	$13
2B	Jonathan Schoop	$9
SS	Jean Segura	$21
3B	Evan Longoria	$15
MI	Addison Russell	$9
CI	Jake Lamb	$12
OF1	Yoenis Cespedes	$26
OF2	Gregory Polanco	$25
OF3	Andrew Benintendi	$14
OF4	Nomar Mazara	$3
OF5	Corey Dickerson	$1
UTIL	Mike Napoli	$9
		$170

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Jake Arrieta	$25
P2	Wade Davis	$15
P3	Marcus Stroman	$12
P4	Sean Manaea	$11
P5	Drew Smyly	$11
P6	Jake Odorizzi	$6
P7	Dellin Betances	$5
P8	Ryan Madson	$3
P9	Blake Treinen	$2
		$90

Best Buy: Mike Napoli looks like a great addition for only $9. He’s slated to hit in the middle of the Rangers’ lineup and should provide plenty of power on the cheap. Nomar Mazara for $3 is just stealing. I also like the $11 price on Sean Manaea and wish I had gone the extra dollar there.

Worst Buy: Another team where I don’t see any glaringly bad purchases. Evan Gattis, Jean Segura and Jake Lamb all look to me like they could be a buck or two overpriced, but nothing extreme. Marcus Stroman looks like he may have gone for a premium as well, but I believe he was the best starting pitcher on the board at that late stage of the auction and there were a few bidders with ample funds that pushed his price up.

Analysis: Well, what do we have here, another solidly built team that looks highly competitive on paper. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. I think that the fate of this squad will ultimately ride on the health and performance of Jake Arrieta and Wade Davis. If Arrieta returns to form in a contract year and pitches like an ace and Davis remains healthy and racking up saves, this team should be in the thick of the race.

Team 15 (Offense $125 / Pitching $135)

Position	Player	Cost
C1	Jason Castro	$1
C2	Sandy Leon	$1
1B	Lucas Duda	$1
2B	Ben Zobrist	$7
SS	Freddy Galvis	$1
3B	Maikel Franco	$16
MI	Jorge Polanco	$1
CI	Adam Lind	$1
OF1	Bryce Harper	$32
OF2	Giancarlo Stanton	$22
OF3	Odubel Herrera	$14
OF4	David Dahl	$11
OF5	Ender Inciarte	$8
UTIL	Jarrod Dyson	$9
		$125

Position	Player	Cost
P1	Clayton Kershaw	$46
P2	Yu Darvish	$29
P3	Danny Duffy	$17
P4	Ken Giles	$16
P5	Adam Ottavino	$8
P6	Neftali Feliz	$6
P7	Blake Snell	$6
P8	Drew Pomeranz	$4
P9	Brandon Maurer	$3
		$135

Best Buy: Given the prices that most superstar offensive players went for in this auction, getting Bryce Harper for just $32 looks tremendous. I like the value on Odubel Herrera at $14 and think there’s several dollars of profit baked into Ben Zobrist at $7.

Worst Buy: It isn’t a player specifically that I can criticize, but the entire infield outside of Zobrist and Maikel Franco is highly questionable. He’ll need this group to perform in order to have success.

Analysis: We already know by now that my split was wrong and caused my pitching valuations to be off, but this is extreme. Team 15 spent a league-high 52% of his budget on pitching. He was going to pay whatever price was necessary to acquire Clayton Kershaw, going all the way to $46 ($1 more than Mike Trout). Seems he was doing the same thing on Darvish, taking the right-hander all the way to $29. He’s got a great front three and four closers, but can he get enough on offense to stay in the thick of things? The infield as a whole is cringe-worthy.