2019 Tout Wars Season Review – The Middle Man

On the surface, my 2019 Mixed Auction Tout Wars season might seem like a huge disappointment. I finished exactly in the middle of the pack, eighth out of 15 teams, my worst finish since 2013. But I also finished just 1.5 rotisserie points out of 5th place and spent most of the year in either 5th or 6th, so the final results are somewhat deceiving. Still, I was never in contention to win the league, and since my draft-day goal every season is to remain in contention from start to finish, I’m not too happy with how the year played out.

Identifying undervalued starting pitchers — guys who I could draft for single-digit dollars and would reward me with plenty of profit — has always been a strength of mine. I prefer to go hitting-heavy in drafts and look for bargains when it comes to starting pitching. In my seven previous seasons competing in Mixed Auction Tout, this strategy usually worked out well. But I whiffed on many of my SP picks this year.

Unlike in past years, I planned to draft one legit ace, feeling that in this age of declining starting pitching innings totals, it was important to grab a high-end, 200-plus IP anchor. Aaron Nola ($34) was dominant at times, but he was also inconsistent and fell well short of giving me an equal return on investment. His end-of-season numbers were good, but they weren’t ace-caliber. Ultimately, while I did make a number of strong auction purchases and FAAB adds, it was my erratic starting pitching that kept me out of contention. I ended the season with 38.5 pitching points (14 points combined in ERA, WHIP and strikeouts) compared to 51 hitting points.

OK, time to hand out some awards.

BEST AUCTION BUYS

Mitch Garver ($1) – I like to wait as long as possible to draft my #2 backstop, and Garver was the last projected starter still on the board in the latter stages of the endgame. I will never again be able to draft a 31-homer catcher for a buck.

Brett Gardner ($1) – He was projected to be the Yankees’ fourth outfielder heading into the season, but I figured Gardner would get enough at-bats to be worth one dollar. All he did was set a career-high in homers (28) while tallying 86 runs and 10 steals in a full season’s worth of at-bats.

Marcus Semien ($9) – I targeted Semien in all of my leagues this year but could not have imagined a .285-33-92-123-10 line. Let’s just say he will be a bit more expensive next spring.

Elvis Andrus ($9) – Bounced back nicely from an injury-marred 2018 campaign. Posted his highest stolen base total (31) since 2013, which is very encouraging.

Mike Moustakas ($11) – Always underrated, always outperforms draft day price. One of these years, the market will adjust accordingly.

Carlos Santana ($20) – I guess he’s just more comfortable in Cleveland than Philadelphia. Being that Tout is an OBP league, I liked the $20 price tag. I love it now.

WORST AUCTION BUYS

Robinson Cano ($19) – Was banking on a rebound year from the gum-obsessed veteran. It didn’t happen. Released him for a FAAB rebate right before the Aug. 31 deadline and of course missed his semi-productive September. He’s already on my 2020 Do Not Draft list.

Welington Castillo ($8) – A complete waste of eight bucks. Registered a .900 OPS in September, so there’s at least some reason for optimism going forward.

Cody Allen ($7) – Didn’t even last a month as the Angels’ closer. Pitched to a 6.14 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP while in my active lineup but hey, he did give me four saves.

Jose Quintana ($6) – A longtime favorite of mine, but I’m finally ready to cut ties. Not the same pitcher he used to be. Way too many hits allowed.

Zack Godley ($3) – Thought he was a fine bounceback candidate but he was instead an absolute nightmare, and I stuck with him for too long (four starts, 11.00 ERA, 2.11 WHIP).

Kyle Gibson ($2) – Decent in the first half but a mess in the second half. Breakout 2018 season is looking like an aberration.

BEST FAAB ADDS

Albert Pujols ($62 on 4/22) – No longer a star but still productive. I’m not sure why Pujols was on the waiver wire. He provided me with 20 homers and 82 RBIs in 111 games.

Adam Wainwright ($28 on 4/29) – Rough final two starts but exceeded expectations this season. Proved to be a useful matchups play (9-4, 2.56 ERA at home).

Oscar Mercado ($134 on 5/20) – Remember Call-Up FAAB Weekend? As it turned out, I chose the right one. Well, Austin Riley was pretty good for awhile but he went for $384 and eventually lost his starting job.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. ($53 on 6/10) – Too bad he couldn’t stay healthy. Gurriel gave me 15 homers, 36 RBIs and 39 runs in 55 games.

Jeff Samardzija ($52 on 7/22) – I picked a good time to enlist the help of The Shark (12 starts, 2.66 ERA, 1.00 WHIP).

WORST FAAB BUYS

Aaron Sanchez ($38 on 5/13) – For about a week, it seemed like Sanchez was on the verge of rediscovering his 2016 form. Not quite.

Mike Leake ($29 on 6/17) – Leake continues to be a tease. In his one start in my active lineup, he allowed seven earned runs over 5 1/3 innings yet somehow got the win, so perhaps he doesn’t belong on this list. Nah, he belongs here.

Mitch Keller ($54 on 8/12) – Maybe Keller’s second stint in the big leagues would be more successful than his first one? It was, but that’s not saying much.

Brandon Drury ($27 on 8/19) – I picked up Drury as an injury replacement. He spent one week in my lineup, recording no counting stats. Zero.

Colin Moran ($53 on 9/2) – Moran was in the midst of a hot streak when I added him. He promptly went ice cold. Bad timing.

TRADES

Sent Joey Lucchesi to Al Melchior for Alex Colome

Sent Michael Conforto and Chase Anderson to Gene McCaffrey for George Springer

Sent Oscar Mercado to Jeff Zimmerman for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Sent Emilio Pagan to Gene McCaffrey for Robbie Ray

On the trade front, the results were mixed. In mid-May, I desperately needed a closer replacement for Cody Allen and Colome was solid through the end of the year. But I had a choice of trading Gibson or Lucchesi. I chose the wrong guy. Still, the deal was a win-win. The Springer trade, completed during the All-Star break, turned out to be a net gain for me while the Vlad deal was a slight loss. In late-August, I traded for Ray with the hope that he would help me gain a few reachable points in strikeouts. I was locked into my position in saves, give or take a point, and it seemed like I didn’t have anything to lose in the ratio categories. Ray wasn’t much of a help at all and was actually one of the reasons why I lost two points in WHIP during the final week.

As mentioned above, starting pitching was a struggle for me this year, and I’m not sure if I’ll again prioritize drafting a clear-cut ace in 2020, as my “clear-cut ace” in 2019 didn’t perform at an ace level. Then again, if I had drafted Gerrit Cole ($36) instead of Nola, I’d be thinking differently.

Speaking of Cole, you’ll hear more about him in my LABR season recap coming your way this weekend.

Thanks to the entire Tout Wars braintrust for their hard work in organizing the drafts and running the leagues and a special thanks to Peter Kreutzer, the Mixed Auction league commish, for putting up with all of us.

Zach Steinhorn is the 2016 Mixed Auction Tout Wars champion. Follow him on Twitter @zachsteinhorn.