2021 Tout Wars Mixed Salary Cap Draft Recap – Resisting Temptation

In the days leading up to this year’s Tout Wars Mixed Salary Cap draft, I thought about doing something totally different. I thought about going out of character and embracing a “Stars and Scrubs” strategy, buying two or even three $40+ players before filling out the rest of my roster with bargains. This strategy is more appealing in a mixed league than in a mono league since the waiver wire quality is decent enough. But after mapping out a few rosters that could reasonably be assembled when following this approach, the numbers just didn’t work out. There were too many players who simply didn’t interest me, so I ultimately opted for balance, which would give me more flexibility to get my targets during the draft’s middle portion and in the endgame. One of these years, maybe I’ll change it up, but it would not be this year. Lose multiple $40 players to significant injuries and your season could be over by May. What fun is that?

By balance, I am by no means advocating to draft an entire roster of $11 players. Rather, I’d construct a tier-themed roster consisting of one $40+ bat, a $30 ace, a pair of hitters in the $20-25 range, a $20 starting pitcher and so on. It’s a strategy I’ve used ever since I began competing in Tout Wars nine years ago, and it has for the most part served me well, so I’d stick with it.

The action began last Saturday at 4:15 PM ET in a Fantrax draft room. It ended at 10:15. Here’s the squad I put together in the six hours in between.

Catchers: Mitch Garver ($7), Pedro Severino ($2)

Garver won’t need to duplicate his breakout 2019 campaign to net a profit. I had James McCann ($5) and Austin Nola ($3) ranked slightly higher but both of those catchers were nominated after Garver and I expected both to go for more than seven bucks. What can you do? Severino is nothing special but I’ll take the 10-12 homers and an OBP that won’t hurt me.

Corner Infielders: Matt Olson ($20), Alec Bohm ($14), Kyle Seager ($2)

Tout uses OBP instead of AVG, so Olson’s value is boosted in this format. The A’s first baseman carries legitimate 40 HR/100 RBI potential as he enters his age-27 season. Bohm was extremely impressive last year in his first taste of the big leagues and should continue to be a steady four-category contributor hitting in a strong lineup and a favorable home ballpark. Seager is boring but boring is good when it costs only two bucks and includes no fewer than 20 homers.

Middle Infielders: Mike Moustakas ($14), Javier Baez ($15), Cesar Hernandez ($2)

Moose has been a longtime favorite of mine as he always seems to be undervalued. He was valued just right this year as $14 was my limit. If Moustakas can stay healthy, he should have no trouble getting back to his 25+ HR ways. I had not planned on drafting Baez but $15 seems like a solid discount coming off a disastrous shortened season. Hernandez should be helpful in the OBP and runs departments while chipping in a few steals. I drafted Jonathan Schoop in the reserve rounds so if it doesn’t work out with Hernandez, I can always bench or drop him, sacrificing OBP in exchange for added power.

Outfielders and Utility: Ronald Acuna Jr. ($51), Michael Conforto ($24), Manuel Margot ($8), Joc Pederson ($3), Lorenzo Cain ($2), Jackie Bradley Jr. ($1)

Drafting either Acuna or Mookie Betts was the main goal in the early going and while I went a few dollars over the $48 I had budgeted for Acuna, I won’t second-guess anchoring my roster with the consensus #1 overall fantasy pick. I paid exactly what I planned on paying for Conforto, who like Matt Olson, sees a value spike in OBP leagues. The 28-year-old’s combination of a high floor with upside was too good to pass up for $24. I paid a bit more than I would have liked for Margot, but I was short in speed and he was the best SB option still on the board. It seems like Margot has been around for awhile but he’s still only 26. Can he carry over his postseason success into 2021? I sure hope so. Add Pederson to the list of players I would not have drafted if this were a batting average league but did not hesitate to grab for three bucks. A career .230 hitter, Pederson’s career OBP is .336. He’s a 25-HR lock with regular playing time. Cain and Bradley Jr. aren’t exciting but both could be multi-category assets, though Cain’s quad injury is concerning.

Starting Pitchers: Max Scherzer ($28), Jose Berrios ($20), Zack Wheeler ($15), Dallas Keuchel ($4), Taijuan Walker ($3), Caleb Smith ($2)

I fully expected all of the upper-tier (let’s say top-10) starting pitchers to go for at least $30, so when the bidding for Scherzer stalled at $27, I figured I’d price enforce and go to $28. Little did I know that I’d end up winning him for that price. My plan was to spend somewhere in the $30-$32 range for one of the younger aces, like Aaron Nola, Walker Buehler, Lucas Giolito or Luis Castillo, so I’m a little uneasy about the Scherzer buy considering the age/health risk and the disappointing 2020 showing. But he still has the ability to miss a ton of bats and the track record is obviously superb. I do like the price, which allows for plenty of profit. Still, when Nola later went for only $26 and Castillo for $24, I wasn’t thrilled. The 26-year-old Berrios is the pitching version of Michael Conforto in that he offers an appealing floor/ceiling combination. He also pitches in a favorable division and a strong supporting lineup should maximize his win total. Wheeler was actually my fallback SP2 choice behind Berrios and I valued him at exactly $15. Thanks to saving some money at other spots, I was able to grab him as my SP3. The K-rate drop is strange but Wheeler did lower his walk rate last year while significantly reducing his home run rate. Keuchel is boring but I felt he was a good fit in my rotation as an innings-eating veteran who could provide helpful ratios. And what’s not to love about the roughly eight combined starts versus the Royals and Tigers? Walker is an injury risk but I liked what I saw from him last year and it sounds like he’s fired up to pitch for the Mets. Smith is a total wild card as he could be an ERA/WHIP liability, but the strikeouts are nice. He might end up on the waiver wire if he gets off to a rough start.

Relief Pitchers: Brad Hand ($14), Jordan Hicks ($7), Daniel Bard ($2)

Raisel Iglesias and Ryan Pressly were my preferred choices for my top closer but both went for $19, which was a bit too steep of a price for my liking. Hand’s stat line last season was exceptional but there are concerns about diminished velocity, which explains his lower price. Still, the new Washington closer’s job security entering the year is fairly strong, and I was able to grab Tanner Rainey in the reserve rounds as insurance. Hicks is a guy who could either be a top-5 closer or a setup man for the majority of the season. We just don’t know. But for $7, I’ll take a shot. I haven’t had too much luck with Rockies closers (I drafted Wade Davis in Tout last year) but due to the uncertainty surrounding Hicks, I thought it was important to secure a third source of saves. Bard is one of the few non-elite closers who will open the season as his team’s clear-cut ninth-inning man. If he can hold onto the job long enough to collect 20 saves, it would be wonderful.

Reserves: Logan Gilbert, Jonathan Schoop, Mitch Keller, Tanner Rainey, Joey Wendle, Gregory Polanco

Gilbert might be the most MLB-ready among the game’s top starting pitching prospects, so I didn’t think twice about adding him to my roster. Schoop could very well replace Cesar Hernandez as my starting MI early in the season if I need the power upgrade. Keller has ace-caliber stuff but has yet to figure things out at the big-league level. Perhaps this will be the year? Rainey is a handcuff to Hand (yes, that was intentional) while Wendle is a handy player to have since he’s eligible at second base, third base and shortstop and can swipe a few bags. Once upon a time, Polanco was supposed to be the next five-category fantasy star. That’s not happening but he’s a low-risk/medium-reward gamble.

I’ll have a much better idea if this team is a contender in about a month but the good news is there aren’t any glaring holes. Perhaps I’m short a 15+ SB guy but I should at least be competitive in the category. Power won’t be a problem and I avoided drafting too many OBP drains. On the pitching side, I’ll begin the season with three closers and while the back half of my starting rotation is somewhat shaky, it isn’t any more shaky than most of the other teams in this deep mixed league.

Thanks to the entire Tout Wars board (Peter Kreutzer, Todd Zola, Ron Shandler, Jeff Erickson, Brian Walton) for organizing the second, and hopefully final, remote version of Tout weekend.

Click here to see the results of all the Tout Wars drafts.

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