10 team AL only. Was kind of standard 5x5 (substitute OBP for R), but for some reason they decided to drop one of the catchers, one outfielder, and one pitcher; though the $260 cap remained the same.
Due to some pretty nice keepers going in (in bold) we were able to pull kind of a Stars and Scrubs / Spread the Wealth hybrid. Check it out:
Pos Name $$
C J.P. Arencibia 3
1B Adam Dunn 38
2B Chone Figgins 20
3B Adrian Beltre 20
SS Alexei Ramirez 15
MI Dustin Ackley 5
CI Mike Napoli 13
OF Nick Swisher 15
OF Delmon Young 15
OF Carlos Quentin 14
OF Jason Kubel 15
UT Peter Bourjos 7
P Dan Haren 32 (Topper)
P Michael Pineda 9
P Rick Porcello 7
P Jake McGee 7
P Brandon League 8
P Chris Sale 7
P Alexi Ogando 3
P Marc Rzepczynski 0
R Joba Chamberlain 0
R Chris Getz 0
R Lorenzo Cain 0
R Ryan Kalish 0
R Tyson Ross 0
R Martin Perez 1
R Jacob Turner 2
R Mike Trout 4
There was very little high-end pitching available in the pool. We had Haren last year so we topped him to be sure we'd get an ace. At 1B, there were Miggy, Tex, AGone, Dunn, D Lee and Ka'a...
ARod, Bautista, Ortiz, Vlady, Reynolds, and Vic Mart (kinda?) rounded out the remaining big boppers. With the power base we had kept, C, 1B, 2B, MI, and UT to fill on offense, we needed speed. But not at 1B, so we first budgeted 40 for that spot, bidding on Miggy, Tex, and Agone, but hoping to get Dunn for the under. Blam!
Its unorthodox maybe, but I figured we'd use UT along with 2B and MI to grab speed. This league hates catchers, so if you wait long enough, sometimes you can get a guy like Arencibia late for 3... which, along with the savings from Dunn allowed us to splurge on Ackley a bit, also knowing I was targeting Getz's wheels late on the cheap. For the UT I considered Ellsbury long and hard. But instead figured we could try a $20 freeze bid on Chone Figgins for 2B, and wait on a guy like... Bourjos later. Figgins went for 19 last year... projections had him at 25. Blam!
The pitching was crazy. There really wasn't any. Lot's reserved. Haren went for 2 more then we really didn't want to have to pay in the first place. But, we had Pineda at 15 (custom projections to our league with reserves etc.) so getting him at 9 felt good. Then we just kinda walked down the pitching budget, picking guys up one at a time for what was a good value, or something we felt had upside. Particularly with the middle relievers. We targeted a crap ton of flamethrowers hoping to strike gold. It's not real pretty, but given the very few options and the money we were able to save for the end game, I think we can manage that staff pretty well.
And that was some endgame. Trout, Perez, Turner, Ogando, Ackley (kinda). We should be able to turn that into pitching come June.
Thoughts, critiques, random bits of wit?
Team projected totals from the site projections:
259 HR, 971 RBI, 176 SB, .271 BA, .343 OBP
71 W, 58 SV, 964 K, 3.70 ERA, 1.27 WHIP