Post Tout Wars Auction/Draft Write Ups 2020: Get Em Here.

Here are some links to what the Tout had to say about their teams.

AL: Colton/Wolf | Podhorzer | Gianella | Bloomfield/Dennis/Davitt (article) | Bloomfield/Dennis/Davitt (podcast) | Liss | Collette |
|Bender |

NL: Walton | Mason (live stream of auction) | Mason | Hertz (for BBhq members only) | Kreutzer | Albright | Cockcroft | Hertz (for everyone) | Gardner | Zola | Zinkie (podcast) |

Mixed Draft: Short | Ronis | Gamble | White |

Mixed Auction: Pisapia | Melchior (podcast w VanRiper) | VanRiper (podcast w Melchior) | Zimmerman | Karabell | Hershey | VanRiper (podcast with Kahn and Nando DiFino) | Sayre | Swanay | McCaffrey/Pianowski (podcast) | Zimmerman ($1 player analysis) | Pianowski | Steinhorn |

Draft and Hold: Stein | Hegglund| Sedler | Anderson/Harrison (podcast) |

Head to Head: Link | Chamberlain | Sporer/Pollack (podcast) | Mass |
Hallam | Kahn (podcast with VanRiper and Nando DiFino) | Behrens | Cohen Pt. 1 Cohen Pt. 2 |

End Of Season Round Ups: The Touts Describe What Happened

TOUT MIXED AUCTION: Sayre | Hershey | Flowers | Steinhorn | Zimmerman | Melchior |

TOUT AL: Davitt |

TOUT NL: Hertz |

BaseballHQ did a five part series featuring Brent Hershey, Patrick Davitt, and Phil Hertz in the final weeks of their respective (Mixed Auc, AL, NL). Read them here. Part one | two | three | four | five.

TOUT MIXED DRAFT: White | Short |

Clay Link’s Head to Head Season Recap

My second year in Tout Wars H2H was a big improvement on the first.

The move to a points-based scoring system (from categories), with every out recorded being worth a point, played into my strengths as a player. I’ve found that I am better at finding an edge on the pitching side, and in this format, I was rewarded greatly (more so than in standard 5×5 leagues) for my pitching finds. I finished second, and while it’s sometimes said that second place is “first loser,” I consider this a great accomplishment given the quality of the field.

I won six consecutive matchups to close out the season and felt like I really had the league down from a roster-construction standpoint late in the year. Unfortunately for me, by the time I had the pieces in place, it was too late to catch Jake Ciely. I emerged from the auction and reserve draft with a poorly constructed roster — four hitters on my bench. By the end of the season, I did not have a single hitter on my bench, and I think that’s the way you have to play this 12-team points format. With two lineup periods per week — Monday and Friday lineup submissions — it’s important to just have a slew of arms to rotate into your lineup to maximize points. I learned to treat the waiver wire as my bench for hitters, picking up hitters only when there was a need in my starting lineup.

 

My highest scorers:

    • Justin Verlander – 732 points
    • Aaron Nola – 665 points
    • Blake Snell – 639 points
    • Carlos Santana – 466.5 points
    • Xander Bogaerts – 461 points
    • Dallas Keuchel – 440 points
    • Jesus Aguilar – 439.5 points
    • Lorenzo Cain – 430 points
    • Stephen Piscotty – 423 points
    • George Springer – 420 points
    • Tyler Anderson – 387 points

Notable pickups:

  • Steven Matz ($1)
  • Tyler Skaggs ($61)
  • Tyler Glasnow ($0)
  • Hyun-Jin Ryu ($57)
  • Willy Adames ($0)

Interestingly, James Shields, who I streamed for only one week, would have ranked 12th on my team in points had I left him in for all of his starts (384 points), highlighting the importance of innings.

Busts: Willson Contreras ($11), Nomar Mazara ($11) — not a terrible year for Mazara in standard roto leagues, but he finished with fewer points than Kyle Seager in this format — Luke Weaver ($10), Dinelson Lamet ($5), Scott Kingery ($5).

–Clay

Tout Wars 2017: What Happened?

This is the place for links to analysis of the 2017 season by the Touts. Read what they had to say before the season here. This page will be updated from time to time, as there are more submissions.

Mixed Auction: Jeff Zimmerman (winner) | Ray Flowers

AL: Mike Podhorzer (winner)

NL: Mike Gianella (this is behind the BP paywall as I post, but that should be lifted later today)

Why Jeff Erickson Came in Last in Tout Wars in 2016. By Jeff Erickson

Post mortems are tough. You try to explain your team, your thinking, your approach, and you constantly run the risk of sounding like you’re talking about your fantasy team! Which is a no-no, of course.

Jeff Erickson gives his 2016 Tout Wars team a post mortem. It was an ugly season for Jeff, and he fearless wades into the mess to explain why. SPOILER ALERT: Hitting.

But he does such good, honest job it’s worth the read to learn how to do your own post-mortem. Read it here. It’s on the free side of Rotowire.

Post Mortems: How The Touts’ Seasons Went

More recaps are on their way.

AL: Michaels

NL: Gianella (free at Baseball Prospectus)

Mix Auc: SteinhornFlowers

Mix Draft: Ronis (mp3, 10mb, interview with Nando Di Fino on FNTSY Sports Network, embedded)

H2H: Zimmerman (free at Rotowire) | Zimmerman (free at RotoGraphs) | KreutzerHershey (preseason post, he finished second, so its of interest)

Bret Sayre: How I Won Tout Wars X.

Tout Wars X Champ Bret Sayre.
Tout Wars X Champ Bret Sayre.

Let’s let Bret set the scene:

“If the entire final month left me seasick, the final weekend made me schizophrenic. In fact, it almost made me jealous of the fantasy writers who cover both baseball and football, as I would have had a healthy distraction. Almost. By the halfway point, Pat had taken the overall lead and I was staring down the barrel of what would easily have been my worst period of the entire contest. A week later, my luck had turned and my offense started hitting–pushing me to a 5.5-point lead overall and a little more comfort, which would hold until the final lineups were set on Friday. From that point on, my team’s performance became irrelevant, as Pat’s team was absolutely firing on all cylinders. My lead was down to one at the end of the day Friday and gone by the evening games on Saturday.”

You can read Bret’s story at Baseball Prospectus. It’s on the free side of the paywall.