Month: March 2018

Meet Your 2018 National League Auction Tout Warriors

The National League auction is Saturday March 17 at 10 AM ET.

Here are your participants (give them a follow), listed in order of last season’s finish. The reserve rounds follow this same order.

1. Grey Albright (1st in 2017 National League Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: RazzBall
Years in Tout Wars: 6 (2017 National League Auction Champion)
Twitter: @razzball

2. Tristan Cockcroft (2nd in 2017 National League Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: ESPN Fantasy
Years in Tout Wars: 12 (2012, 2013, 2014 NL Champion)
Twitter: @SultanofStat

3. Brian Walton (3rd in 2017 National League Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: CreativeSports2
Years in Tout Wars: 15 (2009 NL Champion)
Twitter: @B_Walton

4. Scott Wilderman (4th in 2017 National League Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: OnRoto
Years in Tout Wars: 18 (2003, 2006 NL Champion)

5. Phil Hertz (5th in 2017 National League Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: BaseballHQ
Years in Tout Wars: 14
Twitter: @prhz50

6. Derek Carty (6th in 2017 National League Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: RotoGrinders, ESPN Fantasy
Years in Tout Wars: 9
Twitter: @DerekCarty

7. Lenny Melnick (7th in 2017 National League Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: LennyMelnickFantasySports
Years in Tout Wars: 16 (2002 NL Champion with partner Irwin Zwilling)
Twitter: @LennyMelnick

8. Mike Gianella (8th in 2017 National League Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: Baseball Prospectus
Years in Tout Wars: 9 (2015 NL Champion)
Twitter: @MikeGianella

9. Andy Behrens (9th in 2017 National League Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: Yahoo! Fantasy Sports
Years in Tout Wars: 9
Twitter: @andybehrens

10. Steve Gardner (10th in 2017 National League Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: USAToday Fantasy Sports
Years in Tout Wars: 9
Twitter: @SteveAGardner

11. Todd Zola (11th in 2017 National League Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: Mastersball, Rotowire, ESPN Fantasy Sports
Years in Tout Wars: 14 (2016 NL Champion)
Twitter: @toddzola

12. Craig Mish (12th in 2017 National League Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio
Years in Tout Wars: 3
Twitter: @CraigMish

Follow along with the live spreadsheet here.

We hope to see you on Twitter with the #nltoutauction hashtag, on the Tout Wars Facebook page and the SiriusXM Fantasy Facebook page.

Meet Your 2018 Mixed Auction Tout Warriors

The Mixed Tout Wars auction will be Saturday, March 17 at 9 AM ET.

Here are your participants (give them a Twitter follow), listed in order of last season’s finish. The reserve rounds follow this same order.

1. Jeff Zimmerman (1st in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: Fangraphs and Fantrax
Years in Tout Wars: 3 (2017 Mixed Auction Champion, 2016 H2H Champion)
Twitter: @jeffwzimmerman

2. Fred Zinkie (2nd in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Auction)

Years in Tout Wars: 8 (2011, 2013, 2015 Mixed Auction Champion)
Twitter: @FredZinkieMLB

3. Zach Steinhorn (3rd in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Auction)Affiliation:

CreativeSports2 and MLB.com
Years in Tout Wars: 7 (2016 Mixed Auction Champion)
Twitter: @zachsteinhorn

4. Ron Shandler (4th in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: RonShandler.com
Years in Tout Wars: 21 (1998 and 2000 AL Champion. 1998 NL Champion)
Twitter: @RonShandler

5. Al Melchior (5th in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: FNTSY Radio, Fantrax
Years in Tout Wars: 6
Twitter: @almelchiorbb

6. Bret Sayre (6th in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: Baseball Prospectus
Years in Tout Wars: 3 (2015 Tout X Champion)
Twitter: @BretSayreBP

7. Ray Flowers (1000) (7th in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: Fantasy Guru Elite
Years in Tout Wars: 7
Twitter: @BaseballGuys

8. Brent Hershey (8th in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Auction)
Affiliation: BaseballHQ
Years in Tout Wars: 6
Twitter: @BrentHQ

9. Joe Pisapia (9th in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: FNTSY Radio
Years in Tout Wars: 4
Twitter: @JoePisapia17

10. Scott Engel (10th in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: RotoExperts, FNTSY Radio
Years in Tout Wars: 6
Twitter: @scotteRotoEx

11. Scott Swanay (11th in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: FantasyBaseballSherpa
Years in Tout Wars: 8
Twitter: @fantasy_sherpa

12. Tim Heaney (12th in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Auction)

Affiliation: Rotowire, ESPN
Years in Tout Wars: 8
Twitter: @Tim_Heaney

13. Tim McLeod (11th in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Draft)

Affiliation: PattonandCo
Years in Tout Wars: 6 (2014 Mixed Draft Champion)
Twitter: @TimothyLMc

14. Derek VanRiper (14th in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Draft)

Affiliation: Rotowire
Years in Tout Wars: 8 (2014 Mixed Draft Champion)
Twitter: @DerekVanRiper

15. Scott Pianowski (15th in 2017 Mixed Tout Wars Draft)

Affiliation: Yahoo! Fantasy Sports
Years in Tout Wars: 15
Twitter: @Scott_Pianowski

Follow along with the live spreadsheet here.

We hope to see you on Twitter with the #mixedtoutauction hashtag, on the Tout Wars Facebook page and the SiriusXM Fantasy Facebook page.

How To Cross A Border: Extreme Vetting Edition

Tim McLeod is on his way to New York City for his first in-person Tout Wars auction. Tim did win Tout Mixed Draft a while back.

He posted a story about crossing the border from his native Canada into New York State today on Facebook.

The price of Francisco Mejia just went up $3.

 

Coming Up! Tout Weekend 2018

Tout Weekend is fast approaching. This year teams competing in the four Tout Wars auction leagues will need the luck of the Irish, as all four auctions are taking place on March 17. Yes, St. Patrick’s Day.

The location is Richmond County Bank Ballpark, home of the Staten Island Yankees. In the home dressing and exercise rooms, particularly.

The schedule:

Tout Wars Party: Friday March 16, 2018. 7pm at Foleys NY, at 18 West 33rd Street. Come one, come all.

Tout Mixed Auction: Saturday March 17, 2018. 9am at RCBB. Auctioneer: Jeff Erickson

Tout NL: Saturday March 17, 2018. 10am at RCBB. Auctioneer: Brian Feldman

Tout AL: Saturday March 17, 2018. 3pm at RCBB. Auctioneer: Joe Pisapia

Tout H2H: Saturday March 17, 2018. 4pm at RCBB. Auctioneer: Todd Zola

SiriusXM Fantasy Sports will be carrying live coverage of the four auctions, which can also be followed live on the auction spreadsheet (link to come), and Twitter (@toutwars).

The event will be open to a limited number of guests. If you’re interested in attending, let a Tout know. Only people on the guest list will be admitted to the park. There will be food and drinks available for purchase by guests.

Thanks to the Yankees for inviting us, and Andrea LaMont and Lenny Melnick for working out the details.

LINK: Jeff Zimmerman, two-time Tout Champ, looks at the stats teams can buy on waivers

We missed this FanGraphs’ piece from February, which uses Tout Wars 2017 stats to ask and answer the question of how many stats do teams find in their original rosters, and how much is added later?

It’s well worth a read.

 

Tout Warrior Steve Moyer Has Died

Thats Steve all the way to the right, at the 2016 NL auction. He was tracking the auction on the spreadsheet.

Steve Moyer never won a Tout Wars title, but he was there at the leagues’ founding in 1998, and his contributions were an important part of Tout’s history. In 2001 we held the AL and NL auctions in his baseball memorabilia-filled basement in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. Why? Because he thought we should, and he was right.

We have set up a GoFundMe to benefit Steve’s two daughters. Please feel free to contribute if you’re so moved, or to share it if you cannot. Thanks.

You can read memorials by Lawr Michaels and Peter Kreutzer at rockremnants.com, and by Ron Shandler and Steve Gardner and no doubt others on Facebook. The official obituary is here.

Tout Wars Mixed Draft 2018 is Finished!

It was a super fast draft, completed in less than three hours. Four hundred and thirty five players were selected. Todd Zola barely had time to spell the names right in the spreadsheet.

You can see the spreadsheet, by round and by position, here.

Round ups by: DJ Short | Scott White | Adam Ronis (podcast) and part 2 | Rudy Gamble |

Projected standings are in:

Davenport
BaseballHQ

 

Fantasy Pros

Read all the comments @toutwars on Twitter.

Tout Mixed Draft is Underway!

The Draft is underway. Somewhere out there SiriusXM has promo codes so you can listen in for free for the next three days without any sort of registration.

I’ll post if I can find them. But they’re out there.

And there is plenty of chatter on Twitter. Look for @ToutWars or #MixedToutDraft.

Follow the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Lz06T4W8lkofWs3tcnWOvPIPV84QdSoU0lwD3YnuCgk/htmlview?sle=true#gid=0