Category: Tout Mixed

May 13 FAAB Report, from Mastersball.com, and Ron Shandler on the AL list

Excellent list of the bids, accompanied by interesting commentary about them by the Mastersball gang.

Ron Shandler finds some Oldies but maybe goodies on this week’s AL Waiver Wire, in his USA Today column.

Tout Wars Auction Weekend: The Results Are In!

The spreadsheet is here, with all four league’s results. (Look for the tabs on the bottom or top of the page.

Comments on the auctions by the participants:

NL: Rotoman * Liss * Gardner * Melnick * Liss on YouTube (with Erickson) * Zola * Carty * Gianella

AL: Collette * Erickson * Siano * Berry * Erickson on YouTube (with Liss) * Behrens * Leibowitz * Michaels * Shandler

Mixed: Sherpa * Cory Schwartz’s Tout Ahem Projected Standings * Mack * Schwartz * Zinkie * Flowers * Gonos * Steinhorn * Minnix * Heaney
 * Davitt
By others:

AL: Faketeams

NL: Rotoworld * faketeams

Both: Faketeams Shadowdrafts AL and NL Tout

Mixed: Ryan Carey Shadowdrafts *

If you’ve posted about the Tout Wars auctions (or draft) and don’t see a link here, please send it to webmaster (at) toutwars.com. Thanks.

Dave Gonos’s Mixed Auction Values

Foolish or famous?

That’s the question Dave Gonos asks as he publishes his mixed league dollar values the day before the Tout Wars Mixed Auction takes place in New York City. Want to follow along and see if Dave backs up his cheat sheet? See them here.

baseballHQ radio

philcoHost Patrick Davitt talks with fellow Tout Warrior Fred Zinkie, mixed champ of 2011, about minimalist drafting, surprises at LABR mixed, and players to watch and avoid in ’13.

Lord Zola’s Knights Take on Tout Wars Mixed’s New OBP Rule

936full-knights-of-the-round-table-posterThe merry band (and Rotoman) joust about improving the fantasy game, aggressively, passively, or just right, pleasing the average fantasy player, and incorporating better metrics, at KFFL.

Derek Carty says, Not so fast!

Rotoman agrees with Derek, and thinks he’s wrong.

In a group email list among Tout Warriors, a spirited discussion breaks out. Steve Gardner’s story in USA Today does a good job of explaining some of the issues involved.

Rotoman takes a look at what hitters would gain most in value by the change to OBP.

Tristan Cockcroft doesn’t mention Tout Wars, but he does propose changing the roto categories. His idea? 6×6 roto, with OBP and SLG replacing BA, IP and K/9 replacing Strikeouts, and Quality Starts replacing Wins. You can disagree and appreciate his thoughtfulness on the subject.

In a story that may be behind the paywall at Rotowire, Jason Collette looks at the game’s declining Batting Averages in recent years, and the fantasy implications. In the comments a spirited discussion breaks out about the pros and cons of replacing BA with OBP. In sum, lots of support for the idea of it. Some skepticism about the receptiveness of the general fantasy public to the change.

2013 Rule Changes in Tout Wars

Two rules are being changed in Tout Wars this year:

1) The threshold below which the FAAB Bidding is not treated using the Vickrey rules (winning bid is reduced to $1 more than the second-highest bid) has been reduced from $10 to $5.

2) In Mixed League only this year, the BA (batting average) hitting category is being changed to OBP (on-base percentage).

The general consensus is that Vickrey is a good thing when there is real competition for a player, but in the week-to-week FAAB contests too often one team will really value a player and no one else will. Reducing the price down to $1 is like a gift to those teams. The $10 threshold has worked well to force thoughtful bids, but it is the goal to find the best balance, and so we’re trying $5 this year. If there are no other bids than the winning bid of more than $5, the winning bid will be reduced to $5.

Sabermetrics tells us that a walk is nearly as good as a hit, and many leagues are using OBP rather than BA because it values the base on balls. One of Tout Wars’ mission is to adopt new rules that improve the game. The member of the LLC have all played with OBP as a category for 10 years now in the XFL, and can honestly say: Try it, you’ll like it!