Owner Thread: BAUM

[BaumThreat]

Thats right its just another Baum Threat...:2guns:




C: B. Santiago $2
C:

1: D Lee $10
3: A Boone $13
C: Lowell $5

2: E. Young $15
SS: A. Gonzalez (CHI) $7
M: P. Reese $9

O: Jordan $11
O: Rios $12
O: Finley $12
O: Patterson $10
O: Goodwin $7

U: A Ochoa $3

P: Leiter $18
P: Person $16
P: Astacio $20
P: Kile $20
P:
P: C Fox $14
P: Gordon $15
P: Mesa $16
P:Graves $21

[BaumThreat]

In every auction you must be prepared to change strategies during the course of the proceedings but I like to have a plan going in. The plan for this auction will be revolutionary (well kinda)

The strategy is to punt BA and dominate the other categories. Gettting 2 closers, 2 stud starters on pitching and then backfilling cheap. Offensively we will be going for the guys that other owners shy away from because of the horrible things they do to Team BA.

My assumption is that Todd Hundley HR's will come cheaper than other HR's. That Damien Jackson's SB come cheaper than other SB's.

I will be abandoning the 70/30 split and aiming for a 60/40 split. Will it work? Probably not but it should be exciting to try (hey and its free after all)

[BaumThreat]

Thru first two rounds Im in a familiar position - no players and $260 - the expected over bidding is going on $41 for Piazza for example. I'm actually happy that no one is being able to slip real bargains thru even though I am not price enforcing at all.

My only hope for a 2nd round pick was Morris at $22 which I would be overjoyed with but doubt that bid will hold.

My callouts continue to be catchers for the simple reason that I feel some of the top catchers will be some of the most overpaid and I have my sights set on some lower teir catchers I consider bargains.

So far so good...some teams which are spending a lot of money in the first few rounds will have to slow down and thus open the door for some bargains.

[BaumThreat]

Round 3

I am really liking the way cash flowed out of the other owners pockets in Round Two...bodes very well for the future...actaully have 2 players targeted in Round 3 that we might have a chance of landing... Tom Goodwin and Ben Petrick...both of these guys averages stink to hog heaven...Petrick may not be gotten for the $5 bid since he is still in Colorado and has been hyped so much. Goodwin I think we should be able to land with the $7 bid as he doesnt even have a starting job assured and his average wont be getting better anytime soon.Would really be happy to land Petrick as it would play into the strategy of pushing catchers with my call outs

[BaumThreat]

Well I said at the beginning that you have to be flexible. I was thinking this would be a deep and highly competitive league...and of course it may still turn out that way BUT...I am fighting hard the urge to dump the BA strategy and just bargain shop. Thru 4 rounds all but 4 or 5 players have been overbid --quite a few drastically. Two teams are already effectively non-players in this draft and a few others are certainly watching their purse strings carefully. With so so many good players left to be taken those with the cash will be those with the power.

Add to this the fact that we have now missed out on some players which were going to be key to our strategy -- Lost on Kevin Young by $1, lost on Hundley, while this doesnt break my strategy completely since this money could easily be shifted to quality outfields with less than stellar averages.

What to do from here? Simple keep letting the money drain for another round or three...soon many owners will be simply unable to bid on high dollar players lest they get stck in the $35 for 14 spots quandry from which there is no escape. Although we may win a few players in round 5 (since my bids are in already before I decided to switch strategies) I will now be bringing up mid level guys since it seems almost any player brought up right now it being overpaid for...

Oh how I wish all my leagues were like this!

[KingFish]

my strategy is to get rid of the wild reactionary bids now before I get in a for real draft. I have too many of those coming up to not enjoy the big bids now!:biggrin:

[BaumThreat]

Okay K-Fish Ill buy that excuse I guess but I hope you show more self-control in your real leagues $46 for 17 picks? That has 10th place written all over it :cool:

I'll even offer up a suggestion for ya...save a little money for a closer....

:angel2:

And HEY you aint supposed to be peeking at my team thread ;)

[KingFish]

We don need no stinkin closers.

[BaumThreat]

Ho Hum more of the same....the overpaying is getting less and less, people are getting a little more realistic but still paying in the upper 30's for players now will come back to haunt them later.

Picked up Patterson for $10 normally I would stay away from over-hyped Cubs rookies but this guy has already been handed the starting job and should be able to go 15-50-15 even if he bats .250 so he fits in nice for the game plan....next round has a bunch of stud closers in it and a couple nice outfielders...hoping we can sneak a closer out of the deal here cheap

[BaumThreat]

Round 6 went by with us missing out on 3 top of the line closers...people still spending like crazy. Round 7 netted us a real bargain Danny Graves for $21...originally I had scribbled down a budget that would allow for a $20 and a $15 closer...this will not be a problem -- in fact if I had to bet I would say I might leave the draft with 3 clsoers since I think they will become even cheaper as the rounds pass by...when hording money remember this...once you get set in a position or a category THEN you start to price enforce it...some owners simply do not have the funds left to get closers and they will be forced to trade all that expensive stud hitting they bought earlier for a closer (any closer) after the season starts...I wouldnt be in any hurry to make the deal though since my offense will be competitive anyway and nothing like building up a nice lead over the field in a category like saves -- will also give me time to figure out WHERE I might want to add some offense (SB, HR, RBI's)

Round 8 and people brought out some truely crappy pitchers...Scott Elarton? Ashby? Daal? maybe in this was the 2000 draft...but now this year.

[BaumThreat]

Al Leiter for the same as Farnsworth? Person for $16?

The deals are coming thru now...Those are both 1st starters for teams...need to lock down some hitting deals but really looks like we will have more pitching than expected as I plan on landing another closer and 2 (YES TWO) more ace pitchers on my staff.

Hitting will have no stars but should have starters at EVERY position...cathcer is the only one I'm concerned with (of course that can be expected) and the biggest problem for my OF is deciding which players I want before filling up all my spots.

Looking good!! Time has run out on some owners and I will now be bringing up players I am targeting for the end game. -- You might think I am doing this early but there are a few owners with money left and I dont want to get into a bidding war on the lat 2nd baseman (for instance) so the time to strike is now when there are still 3 or 4 nice ones available

[BaumThreat]

More nice bargains in ROUND 10...Mesa for 16 cheapest closer so far? A Boone for 13 ...luv that one...Finley for $12 he will earn that and possibly more

15 spots left with $135...no problems there, plenty of good players left...this is the pivotal point in the auction for me...getting the top players left while still keeping enuff money to backfill the players I want and not the players I get stuck with.

[BaumThreat]

Eric Young for $15 Jordan for $11 (didnt really wanna fill that last OF spot but hey it is still a nice bargain)..Gordon for $15...WOW!

Starting to watch the money a little closer and targeting very specific players now....

[BaumThreat]

Derrick Lee for $10? Sometimes life is good...this end game will be fun...still plenty of good middle infielders and starting pitchers left....I will not be spending a lot on Cathcers obviously

[BaumThreat]

Added Reese for $9 and Ochoa for $3...obviously if i knew people would overspend like this I would have passed on Goodwin and Patterson and not be shut out of OF's so early...but on the positive side I can now pick the players I want including 4 pitchers...will pick up Fox giving me 4 closers and plenty of trade bait for help in any hitting category i might need....still 4 or 5 starters out there I would take so just need to decide on 3.

Cathcers will be $1 crapshoots which is what I expected going in.

All in all will turn out to be a nice draft...solid starting pitching, excess closers to trade...bargain hitting. Gives me a chance to win with a few breaks and good moves I think.

[BaumThreat]

Added another 2 everyday players to the roster for a total of $12...Alex Gonzales and Mike Lowell...

Just gotta finish up the Pichers and catchers now..still $60 left....I know some people would worry about finsihing with money left over but I dont mind if it means I get to PICK the last 10 or so players I want :biggrin:

[BaumThreat]

Add my 4th closer and only have a 5th starter spot and 2nd cathcer to fill...the 4 closers will allow me lots of trading room in-season....a few owners have no closers at all and they should all have plenty of interest =)

I think 1 thru 4 I have the best starters in the league...others may dispute that but I am really happy with em.

The only real mistakes were actually spending money too early ( I know there are some owners having a hard time believing that statement but read on) If I hadnt gotten Patterson and Goodwin early for a combined $17 I could have probably filled in late with 2 BETTER outfielders for around $6-7 and had another $10 which would have upgraded another position...Probably could have gotten a little more aggressive in the hunt for for SPers like Russ Ortiz, Wade Miller or even Vazquez. But the fact that there were still sooo many good (or at least servicable) ones left led me to a more conservative approach.

So what did we learn? :confused: Well not too much we didnt already know...didnt really get a chance to test the "punt BA" theory simply because everyone overpaid for the first ohh 9 rounds?!? Normally I will see 1 or 2 owners run themselves out of money (and thus out of the competition) but this time is was 6 or more...made the end game pretty easy although GEEK played it skillfully (or course in my defense this was my first "email" auction -- and I gotta think if it were done in person I woulda stuck him with someone when trying to price enforce me and then he would been in the $2 max bid boat also) :eviltongu

All in all I think we are in the money and with some good years outta some players we got and a few trades and pickups we could easily win this league.