Fantasy Baseball Auction Begins!

This year, I'm participating in the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) experts league. Pretty standard 12-team 5x5 league with two catchers, five outfielders, nine pitchers, etc. Two notable caveats: (1) three of the OF slots have to be LF, CF, and RF, and (2) lineup changes are weekly.

Another interesting aspect of the league is that it uses an online "slow" draft through Couch Managers. How this works is each team can have up to three players up for nomination at any given time. Whenever someone outbids another for a player, the auction time resets at 24 hours. So, in other words, you have to be the high bidder for a full day before you win a player! Needless to say, this can take a while...which is why we kicked it off yesterday and expect it to take at least a couple of weeks to complete.

The cool thing about that is it will allow me to give you bite-sized updates on the auction as it progresses, so you can get an idea of how players are being valued, how managers are budgeting, and what I think of it all.

So far, the following players have been purchased.

Russell Martin - $18 (Roto Rebel)
Andrew Bailey - $16 (Roto Rebel)
Albert Pujols - $50
Matt Kemp - $41
David Wright - $31
Chase Utley - $37
Alex Rodriguez - $43

My impressions? First of all I was pretty happy to get Martin at $18. Many of you know I like to get two stud catchers. As I explained in last year's article Why Catchers Matter, this not only ensures that I won't be dragged down by detrimental second-rate catchers, but it also guarantees that most other owners will. So, yeah, $18 is a small price to pay. Besides, getting a top-four player at any position for $18 has to be considered a bargain. Joe Mauer is sitting at $33 right now, and I'm debating whether to bid $34. I might be better off targeting Victor Martinez, Brian McCann, or Matt Weiters for less and using the savings elsewhere.

I was also surprised to land Bailey for just $16. I was planning on picking up some lesser closers like Trevor Hoffman or Jose Valverde for that price, so this was a bonus.

As for the other guys, I think $50 is too high for one player--even Pujols--in a league with 30-man rosters...especially if that guy plays the deepest position. This dude spent 15 percent of his budget on three percent of his roster. It's not surprising, though. In fact, I nominated Pujols in hopes that someone would exhaust a nice chunk of their funds on him. Utley, Kemp, and A-Rod also cost too much.

Wright could be a good value at $31, but I opted not to challenge that bid, because I believe I can get decent production at third for considerably less.

More updates to come....