CBS Industry League AL Only Auction

Many years ago, before I ever dreamed of becoming a fantasy sports analyst, I dreamed of competing in industry leagues. I had no idea how people were chosen and no idea how exclusive they were, but I had a dream that one day I would win Tout Wars, LABR, or CBS. I never thought it would actually happen, but when I joined the industry in 2014, that dream returned. I then learned that there were tons of industry leagues. Many were not exclusive, but those big three were. I figured it would take me the better part of a decade to get in. So, I started my own, the Bay Area Roto Fantasy league (BARF), which drafts its second season in about ten days. However, I still dreamed of being in one of the big three.

Then last week, something happened. Paul Sporer had to drop out of the CBS league and in a magnanimous show of faith, he chose to throw it out to the entire Rotographs staff and see if anyone could do it. I proceeded to call “dibs”. The “dibs” was not challenged, as that would be against the modus operandi of the code. The torch had been passed to me. It was a moment that I will never forget.

So, on Monday morning, I sat down and turned on my Facebook live, which you can find own my public Facebook profile if you want to watch the 4+ hour broadcast, and prepared to take on some of the industries best.

League Participants:

This was a 12-team, AL Only auction league. It uses standard 5×5 and roster positions. There was a seven round reserve determined by a snake draft.

Some Background:

As I briefly mentioned above, I did a Facebook live during the entire mock. Technically, I did two because there is a four hour time limit on them. I thought this would be a fun way to interact with people as I did the auction and also would keep my mind fresh since I had worked a graveyard the night before and would obviously be tired. I am lucky in this regard because I am a virtual unknown and only one person, Tim McLeod, from the league was currently following me on twitter or was a friend of mine on Facebook, though Clay Link did follow me halfway through the auction. At the beginning I used a mixture of Fangraphs Depth Charts projections for the auction calculator and Rotowire’s projection software as a starting point for my values, but later on used mostly the FG Depth Charts that I made a few changes to, as I touch on later. It was a fun experience, but definitely led to a misstep or two.

My strategy:

I went back and read some of last couple of year’s write ups and examined the results. I also talked with Baseball Prospectus writer and a must follow on twitter Mike Gianella. He mentioned to me that people in the CBS leagues were very aggressive and tended to lean more towards the stars and scrubs approach. The write ups I read confirmed this. He also warned me that while holding back and waiting for deals can be a successful strategy, it can be difficult to pull off with a league like this and the last thing you want to do is eat a bunch of money.

Typically, in an auction I come in with a set plan and then adjust from there. I am a big fan of outside the box strategies. However, since it was my first year in the league I decided to play it a bit more straightforward and not go crazy. Next year though, watch out! My plan was simple.

I would try and spend around 70% of my budget on hitting and 30% on pitching.

I was going to let the auction come to me. Look for the deals, but be willing to pay full price or $1 to $2 more than my values if need be. I would not overpay on guys because of positional or categorical scarcity.

I would attempt to stay balanced and limit my $1 players.

I would push hard to make sure I got a top tier 1st baseman, since I have the belief that it is the shallowest position in fantasy this year (outside of catcher.)

I would make a huge push for Jose Altuve, but would not spend more than $1-2 over my price.

I would get an elite starter that has no questions (i.e. Chris Sale, Corey Kluber.)

I did not want catchers that gave negative value.

The Auction:

The pace was a lot like the time I spent in the Army. There was a lot of hurry up and wait. There were some issues people had with their browsers and we had to stop and pause a bunch. This worked to my advantage early because it gave me time to adjust values and talk things out in the Facebook live. However, as the auction went on, fatigue from not having slept set in.

The advice given to me by Gianella was accurate and worse than I could possibly imagine. The majority of the league went with a stars and scrubs approach and the bidding was outrageous at points. Saves and stolen bases were at an expensive premium. People spent a ton early. I knew this would lead to deals, but I also didn’t want to be left out of certain positions and categories in spite of my above stated strategy. For the most part, I stayed true to my strategy as you will see below.

My Team:

How did my strategy manifest?

I spent $178 on hitting and $82 on pitching. This gave me a pretty close to a 70%/30% split. Near the end of the auction I bought Skaggs for $6 and went a few dollars over my pitching budget but I think of that as a more fluid guideline.

I did not spend more than a dollar or two over my values and did not jump into the bidding wars over speed and saves. I stayed fairly disciplined.

I also feel in spite of the stars and scrubs motif of the auction, I stayed pretty balanced. I have five $1 players, but two of them (Perkins and Thornburg) should have gone for more.

I got my elite first baseman in Miguel Cabrera. I almost bought other guys in order to drown the pool, but they always went a few bucks more than I was willing to spend.

Altuve went for $46 to the same team that drafted Mike Trout for $46. My max bid on Altuve was $42, which was $2 above my value. I hated to let him go, but I wasn’t going to break from my strategy, especially that early in the auction.

I got my elite starter. I actually got two of them. In hindsight, it may have been a mistake to buy Carrasco along with Kluber, but I couldn’t allow him to go for under my value and am ecstatic with the top of my rotation being Kluber, Carrasco and Sanchez.

Both my catchers should offer positive value as long as Wieters signs in the American league. If he doesn’t, I lost out on $5 which isn’t horrible.

My Mistakes:

I should have overspent early on elite closer. I have been a big proponent of getting one of the big three closers in mixed drafts this year and with two of them in the AL, I should have gone a few bucks over my values to make sure I got one. Chapman went for $25, which was $1 above my value and Britton went for $26, $3 above. The remaining closers all went for too much and now I will spend the season chasing saves. I feel good about my speculation picks in Perkins, Bailey, Thornburg and May, but I hate to have to waste FAAB throughout the chasing down closers.

I got distracted while talking on Facebook live and completely missed out on Bradley Zimmer, who I love. I assumed he would be a reserve pick, but Rudy Gamble snuck him past me.

I had a poor set up in terms of having my draft sheets, projection software, and Facebook live all accessible at the same time. Early into the auction, I abandoned the projection software.

I am light on speed. The prices stayed pretty high throughout the auction. I feel good that I have enough to keep me in the conversation, but I will need to hit on some of my reserve guys with speed or trade for it in season. I do like to trade, but industry leagues like this can be challenging to do so.

I didn’t grab a catcher in the reserve round in case Wieters doesn’t sign or signs in the AL. Once Perkins is put on the DL to start the year, I will remedy this.

The Rest of the League’s Teams:

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I like my team. I feel like I put together a squad that can compete in most categories and the ones where I am light, I can chase via FAAB or the trade market. I have a good mix of upside, safety, and bounce back potential. According to my values, my team was a net $53 of value. If my team can stay relatively healthy, I should be competitive.

The Facebook Live was a resounding success. Many people who watched or participated loved it. It will definitely be something I do again in the future. Possibly for the BARF league, which is a live draft and Tout Wars, which I will be attending, but not participating in the drafts?

If I am lucky enough next year, I will maybe try a more out of the box strategy, take the night off of work before the draft, and be better prepared if I do a live stream.

Again, big thanks to Paul Sporer for being too busy this year!