ottoneu Auction Analysis Contest

Two weeks ago, Eno Sarris ran a series of posts asking you, dear readers, to analyze some fantasy questions and offered you a subscription to the FanGraphs+ 2012.

Today, at the behest of Niv Shah – the Abner Doubleday of ottoneu (except, you know, without the doubts that he is actually the man behind the game) – I present to you an opportunity to win a free $9.99 ottoneu team for 2012. All you have to do is tell us who you think was the worst value in the original ottoneu auction that happened this past weekend.

This Google Doc spreadsheet has a tab for each of the teams in that league, with their full rosters and a column called “Auction Order.” Basically, if this column has a number (say, 37) it tells you when this player was nominated in our auction (say, 37th); if it has an N/A, the player was kept from 2011.

To get you started, here are a couple of what I consider to be the best values from our 7th annual auction:

Jason Heyward ($36) and Joe Mauer ($19)

An odd couple, I know, but I think these were great pick-ups by Gerbils on Speed. We talked about this team earlier in the off-season and looked at their focus on 2013. Heyward and Mauer are coming off down years (or injuries) and their values are low. I haven’t seen either of them go this high in auctions so far. But when 2013 is your goal, grabbing guys like this can pay off in a big way. If these guys reach the level they could reach, they could be top-tier talents at their positions, and command salaries much higher than these, making them values for 2013. Even failing that, small bounce backs should make them stellar trade candidates later this Summer. And if they flop? The Gerbils can cut’em loose without having lost much.

Mat Latos ($23)

I’ve mentioned a couple times this off-season that you should all expect inflation in year two. Well, by year seven, that grows. With only a few solid SP out there (among my top 25, Clayton Kershaw, Jered Weaver and Ian Kennedy were free agents via the arbitration process, so teams held $5 coupons on them, while Tim Lincecum, Josh Johnson, Chris Carpenter, and Latos were the only four true free agents), prices for SP were sky-high. Kershaw broke $60, Linecum was over $50, Weaver cracked $40, Johnson and Carpenter went for $30 and $29, respectively, and the winning bid on Kennedy was $25 (salary is $20 after the coupon). Yet the Tigerblood Warlocks managed to nab Latos for less than any of them (significantly less than most). His transition to Cincinnati may be tough, but the potential to have a $23 stud is high.

So what were the worst values? Get your answers in by 7:00 p.m. PT (that’s right, I am refusing to adhere to your East Coast bias by using ET) and we’ll pick a winner!