The rest of my strategy was to get A-Rod back (which I was able to do for a relatively reasonable $53) and to get 2 or 3 big-hitting OFs. I think I probably overpaid for Quentin at $30, but if he’s healthy, he could have a monster season (like he did in 2008). I also got Pence for $27, which I think was a good deal. Everyone said I was on “tilt” because his name came up immediately after I lost Hill, but Pence was one of the OFs I intended to try to get. I was also able to get Delmon Young for a very good price, and he is a potential sleeper because everyone has already written him off as a bust. If he stinks, then I only wasted $7, but he could be very good.

My goas were to (1) pick up 2 stud pitchers, (2) a stud 1B, (3) a stud bat… somewhere. I gave myself about $160 to solve this problem. Not exactly the toughest of tasks. Against all odds (and with two coupons), I managed to get my guys. But, in hindsight, the starting pitching was a couple of bucks less than I thought it would be – I expected guys like Lester, Wainwright, and Verlander to go for a little more than they did – but when I picked up Santana (before those other guys came up), I didn’t really get a discount.

Having overestimated what people would spend on pitching, I underestimated what they would spend on big bats. Which meant that my 1B pickup (Mark Reynolds) isn’t as good as Fielder and friends.

Since I spent under my $160 allocation, I had extra money. But there were no really good bats by then. So instead of picking up another $40 superstar, I wound up with Hawpe ($25) and Chris Davis ($12). They’re both improvements over what I had, but maybe not enough of one considering the $37 I spent on them.

If lack of holes will win you the title, then I’m in great shape. (Well, except for backup catcher. But I figure I have all season to find someone who can play a decent 40 games for me). But I can see plenty of scenarios where someone elses superstars, plus a few lucky performances, outperform my team of “pretty good” at every position.

Having lost out on both of those guys, I had to make some changes to my strategy. I had intended to spend on 2 SP and 2 bats (1B or OF to serve as Util and MI) but ended up being priced out of every MI I was interested in, winding up with Akinori Iwamura and Ryan Theriot as a platoon, which just won’t do. I ended up overspending on my 1B and OF players, getting both Dunn and Manny, and the result was that I did not get the OF depth I had hoped for, making it a bit more difficult on me to trade an OF, which I probably need to do.

At the same time, the lack of available pitching hurt a lot after I lost Verlander. I appreciate the generosity, Geoff, and I am quite happy with Javy, but the Webb-Burnett-Kazmir trio in me 3-5 slots (behind Billingsley and Javy) is pretty high risk.

If a) Webb comes back healthy by May, b) Kazmir finds his form again, c) Burnett gets some luck and keeps his ERA and WHIP down to match his K numbers, or d) an unexpected starter makes the leap for me (Rondon? Masterson? Erbe? Alderson? Young?) I might be able to piece together a competitive rotation. My offense should play just fine (particularly if I can fill MI) but I am not sure I have the bullets to trade for a MI and a SP or two, and I am not sure I can win without filling both those holes.

Perhaps it’s too early for me to declare this auction a success for my team, but given my results/participation level from last year, I think I managed to at least step in the right direction. I think this was my best auction performance so far.

I gotta say I didn’t expect Mauer to go for less than $50 (Mauer + Pujols = yay), but then when I also nabbed Victor for only $17 I was pretty pleased. If I don’t compete this year I think I at least have some of the better trade chips.

Though I did manage to get some quality value at the top of my rotation (Peavy + Wainwright for $52 total), once again I will depend on Liriano to come through as I have zero depth.

My OF sucks, and I overpaid for a couple guys there out of need/panic, but I’m hoping my MI value guys can over-perform to balance that out.

All in all, I thought it was a fun, well run auction and I even got to bid up Horwitz/Sugarman a few times successfully and even get Niv to emoquit nominations. Teehee.

i think i give myself a b-/c+ overall. i came in planning to spend about $160 on 4 big-time guys, at least 3 of those on offense. i had big holes at 3B, MI, and 2 OF spots, and secondary holes at 1B/UTIL and SP.

so i started out with wright, howard, and bay for a combined $117 in the first 20 picks – perfect, could not ask for a better start.

for the next 90 mins i didn’t win a guy, which was ok as i thought i could get some good value later on. when that guy – javy vazquez – came… i just let chad take him. i had more than enough cap room, and he would have been perfect for my team. but i had been sitting on my hands for so long that i just had lost that aggressiveness that you need in an auction draft against 11 other guys.

after that the wheels came off for the next hour. first, i wanted to show aggressiveness on harden so i came out strong with a $10 bid (hoping someone would bid $11 – my max for him) and no one matched. then i somehow wound up with both tejada and polanco, which i guess is an ok MI platoon (and less expensive than kelly johnson!) but not at all what i had wanted. and then i won papelbon for some reason because im addicted to closers.

after that i was able to calm down a bit and am quite happy with my last 10 picks. but i have no idea what the hell i was doing from 3:23 to 4:41 EDT on sunday.