Review: Tout Wars 2016

Here is how the 2016 Tout Wars League was set for me this season.

SETUP

Mixed League
15-teams
$260 auction for 23 starters
5x5 scoring (we replace batting average with on-base percentage)
14 hitters, nine pitchers
six bench spots (rostered by a snake draft)
* 15 games, not 20, to be eligible at a position.
 

 MY ROSTER

* Number in parenthesis is the $ amount spent out of $260.

C: Blake Swihart ($9), Matt Wieters (7)
1B: Carlos Santana (16)
2B:  Chris Coghlan (2)
3B:  Evan Longoria (13)
SS:  Brad Miller (9)
MI: Dustin Pedroia (9)
CI: Matt Duffy (4)
OF: Starling Marte (33), Ryan Braun (22), Christian Yelich (21), Byron Buxton (8), Matt Holliday (4)
UTIL: Alex Rodriguez (2)

PITCHERS:  Madison Bumgarner (28), Johnny Cueto (16), Sonny Gray (17), Andrew Miller (10), Dellin Betances (7), Ken Giles (16), Jose Berrios (2), Andrew Cashner (3) Joaquin Benoit (2) 
RESERVES:  Trevor Bauer, Drew Hutchison, Yunel Escobar, Joey Gallo, Keone Kela, Joakim Soria

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Evan Longoria was a star (take that Rick Wolf who told me I was wasting my money on him). Longo went .273-36-98-81 though his .318 OBP was sub-par.

Carlos Santana didn’t do all his damage on my team, he was dealt at one point, but the guy I “had” to have this season in an OBP league was fantastic. He set career bests with 34 homers, 87 RBI, 89 runs scored and posted a strong .366 OBP.

Brad Miller really couldn’t have done any better. The SS/OF eligible batter hit 30 homers, drove in 81 runs, scored 73 times and stole six bases.

My top-3 outfielders were all superstars. Everyone hated my choice of Ryan Braun. All he did was go .305-30-91-80-16 with a .365 OBP. That’s still superstar level stuff. Marte had an ignominious end to his season cause of back woes. He ended the year with a career-low of 129 games played and his homer total dropped to nine and his RBI total to 46. Don’t know how you can be complaining though as he hit .311 with a .362 OBP while stealing 47 bases, the second most in baseball. Yelich was great with a .298/.376/.483 line leading to a career best .859 OPS. He went from hitting 20 homers his first three years to 21 this season, and after knocking in 98 the last two seasons he had 98 RBI this season. The only negative where the nine steals.

Couldn’t have been more right about MadBum and Cueto. Pretty much everyone said I was dumb to spend that much on both. I wasn’t. Total home run there.

I was also 100 percent with my plan, one I enacted on many a team this season, to roster Miller (11) and Betances (7) on the cheap. Check this out. Max Scherzer was a flat out star in 2016, right? Like top of the charts stuff, right? Compare Scherzer to my duo of bullpen arms.

Hopefully you followed my advice for Miller/Betances. At least that part of my plan worked out.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Let me count the ways.

Swihart barely played.

I wish Coghlan hadn’t played. He was abysmal for 2/3 the season.

Duffy was a late round grab to fill out my roster. Was counting on much. Didn’t get much either. He only filled a DL spot with his suckitude.

ARod --- oh boy.

I was so pumped up, like over the moon, that I was able to grab Buxton and Holliday late for $12. I even wrote about how excited I was before the season. Buxton had a fantastic September, but overall clearly disappointed. Meanwhile, Holliday finally stopped hitting and then injury shut him down him late.

Gray was the worst pitcher ever. Ok, not true, but it sure felt like it. I planned to go with three stars on the bump. Two were stars. One was vomit inducing. I literally just spit up in my mouth. So bad.

I spent $16 on Giles instead of going another dollar or two for Zach Britton who went for $17. Pretty much an encapsulation of my season right there.

I wanted Berrios over Snell to round out my staffs if that was the late call (and it often was). Snell wasn’t very good, but he blew doors on Berrios who just blew chunks. There’s lots of vomiting going on here.

Cashner won’t be on any of my teams ever again. Just more of the same junk from the talented underachiever.

Gallo yet again was a waste. Total waste.

Kela got hurt.

Soria imploded.

Hutchison spent a long time in the minors.

TRADES/WAIVERS

The two main successes and a few smaller ones.

I added Adam Duvall off waivers and was rewarded with 31 homers and 98 RBI while he was active on my roster.

I added Brian Dozier in a trade and got stupendous work from him. He appeared in 116 games for my squad, and check out the numbers which were insane: 38 homers, 85 RBI, 86 runs, 16 steals and a .979 OPS. That was in, again, 116 games on my roster.

I also picked up Marcus Stroman who was a solid performer in one of the first 3-way deals in Tout Wars history (I received Stroman/Mauer, Zinke got Joe Ross/Alex Gordon/Smyly/Dietrich, Schwartz got Gerrit Cole).

David Robertson and Cody Allen were picked up for some decent saves totals too.

Players that were added in trades but failed to offer me what was hope for – Anibal Sanchez, Michael Fulmer, Mark Reynolds, Jason Heyward, Joe Mauer. Joe Ross, Alex Gordon, Yordano Ventura, Howie Kendrick, Ryan Zimmermann

Hopefully next year Al Melchior will deal me Joey Votto if I can’t draft him. I send repeated offers and emails to Al who told me he was holding on to Votto. He just wasn’t moving him. He then dealt Votto to Zinke. Ugh. We all know how that turned out for Mr. Z.

CONCLUSION

I finished seventh out of 15 teams.

Congrats to MLB.com who had the top-3 guys going in this league, pretty impressive work.