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The Perfect Tout Wars Rosters

Tout Wars held their AL and NL auctions this past weekend, which means another attempt at building the perfect roster in each league is in order.

By Andrew Ball
USA TODAY Sports

This past weekend some of the biggest names in the fantasy industry got together to participate in the 2013 Tout Wars AL and NL auctions, finishing off the last of the experts league drafts for the year. As I did for the LABR drafts a few weeks ago, I decided to use the auction results to select my perfect Tout rosters. To do so, I went through the draft results and used the actual auction prices and a $260 budget to construct the strongest team I could. Below are my results, followed by some thoughts about the teams.

AL

NL

Position

Name

Price

Name

Price

C

Derek Norris, OAK

3

Rob Brantley, MiA

6

C

Jason Castro, HOU

7

Wellington Castillo, CHC

4

1B

Prince Fielder, DET

35

Adam LaRoche, WAS

17

2B

Gordon Beckham, CHW

9

Rickie Weeks, MIL

19

3B

Adrian Beltre, TEX

30

Ryan Zimmerman, WAS

27

SS

Asdrubal Cabrera, CLE

20

Everth Cabrera

17

CIF

Kyle Seager, SEA

21

Luis Cruz, LAD

4

MIF

J.J. Hardy, BAL

11

Mark Ellis, LAD

5

OF

Josh Hamilton, LAA

25

Jason Heyward, ATL

32

OF

Josh Reddick, OAK

13

Matt Holliday, STL

27

OF

Ichiro Suzuki, NYY

16

Juan Pierre, MIA

16

OF

Vernon Wells, NYY

3

Jason Kubel, ARI

14

UTL

Chris Carter, HOU

12

Scott Hairston, CHC

4

SW

Seth Smith, OAK

3

Donovan Solano, MIA

2

P

C.C. Sabathia, NYY

20

Yovani Gallardo, MIL

17

P

Josh Johnson, TOR

12

Jeff Samardzija, CHC

14

P

Jose Veras, HOU

8

Steve Cishek, MIA

12

P

Rick Porcello, DET

5

A.J. Burnett, PIT

9

P

Jason Vargas, LAA

2

Edwin Jackson, WAS

7

P

Joe Blanton, LAA

1

Andrew Cashner, ARI

3

P

Koji Uehara, BOS

1

Barry Zito, SF

1

P

Phil Coke, DET

2

Nate Eovaldia, MIA

1

P

John Lackey, BOS

1

Kyle Lohse, FA

2

You can find the complete draft results here: Tout AL Results │ Tout NL Results

Now, some thoughts:

  • 11 players showed up on both my LABR and Tout teams. That may seem like a large number, but it represents less than 15% of the players I selected. It also means I do believe all of those players (Reddick, Blanton, Coke, Lackey, Castillo, LaRoche, Weeks, Hairston, Cashner, Jackson, and Lohse) are undervalued this year.
  • Some of the players I selected on my LABR teams have seen their values really jump in the past few weeks. Matt Carpenter and Domonic Brown went for $8 and $10 more in this auction, a result of their strong springs.
  • Tout's rules are slightly different than LABR's. The league only uses 4 OF spots and a SW (swing) position that can be used for a pitcher or a hitter. In both leagues I opted for the extra bat. The eligibility requirements are also a little less strict, so some players like Michael Young saw huge jump's in their value by gaining extra eligibility.
  • Just to reiterate, don't forget about Houston or Miami. I ended up with 7 players between the two teams, all of which I feel should return value.
  • Again I stayed away from prospects. I like Shelby Miller, Julio Teheran, Oscar Taveras, and Billy Hamilton as much as anyone, but I chose safer veteran players for comparable prices.
  • ESPN's Matthew Berry made the largest purchase of either auction, paying $43 for triple crown award winner Miguel Cabrera.
  • My picks came after Vernon Wells and Kyle Lohse landed with new teams, but I did like both those picks at that time as speculative risks.

So those are my "perfect rosters" based on this year's Tout results. Who would your choices be?

More about Tout Wars: AL Reactions NL Reactions

For more Major League coverage, be sure to check out Baseball Nation.

Andrew Ball is a writer for Fake Teams, Fantasy Ninjas, and Beyond the Box Score.

You can follow him on twitter @Andrew_Ball.

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