Collette Calls: My AL Tout Wars Team

This article is part of our Collette Calls series.

I will come out and say it: drafting remotely stinks. It particularly stinks when it is the second consecutive year we have conducted Tout Wars from the Fantrax software rather than somewhere in midtown Manhattan enjoying an awesome weekend. I truly cannot wait until I can live draft with my friends and colleagues within the industry again because LABR and now Tout Wars just is not the same online. Last week, I broke down what happed with my LABR squad, and now it is time to look at what I did differently for AL Tout Wars.

There are two things true to most Tout Wars Salary Cap events for me: I typically really like how I feel about my team and I typically play things safe and avoid big salary players or risky skills profiles. That formula has led to me never finishing higher than second place since I began Tout Wars back in 2007, and even that second-place finish was a distant second place. The closest I came to winning was two years ago until Joey Gallo's health fell apart midseason and I cut Liam Hendriks for a needed roster spot about 10 days before he inherited the closer role and went on to an incredible final four months of the season for the eventual league winner. 

This year, I do not particularly like the team I left the draft room with and it has more risk than I have ever left a draft with, so perhaps this is my year?

My plan heading into the event was to diversify my hitting portfolio while holding true to my belief that pitching is going to be nuts again this year, so I wanted to build around the same trio I had in mind for my original plan for LABR: McCullers, Montgomery and Iglesias. Hitting wise, I would take another run at Mondesi while buying enough OBP skills to offset his downside and look to acquire as much playing time as possible wherever I could find it. The final result is below, while the full league results for all Tout Wars events can be found here: 

Catchers: Castro & Huff

I had allocated $7 to acquire two catchers with the strategy of avoiding needing to spend $1 on Mike Zunino in the endgame because I have a love/hate relationship with the guy. I love that he catches for my favorite team and does a good job handling the pitchers but hate that he has to grab a bat and come to the plate with men on base and the giant holes in his swing. I actively pursued catchers throughout the process, but they mostly continued to go outside my budget. It wasn't until Jose Trevino came up at bid 194 that a catcher came in below $5, so I passed on him, but was the penultimate bid on both the $4 Pedro Severino and Max Stassi until finally securing Castro at pick 206. I nominated Francisco Mejia at $1, but quickly watched him go to $3 and decided to let him go leaving me in $1 catching days. Huff was the final catcher taken in the regular phase of the draft and he is likely starting the season on the injured list, so I addressed that in the reserves by taking...Mike Zunino. Hey, at least I held true to my strategy of not spending any money on him!

Corners: Santana, Urshela, Brosseau

The Santana purchase was not as much the specific player as it as the specific skill. If I was going to take the risk with Mondesi, I needed OBP guys on my roster and Santana was a primary target for that. I made my feelings about Urshela well known in the bold prediction series. Brosseau was a cheap endgame pickup who already qualifies at three positions in Tout Wars rules, and those multi-positional players come in extremely handy in deep single-league formats. In a dream world, he does for me in 2021 what a $2 Ben Zobrist did for my team in 2009. In reality, his hold on a roster spot is tenuous as the organization is flush with infield talent on the cusp of the big leagues. 

Middle Infield: Mondesi, Hernandez, Polanco

I mentioned in the LABR write-up that I planned on rostering Mondesi there, but did not. I did not come into this process locked in on Mondesi, but if the price was right, I would take on the risk. He has arguably the widest spectrum of outcomes for an AL-only player where he could be the MVP of the league with his speed and ability to create runs, or he could be the 60th best player in the league hitting at the bottom of the lineup. Simply put, this pick is going to make or break the outcome of this team. He was my most expensive purchase and by far the riskiest, especially in an OBP format. Seven of his 11 walks in 2020 came in the final three weeks of the season, so his value lives and dies by his ability to safely put the ball into play. Hernandez and Polanco were both players that came later in the process at prices I liked for hitters that were going to hit in the top third of the lineup. That said, only Polanco has the ability to hit homers that I need on this team and if the foot issues are behind him, perhaps he can repeat his 2019 numbers. Hernandez's money could have been reallocated for more power potential from Willy Adames who went 30 nominations later, albeit for two more dollars. Freddy Galvis could potentially do more with power in Baltimore and ran half the price of Hernandez. I came into the draft really wanting to get Ty France, but dropped out once the bid hit $13 as it was clear Howard Bender appeared determined to get everyone's favorite breakout candidate. 

Outfield: Meadows, Santander, Hicks, Eaton

Rays fandom aside, I believe Meadows is a legit MVP candidate and every bit capable of replicating and likely exceeding his 2019 production levels. I am not alone in these thoughts. I would have gone as high as $30 for him, so was thrilled to get him for $27. Santander was a good acquisition at the price, despite the OBP challenges. He plays in a wonderful park and has grown every year at the big-league level and was pacing to a 30-homer season last year. We have him projected for quite a productive season this year as well. Hicks is going to hit third in a loaded lineup in a perfect park for a guy who hits lefty most of the time, and was one of the OBP guys I targeted once rostering Mondesi early. Hicks has had one season of OBP below .366 over the past four seasons and it was the season where he came back from Tommy John surgery. Eaton's OBP history is as strong as his injury history. He had but one healthy season in the past four, but he is also projected to hit second in that loaded Chicago lineup which should provide for plenty of runs as long as he can remain in the lineup. This is the part of the team I am most pleased with overall.

Utility/Swing: Davis, Adell

Both picks were very late in the game as I was simply looking for players I knew I could get for $1 or $2 as I had run out of money. Neither is going to be in the Opening Day lineup as Adell was recently farmed out while Davis came up lame 48 hours after the draft so will likely hit the IL to start the season. Looking at other spots late, it would have been better to throw Willie Calhoun at $2 rather than Adell as Calhoun went in dollar days in the final trip around the table. 

Starting Pitching: McCullers, Montgomery, Ray, Kikuchi, Cease, Quintana

As I said earlier, McCullers and Montgomery are the two starters by which I have decided to anchor my pitching plans for 2021. I believe McCullers is finally going to have that monster year we have all waited for with full health and the new cutter that is going to keep hitters off the fastball and have them looking for four different offerings. Montgomery gets to pitch with arguably the best run support in the game and I even went as far as providing this response to BaseballHQ's Ryan Bloomfield the other night:

Here are some reasons why I think this about Montgomery as it relates to 2015 Dallas Keuchel:

• Run support: Keuchel had it in spades with a loaded Houston lineup and Montgomery has the same luxury when the Yankee Death Star offense is fully operational.
• Contact suppression: Keuchel was not blowing guys away, but kept them off-balance while pounding the strike zone. Montgomery has shown the ability to do the same as his command improved the further he distances himself from his TJ surgery with his 2020 walk rate finishing in the top 90th percentile.
• Montgomery now throws five pitches to lefties and righties with the addition of the cutter in 2020 which will allow him to be more than a five-and-dive pitcher.

Ray is the Mondesi of my pitching staff. I am sucked in with him sitting 97 this spring and hitting the strike zone with regularity:

I mean, look at how bad he made Aaron Judge look here late in 2020:

Ray came into 2020 with Arizona changing his mechanics, and then changed them again after the trade to Toronto. Toronto gave him $8 million on a one-year deal after the brief time together late in 2020, and that is paying off handsomely this spring as he has 18 strikeouts and five walks in 13.2 innings of work. Ray has just once had a WHIP below 1.33 and has never posted a sub 3.50 ERA, so with great strikeouts come great exposure to my ratios. I have to hope he comes back to his 2015 or 2017 seasons and avoid the mess he has mostly been around those two seasons. McCullers and Montgomery can only offset that so much, and it isn't like Kikuchi, Cease and Quintana do not bring their own risks to the table. I should be well-positioned for wins and strikeouts from this group even with Quintana and Kikuchi opening the season as part of six-man rotations. 

Relievers: Iglesias, Fairbanks, Scott

I took Iglesias in both LABR and Tout as I believe Joe Maddon will do with him what he did Fernando Rodney in Tampa Bay and use him exclusively in ties or leads and use him frequently. There are not many Tier 1 closers in the AL this year, but this has consistently been my target. I was surprised Scott's price was not higher given Hunter Harvey is hurt and may not even get the job once he returns, but was happy to get Scott in another draft. Finally, Fairbanks is going to likely have as many wins as he has saves with Kevin Cash continuing to care not what fantasy leaguers want from relievers. I just know Fairbanks will pitch frequently and should contribute decisions and strikeouts with questionable ratio outcomes given his wavering command.

Reserves: Zunino, Bobby Bradley, Daniel Johnson, Jarren Duran

I tried to make up for some power shortcomings in the reserves by taking my replacement catcher for Huff and grabbing Bradley. The latter is having a terrific spring, but he has the curse of having an option left while the less-talented Jake Bauers is out of options. We have seen this script play out before, but given I need two replacement bats right out of the chute, I am hoping the story is different this time. Johnson and Duran have already been sent down, but both will be around this season and it gives me some speed cushion to move should I get out to an early speed lead with Mondesi and trade him to someone who has power but needs speed in-season.

Overall, I am disappointed in how the final product turned out unlike any other season. Perhaps, the final outcome will be like any other season for me if I keep pounding the waiver wire, the matchups and the trade discussions.