Ray Flowers breaks down his 15-team Tout Wars mixed league, a setup that uses three different categories versus a traditional 5×5 roto setup (more on this below). How did Ray’s team come together and does he have the foundation to repeat as the champion?
Ray is the defending champ in this league. Click on the link to see how it happened.
RULES
5 x 5 Rotisserie style scoring.
Hitting Categories – OBP, HR, RBI, Runs, SB
Pitching Categories – IP, ERA, WHIP, K, SOLDS
This league does not use AVG, Wins or Saves as are used in traditional 5×5 leagues.
ROSTER: 2-C, 1-1B, 1-3B, 1-CI, 1-2B, 1-SS, 1-MI, 5-OF, 1-UT, 9-P, 6 reserves
POSITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
This league drops positional qualification to 15-games from the traditional 20. Here is a link to games played to find those names that appeared at a position 15 times in 2024.
FREE AGENT ACQUISITION BUDGET
This league will indeed be using FAAB. Each team will have $1,000 to spend over the course of the year. You must have $1 to big on a player (no zero bids).
INJURED LIST
There is no limit to the number of players that can be placed on the Injured List. Players must be activated by the scoring period after they are activated.
DRAFT PARTICIPANTS
1 Ray Flowers
2 Geoff Pontes
3 Ryan Boyer
4 Derek Van Riper
5 Greg Jewitt
6 John Laghezza
7 Carlos Marcano
8 Zach Steinhorn
9 CJ Kaltenbach
10 Matt Trussell
11 Joe Orrico
12 Matt Cederholm
13 Scott Pianowski
14 Kyle Soppe
15 Howard Bendar
MY ROSTER
*Round taken in parenthesis.
Catcher: Tyler Stephenson (11), Endy Rodriguez (27)
First Base: Yandy Diaz (10)
Second Base: Jose Altuve (3)
Third Base: Nolan Arenado (18)
Shortstop: Masyn Winn (7)
Middle Infielder: Brendan Donovan (13)
Corner Infielder: Paul Goldschmidt (15)
Outfield: James Wood (2), Cody Bellinger (6), Adolis Garcia (9), Nolan Jones (14), Brandon Marsh (19)
Utility: Shohei Ohtani (1)
Pitchers: Yoshi Yamamoto (4), Luis Castillo (5), Joe Ryan (8), Robbie Ray (12), Jeffrey Springs (16), Jesus Luzardo (17), Max Scherzer (22), Bryan Abreu (23), Aroldis Chapman (24)
BENCH: Jesse Winker (20), Josh Jung (21), Chris Martin (25), Bobby Miller (26), Jacob Wilson (28), Kenley Jansen (29)
***Comments were made live – in real-time – while draft was taking place.
DRAFT WRITE UP – OFFENSE
CATCHER: Backstops are about to go, so I grabbed my guy in Tyler Stephenson in the 11th. He has a .343 career OBP and last year went 19-66-69. That will work. Once Connor Wong went two picks before me in the 18th, my second catcher spot was sunk. I just got snaked on with Miguel Amaya in the 24th. Geoff Pontes, who finished second to me in this league last year, has gotten me twice today (Lee in the 16th round too). Crap. There went Fermin in the 25th. There went Garver in the 26th. Ugh. Hello Endy Rodriguez in the 27th. The catcher of the present/future will have his playing time depend completely on Joey Bart and how he performs after a breakout type of 2025. Didn’t go in planning to punt the second catcher spot, but that can happen when you draft on the ends.
FIRST BASE: Coby Bellinger will be my first baseman for now (with OF eligibility). I’m looking for some versatility with this selection, so I have an open path to taking a pitcher with one of my next two selections. Moving Bellinger to the outfield not that Yandy Diaz was my 10th round selection. The move to Steinbrenner Field should help his offense a bit, the Trop wasn’t a great place to hit, and let’s not forget that Diaz has a .400 OBP in two of three years and owns a career .373 mark. Here’s what we’ve got now that I grabbed Paul Goldschmidt. First base – Diaz. Corner Infield – Goldy. OF – Bellinger. Not ideal to have two full-time first baseman since my dual pos. guy (Bellinger) is also first base eligible, but tis what it is. Goldschmidt should be a solid contributor in a much better Yankees lineup, not to mention the better barn to hit in. Solid is all I’m expecting with my 15th round selection.
SECOND BASE: This spot is thin in 2025. Why not grab a guy who could go 20/20 with a .350 OBP? Sign me up for Jose Altuve. I will take another year of that level of success as I worry a bit about whether or not a second sacker of note makes it back to me 30 picks later if I don’t grab one here. Plus, if I want to go SP in round 4/5 as I might, I need stability at second base cause then I wouldn’t be looking at taking a second sacker until the 6/7 turn. Brendan Donovan is a boring pick in the 13th, but he qualifies at 2B/OF and I didn’t exactly build elite depth in the outfield. He’s a nice jack-of-all-trades who should play daily for the Cardinals, and he owns a career .364 OBP. He’s a boring pick, like Yandy, who will help to offset later picks that don’t have OBP.
THIRD BASE: Shoot. Burger/Paredes both went in the 9/10 rounds. Was going to take one at 10.15 pick. Boring pick here with Nolan Arenado. Risky given everything? Yes. Same time, only way he’s getting dealt now is if he produces. He’s also a professional so I think he will be fine. If I thought Josh Jung would have a better OBP, I would have taken him over Arenado. Hell, I just took him. That’s right. Come on down Jung who was still there three rounds after Arenado. A redundant and less than ideal selection for that reason, but why the hell not? A great lineup and ballpark for Jung to hit in just did it for me here.
SHORTSTOP: Went Masyn Winn over Westburg. Why not? The league is 15 teams and there is a huge infusion of talent this year too, so I’m going in a bit of a different direction than I normally would – as traditional Ray would absolutely go Westburg. Winn should hit leadoff for the Cards and he’s talked all spring about wanting to run more. My last offensive selection was Jacob Wilson. He’s pretty boring, will give you that, but he could also hit .285 with a .340 OBP, and I needed an option up the middle at the SS position to give me coverage. My hope is that he sneaks into the #1 or #2 hole in the Athletics’ lineup. If he hits in the bottom third, Wilson becomes a somewhat wasted selection.
OUTFIELD: James Wood or Jarren Duran? I went with the younger Wood (Duran went right after I drafted with the next pick). Wood seems likely to better Duran in homers and OBP. I think there’s a 20/20 season for Wood with a .350 OBP in coming… and I think more is possible if it all comes together. Adolis Garcia is healthy, his knee is better, and he’s worked diligently to get back to his 2023 mechanics at the dish. Won’t help in OBP, but the counting categories should be strong. Nolan Jones was awful last year. Two years ago he went 20/20 with a .389 OBP. Let’s say he goes 20/10 this season with a .350 OBP… I will absolutely take that as my 4th outfielder. Got sniped on Jung Hoo Lee… taken one pick before I was going to take him in the 17th round. Brandon Marsh is a 15/15 threat and he should produce solid numbers in OBP. There are more stories about Marsh potentially playing more against lefties this season… if he can get over that hurdle just a bit… a 15/15 season with a .350 OBP might happen. Winker as my 6th outfielder is a solid add. Even if he only plays versus righties, as expected, he’s the owner of a .367 career OBP and he mark was .360 last season. He brings some stability of Jones fails to find his previous form. If Winker struggles out of the gate, won’t have any issue moving on from him either. Heck, I won the league last year with Joc Pederson on my roster, and he profiles in a very similar manner to Winker.
UTILITY: Last season I won this league with Shohei Ohtani. Hard not to just want to run it back with him. Tout still does two Ohtani’s – one hitter and one pitcher – and that diminishes the appeal a bit. Still, he went 50/50 last year and is as good a bet as anyone in the game to go 40/40 this season. Even if it’s 40/25 with a .375 OBP, how can you go wrong taking him first overall? The only concern is that he is UT only, and it is not ideal to have your top pick be a guy you can’t move to another spot when injuries come up. Tempted to go Witt cause he actually has a position, but his OBP just doesn’t figure to match that of Ohtani. Judge? He figures to have the best OBP of the trio, and maybe the best mark in baseball, but I still worry about missed time with him and he will be miles from the other two in steals.
DRAFT WRITE UP – PITCHING
Yoshi Yamamoto, Luis Castillo, Bryce Miller and Logan Webb. Those were the four guys I was targeting with my two picks (4/5). Webb is my guy, but he lacks a bit of the K-rate the others do. I also didn’t want to go with both Mariners at this point. Yamamoto has the biggest talent of the four, but also the most concern when it comes to workload. So, I went Yamamoto and the talent… then added Castillo for the consistency with the workload and the slightly higher upper end in punchouts to Webb.
Joe Ryan is an ideal SP3 in a 15-team league, and he was on the championship team last season as well. Should go 160 innings with 160 punchouts, and if it all goes right, those numbers could be 180/180 with a WHIP around 1.15.
Robbie Ray looked great down the stretch last season. He’s got one of the best parks in baseball to pitch in too. Will rack up a ton of punchouts, well above one per inning, and his ratios could be better than expected if he enters the season with his control intact.
Was going to take Gavin Williams or Reese Olson in the 16th – and both went before I was able to secure either. Ugh. I’m going with Jeffrey Springs in their stead (there will be an upcoming Player Profile on him). I then went Jesus Luzardo in the 17th (Lee, Carpenter, Williams Olson all went in the 16th and I was planning on taking one of them in the 17th). Certain risk with Luzardo. That said, the investment price on Luzardo is fine, and as my 6th SP in a 15-teamer, I’m comfortable with the selection. Same thing can be said about Max Scherzer as my 7th SP. If he makes 20 starts at this price, I will be just fine.
Finally took my first RP in round 23 and grabbed Bryan Abreu. The last two years he has 29 and 39 holds with 100 punchouts in both seasons. Aroldis Chapman and Chris Martin are bullpen arms 2/3. Chapman is volatile, but he still had 98 punchouts and 36 holds last year. Martin owns 43 holds with a 2.16 ERA and 1.08 WHIP the last two years and will be super effective as long as he’s healthy.
Bobby Miller appears to be fine after taking a ball off his head recently. He was hitting 98 mph on the gun, and is just a year removed from being on everyone’s must-draft list. A reserve round selection on a talent like that in a deep league like this, that works for me.
My final pick was Kenley Jansen who should post 25-30 holds with decent enough ratios for the Angels.
DRAFT WRITE UP – BENCH
Composition looks solid here. Got an OF, a MI, a CI with an SP and two RP. Can argue about the players for sure, but the collection of positions is solid.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Pleased but not excited.
OBP should be solid with Ohtani, Wood, Altuve, Diaz, Donovan, Winker all fully capable of .350 marks.
Each of my first three players could go 20/20 and Jones did just that two years ago. A big key for my speed piece will be Winn. If he swipes 15 bags I’m not exactly going to blow away the competition. If he pushes for a doable 30 thefts, I feel a lot better about things there.
I went boring with Arenado/Goldschmidt at corners, but I also pushed the ADP of young fellas like Wood/Winn. Hopefully, it’s a nice balance.
Overall, the first five rounds were solid, and I feel much the same way through about round 14. Rounds 15-20 were just kinda there and most of the selections lack the “upside” we all covet.
The starters have innings and strikeouts and the ratios should be pretty sharp. There are workload concerns with Ray, Springs, Luzardo, Scherzer and Miller, but so is the game in 2025. Those five starters could be the backbone of a champion this season. It is also possible that they will lead me to 8th place. Again, so is the game in 2025.
I was able to grab four RPs I really like, none before the 23rd round, so I should be good in solds.
This team has a chance. As always though, two massive factors to success remain to be tackled If I have any shot at going back-to-back. (1) Can my guys stay healthy? (2) Will I make an impressive waiver-wire moves to bolster the troops? In a month, we will start to find out.
Here is a link to the draftboard.
