Congratulations to Al’s Pals and Blue Moon Odum for their 20th anniversary BBL auction.  An amazing achievement by two great owners.  Expansion is rare in the BBL and new teams are earned, not gifted.  While two veterans of the BBL ascended to greatness, a rookie BBL owner had to pay the price for ownership in the BBL.  In light of the recent Hulk Hogan case, the Quibbler is a bit reluctant to report all of the facts surrounding the cost of admission, we are told it involved yoga pants, red hair, pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.

Not only did the league celebrate the beginning of a new BBL season, it recognized the Platinum Cup earned by the Greatest Champ Ever, the Pimpin Paezans.  The Champ rewarded team owners with an amazing Champ’s Dinner that involved a nature hike, motor boating (not the good kind) and survival skills.  A trip that shall not soon be forgotten and which we are sure will go down in BBL lore.

Somehow, someway the league completed the auction.  Below is a review for each team, projected finish (in reverse order) and best/worst purchase. All projections are those of the Quibbler and probably are may be different from yours.  The projections do not include reserve draft players inserted into the optimal lineup.

14. Meat

Meat loves John Deere tractors and venison sausage (who doesn’t?) and arriving late on auction day.  Rumor has it that the Cocky Spainards distracted Meat by dangling an employment benefits” to him with unsavory tactics and methods.  True or not, Meat is going to struggle this year as he is projected (by a fair margin) to finish last in ERA and Ratio and bottom three in OBA.

Overall, we love the offense on this team:  Freeman, Alvarez, CarGo, Morales and the lottery ticket in Joc Peterson.  In fact, if this offense stays healthy this team is upper half in offense.  If things go right…this team is going to factor in the final four decision because of knocking other owners out of points on offense.

Unfortunately, Meat must also purchase a pitching staff.  We love DeGrom at $25 and Ventura, but Meat is going to need to invest heavily in strong middle relief and manage his innings to push that ERA/Ratio to the middle of the pack.

Best Pick:  Pedro Alvarez ($15) – The Ex-Pirate moved to the Orioles and loves to hit bombs.  Projected at 29/80/.320 is a steal at $15 with power in high demand.

Worst Pick: Freddie Galvis ($1) – Very few players get selected as the worst pick at only a $1 investment.  However, this was really a -$5 investment which represents the value of 550 AB’s at a .280 OBA.  In fact, Meat would gain 1 standing point by simply not playing Galvis (hint). NOTE: Yes, Galvis hit a bomb off Nitro starter Iglesias as this article was drafted.  Of course he did.

13. Greatest Champ of All Time (Paezans)

It breaks our heart to place the Champ this low. The Champ decided to invoke his will at this year’s auction and take control. Rules were enforced with vigor and the Champ’s dinner was the bomb. Unfortunately, the Champ forgot to purchase RBI’s and OBA. The Paezans are projected for 639 RBI’s and a .314 OBA both of which get you a ticket to exactly one point each. Actually, if the LW’s were not so bad at purchasing HR’s, the Champ would be projected in last place in HR as well. Offense brother…OFFENSE!

On the good news front, the Champ has some serious K’s on this team with Arrieta, Cole, Strasburg and Verlander.  We are guessing the next fireside chat is going to involve at least one of those pitchers offered as trade bait for some HR/RBI/OBA help.  A ton of ground to make up, but if anyone can do it…we are guessing the Champ can pull the power rabbit out of his hat.

Best Pick: Moustakas ($23) – Moose hit 22/82/.348 last year after making a career adjustment at the plate.  Apparently, no one believes he can repeat his OBA. We believe he not only maintains but improves. We believe the Moose will be Loose with 25/90/.370 this year. Honorable mention to Jose Ramirez ($2) which we think will get 20-30 SB’s this year.

Worst Pick: Alcides Escobar ($9) – Daniel Murphy, Brandon Phillips, and Jonathan Villar all went for less than Escobar and would have earned a higher return on counting stats.  Projected at 550 AB at .289 OBA…yes, that will kill an entire category without a strong OBA offset in another area.

12. Streak

A local survey says that Streak is the best “neighbor” owner on auction day. Funny, articulate, engaged…but not good at drafting stolen bases or saves. Overall, a strong offensive team and a middling pitching team…but with virtually no SB’s or Saves.

Maybe some combination of Quackenbush, Knebel and Oh will garner some saves and hopefully, Maybin finds the fountain of youth…well, if he can get off the DL first. We think Streak does find some saves on his roster in one of Quackenbush, Knebel and Oh…but those SB’s are just not coming from this drafted team.

Offensively, this team really can knock the ball around. Votto, Sano and Stanton are going to be a solid base for this team. We love us some Piscotty with a side of upside and the underrated bat of Brandon Crawford. On the pitching side, the Dark Knight is a stud and anchors the staff. Wacha/Maeda are solid starters which will provide potential upside.

Best Pick: Miguel Sano ($39) – This may surprise our regular readers, but we love this topper. Sano should provide massive power with great OBA. He should be both OF and 1B eligible early in the year as well. We are looking at a 40/100/.350 season.

Worst Pick: Kevin Quackenbush ($4) – Streak should have spent that $4 on something else.  Quackenbush is (at best) the third best reliever in the SD bullpen and is behind Maurer for saves. Poor skills will expose this pitcher. For $1, a great gamble. For $4, you should have spent at least $3 on something else.

11. Sundance

We are not exactly why we would ever project the Kids for any other position than 2nd in the BBL.  The BBL Buffalo Bills had an amazing presence at this auction, but the end result did not come out as well as years past. Maybe the lack of beer girls threw this owner off his mark? Maybe he was too sober? We shall see.

The Kids are projected to finish in the bottom five of OBA, Saves, ERA and K’s. Ouch! Too many categories to correct and trade for talent. OBA is by far the worst with a projected finish at .320 (although neck to neck with Meat, Squirrels and Paezans).

There is light at the end of the tunnel especially in the ERA/K categories. The Kids purchased the services of Urias, Berrios and Glasnow…holy young aces batman. If even one of these young flame throwers does a Matt Harvey/Thor on us…then those ERA and K counting numbers will go up dramatically.

On the offensive side of the ledger, the Kids loved the Cuban Jose Abreu and staples in the outfield with Pence and Yelich.

Best Pick: Asdrubal Cabrera ($2) – From a pure value standpoint, $2 at the shortstop position for 15/50/7/.307 is not bad. Champ…did you pay attention to this purchase?

Worst Pick: Shelby Miller ($11) – Shelby Miller is not that good of a pitcher and certainly not an $11 pitcher in this league. Shelby Miller has a value/and skillset similar to Jorge de la Rosa, Homer Bailey and Mat Latos…two of which went in the reserve draft and one of which is available in the free agent pool. The Kids could have purchased Jamie Garcia ($5) and Scott Kazmir ($4) for the price of Miller.

10. LW

In some ways, we feel bad for the new owner. In other ways, we feel bad for ourselves for observing those pink/salmon shorts and yoga pants. That is just wrong in so many ways. It took at least one full day for this new owner to figure out the dynamic of the league and its offensive ways. LW purchased three pitchers in a row thinking value, but learned soon enough that value is a subjective term…at least in the BBL.

Scherzer, Sale and Lester make for a really solid base for a pitching staff that should finish top 5 in K, ERA and Ratio. If LW can pull off (and time appropriately) a trade for one of his studs pitchers for some offense.

The story of LW’s first auction is the lack of HR, SB and RBI. Our beer wench just did not buy offense and that is a really hard thing to make up during the season.

Best Pick: Buster Posey ($32) – Catchers went way cheaper than we anticipated and this included Posey at $32. Did the owners not realize Posey qualified at 1B as well? Hosmer went for $30, Belt for $27 and Duda for $30. Honorable mention goes to Eddie Rosario ($7) who is a potential 20/20 player and a real steal if he can get his OBA above .300.

Worst Pick: Offense. Dude, you have to buy counting stats.

9. Pastries

Any discussion of this team begins with the words “if they can stay healthy”. Werth, Myers, Grandal, Zimmerman, David Wright, and Puig. Ron Shandler would say that the range of outcomes are wider with these health risks than most other players. We thought the entire review of this team would be related to health, but in reality our very own BBL Billy Beane may be on to something here. I think Ron Shandler would also view the price of the risk you are purchasing, and the Pastries got a ton of potential bang for the buck in this auction. In fact, the projections back up the theory and has this team offensively in the upper third of the standings, and top three in OBA.

The rest of the story revolves around the amazingly bad ERA/Ratio projections. The Pastries are projected to finish next to last in those two categories. You only have to look at the pitching staff to determine the culprits – Rodon, Cashner and Nola. The good news is that the Pastries should qualify for the minimum innings requirement this year.

The theory around this office is that his lack of effort during the mascot race set the tone for his draft this year.

Best Pick: Manny Machado ($44) – 23 years old and projected at 33/80/15/.336 = stud. To put this in perspective, Kris Bryant went for $49. Nice value for the money.

Worst Pick: David Wright ($13) – Wright is just not the player he used to be and his bat is showing that age. Not to mention he has chronic back problems. This may be the year his value actually equals reserve round value unfortunately. Remember, you could have had Lawrie, Plouff (which always seems like a Pastrie player for some reason) or Castellanos.

8. Earl’s Squirrels

Despite a broken foot, the Squirrels had a really solid draft this year and the Quibbler guarantees this team finishes outside the bottom four this year. It is a nice solid roster anchored by Hosmer, Santana, Frazier, Cespedes and Marte on the offense and Greinkie, Liriano and Rodon on the pitching side.

The projections agree with our assessment giving the Squirrels solid numbers across the board on offense and pitching. However, it looks like this team will struggle with K’s and OBA. The key for a successful season will be the Squirrels taking advantage of nice trades from his core to supplement his needs, especially trading for a stud pitcher to round out those K’s, ERA and Ratio. We hear LW is in the market for some offense.

Best Pick: Jacob Lamb ($6) – We are big fans of Lamb who is projected at 13/60/5/.330 in a solid Diamondback lineup. Honorable mention to Yimi Garcia for $1 in the end game. Yimi can really throw some heat.

Worst Pick: Bethancourt ($1) – We totally get the second catcher problem and ultimately, Bethancourt only cost $1. On the other hand, this guy really blows for fantasy purposes. That .280 OBA is part of the problem above. The Squirrels would be better off picking up another catcher that doesn’t play.

7. Al’s Pals

We did not anticipate writing about the Pals at this stage in the auction review. In fact, the onsite Quibbler reporter stated during the auction that this may be the best Pals team to date. As Mr. Lee Corso would say…not so fast my friend.

The projections actually have this team as low as 9th place, but based on this team’s winning history, we bumped them up 2 spots to 7th. Amazingly, this team is projected to struggle with power and RBI’s and finish last in saves. The lack of saves are no surprise since the Pals punted that category, although Maurer will probably end up closing games for the Padres. The lack of power comes mostly from an end game built on up side with Peraza, Peralta and Naquin…which is not uncommon for a stars and scrubs approach. On a side note, we should make a new name for that this team..Stars and Promise?

On the good news front, we love Rendon, Revere, Braun, Pujuols and Bryant as a solid base on the offense. For pitching, we think the Pals are going to love Carrasco and eventually Giolito when he comes up.

The real question is how well can the Pals fill the voids in the roster with the reserve round and the first FAAB round? Arguably no one is better at in-season management than the Pals..so we may look really stupid with this projection in 5 months or so.

Best Pick: Pujols ($25) – The dude hit 40 bombs last year.  Read that again. He…hit…40 bombs last year. Do you know how rare that is in today’s game? Honorable mention to Rendon at $18.

Worst Pick: Kris Bryant ($49) – The kid is just not worth that price at this point in his career. He could earn it, but probably not this year we are guessing.

Editorial Note: The next four teams are projected within 4 points of one another.

6. Jay’s Crew

We really feel like we should cut and paste our review of the staple Crew “Stars and Scrubs” strategy every year in this spot. Basically, if he can cobble together a pitching staff and his stars stay healthy, he has a chance. In an unusual twist, the Crew is not that good with OBA this year, and that is a difficult stat to bring up mid-season. We foresee an early season trade by the Crew for some OBA for some power.

Here is what we said last year:

The 2015 Crew Team is the pure essence of a Jay Crew team, they are big on the studs and flyers.  Jay swings for the fences without a doubt.  If he can find some pitchers to bolster that ERA and Ratio, then he will compete.

We love us some Cutch, Rizzo and Chris Davis to anchor the offense side of the house. Sprinkle in some Salvy and Dozier and things get interesting. On the other hand, we are not a fan of Yan Gomes this year.

On the pitching side…oiy. Can the Crew cobble together enough innings without destroying his ERA/Ration? We think not, which is why we have the Crew outside the money this year.

Best Pick: Matt Adams ($3) – For the money, this feels like a stud selection for a player that should see significant playing time on a great team. Honorable mention to Juan Uribe at $1.

Worst Pick: The $7 pitching staff sans two closers. The Crew better watch those innings because we all know the other owners will be keeping tabs.

5. Nitros

WTF…W…T…F. The Pollack goes down between Day 1 and Day 2. Even drafting $35 in the hole, the Nitros did a stand up job of putting together a competitive team this year. However, he will need to be top-notch managing this team because there is no room for error in order to avoid the bottom four.

The projections show a nice, strong pitching staff in K’s, ERA and Ratio anchored by Kershaw. The offense as you might expect is going to struggle and is projected in the bottom third of HR and RBI. The Nitros took some risks with a few Day 2 picks with Parra and Rollins.

Best Pick: Kershaw ($41) – Worth every penny and should be a nice anchor for the pitching staff. Honorable mention with Justin Turner at $9.

Worst Pick: Rollins ($4) – Really Nitros? This guy was good 5 years ago…let him go Blake…let him go Blake.

4. Peep Rub

We still think Peep got robbed. What is up with the new owner only wearing his “outfit” for one day. What happened to the excessive heat to throw him off his game. Seems as if LW got off cheap and we fully support a full investigation into the entire matter with the Commissioner.

Peep has serious OBA this year anchored by Miggy and Trout. Actually, let that sink in for a moment…Miggy and Trout…on the same team. Out…freaking…standing. As always Peep filled in the bricks on his team with savvy end-game purchase the likes of Pagan, Span, Jaso and Bour.  We really like all of those purchases.  Unfortunately, there is just not enough offense in light of the other competition which means Peep is going to have to go out and find some SB’s and and RBI’s.

The pitching side is anchored by MadBum, but has huge question marks in Cueto and Shields both of which cost too much in our opinion. The projections like the pitching staff, but we are not a fan and sense too much risk for the money.

Best Pick: Adam Jones ($26) – Did we mention that power is hard to find? Well, how about 30/100 power/RBI for $26? Rare as chicken teeth, yet all the other owners allowed that to happen.

Worst Pick: We do not like Cueto/Shields for a combined $32 in light of the cost of similarly skilled pitchers. Also, we just do not believe in Cueto or Shields.

3. Cocky Spainards

In the money again! But…no title again. Bummer. Maybe if the Quibbler doesn’t pick the Spainards, they will actually win the title? Our favorite DJ, expert drink mixer, short order breakfast cook and insomniac did not disappoint this year…on offense.

The offense is stacked like the shizzle. Take a dose of Goldschmidt, Harper and mix in Polanco, Plouff (always underrated), Ramos and Chris Carter…are you kidding me? This team is projected to finish top third in all the offensive categories.

The pitching..well..not so much. Projected in the bottom of K’s and Ratio (an odd combination of bad pitching categories by the way), the Spainards needs to find an answer to the pitching staff. Gio, Roark and Corbin do not scream ace and are simply big Ratio killers. Apologies to Tristan Cockcroft, but his 3 straight Tout titles mean crap when it comes to the BBL…and his love of Corbin means nothing.

Best Pick: So much to like here, but we are going to go with Fowler ($18) who should produce excellent counting stats in a stacked Cubs lineup. Honorable mention to Plouff at $10 and Montero at $6.

Worst Pick: Rodney ($7) – We totally get buying some saves on the cheap at the end of the draft, but we are not sure Rodney is going to actually get a save this year. That arrow shooting freak is just not good.

2. HooDoo Cats

The Draft Day Czar was ousted from his leadership role in a controversal move by the Champ. On second thought, this may have been the best thing that could have happened to the draft day results for team HDC. We are also sadden to report the police report issued by the Cats against the Pastries.  Apparently there was an assault between Day 1 and Day 2 as the Pastries lost all patience with the Cats and drug the owner out of a room by his legs.

On a baseball note, this team can Ball. Projected to lead the league or be at the top in HR and RBI, this team can hit the ball and knock in some serious runs. Upton, Kemp, Trumbo and Duda lead the way in those categories. We also like the additions of Realmuto and Wieters as catchers.

On the pitching side, the Cats are not half bad as well. HDC is projected to lead the league in K’s with a staff comprised of Ross and Teheran, along with DeSlafini and Day. A word of caution…Ross and Teheran can implode and have proven to be able to implode in years past.  These two pitchers will make or break the Cats this year we are predicting.

Best Pick: Duda ($30) – We love this guy. Great OBA, outstanding power and great RBI counting stats. In our league, those counting stats for $30 is a steal. Honorable mention to Villar at $5 which should be a sneaky contributor for the Brewers this year and provide 20-25 SBs in a thin position.

1. Blue Moon Odum

And our 2016 BBL Champ is….BMO! Make no mistake that he is pissed over Brandon Moss and we kidd you not that redemption is on its way to the BBL for that underhanded tactic.

On a serious note, BMO drafted him a baseball team worthy of a championship run in our opinion. On offense, he is projected to finish top four in all categories anchored by TDA, Gonzales, and Carpenter. No one or two players stand out…but he has counting stats in every position such as Napoli (not Moss) has his CI for $7 and Calhoun, Bruce, Hamilton, Zobrist and Gordon all between 15 and 22.

His weakness is the pitching staff. Can he pull together enough innings and counting stats with Ryu and Hammels and Nicasco backing up Thor and Salazar. We think he can which results in the #1 ranking this year.

Best Pick: Calhoun, Bruce, Hamilton, Zobrist and Gordon between 15 and 22. Take a look at those stats in just that group of outfielders. Well done.

Worst Pick: Francisco Rodriguez ($20) – We think this selection was trade bait since BMO already had Hoover and Davis. FRod seems to defy age each year, but one year it will catch up to him and he will be worth -$20. This might be the year.