Tripled and homered last night; he's showing a pulse.

So, more surprisingly, are the D'backs, who nudged above .500.

With the Ahmed announcement ... Owings value has to take a hit.  And the focus on defense also sends Tomas to the OF ... or to AAA.  Although while the Dodgers can afford to bury a big dollar Cuban (Guerrero) in their minors, I don't think Arizona can do the same.

So now to make room for Owings to play, the D'Backs need to move Hill, who's signed for $12 mil/year through 2016.  While I have no doubt about Owings ability to hit ... I do have doubts about his ability to hit while sitting on the bench.

Having just posted under Stage 4, I'm now looking at a new spreadsheet for the Tout NL auction that is being conducted right now.

The richest team in the previous spreadsheet, which had the first four rounds or so (I'll figure this out later) is still the richest team. Gene McCaffrey has $59 to spend on 8 players. The other early money-horders have opened their wallets. Walton has $33 left for 9 players, Cockcroft has $45 left for 11 players.

Gene is clearly in spread-the-risk mode: he hasn't spent more than $25 on any player.

Is he getting bargains?

So far, Chris Owings is his only middle infielder and he cost $12.

When I look at the projections, since I do subscribe, I see the same number of at bats.  

Subscribers to the site see my latest projections on the player pages and are free to discuss them, which we're finding isn't such a smooth thing for those who don't want to subscribe, who we cherish as well. We're trying to sort out how this will work today. I won't bore you with the meta discussion, but feel free to make suggestions over at the Software Thread.

As for Owings, who missed July and August after bruising his shoulder sliding into home, and had surgery in October to fix what turned out to be more than a bruise and less than a full tear, I didn't pump up his AB because there are still questions about his health.

What we know is that he's expected to be limited at the start of spring training, but ready to play by the end of it. If that turns out to be true, he should have more like 600 AB coming his way. 500 AB is perhaps a better compromise at this point, and you are correct that if he gets 500 AB he'll be worth about $14. 

But if ends up with 600 AB he'd be worth about $16. For now I'm being pessimistic, in part because we don't know for sure, and also because he struggled some last year against righties (.672 OPS against RHP). If that continues, of course, it could cost him at bats.

Why so few projected at bats?  I would bet on closer to 475 abs and that he earns more like $14- $16.