The final 2011 bid limits that were posted for this player:
PK 5x5: $7 MF 5x5: $8 AP 4x4: $5

Looks like I was right here...

When I was posting a comment just now for Vargas, I came upon this in the ESPN recap of the game in Seattle last night:

Cleveland RHP Fausto Carmona's performance in his second start of the season was quite a change from his outing in the Indians' season opener, when he allowed 11 hits and was charged with 10 runs against the White Sox. In his second game of 2011, Carmona pitched seven innings while allowing only two hits and no runs. He's the first major league pitcher in 106 years to allow 10 or more runs in his first start of a season and then no runs in his next start, without relief appearances between those games. The last pitcher to do that was a guy named Dick Harley for the 1905 Boston Beaneaters.

I'm shocked. Not that Carmona pitched so well -- he's got great stuff, more often than not -- but that nobody since Dick Harley has experienced an equally epic turnaround.

How many times do we watch one of our pitchers get pounded on Monday or Tuesday; cringe when his turn comes up again in the same week; and then be pleasantly surprised?

Seems to me it happens with fair frequency.

Vargas is no Fausto, but I'd place a modest bet (at the Vegas odds) on his collecting a W in his next game.

Funny how we can all be looking at the same thing and see such different things. I only watched the first three innings, but he looked great to me. The heavy fog helped his ball move around, true, but batters were taking very uncomfortable swings against him, as they always do when he's got his stuff.

Neither Peter nor I, with strong freeze lists -- and, perhaps more importantly, multiple pitchers frozen (hence few slots) -- had any business bidding on him in the ADL. There were at least three teams who shouldn't have let the bidding stop where it did.

The weather certainly helped Carmona out today too. He didn't look impressive at all.

Carmona went for $2 in the ADL. I think it was a mistake to buy that first outing at any price. His history isn't strong enough, but he looked great today against the Red Sox. The problem is he has to throw first pitch strikes, they have to not be hit, and then everything else has to go right for him, too. That happens in plenty of games, but when it doesn't things get bloody in a hurry.

Talk about auction strategy. Sometimes, we get so lost in our prices that we forget about the guys we are competing against. 10 other owners did not in this case. One did, and, unfortunately, instead of narrowing the gap, the team that bought him at $2 let one of the front-runners off the hook.

Went for $2 in my league. A team with a strong freeze list said $1. A team in rebuilding mode said $2. The other contenders couldn't blame him but it definitely stung.

Our keepers are due Monday for an auction next Saturday; Carmona's owner ($7) is now choking.

In the ADL Fausto becomes a draft day pariah and, unless someone is bold, prime meat in the reserve rounds, I predict.

Drafting after the season starts changes lots of things, even though we know that in the course of the long season these first few games are meaningless.