Different owners from the Tout Wars expert league will be submitting a guest Fantasy Baseball column to CBSSports.com each week. This week's columnist, Mike Siano, writes for MLB.com, and has been in the Tout Wars AL-only league since 2006.

By Mike Siano

When the AL-only version of the Tout Wars draft was over, more then a few fellow GMs came up to me and asked if I purposely used the "Stars and Scrubs" strategy. The thinking was that I went after rock stars like Alex Rodriguez ($45), C.C. Sabathia ($31), Bobby Abreu ($29), Hideki Matsui ($20) and Joe Nathan ($27) then filled the rest of my roster with whatever I could find from the scraps.

When I first thought about the questions I was a little miffed because who's to say the guys I got were scrubs? I mean the season hadn't even started yet, but then again it's all about predicting and some names on there didn't exactly light many fires. I must admit it was not my strategy, but more a result of some targeted players going higher then I anticipated.

The main guys I "missed" out on were Alex Gordon, Paul Konerko and Nick Swisher. I thought I would get at least one and even had an outside shot at two, but money got tight and I lost out on two of them by a dollar. If I had one of them instead of Brad Wilkerson or Jason Botts, would that have changed the entire outlook of my team after the draft? I'm not sure, but you haven't met the rest of my scrubs. I'm more of a believer in scrub bats then scrub pitching because pitching is so tough to predict especially in a non-mixed league, but you'll find value.

It's easier in my opinion to say Jonny Gomes and Wilkerson will have a tough year than maybe Cliff Lee, Gavin Floyd or Daniel Cabrera. The Gomes' and Wilkerson's deal with injuries, playing time issues and a track record of mediocrity where a pitcher could "make the turn," "develop a pitch" or just start "getting it." Those three pitchers I mentioned weren't by accident, those are my scrubs! They cost me a total of $8 and have kept me in this thing while my stars of Rodriguez and Sabathia have dealt with a terrible start or a stint on the DL. The big difference and the main hole in the assumption of my strategy was that I actually targeted those three arms and purposely paired them up with Sabathia and Daisuke Matsuzaka. That way if some or all of them stunk up the joint, I'd still have some anchors.

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Granted, it's only the start of June and when all is said and done, if I am lucky enough to win this thing or at least finish near the top, that it will undoubtedly be due to the help of A-Rod and my other stars. When he went down, I didn't panic. I needed speed anyway so I chose to stick to that plan and acquired Joey Gathright for Luke Hochevar. With Alex now back in the Yankees lineup I am starting to slowly creep up in the HR, RBI and runs categories, but my pitching has slipped a little, so it's currently a wash. If you're lucky enough that the targeted "scrubs" pan out like Lee, Floyd and Cabrera then your stars will pick up the in-betweens and make them points.

One thing people may not realize about Tout Wars is just how tricky making a deal is. It's a non-keeper league, so there is no "I'll stash some young guys and get back in this thing next year" acquiring of talent. The deal has to work for both sides and in a deep non-mixed (six man reserve) you have to make sure you are not only dealing from strength but also getting the right guy back. This leads to weeks of negotiating with not only your fellow GMs, but your own psyche.

Here are the stars on my squad:

  • Alex Rodriguez ($45): Figures he gets hurt for first time in eight years, but then again I've had him all three years in Tout and three teams in 2008.
  • Bobby Abreu ($29): Great complement to your studs.
  • Hideki Matsui ($20): I still think he's underrated and yes, I'm a Yankee fan. But more importantly these guys are good!
  • C.C. Sabathia ($31): With the way AL pitching looked on Draft Day, I didn't mind the price.
  • Daisuke Matsuzaka ($23): DL stint hurts, but he is an ace.
  • Joe Nathan ($27): Super solid and steady, but Jonathan Papelbon and Francisco Rodriguez would have worked.

And here are some of the so-called "scrubs" on my squad:

  • Akinori Iwamura ($17): Not a scrub price, but this one got me lots of grief in the first 48 hours after the draft.
  • Coco Crisp ($14): Similar to Iwamura, but will steal 20 with no problem, and has figured his way into Red Sox OF enough to be worth it.
  • Jonny Gomes ($10): Drives me nuts. Wish Rays faced lefties every day and Eric Hinske didn't think it was 2002 again.
  • Daniel Cabrera ($3): Man-crush and ceiling factored into this. He went for $11 in an AL-only league a few days later for some reason.
  • Gavin Floyd ($4): Liked him in Philly, had my eye on him all off-season.
  • Cliff Lee ($1): I had him at $4 in 2007 AL Tout and felt he owed me one.

Before I go I wanted to chime in on FAAB. I've had the pleasure of playing Tout for three seasons, also being in a highly competitive AL only keeper (8 years I think) at the same time. It really is fascinating to participate in two AL-only auction leagues that are so incredibly different, but like a Guinness vs. Peroni, they are also both delicious. One thing I have to say is that Tout's way of managing FAAB should be the standard especially in a non-keeper. In Tout, you have a $260 cap on Draft Day, but only $100 FAAB for the season with the ability to bid $0, use vickery (highest bid gets the player for $1 above the second highest bid) and trade FAAB money. In my other AL-only league, you have a $260 cap on Draft Day, and then $260 FAAB with no vickery and no trading of FAAB. If there is a way to hybrid most of Tout's rules into your keeper, I highly recommend it. This will sharpen the minds of all the GMs and really save all 10 or 12 of you from bidding $60 on Shelley Duncan. In a non-keeper I think this is the only way to go.

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You can e-mail Mr. Siano a question or a comment about this column to DMFantasyBaseball@cbs.com. Be sure to put "Attn: Tout Wars" in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state. Be aware, due to the large volume of submissions received, we cannot guarantee personal responses to all questions.