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Measuring Returns: Tout Wars

This week will mark the midway point in the season for all 30 MLB teams, and with the All-Star break on the horizon fantasy owners can fully evaluate their draft-day purchases while breaking down their league standings to determine major areas of need in the second half of the season.

With the addition of the Actual Dollar Values tool at RotoWire, we can easily measure the return on investment on a roster to see where the value and mistakes have come from to this point. The dollar value generated is based on the production in standard 5 x 5 categories for at 15-team league (Note: the tool can be used for different league sizes with varying categories).

For this evaluation, I will dissect the mixed league Tout Wars roster I purchased in our auction back in March.

C - Tyler Flowers $1 (earned: -$17) - Cut quickly for $1 FAAB pickup Wilin Rosario.

C - Josh Donaldson $4 (earned: -$22) - Cut quickly for $1 FAAB pickup Jason Castro.

1B - Paul Konerko $20 (earned: $24) - Traded to Tim Heaney on 6/25 with Edwin Jackson for Zack Greinke and Adam LaRoche.

2B - Ryan Raburn $1 (earned: -$21) - Reserved early in the season and subsequently cut, what happened to the cheap 20 homers everyone was expecting from him? Thankfully, Rafael Furcal (earned: $14) was one of my reserve round selections.

SS - Jose Reyes $27 (earned: $9) - It's been a disappointing Miami debut for Reyes through three months as he's hitting just .269/.345/.382 with 19 steals in 77 games.

3B - Jose Bautista $37 (earned: $30) - Even with a monster June, Bautista's .239 average for the season is dragging his value down. Long term, it's going to be the category that makes or breaks him in a given year, but something in the .260-.270 range most seasons isn't entirely out of the question.

CI - Justin Smoak $1 (earned: -$7) - There was a brief moment in late May/early June where it appeared as though Smoak was going to return to the player he was during the first two months of 2011, but beginning to look like he's a bust with a .204/.270/.336 line over 74 games despite remarkable patience from the Mariners thus far.

MI - Ryan Roberts $5 (earned: -$3) - Playing time has been an issue for Roberts off and on this season and the D-Backs have a prospect in Matt Davidson capable of joining the team to take over third base at some point during the second half.

OF - Matt Kemp $40 (earned $15) - Considering that he's only played 36 games, it's actually a good return. If he's healthy in the second half, it should afford the flexibility of dealing away a big bat for additional pitching if needed.

OF - Carlos Gonzalez $40 (earned $44) - Among hitters, only Josh Hamilton ($45) has earned more than Gonzalez this season. It's hard to believe there's been profit on a player with that price tag on draft day, but his .337/.394/.604 with 17 homers and 10 steals may be a bit overlooked in the Rockies' disappointing 2012 campaign.

OF - Shin-Soo Choo $21 (earned: $17) - After a strong June (.333/.382/.579, five homers, 13 RBI), Choo appears to be in the upswing and another .300, 20/20 season remains within reach if the power surge continues.

OF - Colby Rasmus $5 (earned: $17) - It's hard to believe that Rasmus was cut in some of the NFBC Main Event (also 15-team mixed) leagues back in May. Over his last 38 games, Rasmus is hitting .304/.356/.609 with 12 homers, 35 RBI and three steals. It's a pace that he probably won't sustain (52 homers, 150 RBI) over the second half, but proof that the Jays knew exactly what they were doing when they took advantage of the Cards' willingness to deal their young center fielder last summer.

OF - Vernon Wells $5 (earned: -$7) - Was DL'd long ago, but didn't show signs of rebounding much from last season and was only going to provide cheap homers while damaging AVG anyway.

UT - Nolan Reimold $1 (earned: -$6) - Like Wells, injuries derailed Reimold this season. Unlike Wells, Reimold still has a bright future as he was hitting .313 with five homers over 16 games before landing on the DL.

P - James Shields $15 (earned: $11) - A big second half could be on the horizon as the underlying skills remain intact and a surge in BABIP (.344) has fueled the elevated WHIP (1.404).

P - Derek Holland $7 (earned: -$2) - He should be back in the rotation after the All-Star break, if not for one start just before it. His strikeout rate was up to 7.93 K/9IP pre-DL, but Holland needs to keep the ball in the park more often to get back into the black upon returning.

P - Edwin Jackson $6 (earned: $4) - Traded to Tim Heaney as part of the LaRoche/Greinke for Konerko/Jackson swap. With more wins, Jackson would have turned a huge profit over his first 15 starts.

P - Brandon League $10 (earned: $-5) - Finally cut ties with him this week, after reserving him for a few weeks and seeing Tom Wilhelmsen secure the ninth-inning role. In March, I didn't think Closergeddon would claim League as a casualty, but it certainly doesn't look good at this point.

P - Hiroki Kuroda $4 (earned: $15) - Edwin Jackson with wins?

P - Francisco Liriano $3 (earned: -$7) - He hurt me more than he helped as I cut him loose with the demotion to the bullpen. Never buying again.

P - Vinnie Pestano $2 (earned: $0) - Didn't hurt, but Chris Perez has been an entirely different pitcher this season compared to previous ones (9.49 K/9IP, 2.08 BB/9IP).

P - Jon Niese $3 (earned: $10) - With a career-high 8.63 K/9IP, Niese appears to be tapping into his full potential.

P - Bud Norris $2 (earned: $1) - SABR darling is on many of my rosters. He really hasn't pitched poorly if you throw out May 31 start at Coors (nine runs on seven hits over 1.2 innings).

This team is currently sixth out of 15 (93.5 points) and sits 20 points out of third, 23.5 out of first. It's ultimately going to come down to pitching as 60 standings points are coming from hitting despite Kemp's injury and the significant underperformance of Reyes. The biggest areas of rapid growth include wins (gaining four could provide a 3.5-point boost) and saves (gaining six would generate four additional points), while the ratios could also improve with the acquisition of Greinke and a rebound from Shields.

My FAAB budget is running a bit thin, but has been very beneficial to this point with the additions of Fernando Rodney ($10), Ryan Cook ($7), Michael Saunders ($3), Gerardo Parra ($1) and Wilin Rosario ($1). Another closer - even if it's a month's worth of saves - is a definite priority and eventually in the endgame I may run into a situation where chasing wins and jeopardizing ratios is necessary to make a late-season push.

Follow me on Twitter @DerekVanRiper.