This article is part of our Rounding Third series.
During last week's article, I lamented not bidding on the Blue Jays' Yimi Garcia in the NFBC Main Event, being the proud manager of Jordan Romano. Sure enough, after Romano converted a bumpy save against the White Sox, he got placed on the 15-day IL with elbow soreness, and Garcia subsequently got the save (albeit while allowing a run) Sunday against the Pirates. Garcia was still available in many other leagues, however, and frequently was the top bid receiver in those leagues. In a 15-team league it's exceedingly difficult to find a clear, full-time closer for a team, but I think that's what Garcia will be for the Jays while Romano is out. Moreover, I don't think this is a 15-day stay for Romano, given his struggles and his earlier absence. My failure on not adding Romano in that NFBC Main Event compounds!
AL Tout Wars:
Chris Blessing from BaseballHQ.com got the jump on the field by adding Justyn-Henry Malloy before the Tigers announced his promotion in conjunction with sending Spencer Torkelson down. Malloy has had a great eye in the minors, though I would have liked to see a little more power from a player that doesn't have great speed, nor is great defensively. The Tigers are going to have him DH in his initial series against the Rangers. Still, he'll be getting regular playing time in the short-term, and he'll still likely draw a good number of walks, which is important in an OBP league
During last week's article, I lamented not bidding on the Blue Jays' Yimi Garcia in the NFBC Main Event, being the proud manager of Jordan Romano. Sure enough, after Romano converted a bumpy save against the White Sox, he got placed on the 15-day IL with elbow soreness, and Garcia subsequently got the save (albeit while allowing a run) Sunday against the Pirates. Garcia was still available in many other leagues, however, and frequently was the top bid receiver in those leagues. In a 15-team league it's exceedingly difficult to find a clear, full-time closer for a team, but I think that's what Garcia will be for the Jays while Romano is out. Moreover, I don't think this is a 15-day stay for Romano, given his struggles and his earlier absence. My failure on not adding Romano in that NFBC Main Event compounds!
AL Tout Wars:
Chris Blessing from BaseballHQ.com got the jump on the field by adding Justyn-Henry Malloy before the Tigers announced his promotion in conjunction with sending Spencer Torkelson down. Malloy has had a great eye in the minors, though I would have liked to see a little more power from a player that doesn't have great speed, nor is great defensively. The Tigers are going to have him DH in his initial series against the Rangers. Still, he'll be getting regular playing time in the short-term, and he'll still likely draw a good number of walks, which is important in an OBP league like Tout Wars.
NFBC Main Event:
What's done is done, we lost Jordan Romano for now and didn't get his replacement. What's the next move? We picked up Reed Garrett on the Mets, with the belief that he is the best of their options while Edwin Diaz is out. We went in eyes-wide-open, knowing he wasn't guaranteed to close after pitching in the seventh inning Sunday. But Jake Diekmann blew that opportunity on Sunday, and Adam Ottavino hadn't been pitching all that well recently. It might take some patience in hoping that Garrett would get the role. Sure enough, Ottavino got the next save chance Monday against the Nats, and couldn't close it out, instead giving way to Diekmann, who barely finished the inning off to get the save. I think it might bode well for Garrett if there's an opportunity on Tuesday.
We actually didn't start Garrett or our other relatively big pickup in Jake Irvin this week, due to schedule considerations. The Mets play just five games this week, including two in London over the weekend. Irvin has been fantastic lately, but gets one start against the Braves, and we actually have reasonable pivots. We're happy landing both players, happy with getting the price right, and content that we're not using them this week.
We also had the sad drop of the week, dropping Ronald Acuña Jr. for a $1 Jake McCarthy.
BJE1:
I was nowhere close to landing Yimi Garcia, but happily did get my first hitting target in Mark Vientos. I think there's a good power upside for Vientos, plus he'll now get the playing time he needs with the Mets sending down Brett Baty. In a perfect world both Vientos and Baty would be playing regularly, but the way the Mets' roster is constructed left room for only one at a time. At some point the team is likely to trade Pete Alonso, and maybe one of their other 30-something players (J.D. Martinez, Starling Marte, or Brandon Nimmo - the latter the least likely due to his contract). But until then, only third base remains open for Vientos/Baty.
I also happily excised Bo Naylor from my roster by picking up Patrick Bailey, a move we also attempted in the Main but got outbid.
BJE2:
This league should be renamed the "Everybody Beats Jeff Erickson" league, because that's what's happening right now. It didn't help that Spencer Strider was my first round pick, but copious other mistakes were made in the draft and on the waiver wire. I landed two of my top FAAB targets in Mark Vientos and Matt Vierling. Vientos justified some of that love with a homer Monday night, but alas Vierling was given a night off despite the Tigers facing right-handed Nathan Eovaldi.
Yogurt:
One my FAAB-mantras is that "12's are weird," referring to the 12-team RotoWire Online Championship, as often there's little symmetry between the bids in the 15-team NFBC formats and the 12-team leagues, or even between each 12-team league. This year, that mantra is "TGFBI is weird." For the most part, bidding prices on the top players are even lower in this 15-team league than they are in my 12-team leagues, but there seemingly is a glaring exception each week. I got Yimi Garcia here for a cheaper price than he went nearly everywhere else, and still I could have gotten him for just over half of what I paid.
You'll note that I didn't get Spencer Schwellenbach anywhere, and that's because I don't think I would want to use him for the next two weeks, with road starts at Boston and at Baltimore.
SCARF:
SCARF might very well be my most frustrating FAAB league - I keep getting outbid on the most important free agents, and this week was no different. (Ed note: Maybe you should bid more?)
I ended up with a waterfall pick up of Joey Estes, whom I'm streaming for the strikeouts against the whiff-happy Mariners. What could possibly go wrong?
LABR Mixed Draft:
There are weeks in LABR where I've been shut out, and there's this week, where I added five players. I was thrilled to get Nick Gonzales, though I'd be more thrilled if I could invent a time machine and pick him up retroactively two weeks ago. But he was still available and I need bats, so welcome aboard! I once again added Jake Irvin (for $4/100), and somehow lost two tiebreakers (Garrett Cleavinger, Gio Urshela) despite being the 13th place team. That's hard to do! But I was finally able to recall a defective Rene Pinto, and added Victor Caratini to replace him, giving me both Astros catchers in this league.
Staff Keeper League:
Annoyingly I lost the tiebreaker on Yimi Garcia to Peter Schoenke, $13 to $13. One of the reasons I was able to win this league last year was because I could cobble together saves on the cheap, trading for Pete Fairbanks and David Bednar on an expiring contract, while also adding players like Adam Ottavino and Will Smith, who got a few saves here-and-there. I haven't been able to get those tack-on saves this year, adding just one from Chad Green in April.
My consolation prize was a $3 Trevor Larnach, who has been batting leadoff against right-handers for the Twins, including on Sunday when he hit a leadoff homer. I'm a little surprised nobody else bid on him. The Twins face five right-handers among their six games this week.
