The volume of FAAB bids heading into the All-Star break is typically pretty light, and that was the case in most of my leagues this week. It helped that there weren't too many big bids - the largest bids, in fact, were of "name" players that had been dropped in previous weeks.
AL Tout Wars
There were no bids on Sunday night, as Tout Wars instead has a FAAB run on Wednesday night, on the eve of the first game on Thursday for the league (Mets at Philly).
Tout Wars always strives to be innovative on this great game we play, and we've experimented with a few different FAAB rules over the years. We were one of the first leagues to use $0 bids, for instance. For a while we used the Vickrey method for awarding the winning bid, which was loved by some and hated by many others. For a while we also used to have a special one night FAAB-run after the trade deadline closed, including one year where I think we did live free agent auctions with our FAAB budgets - all in the name of trying to gauge actual value of the players.
Not every innovation worked, but I love the spirit of trying out different methods.
NFBC Main Event
The top four bids this week were all players that were previously rostered and cut, and in the case of Gregory Soto, rostered and cut multiple times. We didn't have enough in our budget to
The volume of FAAB bids heading into the All-Star break is typically pretty light, and that was the case in most of my leagues this week. It helped that there weren't too many big bids - the largest bids, in fact, were of "name" players that had been dropped in previous weeks.
AL Tout Wars
There were no bids on Sunday night, as Tout Wars instead has a FAAB run on Wednesday night, on the eve of the first game on Thursday for the league (Mets at Philly).
Tout Wars always strives to be innovative on this great game we play, and we've experimented with a few different FAAB rules over the years. We were one of the first leagues to use $0 bids, for instance. For a while we used the Vickrey method for awarding the winning bid, which was loved by some and hated by many others. For a while we also used to have a special one night FAAB-run after the trade deadline closed, including one year where I think we did live free agent auctions with our FAAB budgets - all in the name of trying to gauge actual value of the players.
Not every innovation worked, but I love the spirit of trying out different methods.
NFBC Main Event
The top four bids this week were all players that were previously rostered and cut, and in the case of Gregory Soto, rostered and cut multiple times. We didn't have enough in our budget to land Framber Valdez, and frankly not enough to get Soto without crippling our budget for the rest of the season.
We ended up with Joshua Kuroda-Grauer with the A's, Vaughn Grissom of the Angels for his positional flexibility and Janson Junk.
Our Drops: Sean Keys, Nathaniel Lowe, Wade Meckler. Lowe has started to lose playing time, and we've struggled to find ways to get him in the lineup anyhow. It's one of the costs of rostering a DH-only player as we have in Christian Yelich.
NFBC Auction Championship
Often when I write this article, I need two screenshots to encompass the full list of pickups for the week, but this week I expected to get most of them in one shot. That ... was not the case here, where we still had 33 pickups. Including four by me! I had a lot of needs to replace.
Patrick Sandoval could end up being in the Red Sox rotation for a short time, as they could get Connelly Early and Ranger Suarez back soon after the break. But I'm guessing I'll get at least a couple of starts out of Sandoval, and that a six-man rotation is even possible.
Griffin Conine came back on June 21 and has been playing fairly regularly against right-handed pitching. It's dangerous to overly rely on his recent numbers, because the Marlins a week ago had the best ballpark road trip a team could possibly have in Colorado and Sacramento. Of course, that's why he's available for $5 in FAAB, but at least he'll play more than Anthony Volpe.
Henry Davis is my latest attempt at getting a second catcher, and is playing more with Endy Rodriguez is out.
My Drops: Aaron Civale, Anthony Volpe, Cooper Ingle, Robert Gasser.
Beat Jeff Erickson1
Heriberto Hernandez is playing more, hitting higher in the order and that will continue now that Owen Caissie is on the IL. This is one league where I'm likely giving up on Christian Yelich, at least in the starting lineup. It'll take another leap to cut him. I have a severe power shortage in this league, so I'll be looking to continue to FAAB for power here.
My Drop: Merrill Kelly.
Beat Jeff Erickson2
I have plenty of power in this league, but I'm lacking stolen bases (dead last in my league, with 63). My two attempts at it this week were for Luke Keaschall and Cooper Pratt, and I ended up with my second choice in Pratt. I'm hoping to add 2-3 points in the category over the second half.
My Drop: All-Star Michael Wacha. Wacha had a nice start to the season, but has been steadily mediocre over the last two months. This was overdue.
TGFBI
I had two middle infielders get hurt last week in David Hamilton and Matt McLain. McLain was a tough drop given my fandom and his draft price, but this was probably at least 2-3 weeks too late. Webb was one of only two contested bids in this league this week.
SCARF
I bid on four starting pitchers that I felt queasy about - Matthew Liberatore, Grayson Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt and Janson Junk. I "won" my first choice, unfortunately overspending to get him. Life can be tough finding starting pitching in 15-team leagues.
My Drop: Jeff McNeil.
LABR
I have a competitive team here, and have easily identifiable needs - the same that I have in nearly all of my leagues - stolen bases and saves. That should simplify my bidding process and trade attempts. I have some feelers out on trying to trade from my surplus in homers (199 - 22 more than the next highest team) for stolen bases (81 - good for just four points). I have just 25 saves, good for just five points.
This week's add attempts were for Jacob Webb, who is getting a plurality if not a majority of saves for the Cubs, and Ben Williamson, who's had three stolen bases over the last two weeks and gets four games instead of three coming out of the All-Star break. I fell short on Webb, losing 6-to-3.
My Drops: None. Once again, I have so many IL'd players that I can't even fill all of my reserve slots. I didn't even put Byron Buxton (hip) on my IL, in the hopes that he can return over the weekend, having landed on the IL last Tuesday.
RotoWire Staff Keeper League
Mason Montgomery is my latest attempt to add an odd save or two, and perhaps add someone that has lasting value. I've had Montgomery on my teams before, first as a minor leaguer when he was a Rays starting pitching prospect, and then last year as a save spec. I can't quit him. Gabriel Arias was a sad pickup for the sad drop of Blaze Alexander, who is going to miss time after suffering a broken left hand.
My Drops: Blaze Alexander, Trevor McDonald. At least McDonald mitigated some of the damage he wrought earlier in the week with a decent start on Sunday.
