Week 16 FAAB Results

With only three full days of games after the All-Star Break, both the intensity and the volume of the free agent bidding this week was down. Still, with only 10 weeks remaining, each FAAB period is important. Even the small "waterfall" bids can make a big difference. 

AL Tout Wars

I lost out on Thomas White of the Athletics, 32-to-31 to good friends Glenn Colton and Rick Wolf, aka Colton and the Wolfman. Rick mentioned to me today that he and Glenn have built a program that evaluates FAAB bids, and that they found that "31" (in a $1000 FAAB budget environment) is a fairly common bid, so they made sure to bid at least one more than that on White. Pretty awesome stuff that they're doing, even if it wasn't so awesome for me.

Speaking of awesome stuff, Rick's got a new venture that I'll be playing a role in - National Fantasy Football Draft Day, at Circa Stadium Swim in Las Vegas on August 21st. I'll be there, doing my SiriusXM shows from there, drafting in as many leagues as possible, and generally trying to support Rick. There's an NFFC-style contest, best ball contests, a party with all participants, former players hobknobbing with everyone, and even the ability to have your home league draft there. I hope you can make it! If you're interested, please check out the following link, and make sure to check it out via my link and get 20 percent off!

https://www.draft-nation.com/pricing?ref=ERICKSON

Ok, back to the FAAB column for this week. I ended up getting boring Jeff McNeil for $3 after getting outbid on White. In an AL-only league he still has a little bit of value, and I maintained my overall hammer in FAAB total. McNeil is a sad replacement for Blaze Alexander, who was a nice "found money" acquisition.

My Drop: Max Scherzer. Scherzer is coming back soon, but I don't really want to use him, and I needed the extra IL spot to slot in Alexander.

NFBC Main Event

I'm having another bad year in the Main Event, and it starts with a series of awful hitter picks in the first 10 rounds - Fernando Tatis Jr. (looking less awful now!), Manny Machado, Corey Seager and Christian Yelich. You just can't miss on those early hitter picks, and I missed on a slew of them. So why not add another slumping veteran! Marcus Semien, come on down - let's hope you get traded as part of the Mets' fire sale.

We also added Mitch Bratt from the Diamondbacks, who is projected to get two starts this week, including Monday night against the A's. He's one of seven starters we have going on Monday - loading up starters never works, but it might work for us!

Our Drops: Tommy Troy, Nick Lodolo. Lodolo is another Sad Drop, but with the recurrence of The Super Blister, we had to let him go.

NFBC Auction Championship

This league still remained really active in FAAB bidding. I think the drops here might have been more interesting than the pickups. Konnor Griffin was a tough one to see, even though it totally makes sense. Spencer Jones drew comparisons to Aaron Judge due to his height and his power when he matriculated through the Yankees' farm system, but his 41.5% strikeout rate in his rookie season also compares to Judge, at least before Jones got sent down. Other noteworthy drops included Colton Cowser, Spencer Horwitz, and I finally cut Will Smith the latest bad news on his progress. I just couldn't keep holding on to five injured hitters on my bench. I have held on to Roman Anthony here, but it might not be for much longer.

I added Victor Mesa Jr. from the Rays, and at least he homered tonight, against Dylan Cease no less!

Beat Jeff Erickson1

I'm ready to be hurt again, adding Roki Sasaki for his start against the Mets. He was originally slated to pitch against the Phillies, but when the Dodgers went with a bullpen game on Sunday night, it pushed Sasaki back a game.

My Drop: Andrew Vaughn. This might be a mistake to drop Vaughn, who has been good at the plate (.307/.392/.464), but just hasn't played enough to use. But with Sal Frelick going on the IL, he might play more often, if the Brewers move Jake Bauers to the outfield as they did on Monday night.

Beat Jeff Erickson2

Tyler Glasnow has started to throw bullpen sessions, and while the Dodgers are slow-playing his return from back spasms, they might start accelerating that rehab a little now that Shohei Ohtani (knee) is not pitching in the short-term. I thought now was a good time to stash, and at least one other league member agreed, as I won him 4-to-3.

Meanwhile, what are you doing with Hunter Brown right now? He had another awful start over the weekend, and has walked 15 batters over his last three starts. I'm riding with him for at least one more week, starting him over Alex Lange (blown save, vulture win on Monday) and Eduardo Rodriguez, who gets a road start against the Nats this week.

My Drop: Gage Jump. This went sideways in a hurry.

TGFBI

I wanted to add a little starting pitching depth for cheap, and Matthew Liberatore has two starts this week against the Angels and Reds - that could be a sneaky great strikeout week.

My Drop: Colton Cowser.

SCARF

I might end up being one of those proverbial mealy-mouthed GM's that says the return of Injured Player X is our trade deadline acquisition - getting Cal Raleigh to play better is my big stretch-run acquisition!

It's hard to overstate just how bad Raleigh has been this year. Scott Jenstad and I tried on the Sunday night podcast this week, but he had been just so bad. Prior to Monday night, since returning from the IL on June 16, Raleigh was hitting .165/.306/.264 with two homers and 36 strikeouts in 111 plate appearances. I understand what Terry Francona was thinking behind adding the force, but man, don't poke the bear!

My Drop: Gage Jump.

LABR

We can title our bid groups on RT Sports, and Tim Tawa was my lead bid in the group, so I titled it "The New Luis Matos." That's the most likely result for Tawa, but the playing time is there right for him, so I thought to add him just in case his recent good production is the start of something sustainable.

My Drop: Randy Vasquez. We'll always have that April strikeout spike.

RotoWire Staff Keeper League

I probably got saved from myself by getting outbid for Ryan Zeferjahn, who picked up a save over the weekend for the Angels, but still made his fantasy managers eat a homer in the process. 

Jordan Romano still leads the Angels in saves for the season with four. He needs two more with the Rockies to tie for their team lead as well. He's the perfect bridge between these perfectly inept franchises.