Week 2 FAAB Review

This is our weekly look at the results from my Sunday night FAAB leagues. Week 2 was spirited, though in some leagues the winning bids were a little lower than last week.

AL Tout Wars

Available inventory was pretty low in AL Tout this week, which was a problem because I had two more pitchers hit the injured list in Zach Eflin (elbow) and Johan Oviedo (elbow). It turns out that Cade Povich was an overspend as Eflin's putative direct replacement. Tout Wars has an earlier FAAB deadline, and we had family over to the house for Easter, so I put my bids in early everywhere and hoped to adjust them according to events during the day. I somehow missed that Povich had thrown 5.2 innings in long relief on Sunday and thus at best might get one start over the weekend, and even that isn't guaranteed. Bidding was tough this week when trying to speculate on starters for the O's and the Astros (who lost Hunter Brown to a shoulder strain).

NFBC Main Event

Has this season broken me? Did I actually break my "Never Rockies" promise two weeks into the season? Apparently yes, yes it has. I feel great shame, even though Victor Vodnik has a great name and the clear job for the Paste-Eaters right now. I'm sure we'll get our just desserts soon enough, but the lack of a second closer has already led to a desperate move. We also added Taylor Rogers as a stash and got out of the Athletics' bullpen chase business. Vodnik was our fifth choice, and nobody else's choice, much to my further chagrin. Our top four bids were on Janson Junk, Colin Rea, Sean Burke and Bryce Elder.

Mark Vientos was the highest-priced player in our league after a fine weekend in San Francisco. With Juan Soto (calf) now going on the IL, Vientos is in line for significant playing time over the next 2-3 weeks at the very least.

NFBC Auction Championship

My focus continues to be on adding starting pitching help, after not paying the inflated rates (my perception of inflated rates, at least) at the auction. Last week I added Carmen Mlodzinski and Joe Boyle, and this week I added Janson Junk and Sean Burke. Junk was a target both for his two starts this week and for his improved stuff. Even though Junk was inefficient in his first start against the White Sox, I liked his velocity spike (93.7 mph to 95.5 mph), improved strikeout rate (17.2 to 26.3 percent), and a spike in his swinging strike rate from 8.8 to 12.7 percent.

Beat Jeff Erickson 1

I went big after Jordan Walker in this league and won his services in a close call, spending $87 out of a $1,000 budget to narrowly beat the runner-up bid of $83. Walker is off to a really nice start at the plate, and his supporting metrics are really nice too — his average exit velocity is up 98.4 mph (from 92.3 mph last season), his strikeout rate is down from 31.8 to 26.5 percent, and his walk rate is up from 6.6 to 11.8 percent. These extreme changes are unlikely to remain, but this is a bet that Walker's performance is at least partially real.

Beat Jeff Erickson 2

I got outbid in both online championships for Gregory Soto, but I have two real closers (Mason Miller and Daniel Palencia) in this league, so my bid was a modest $29. My remaining bids weren't any higher than the $7 it took to get Michael Wacha in a two-start week.

TGFBI

Once again I got outbid on Gregory Soto, by a good amount, and I won the services of Janson Junk, who everyone else stayed away from. I also picked up Dodgers lefty Justin Wrobleski, who will be starting at least the next two Mondays as the Dodgers are currently using a six-man rotation. I think there's some upside potential to Wrobleski winning a longer look in the rotation given the instability of Roki Sasaki and even a little concern about Emmet Sheehan. I won't use Wrobleski tonight against Toronto, but want to watch him in case it works out.

SCARF

I got shut out here this week, despite having bids in on Eduardo Rodriguez, Janson Junk and Kyle Isbel. Despite being on the NFBC platform, this league's FAAB bids run two hours later than official NFBC leagues run, and I wonder if prices run higher here because of that. I've been falling short on my bids in SCARF all season long, and I think I need to adjust accordingly.

LABR

After adding three pitchers last week, I didn't add anyone this week — I have the good problem of having more pitchers I like than active spots to use them, though I still don't have a second closer, and I didn't see an obvious candidate in this week's slate of options. The three relievers that were added this week were Caleb Kilian, Tyler Alexander and Bryan King. I actually like both King and Kilian, so perhaps I could have added them to replace the speculative plays on my bench, Ryne Stanek and Kyle Finnegan.

RotoWire Staff Keeper League

I kept my bids low this week, having added Emerson Hancock last week. That netted me Ben Brown, who I think ultimately could get moved back into the Cubs' rotation. I also had token bids in on Aaron Ashby (who remained a free agent), Kyle Isbel and Bryce Elder. The bidding on Isbel and Elder was pretty aggressive, as it was for Liam Hicks, Jose Fernandez, Janson Junk and Troy Johnston.

I also activated Carson Benge and Justin Crawford from my minor-league roster this week, one week later than optimal — but doing so required cuts, and I wasn't quite ready to give up on a few of my draft acquisitions. Zach Eflin's elbow injury made it easy to part with him this week, and I also cut Trevor Larnach, who has only accumulated 11 at-bats so far this season.