Jakob Junis was the main character this week in FAAB bidding, and I found myself heavily involved. In fact, my results were largely a binary experience - did I get Junis, or did I get outbid? I suspect that chasing saves will be an ongoing theme in free agent bidding in the ensuing weeks, with so many unsettled bullpens, until we get into propsect callup season.
Tout Wars AL
Kudos to Doug Dennis from BaseballHQ.com, who already had Junis rostered in this league. I ended up with a cheap add of J.T. Ginn, who gets a home start against the Rangers on Wednesday. GInn has raised his average fastball velocity by 1.4 mph so far, though that added velocity hasn't translated into more strikeouts just yet. Given that the O's demoted Cade Povich on Monday, I'm fortunate to have added another starter.
The big bid here was Noah Schultz of the White Sox, who is getting the call for Tuesday's start against the Rays and will have two starts in his debut week. Unlike in the NFBC, Schultz was eligible for bididng in ToutWars - in fact, you can pick up any minor leaguer if you want, with the proviso that he has to be on your active roster the week that you pick him up. I was one of seven bidders on Schultz, coming up well short at $43.
My Drop: Randal Grichuk
NFBC Main Event
Look who's spending the big bucks now! Tim Schuler and I
Jakob Junis was the main character this week in FAAB bidding, and I found myself heavily involved. In fact, my results were largely a binary experience - did I get Junis, or did I get outbid? I suspect that chasing saves will be an ongoing theme in free agent bidding in the ensuing weeks, with so many unsettled bullpens, until we get into propsect callup season.
Tout Wars AL
Kudos to Doug Dennis from BaseballHQ.com, who already had Junis rostered in this league. I ended up with a cheap add of J.T. Ginn, who gets a home start against the Rangers on Wednesday. GInn has raised his average fastball velocity by 1.4 mph so far, though that added velocity hasn't translated into more strikeouts just yet. Given that the O's demoted Cade Povich on Monday, I'm fortunate to have added another starter.
The big bid here was Noah Schultz of the White Sox, who is getting the call for Tuesday's start against the Rays and will have two starts in his debut week. Unlike in the NFBC, Schultz was eligible for bididng in ToutWars - in fact, you can pick up any minor leaguer if you want, with the proviso that he has to be on your active roster the week that you pick him up. I was one of seven bidders on Schultz, coming up well short at $43.
My Drop: Randal Grichuk
NFBC Main Event
Look who's spending the big bucks now! Tim Schuler and I share this team together, and over the course of the day we raised our Junis bid thrice, after initially starting at $54, before he tallied his third save of the season against the Dodgers. Junis doesn't fit a traditional closer's profile. He doesn't throw especially hard (92.1 mph average fastball) and he doesn't generate a ton of strikeouts (16.7%) or swings and misses (7.8 SwStr%). But he's converted three chances in traditional save situations and has been used in high leverage spots, and importantly hasn't walked anyone yet this season. It's not the safest profile to pour my FAAB dollars into, but such safe profiles aren't exactly in abundance. This might be as good as it gets.
My Drops: Chris Martin, Taylor Rogers.
NFBC Auction Championship
I lost out on Junis here to Eric Albright, which is only fair, because I'm pretty sure that he was the $169 bid in the Main Event league above. The problem is I really needed Junis here, as I've gotten just one save from Andres Munoz and don't have a second closer, with Kirby Yates sitting on the IL while Jordan Romano remains perfect.
This was one of many leagues where I have Christian Yelich, so I needed a hitter to replace him. I settled on Mike Yastrzemski, who has struggled but at least is playing every day and likely will continue to do so in a good lineup. Other similarly inspired backup bids included Brady House, Angel Martinez and Javier Baez.
I also gave up on Bo Naylor in this league, replacing him with Danny Jansen. "Winning" Danny Jansen 5-to-4 is a pretty sad victory.
My Drops: Roki Sasaki, Bo Naylor.
Beat Jeff Erickson 1
This was a check-mark in the "Yes" column for Junis. I also had backup bids in for Bryan Baker and Bryan King in case I didn't get Junis. This team has only three saves despite having Cade Smith and Dennis Santana, or maybe because I have Dennis Santana. I still think Santana will accumulate 15-20 saves before the season ends, but will they be on my active roster?
My Drop: Cole Sands.
Beat Jeff Erickson 2
I have Mason Miller and Daniel Palencia in this league, so I had a very tepid bid on Junis here.
TGFBI
Kudos to leaguemate Theodore Gehman, who had the gift of prophecy and picked Junis up in Week 0, on March 22 before the start of the season! No pickups or drops for me this week - I spent a little too big in Week 1, and my small-ball bid for Eduardo Rodriguez was easily topped.
SCARF
Here's another league where I went big on Junis and got him. Once again, I have just three saves going into this week, with Aroldis Chapman as my sole closer. I've already churned through a handful of incorrect save speculation plays, so it was time to go big here. Unfortunately, I went too big, winning Junis for $97 more than the second highest bidder, RotoWire's Paul Martinez.
My Drop: Cristian Javier.
LABR
A whopping 13 of the 15 teams bid on Jakob Junis, and my $15 bid won his services, with multiple opponents bidding $11-12. Once again, my team has converted just three saves with Aroldis Chapman, and an attempt more with Ryne Stanek failed, so it was worth it to add the proverbial second closer. I also picked up Gavin Sheets, having lost Addison Barger to the IL.
My Drop: Ryne Stanek
RotoWire Staff Keeper League
This was Paul Martinez's Revenge! The Staff Keeper League has the latest deadline of the week - at 2:00 a.m. PT on Monday morning, i.e. overnight Sunday night. That means that we all have the ability to see the FAAB results from earlier in the evening. Paul learned from his SCARF "loss" and "+1'd" me with his $19 bid on Junis. Well done Paul, well done.
