This article is part of our Rounding Third series.
Despite the MLB season only being four days old, FAAB bidding was furious on Sunday, with lots of closer situations in flux and injuries creating opportunities elsewhere. Each week I'll post the results from my Sunday FAAB leagues and sprinkle in a few comments here and there, mostly from the perspective of my teams.
AL Tout Wars
Each week at 8:00 pm ET Tout Wars provides the first set of FAAB results among the industry and/or NFBC leagues, perhaps giving you a rough guide how the rest of the night will go. After the FAAB run, you can discuss those results with a few of the players in the various leagues - we'll have a Zoom link posted from the Tout Wars main page. Six of the seven Tout leagues have a FAAB run, so there's a wide variety of context, too.
Mike Gianella from Baseball Prospectus wisely had already rostered Julian Merryweather, so there was no flurry of bids on him, also creating a bit of a scarcity on pick-up options. I overspent on Cesar Valdez, spending $173/$1,000 when the second highest bid was only $93. Yermin Mercedes was the subject of a flurry of bids, going to Howard Bender for $168. That he's a UT-only isn't as harmful in Tout Wars, due to our rule that only requires four active outfielders, with the extra spot going to a "swingman" - which is essentially a second UT spot, or otherwise can be used as a 10th pitcher.
Despite the MLB season only being four days old, FAAB bidding was furious on Sunday, with lots of closer situations in flux and injuries creating opportunities elsewhere. Each week I'll post the results from my Sunday FAAB leagues and sprinkle in a few comments here and there, mostly from the perspective of my teams.
AL Tout Wars
Each week at 8:00 pm ET Tout Wars provides the first set of FAAB results among the industry and/or NFBC leagues, perhaps giving you a rough guide how the rest of the night will go. After the FAAB run, you can discuss those results with a few of the players in the various leagues - we'll have a Zoom link posted from the Tout Wars main page. Six of the seven Tout leagues have a FAAB run, so there's a wide variety of context, too.
Mike Gianella from Baseball Prospectus wisely had already rostered Julian Merryweather, so there was no flurry of bids on him, also creating a bit of a scarcity on pick-up options. I overspent on Cesar Valdez, spending $173/$1,000 when the second highest bid was only $93. Yermin Mercedes was the subject of a flurry of bids, going to Howard Bender for $168. That he's a UT-only isn't as harmful in Tout Wars, due to our rule that only requires four active outfielders, with the extra spot going to a "swingman" - which is essentially a second UT spot, or otherwise can be used as a 10th pitcher.
NFBC Main Event I
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Julian Merryweather was the top subject of bidding wars everywhere on the NFBC platform after picking up two saves for the Blue Jays this week, including Sunday's win against the Yankees where Jordan Romano pitched the eighth inning, albeit against the top of the Yankees' lineup. Merryweather looked phenomenal in his two appearances, throwing 99 mph and pairing that with a wicked changeup against lefties. We bid $178 on both Merryweather and Valdez, getting Valdez while not getting even close to Merryweather. Heavily contested bids were also in on Yermin Mercedes again, Jake Diekman with Trevor Rosenthal out, and Kyle Isbel after he won the Royals' starting RF job and stole a base on Sunday.
NFBC Main Event II
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This was frustrating - Shoe and I had to settle for a speculative closer in a league where we only have one closer, a Kapler-closer at that in Jake McGee. Not that we'll throw back Emilio Pagan's two wins, but we were hoping to get some saves from that spot. In this league, our $178 bids didn't come close on Merryweather and was at best the third place bid on Valdez. Instead, we ended up getting ... Kevin Ginkel. Joakim Soria injured his calf while pitching in the eighth inning against the Padres - yes, the eighth inning. Ginkel didn't get the save Sunday, but did come in to close out the eighth after Soria got hurt, and then got pinch-hit for in the top of the ninth. Chris Devenski instead got the ninth inning and got the save, but only after giving up a long homer to Fernando Tatis Jr. I think Ginkel is the guy over Devenski, but ... there might not be "the guy" in Arizona, as manager Torey Luvollo said in spring training that he was inspired by Rays manager Kevin Cash in how he managed his bullpen in the playoffs. So I have some post-bid regrets on Ginkel, especially for the price.
It was also frustrating because we ended up settling on our third choice for a bat, Kevin Kiermaier, after getting significantly outbid on Kyle Isbel and Luis Arraez - and I originally put in a bid big enough to get Arraez but later lowered it. Aargh. Kiermaier isn't a long-term fix, but he'll help us get by until Trent Grisham returns for the Padres, hopefully this weekend.
"Beat Jeff Erickson" I
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I got beat out on all of the big bids in this one, including Merryweather, Valdez, Nate Lowe and Jonathan India. Instead, I got a pair of conditional bids in Yimi Garcia and Matt Shoemaker. Shoemaker has two starts, including today against the Tigers, and Garcia is a speculative bid on the Marlins' closer job following a rocky beginning to the season for Anthony Bass.
Beat Jeff Erickson II
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I was actually the second place bid on Merryweather. Progress! I took my shot at the Oakland job with Cesar Valdez already rostered in this league. The good news is that nobody else claimed Sergio Romo, so in case I'm wrong, Romo is still in play next week.
TGFBI
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I made no pickups this week, but not for a lack of trying. I was the second place bid on all four players that I put a bid in on - Merryweather, Valdez, Diekman and Isbel. Not great! I wonder how hard it is to that degree of precision? Instead of being the FAAB Whisperer, I'm the guy at the end of the line of the "telephone game," - you know, the one where there's a line of like five people, and the person at the front whispers something to the person next to them, and then that person whispers to the next, and by the end there's a micro-distortion of the message that changes the entire meaning. That's me!
LABR Mixed Draft League
Back-to-back leagues where I got shut out. I wasn't crestfallen, having spent $29/100 of my budget, with no $0 bids allowed, nor any trading of FAAB. I was one dollar off on both Lowe and Isbel, though, so that rises to the level of perturbance, at least. I've still spent more FAAB than all but Yahoo's Scott Pianowski, who won the bidding war on Merryweather.
