Fantasy Baseball FAABlog – Week 2
Evan Gattis has hit so well recently that he was FAABed for $112 in the 12-team h2h point-per-category mixed Blog Wars league.
In our weekly FAABlog, we make the results of the free agent bidding from our eXpertLeagues public and offer some words of advice as well. Links to results follow this paragraph of analysis. Bids are out of a $1000 budget for the season, and FAAB is processed twice per week, once at 11 am ET Saturday mornings and once at 11 am Monday mornings.
Gattis went for just $5 in TCM. Josh Donaldson (109 BW) the other $100+ bid of the week. The big speculative saves add of the day was Trevor Rosenthal (32 MW). Kelvin Herrera was taken mostly in our Monday FAAB earlier in the week. Barry Zito (13 BW, 3 TCM, 1 MW), Justin Masterson (75 TCM), and Jhoulys Chacin (24 MW) were the starting pitching choices of the week. Conor Gillespie (53 TCAL), Aaron Harang (17 TCAL), Sam LeCure (29 TCNL), and Tony Cingrani (18 TCNL) were the big mono-league bids of the week. Also, news just came down about the Yoenis Cespedes injury, so consider Chris Young in mixed leagues, as he can provide some homers and steals over the next couple of weeks.
Here are links to the actual results:
- Blog Wars (BW = 15-team MIXED standard 5×5 roto)
- Mic Wars (MW = 12-team MIXED head-to-head point-per-category 5×5 roto)
- Triple Crown Mixed (TCM = 12-team MIXED standard 5×5 roto)
- Triple Crown American League (TCAL = 12-team AL-only standard 5×5 roto)
- Triple Crown National League (TCNL = 12-team AL-only standard 5×5 roto)
Use the links above (just change the date in the date box once you get there) to check in right after 11 am ET next Saturday to immediately find out the results of our bidding!
Photo by Tom Hagerty
I play in the Triple Crown AL and NL leagues, so here are my comments…
Triple Crown AL
Best pickup: Conor Gillaspie, $53. Great pickup in such a dismal free agent pool. Looking back on it, I should have bumped by bid up at least double to net him. Watching Gillaspie the last few games, he seems to be a more than adequate fielder (which should make him an everyday player with Beckham out), and he has a nice compact, quick swing that can help your batting average, that is very valuable due to the total lack of solid averages across the board to start the year.
My picks were Sheppers for $2 and Shoppach for $2. Really, it was addition by subtraction by dropping Molina, and even if Kelly only plays once or twice a week, maybe he keeps the average up and runs into a homerun or two, which Molina won’t do. Sheppers has electric stuff and has impressed every time I have watched him, so I will take a few Ks and maybe a lucky win or two from a cheap free agent pitcher.
Eduardo Escobar is a nice buy for $3, as he has some tools, and if he catches fire could get more starts in the time share that Gardenhire is instituting currently.
Harang went for a little cheaper than I thought he would, but it remains to be seen how effective he will be. I was surprised that Seattle was the team to trade for him, and if he struggles, there are definitely capable arms in the minors. I wonder if Ramirez were healthy, would they have even made that move? Maybe they just want an innings eater until the young guys come up, but he could run into some wins with an improved Mariner team.
Triple Crown NL
Not much to see here.
The interesting guy in Cingrani, and the fact that Baker came out and said they want to keep him as a starter and not impede his progress by putting him in the pen is encouraging. Great pick up, and for a very cheap price. Now with Cueto on shelf for what could be up to 8 weeks, Tony now has an extended audition to make a real impact for your fantasy team. He does have a live fastball that tops out around 96 mph and an above average change up, so that bodes well for him to make a positive impact when he is expected to be called up to start Thursday against the lowly Marlins. The only bad thing is fellow rookie phenom Fernandez toes the rubber that date, still to date my biggest miss in acquiring him in FAAB, with what I thought was a more than adequate bid. Those are the breaks and this could be a nice little boost for pennies in a $1000 FAAB.
Gorzelany is a quality middle reliever. Add Figaro to the mix, and it is a mad dash to find vulture saves in Milwaukee with Axford imploding.
Sellers plays every day, but it appears that he may hurt more than help a team, and Sanchez is simply roster depth in such a terrible free agent pool.