Category: FAAB

Winding Down FAAB Report for September 8, 2014

Mastersball.com keeps compiling our FAAB reports, as we head into the season’s last three weeks (only two more FAAB periods).

Unless something dramatic happens, our AL winner will be Rick Wolf and Glenn Colton, while the NL will fall for the third straight time to Tristan Cockcroft.

But you can follow the tight races in Tout Mixed Auction (Zinkie leads Van Riper by a half point, while Al Melchior and Zach Steinhorn trail by six and seven points respectively) and Tout Mixed Draft (Tim McLeod 109, Brent Hershey 107, Perry Van Hook 106.5 are clustered up top) by clicking the links.

Tout FAAB Report, September 1, 2014

Mastersball.com does its usual bang up job on this week’s claims. You can read them here.

I do think there’s a bit of a story about Dilson Herrera. I track minor leaguers, but I’m not obsessive. A 20 year old in the Mets organization, Herrera wasn’t on my short term radar. And obviously he wasn’t on anyone’s, because Tout NL has been sucking up minor league talent weeks before they get called up all season long.

When Herrera was called up I looked at his stats and was sure he was worth a claim. As I went over the options, I moved him to the top of my list, past Tabata and Grichuk. As I looked at it closer I upped his bid from minimal to the teens. I thought he had some chance of being something, and we don’t get that many chances for that. Especially in September.

I made some trades, which negated my bid for Herrera, but the bidding on him is instructive. This is a young hitter without much experience. The odds yesterday were that he would not be a big contributor. But the odds yesterday were that there weren’t many major players coming. Herrera ended up being the object of much affection.

DiHerrera, NYM 26 Seth Trachtman 37 Lenny Melnick 25 Derek Carty 21 Tristan H. Cockcroft 15

Herrera homered today, which has to make Seth Trachtman happy. He’s clearly a major prospect, but he wasn’t coveted. What was his market value? At this time of year, golden, at least for a team that needs help and has nothing to lose.

All Schechter for All Shandler: No news is bad news, and other FAAB news

Mastersball chronicles a slow FAAB week. In the NL a total of $2 was spent. But the inside commentaries of Todd and company are never slow.

In other news, Schechter and Shandler didn’t make a trade.

Mastersball.com FAAB Roundup August 18, 2014

A relatively quiet week in FAAB, but lots to talk about, as three leagues (not Tout AL) have active pennant races going on.

The boys from Mastersball.com give you the scoop.

Rotoman’s FAAB Story: Cue Tiny Violins

On Saturday Brian Walton published his tale of FAAB Woe in Tout NL the week of August 4. I didn’t read it until after I posted the following, but the two stories are of a piece.  

Sometime around the beginning of July my Tout Wars NL team was in second place, about five points behind Seth Trachtman’s team. At least for a few moments. But since then things have gone terribly wrong.

My Stars and Scrubs squad was built on seven $20+ dollar players. Since the beginning of July Hanley Ramirez, Troy Tulowitzki, and Ryan Zimmerman have gone on the DL, and Andrew McCutchen has been sidelined for more than a week with injury, though he may avoid the DL.

Earlier I lost Joey Votto to injury, in June, but was able to swap him for Jay Bruce. Otherwise things would be worse, though Bruce continues to be a shadow of his former self.

As does Martin Prado, the last of my $20 hitters, who along with Madison Bumgarner (who has been exactly fine) rounds out my tale of woe and fifth place team of injured stars.

With all these injuries, one would think there would be replacements available. And this week in the NL there were.

Jake Lamb is Arizona’s third basemen until he proves otherwise. Hardly a star but maybe a viable regular, he will get at bats for a while, at least.

Rhymer Liriano is being called up to the Padres tomorrow. He’s been a fine minor league hitter who has some pedigree.

Michael Fiers had a great ML season in 2012, bombed last year and has been excellent in Triple A this year. I rostered him early this year, but he was passed by a phenom. Now, with Matt Garza tanked, he has a shot at a few starts. His first one was wonderful. Alas, I let him go in June, so I bid on him.

I also bid on Brad Penny, he’s been pitching well in New Orleans, and Alfredo Marte, who is getting (weak) at bats in Arizona’s outfield.

I had a total of $36 FAAB to spend. The outcome this week?

In Tout Wars we use the Vickery bidding system, which gives the bid to the highest bidder, at $1 more than the second highest bidder. This week’s results are personally painful:

Jake Lamb: Trachtman $36. Next: Rotoman $18. Result: Trachtman $19.

Rhymer Liriano: Walton $50. Next: Trachtman $26, Rotoman $13. Result: Walton $27.

Michael Fiers: Hertz $50. Next: Rotoman $14. Result: Hertz $15.

Alfredo Marte: Trachtman $7. Next: Rotoman $5. Result: Trachtman $6

Brad Penny: Wilderman $8. Next: Rotoman $3. Result: Wilderman $4.

At least I’m enforcing.

August 4 Mastersball.com FAAB report

Lot’s of action in the post-trading deadline FAAB period. Todd Zola and the lads at mastersball.com have all the bids and commentary about what went down.

Mastersball FAAB Report July 28, 2014

As they do every week, the masters at mastersball.com compile and annotate an authoritative report on the week’s bidding in all four Tout Wars Leagues.

This week? Lots of bidding in the NL, where three full time players arrived from the AL.

July 21, 2014 FAAB Report from Tireless Mastersball.com.

When only three days pass between FAAB sessions, as happened in Tout Wars this past week, the reports come fast and furious, though the bidding is weak and limpest.

Mastersball.com’s latest details all of this week’s fun. You can read it here.

One play from out of left field that the Mastersball crew missed was Rotoman’s bid on Cuban free agent Rusney Castillo, who isn’t even signed to a US team at this point! And this isn’t a keeper league! We spoke with Mr. Man, who says the following explains his bidding:

1) To compete for first he needs more hitting, and can’t afford to trade Madison Bumgarner to get it. At the same time, when he proposes to deal his next best starters, Alfredo Simon and Tanner Roark, to owners for mediocre sluggers like, say Adam LaRoche, they laugh and say they’ve been offered good pitchers for, um, LaRoche. Lenny Melnick today traded LaRoche and Drew Storen to Mike Gianella for Cameron Maybin and Tim Hudson. Fair enough, it’s a tough market.

2) Rusney Castillo is 27 years old and has been working out in Florida since being cleared to sign with a US team. He will have an open workout on Saturday and presumably sign shortly thereafter. He he signs with an AL club, Rotoman is SOL, but if he signs with a NL club, Rotoman will hope he is promoted quickly to the big league club.

3) Like Yasiel Puig and Jose Abreu, Castillo is a mature hitter, though more a speedster than a slugger. It is thought that if he signs fast enough he’ll spend a short amount of time in the minors and be promoted to the big club by the end of August. Regular at bats in September could be big for Team Rotoman.

4) The cost for all of this is $1 FAAB and a reserve slot, plus having to keep Castillo active for one fruitless week. If Castillo were to sign next Saturday, after the workout, with a NL club, his price would be much higher. And if Rotoman didn’t have Castillo active he would have Nate McLouth’s two AB instead. It seems worth the risk, he said.