Usually the first week of FAAB is huge - last year brought K-Rod and Dee Gordon, for instance. I didn't get that feeling this year, but the earlier the draft, the more valuable that first period typically is. Here are the results from my three NFBC leagues.
NFBC Main Event (Draft 3/28, initial FAAB budget in all NFBC contests is $1,000):
| Waiver Draft on 04/05 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Player | Bid | Runner-Up |
| Giancarlo...A Gift | Jason Grilli (MR) | 389 | 188 |
| HeartBreaKers | Cameron Maybin (CF) | 112 | 82 |
| Team Warner | Odubel Herrera (2B) | 107 | 62 |
| Team Travis | Billy Burns (CF) | 68 | 29 |
| On The Jazz | Zach McAllister (SP) | 57 | 57 |
| ALL-IN MAIN | Seth Smith (LF) | 31 | 17 |
| ALL-IN MAIN | Jim Johnson (MR) | 21 | |
| On The Jazz | Mitch Moreland (1B) | 18 | 7 |
| Team Travis | Johnny Giavotella (2B) | 17 | |
| Sasha's Team | Rubby De La Rosa (SP) | 17 | 8 |
| Welcome to Stevieland | Alfredo Simon (SP) | 17 | 5 |
| DT & Gut | Craig Gentry (CF) | 14 | |
| Team Shairson | Stephen Drew (SS) | 13 | |
| Philbys | Chris Coghlan (LF) | 12 | 11 |
| Welcome to Stevieland | Aaron Barrett (MR) | 10 | |
| Welcome to Stevieland | Jason Vargas (SP) | 7 | |
| DT & Gut | Erasmo Ramirez (SP) | 5 | |
| The Weasel Peckers | Jason Marquis (SP) | 5 | |
| RotoWire - Erickson | Chris Hatcher (MR) | 3 | |
| Philbys | Tony Cingrani (MR) | 3 | |
| Incredible Hulking Us LV | Caleb Joseph (C) | 2 |
I bid on Grilli, but given that he's not officially the closer (the Braves still mentioned Jim Johnson as a possibility), they're likely to be terrible, and they could still flip Grilli at the deadline if they get a good three-month stretch out of him, I didn't feel it necessary to blow my budget on him.
I have two closers but no closers in waiting. I picked up Hatcher on the chance that he gets the saves while Kenley Jansen is out. I dropped Vance Worley to make it happen.
NFBC - RotoWire Online Championship (Draft 3/16):
| Waiver Draft on 04/05 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Player | Bid | Runner-Up |
| The Krukster | Jason Grilli (MR) | 177 | 150 |
| The Krukster | Daniel Norris (MR) | 122 | 119 |
| Las Vegas Blvd | Luis Valbuena (3B) | 51 | 25 |
| CHET LEMONADE | Devon Travis (2B) | 45 | |
| Tigers Slappy | Edward Mujica (MR) | 41 | 2 |
| Las Vegas Blvd | Michael A. Taylor (RF) | 36 | 1 |
| Nut Flush | Odubel Herrera (2B) | 33 | 12 |
| Nut Flush | Chris Hatcher (MR) | 33 | |
| Sack & Luny I | David Peralta (LF) | 31 | |
| Las Vegas Blvd | Nick Hundley (C) | 14 | |
| Gut & El Jefe | Archie Bradley (SP) | 12 | |
| Nut Flush | Bartolo Colon (SP) | 12 | 2 |
| Las Vegas Blvd | Alex Avila (C) | 11 | |
| KP's DREAM CRUSHERS | Yovani Gallardo (SP) | 1 | |
| CHET LEMONADE | Mike Leake (SP) | 1 |
This is the league that I'm sharing with RotoWire's Vlad Sedler. We have three closers here (Melancon, Casilla and Gregerson), so getting Grilli was not a priority. We just put a "keep them honest" bid in there. We ended up with Bradley, one of our top four targets, though we also wanted Norris. We dropped Roenis Elias, an easy decision.
NFBC - RotoWire Online Championship (Draft 3/2):
| Waiver Draft on 04/05 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Player | Bid | Runner-Up |
| CRASH DAVIS RWC 03-02 | Jason Grilli (MR) | 365 | 195 |
| CRASH DAVIS RWC 03-02 | Edward Mujica (MR) | 135 | 117 |
| CRASH DAVIS RWC 03-02 | Shane Greene (SP) | 104 | 31 |
| A REMEDY FOR MY ADDICTION | Odubel Herrera (2B) | 77 | 23 |
| A REMEDY FOR MY ADDICTION | Kendall Graveman (MR) | 77 | 25 |
| ChrisLiss4President | Micah Johnson (2B) | 75 | 25 |
| A REMEDY FOR MY ADDICTION | Archie Bradley (SP) | 65 | 19 |
| The Achievers - OL | TJ House (SP) | 55 | |
| Epinephrine | Jace Peterson (2B) | 39 | 1 |
| A REMEDY FOR MY ADDICTION | David Peralta (LF) | 34 | |
| CRASH DAVIS RWC 03-02 | Yovani Gallardo (SP) | 25 | 16 |
| ChrisLiss4President | Jordy Mercer (SS) | 25 | 3 |
| RotoWire - Erickson | Kyle Gibson (SP) | 25 | 1 |
| TIgers Slappy | Kendrys Morales (1B) | 22 | |
| ChrisLiss4President | Travis Snider (RF) | 20 | |
| Mad Russian | Vance Worley (SP) | 19 | |
| SLAAAYER | Adam Ottavino (MR) | 18 | |
| SLAAAYER | Justin Masterson (SP) | 17 | |
| Epinephrine | Brett Anderson (SP) | 11 | 2 |
| TIgers Slappy | Jonathon Niese (SP) | 10 | |
| RotoWire - Erickson | Anthony Gose (CF) | 5 | |
| Griffey2016 | Omar Infante (2B) | 3 | |
| Mudhens | Bartolo Colon (SP) | 2 | |
| Mudhens | Alfredo Simon (SP) | 2 | |
| Griffey2016 | Jonathan Schoop (2B) | 1 | |
| Mad Russian | Tim Hudson (SP) | 1 |
The earlier the draft, the higher the bids, the more waste we had. I was the second place bid on Graveman and Micah Johnson, for what it's worth. I've been a believer in Gibson - we'll see pretty quickly if that faith was misplaced. My drops were Chad Qualls and Jung-Ho Kang.