I'm fighting to prevent fantasy football from fully taking over my brain, but it's difficult. I was away in Las Vegas last weekend for National Fantasy Draft Day, a new event put together by our friend and industry stalwart Rick Wolf. I jumped into a number of drafts, did some live shows, and rubbed elbows with other industry analysts and enthusiasts in our great community. Then I drove home from Vegas to Los Angeles, fighting pretty heavy traffic just to get back on time slightly late for another football auction. It's tough to stay on top of baseball! I did my best to steal baseball moments, including getting my FAAB bids on time. The Sunday night MLB Podcast with Scott Jenstad provides a welcome respite for me, however. I thought this week was a fun episode, and one of the key topics was the bidding and usage of Kade Anderson, probably the last big prospect to get the call this season.
Tout Wars AL
Kade Anderson was long gone here, as he was in most AL-only leagues even at the start of the season. Jackson Jobe was made available, so he drew a massive bid. My meager $5 remaining was just a little bit short of Jeff Winick's winning bid. I put in bids on Jobe, Jose Urquidy (my $5, win was $12) and Ryan Johnson, who I actually won. If you want to play with selective endpoints, and who among us doesn't, Johnson has a 1.69 ERA
I'm fighting to prevent fantasy football from fully taking over my brain, but it's difficult. I was away in Las Vegas last weekend for National Fantasy Draft Day, a new event put together by our friend and industry stalwart Rick Wolf. I jumped into a number of drafts, did some live shows, and rubbed elbows with other industry analysts and enthusiasts in our great community. Then I drove home from Vegas to Los Angeles, fighting pretty heavy traffic just to get back on time slightly late for another football auction. It's tough to stay on top of baseball! I did my best to steal baseball moments, including getting my FAAB bids on time. The Sunday night MLB Podcast with Scott Jenstad provides a welcome respite for me, however. I thought this week was a fun episode, and one of the key topics was the bidding and usage of Kade Anderson, probably the last big prospect to get the call this season.
Tout Wars AL
Kade Anderson was long gone here, as he was in most AL-only leagues even at the start of the season. Jackson Jobe was made available, so he drew a massive bid. My meager $5 remaining was just a little bit short of Jeff Winick's winning bid. I put in bids on Jobe, Jose Urquidy (my $5, win was $12) and Ryan Johnson, who I actually won. If you want to play with selective endpoints, and who among us doesn't, Johnson has a 1.69 ERA and 1.08 WHIP in his last four starts. He also has a 13:11 K:BB over that span, so my enthusiasm is tempered, but it's a port in a storm in an AL-only league.
My Drop: Leo De Vries. De Vries never got the call from the Athletics despite copious injuries at the big league level, and now is on the IL at Double-A. We move on.
NFBC Main Event
We didn't have the budget to land Anderson, nor did most of the league it appears, though at least there was a respectable second-place bid.
I'm impressed by the volume of "waterfall" pickups. There were only three double-digit dollar pickups, yet 30 total pickups. We added Randy Vasquez in attempt to ride the Padres' wave with a home start against the Pirates, and Blaze Jordan because we don't need three catchers.
Our Drops: Hunter Dobbins; Jonah Heim.
NFBC Auction Championship
Luis Lara has been playing nearly every day with Sal Frelick still out. He had 24 stolen bases at Triple-A before getting the promotion, and while he hasn't run that much yet for the Brewers, he's made an impact with his defense. I've also liked his ability to control the strike zone (9.9 BB%). I got another share of Ildemaro Vargas, who is replacing Ketel Marte.
My Drops: Maikel Garcia, Nick Kurtz, Victor Mesa Jr. Yeah, cutting Nick Kurtz really stunk.
Beat Jeff Erickson1
Both of my RotoWire Championship Leagues have really tight races for first place, with 4-to-6 teams with the chance to win still. I had spent big earlier in this league, so I couldn't jump into the bigger bids. Still, it was interesting to me that Ben Joyce went for more than Kade Anderson in this league.
I settled on three cheap adds - Kodai Senga was still available here, though I'm starting to question whether he'll get another chance after he allowed a homer Sunday and then didn't pitch in a save chance Tuesday night. I also picked up Ildemaro Vargas as a straight replacement for Ketel Marte (though it's now looking as if Marte could be back soon), and Kyle Stowers fresh off the IL.
My Drops: Shane Drohan, Ketel Marte, Lars Nootbaar.
Beat Jeff Erickson2
The top four teams in this league were separated by two points to begin the week, and we've had 6-7 teams in contention overall. Unfortunately, all of them realized that this week and outbid me on each of my bids. To be fair, I had just one drop (Cooper Pratt), and my list of bids was pretty short this week.
TGFBI
I've commented on the podcasts that it's interesting that the Phillies opted against trading for any of the bigger-named starters at the deadline, and instead chose to stick with Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter for their bottom two spots in the rotation. It appears that their faith in both has been justified. SInce getting called back up on July 31, Painter has made five starts with a 3.62 ERA and 1.06 WHIP with 26 strikeouts over 27.1 innings. I also picked up Jacob Lopez, but didn't use him this week with the Athletics at home.
My Drops: Yennier Cano, Maikel Garcia.
SCARF
What much else is there to say about Grant Holmes? He's fine. He's a regular starter that's been relatively hot for a good team, and he's missing the Dodgers to pitch against the Rockies. That's good enough for a 15-team league.
My Drop:Connelly Early. He shouldn't have remained on my roster this long, but I kept getting outbid on my waterfall.
LABR
After my dubious big spend on Kodai Senga last week, I stayed out of the fray this week, and that's too bad. I would have been far better off with Tanner Scott this week than Senga last week, I think. I probably wouldn't have jumped too aggressively for Anderson, because my primary needs are saves and stolen bases.
RotoWire Staff Keeper League
I'm just shuffling deck chairs now in this league. Trading for Edwin Diaz and picking up Yennier Cano were unmitigated disasters. Remember that when people tell you it's easy to add saves late in the season - it's not easy. I also lost Jacob Wilson and Dansby Swanson for the rest of the season - both are at keepable contracts too, so if I want to keep them, essentially my entire bench will be filled with injured guys. But that's what I did this week, picking Jose Fernandez and Carlos Cortes, just to maintain a healthy active roster.
My Drops: Gabrial Arias, Yennier Cano.
