This week in FAAB ended up being more eventful than I originally anticipated, though when you think about it that's the normal evolution. Players get hurt and other players lose their fantasy-significant roles, creating value in our free agent pool, though we don't always see it coming. In this case, Zac Gallen was an obvious free agent target and it was only a matter of when he'd get the call, not if. But then we had turmoil with three closer spots as well, plus a few other key drops that went sideways quickly. Aside from one of those key drops, the headliners this week were pitchers.
AL Tout Wars
Unfortunately this team is in shambles, having just lost Blake Treinen, preventing me from trading from my one area of surplus in saves. Making matters worse, Liam Hendriks was already owned in this league. I instead settled for a starter that might not get any more starts in Aaron Civale with the Indians, and a long reliever that probably won't start in Brian Johnson. Billy McKinney is first base-eligible, so on he goes for me. Finally, Luis Arraez is starting a lot right now due to the various injuries hitting the Twins and unlike Jose Rondon, he has some actual upside. Such is live in a mono league.
NFBC Main Event
This was a bad week not to have a lot of FAAB remaining. I don't regret the Austin Riley purchase, but I do have misgivings about my $125 Nicky Lopez. Not that I would have been able to afford Willie Calhoun, but I probably would have been the one to pony up for Liam Hendriks in this league, having potentially lost both Diego Castillo and Jordan Hicks (I'm taking the recent "not-so-bad" news with a grain of salt). Saves are super tight in this league, too - the top 10 teams are between 30-38 saves (I am tied for second with 37). I really can't afford to go too long with just one closer.
However ... I have 33 hitting points and 66.5 pitching points. I really do need to address my hitting deficiencies. Kevin Newman hopefully addresses one shortfall at least in small part - I'm 14th in my league in stolen bases, and Newman has three in the last two weeks while batting leadoff for the Pirates. I only regret the lack of efficiency in the bid - I needlessly raised my amount after reading more about him, and every marginal free agent dollar matters so much to me right now.
NFBC Online 1
I missed out on Gallen by $1 in this league, but my consolation prize was Ross Stripling, who takes over Rich Hill's rotation spot for the Dodgers. Anytime you can get a Dodgers starter for what appears to be at least a month, you have to be pretty happy. Starting pitching is my least strong part of this team, and I probably should have found a way to get two starters, but finding a second drop was pretty difficult for me. I have some major players hurt right now (Domingo German, Kyle Hendricks, Adalberto Mondesi) and other players I just don't want to cut yet (Robinson Cano, Adam Eaton, Matt Strahm).
NFBC Online 2
I was left without an extra third baseman this weekend when Yandy Diaz got hurt, so Shaw was at the top of my list of a handful of third basemen to replace him. I'm low on FAAB in this league (and wish I would have bid less on Skaggs!), so I wasn't really involved in the Gallen sweepstakes absent a modest bid.
TGFBI
Here I finally did land Zac Gallen, the first of two leagues where I got him this weekend. Frankly, I've been terrible at FAAB in this league, getting outbid on key players without having enough contingency bids in place - as indicated by the lingering presence of Corbin Martin on my roster. So it was a pleasant surprise to get Gallen, who was pretty expensive in the 15-team Main Event leagues.
FSTA
And you can see here that Zac Gallen and Emilio Pagan were bid up full-priced, and I settled for consolation prizes (Anthony Swarzak and Tom Murphy) unopposed at slightly above consolation prices. Winning a bid $17-0 never feels all that great.
LABR
"All right hot shot, you've got six players going on the IL this week, meaning that even if you started everyone on your reserve roster to replace them, you're still short an active player. You've got $10 of FAAB remaining in a league where you can't trade FAAB or have $0 bids. What's your play?"
My play was a slew of $1 bids for three spots, just to have some player slack and start a 23-man lineup. I'm going to have to either trade around future injuries, gamble on mid-week returns, or just live without going forward. The injuries this week were brutal, too - Trevor Story and Adalberto Mondesi days apart, followed by their potential utility man replacement in Marwin Gonzalez, among others. Here is how I structured my bids:
Oh yeah, Logan Allen went for more in this league than Zac Gallen.
RotoWire Staff Keeper
How much do you bid on a prospect like Gallen in a keeper league, hoping that you can keep him next year? Do you just make sure you get the player and not worry about keep-ability? My $19 bid won him, but in retrospect it was too high. In fact, my original $13 would have had him and been more palatable to consider keeping. I'm a mid-pack team with no chance of winning this year, too. Sigh, I think I played this incorrectly.