This article is part of our Rounding Third series.
If you are a starting pitcher with an intact UCL, please raise your hand (but not too high, lest you stretch a ligament too far). What a catclysmic week in Major League Baseball, as the starting pitcher arm injury epidemic continued. Just this week alone we lost Eury Perez (officially, at least), Shane Bieber and Spencer Strider, though there's a chance we still will get Strider back this season. And Week 3 isn't beginning very well either, with Framber Valdez getting scratched from his start.
Despite all the mounting injuries this week, I found the options to replace those injured starters wanting, with a paucity of good options at other positions. Part of that failure was the lack of time to due a deep dive as I normally can - that was out of my control this week. But I also usually see some obvious options, and the options this week, perhaps other than Spencer Turnbull, were less than obvious. Consequently, once again I was outbid on my top choices this week, but I think this week I'm ok with that.
AL Tout Wars:
I had tepid bids in on Pablo Reyes and David Hamilton on the hitting side, hoping to get a short-term increase in playing time from one of my middle infield spots while I await Jackson Holliday's promotion. But I'm not crestfallen to lose out on them, because I think Vaughn Grissom's eventual return to the Red Sox will limit that time
If you are a starting pitcher with an intact UCL, please raise your hand (but not too high, lest you stretch a ligament too far). What a catclysmic week in Major League Baseball, as the starting pitcher arm injury epidemic continued. Just this week alone we lost Eury Perez (officially, at least), Shane Bieber and Spencer Strider, though there's a chance we still will get Strider back this season. And Week 3 isn't beginning very well either, with Framber Valdez getting scratched from his start.
Despite all the mounting injuries this week, I found the options to replace those injured starters wanting, with a paucity of good options at other positions. Part of that failure was the lack of time to due a deep dive as I normally can - that was out of my control this week. But I also usually see some obvious options, and the options this week, perhaps other than Spencer Turnbull, were less than obvious. Consequently, once again I was outbid on my top choices this week, but I think this week I'm ok with that.
AL Tout Wars:
I had tepid bids in on Pablo Reyes and David Hamilton on the hitting side, hoping to get a short-term increase in playing time from one of my middle infield spots while I await Jackson Holliday's promotion. But I'm not crestfallen to lose out on them, because I think Vaughn Grissom's eventual return to the Red Sox will limit that time for Reyes and Hamilton, though maybe not fully due to Trevor Story's long-term injury. I also got outbid on Kirby Yates (who I cut the previous week - oops), Ryne Stanek and Chris Stratton. I would have probably had to part ways with Cody Bradford to make the pitching move work out, and I still like Bradford, who could be a better option for the Rangers than Andrew Heaney anyhow.
NFBC Main Event:
We played small-ball this week, settling for Tyler Anderson for $11 instead of paying a lot more for Spencer Turnbull and friends. I think Turnbull is a better long-term commodity than Anderson, though Anderson had a wonderful season just two years ago. He's been good enough both in the spring and in this early start to the season that it's worth seeing whether it's for real. He's probably just a streamer, but it's hard to find good streamers - we'll take what we can get at this point as we look for Mr. Right Now. The rest of the league demurred on Anderson - we won him unopposed, though maybe he was in someone else's waterfall.
NFBC Beat Jeff Erickson1:
This team is off to a good start in the standings, but suffered the Shane Bieber / Luis Robert Jr. double-whammy last week. I'm holding onto Robert for at least a week to get further definition on his injury and the duration of his absence. I've seen the four-month rumors, but I'm going to need verification before punting on him. But if it's confirmed, he's a cut next week - especially in a 12-team league.
I had a bigger bid on Spencer Turnbull and Ronel VanderMeer, er, Ronel Blanco, but to no avail. For what it's worth I bid $55 on both, and I nearly got Turnbull, losing out 59-to-55. That and a $1.25 (in 1994) will get you a ride on the CTA but not much more, as my old Civil Procedure teacher Professor Michaels used to say.
Instead, I won Jordan Wicks, who on the surface might not look impressive, but he has a 30.2 K% and 15.7 Swinging Strike Rate in his first two starts, against the Rangers and Dodgers. He gets the Mariners this week.
NFBC Beat Jeff Erickson2:
This is one of two leagues where I got outbid on everyone last week. It only feels like that was the case again this week - but at least I was finally able to cut Matt McLain (sigh) this week. Blaze Alexander wasn't on my radar at the start of draft season, but he's going to play a lot with both Geraldo Perdomo and Jordan Lawlar hurt for Arizona. Again I got outbid on Turnbull and Blanco, and this time settled for Javier Assad, who was in line for a win against the Padres on Monday night before the Cubs' bullpen took over. He gets a second start this week against the Mariners.
YOGURT (TGFBI):
I always say "...12-team leagues are weird ...," when it comes to breaking down the FAAB results of my leagues. But this year is shaping up as a "... Yogurt is weird..." type of year, at least with my league. For the second week in a row, I significantly overbid on my top FAAB target. Note how so many of the players won in this league were uncontested. Of course, the second I lower my bids will be the second where I get outbid everywhere.
Also, this team has the trifecta of Strider, Luis Robert Jr. and Royce Lewis. Not great!
SCARF!!!!:
This team is ... not good. Mistakes were made at the draft table, and mistakes were made in FAAB bidding. At least this week I was able to land both Turnbull and Jake McCarthy as my McLain-replacement.
LABR Mixed:
I only had $1 bids in on Hamilton and Blanco here, and overlooked Tyler Anderson (who is still available!). But keep in mind the restrictive FAAB rules in LABR when viewing these results - I've already spent $18 of my $100 budget, and we can't trade for FAAB, plus anyone bought in FAAB has to be rostered in the first week. So my lack of activity here was somewhat purposeful.
RotoWire Staff Keeper League:
I was in on a number of players, but ultimately landed just Chad Green, the short-term replacement for Jordan Romano in Toronto. I don't know why I didn't bid on Turnbull here - I'll blame it on fatigue, as I put my bids in for this league after recording the Sunday night podcast with Scott Jenstad. Our FAAB runs overnight in this league.
