Week 13 FAAB Results - How the Turn Tables

This week's FAAB bidding was influenced by one news item on Sunday morning, and two relatively late news items. Orelvis Martinez was suspended for 80 games for violating the league's PED policy, just two days after getting the call. Then later on, David Bednar went on the 15-day IL for the Pirates, making Aroldis Chapman a must-add if you needed saves. Finally, word surfaced that Heston Kjerstad was getting the call again for the Orioles. Alas, the Edwin Diaz ejection occurred a minute or two after the NFBC FAAB deadline.

AL Tout Wars:

Ben Rice was the big buy here and many other places, but he's a better fit here with Tout Wars using OBP instead of batting average. Rice had a 16% walk rate at Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre, and has already drawn three walks in 21 plate appearances at the big league level.

I was already pretty low in FAAB here, so while I had a bid in on Rice, I didn't think I had a realistic shot to add him. Instead I tried to focus on high-upside potential callups, before they got called up. I already had a bid set on Heston Kjerstad at $13, and then the news of his likely return was reported about 80 minutes before our FAAB deadline. I overreacted and raised my bid too high, to $35, when much to my surprise & chagrin I got him unopposed. I'm so naive that I think Kjerstad will play every day, though I do think he may play more on this promotion than his previous one. That's in part because with Dean Kremer getting knocked around on his rehab assignment and Albert Suarez getting hit hard twice last week, there may be some more urgency to add another pitcher via trade. Kjerstad is a likely target for selling teams, and even if he isn't, maybe the O's need to see more from him before they trade away another one of their outfielders.

Brooks Lee from the Twins is a speculation play that he might get the call soon, and become Carlos Correa's double-play partner at second base, where he's currently getting reps at Triple-A.

NFBC Main Event:

This was yet another week of not getting our top targets. We had the (distant) second place bid on Ben Rice, and while we bumped our bid on Aroldis Chapman twice in the process leading up to the deadline, we weren't one of the top two bids. Instead, we settled - for Will Brennan, who should get four starts in six games for the Guardians, which is more than what Kevin Pillar got last week, and for Kerry Carpenter as a stash. We decided to cut Jordan Romano after his recent setback, with the mindset being is that he'll probably miss at least three-to-four more weeks, choosing instead to keep Nate Pearson, even though he's unlikely to close games this week. Heston Kjerstad was held by his manager that picked him up on April 28.

Beat Jeff Erickson1:

This is the first of a handful of leagues where I added Spencer Turnbull, with Taijuan Walker going on the IL for the Phillies. Turnbull should get a "revenge game" start against the Tigers this week, and if Walker remains out, Turnbull will get two starts next week. Jose Siri was added too, as I wanted to replace Jo Adell, who has been sitting out on occasion now for the Angels.

Beat Jeff Erickson2:

Here's another league where I landed Turnbull. Unfortunately this is the (Everybody) Beat(s) Jeff Erickson league - I haven't recovered from the Spencer Strider debacle.

Yogurt:

I actually targeted Freddy Fermin ahead of Ben Rice, and thus got him. I forgot about the Cardinal Yogurt Rule - bid less than you would otherwise, and wasted 27 marginal FAAB dollars.

SCARF:

I finally won an Aroldis Chapman bid, and had a pretty optimal result on Freddy Fermin. I've made incremental progress in this league, but that still leaves me in the middle of the pack.

LABR:

Once again, I added Freddy Fermin, who replaces Victor Caratini, who I previously picked up to replace a defective Rene Pinto.

RotoWire Staff Keeper:

The highlight here is that Max Scherzer was even available to be picked up, and that's because of a league rule that prohibits us to pick up players that are on the injured list. I didn't bid only because I knew that my paltry in-season cap room wouldn't allow me to bid enough to get him.

Instead, I picked up two luminaries, Will Brennan and Chris Stratton - the latter is some insurance in case the Royals move away from my James McArthur. Unfortunately I had to part ways with Kyle Bradish, who is out for the season.

Yahoo F&F:

For spacing purposes I only listed the adds here, as Yahoo's layout makes it hard to capture the full extent of moves with a screenshot or two. I won the bidding war, such that it was, for Aroldis Chapman, and also added both Chas McCormick and Mauricio Dubon as cheap bats. This is a league that started on May 1 and has a FAAB run twice a week, so the list of bids is smaller, but the bid amounts are occasionally higher. I won Aroldis Chapman here over podcast partner Scott Jenstad. My drops were Abraham Toro, Tyler Stephenson and Reed Garrett - I might regret the latter, but I was only dropping Garrett if I got Chapman.