Welcome back to the Dojo, it’s time to talk about FAAB - and a little about trading. But first, an update: Currently, I’m seventh in the league, which is all down to hitting (I was last, now I’m inching up to midtable). FAAB has been a big part of that, so let's go over what I learned from my “guru” Eddy Almaguer and how you can win the waiver wire.
Early Weeks
The first few weeks of FAAB can be make or break for your title contention. In a full season, this probably stretches out to the first month, but don’t discount those early additions. So how do you attack those?
It’s mostly down to your understanding of your draft, and your risk aversion. Assess your weaknesses, and then assess your options.
That first week, the big ticket items were Chad Pinder and Nick Burdi. Burdi is good, but my pitching staff was great. No need. Pinder? He might’ve been good value, but I wasn’t convinced he’d get playing time. That’s where the risk aversion comes in. I was probably a little overconfident in my hitters, but I also didn’t want to blow a good draft up before I’d seen anything.
So I put in nibblers in case my leaguemates were asleep (one-to-three pointers, another Eddy trick), but didn’t go hard where I didn’t need to. That netted me Phillip Evans, who’s been solid and gotten at-bats, and didn’t hurt me anywhere else. The next week saw the first big ticket item of the young season: Brady Singer. His debut came as a surprise to many and he performed well in his first start. But again, know your team. I didn’t need to spend $300 on a starter just because it was a shiny new object. He has a limited track record and his upside wasn’t that of a Casey Mize or Dustin May.
Time to Commit
Eventually, with a short season and my batting being, well, horrendous, it was time to make moves. Look for two things: You’re sure, or desperate enough to pretend to be. I checked in with Eddy, but he was just there to confirm what I knew. It was time to make a big push.
I threw in a moderate bid on Cristian Javier just because I love how he pitches, but after that it was serious bids on Donovan Solano, Jairo Diaz (to replace the injured Jose Leclerc), and Tim Lopes. I kept them away from flat numbers like 100 or 55 since those are often easy bids for your leaguemates to toss in without too much thought, and I got my guys. In Eddy’s words, “I’d grab anyone who’s 1) getting consistent AB and 2) producing. Can’t turn your nose up.”
This tracks even for shallower leagues, make sure to track your biases about players you don’t like that are producing (caveats about underlying stats apply). Pre-Dojo me doesn’t get Solano, and he’s been a large part of my charge up the standings.
Trade Tidbit
In other news, I received my first trade offer of the year:
Sending:
Kenley Jansen, CL
David Peralta, OF
Receiving:
Trent Grisham, OF
Dylan Cease, SP
Tony Watson, RP
Isan Diaz, 2B
$75.00 FAAB
Here’s a small bit of advice from Eddy that’s pretty easy to understand: For almost every package in redraft, if there’s a package with a lot of players on one side and one or two on the other, the smaller side is more valuable. Obviously there are exceptions, but if you need a good way to initially judge all your offers, that’s a solid one.
Ultimately, I decided to decline, largely for the reason above, but this one was close for me. My love for Trent Grisham basically knows no bounds, but the rest of the package didn’t do it for me (NOTE: Isan Diaz had yet to opt out at this point and this was also before Grisham’s 3-HR game when he was slowing down a little).
Cease is mercurial and I didn’t need another starter, Watson and Diaz are zero-sum, and $75.00 FAAB isn’t nothing but it’s not likely a game changer. Is Grisham that much of an upgrade over Peralta to give up a solid closer? Probably not. Often, that’s what it comes down to in those large packages, and you need to be able to parse through the marginal to get to the meat of the offer.
Looking Forward
Obviously I’m not where I wanted to be at this point, but some solid FAAB management has steadied the ship. As it is, I’d like to hover around the top five, but I’d settle for hanging on the top ten with some tough games coming up. With the trade deadline up soon, I’ll be back with another article on trading. I hope you’re enjoying the journey, and I’ll see you soon.
Management Grade so Far: B-