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July 7, 2015 Expert FAAB ReviewWeek 14Depending on how long you have been a Baseball Prospectus subscriber, welcome or welcome back to the Expert FAAB Review. Every week, I’m going to take a look at the players and the process behind the expert bidding in LABR mixed, Tout Wars NL, and Tout Wars AL. Bret Sayre and I participate in LABR mixed while I have a team in Tout Wars NL, so I will provide insights behind the reasoning on some the bids. Budgets in all three leagues start at $100 at the beginning of the season. Tout Wars uses a Vickrey Auction system. A basic description of the Vickrey bidding system can be found here. Random Quote of the Week – “Gunter Glieben Glausen Globen” –Def Leppard Tout Wars NL Thomas Pham $8. Other bids: $7, $5, $5, $1, $0. Player reserved: Daniel Hudson. Darin Ruf $3 ($11). Other bids: $2, $1, $0. Player reserved: Jason Rogers I saw Darin Ruf’s name come up in this week’s transactions and my instinct was to go into a long rant about the fact that this is Ruf’s fourth year with the Phillies and I can’t believe that I have to write about him again. However, recently my wife has been leading our family in a series of guided meditations that have given me a whole new perspective and a sense of positivity I did not have before. Yes, it is rough if you are a Phillies fan right now. But your success wasn’t that long ago. In a cosmic sense, four years without the playoffs is hardly a long time at all. And while the team you have now isn’t that good, perhaps it is best to enjoy what you have rather than complain about the things that you do not. Enjoy Cole Hamels while he is still here, perhaps for what is his last month in Philadelphia. Ben Revere is putting up the best two-month stretch of his life; think of what he brings to the table, rather than the fact that he isn’t going to be a frontline player on a championship team. Take the scenic drive through upper Bucks County and go see Aaron Nola pitch at Lehigh Valley before he is promoted to the Phillies. Cesar Hernandez. My lord, savor the wonder that is Cesar Hernandez before the national media starts noticing him and he becomes a celebrity. Before you know it, the Phillies will be good again and you will look back and laugh at these hard times. Sometimes things are ahead, and sometimes things are behind. Sometimes things are up, and sometimes they are down. There will be smiles once again in the City of Brotherly Love, and while Darin Ruf won’t be a part of those smiles, he is merely a short-term stop gap while things are remedied in the short-term. As the narrator of my wife’s guided meditations says, put a “smile in your mind”. Did you do that? Is there a “smile in your mind” now, Philadelphia? Good. Good. See? Aren’t those deep breaths and those positive words already making you feel better? Great! I knew that they would! We really made a big breakthrough here today, haven’t we readers? (please send help) Hernan Perez $3 ($4). Other bids: $2, $1. Player reserved: Yimi Garcia.
Hertz reserving Miller to avoid Miller’s start in Colorado is the interesting part of this move. It’s tough to sit a mid-tier starter like Miller in an NL-only, but Miller has struggled of late and Coors is a dangerous venue for nearly any pitcher. Michael Conforto $2 ($15). Other bid: $1. Player reserved: Jonny Gomes. I like Brian Walton of Mastersball’s thinking, though. He entered the week in ninth place, and isn’t holding the FAAB hammer. He needs pitching more than he needs hitting, but free agent pitchers tend to come out of nowhere more often than free agent hitters. Vickrey allowed Walton to bid aggressively and still have a pretty significant cushion beneath the bid. Clayton Richard $1 ($16). Played reserved: Aaron Harang Walton grabbed Kahnle, who has been mentioned as a possibility for saves if John Axford gets traded. I did the same with Blazek, even though I believe he is a long shot. Gillespie is probably the best pick up here because he looks like a good bet for regular at bats, but Herrera might get a short term look at second if Addison Russell continues to struggle and gets demoted for a spell. Lenny Melnick of Roto Experts was willing to plunk down $16 for Richard, but got him for a dollar. Richard will be skipped this week, and may not have a slot waiting for him if Tsuyoshi Wada is healthy post-All-Star break. In any event, Richard isn’t a savior—for either the Cubs or your fantasy team. The Cubs move from the moribund Mets and the Stanton-less Marlins to the Cardinals and…oh, they do get the White Sox at the end of the week. Still, if you thought that Richard was the answer in the no. 5 slot for the Cubs.
Tout AL
Alex Presley $6 ($12). Other bid: $5. Player released: JR Murphy. Matt Harrison $4 ($9). Other bid $3. Player reserved: Drew Pomeranz. Jefry Marte $2 ($4). Other bid: $1. Player reserved: Jose Pirela. Dusty Coleman $1 ($12). Player released: Jake Elmore Straily at a dollar is a fairly decent play given the guaranteed start in Cleveland. Mike Podherzer of Fangraphs tabbed Mujica since Adam Warren was out of commission. LABR Mixed
This wasn’t our first experience with Sano. That came in 2013 at the Futures Game at Citi Field. Bret and I had only been with Baseball Prospectus for a few months, and were the greenhorns attending the big baseball event du jour. There was magic in the air that day, and the sights and sounds of nearby Citi Field only added to that experience. When the random local screamed, “Can I hammer the dent out of your car?” as I rolled off of the highway, I knew it was going to be a special day. When I got to our lower level seats, Bret shook my hand so hard I thought he might rip my arm right out of the socket. I had heard that the dynasty guys like prospects, but Bret looked like a kid at Christmas if Christmas involved a weekend bender with a kilo of cocaine. I tried to talk shop with Bret, but he kept pulling on my arm and excitedly naming the prospect who was batting or fielding. “Sano! Bogaerts! Franco! Yelich!” he kept screaming, pulling on my shirt and nearly tearing off the sleeve. In the past in these situations, I became withdrawn and simply tried to ride out someone else’s mania. On this day, I decided to turn over a new leaf and go with my new compatriot’s mania. From that point forward, the day was fun. It wasn’t just a Shake Shack, it was a Shake Palace in our eyes. Craft beer wasn’t merely a moniker, but something we imagined an artisan cobbling together by hand in a magical beer workshop somewhere. Everything and everyone around us was a reason to celebrate, and by the time we got the end of the game, our arms were linked like long-lost brothers and we were singing a lively duet of “99 Luftballoons.” I had never felt so alive—not at my own wedding, not at the birth of either one of my children, not ever. Bret had taught me something that day, and not just that Brets with one “t” in their name can be decent people, too. He taught me how to live. For years, I had been reluctant to be open and gregarious, but now I had to let that go. Bret’s sterling example opened me up on social media, allowing me to let it all hang out on Twitter without worrying about what “people” might think. Everyone who follows me on Twitter owes Bret a debt of gratitude for what he did that day. He didn’t tell me that we’d wind up owning Miguel Sano two years later in a fantasy baseball league that we weren’t even in yet, but looking into Bret’s steely eyes, I just knew that this was a possibility someday. Thank you, Bret, for making Miguel Sano on a fantasy team that we own together a reality. Thank you also, Bret, for granting me my emotional freedom on that day at Citi Field. You know what, random street vendor? I will get that non-existent dent fixed in my car! It was an extremely quiet week in LABR Mixed, with only two players—Sano and Gausman—commanding bids from multiple owners. ‘Tis the season to be searching for offense wherever one can find it. Ahmed has been on a hot streak—and is serviceable as a third middle infielder in a 15-team mixer—but it is unlikely he will keep it up. The rest of these players are ugly options, even in the deeper waters of 15-team mixed. Robinson and Jones are unlikely to get regular playing time for a sustained period, and even if Flowers plays, the AVG is a big drag. Smith is the alternate to Blazek as a Francisco Rodriguez will-get-traded play. I believe Smith is the better short-term bet, but trying to predict who the closer-in-waiting is in a weak bullpen is folly.
Mike Gianella is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @MikeGianella
4 comments have been left for this article.
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PLEASE let flags fly forever this week just be mike's wife leading the boys through meditation
She's down