BullpenGuru
Week 0? / Week 1 FAAB
Before I get started covering the first Main Event FAAB run of the 2023 season, I felt it would be appropriate to give you, the reader, a brief introduction since many of you may be reading my work for the first time. My name is Dom, I am the man behind the @BullpenGuru Twitter account. I have spent the last few seasons recommending relief pitchers to stream each day to accumulate innings, wins, strikeouts and saves for the Reliever Recon Patreon. While my Twitter handle would lead you to believe I only focus on relief pitchers, I think of myself as a well-rounded fantasy player that just happens to write and give my opinions on one small aspect of the game I love that I don’t think gets much attention from the fantasy community.
Rob and I met last year when the Reliever Recon crew did an episode of the Pull Hitter Podcast, Rob and I kept in touch, and I was thrilled when Rob asked if I would be interested in covering the Main Event FAAB recaps this year for him and to join him on the weekly recap pods. I have been an avid fantasy baseball player for 25 years, playing mostly home leagues but the last few years I have been steadily increasing the number of high stakes fantasy leagues I partake in at the NFBC. Last year was my first Main Event and I was humbled with an 11th place finish in my league. My hope is that by covering the weekly FAAB results for the entire Main Event contest, it will help me improve as a player and hope that it can also help you, the reader, as well!
I assume most anyone reading this has an understanding of the NFBC and the Main Event, but for those that are not familiar, NFBC’s Main Event contest is a season-long 5×5 rotisserie scoring fantasy baseball competition that consists of at least 50 15-team leagues (the final tally may end up being a handful more than 50 as leagues are still filling), competing as their own individual leagues while also for competing against the 750+ teams in the contest for the overall $200,000 prize. Some leagues in the contest began drafting on March 18th, while some are not drafting until the morning of Opening Day. Teams are not allowed to make any trades, and therefore the only way to add players to your 30-player roster is through waivers which run once a week, on Sunday at 10 PM via free agent acquisition bidding (FAAB). Each team in the contest is allotted $1,000 for the season to be used as they please in order to acquire players through FAAB. As a result of the staggered timing of drafts, only a portion of the contest was able to partake in this past Sunday’s FAAB run.
I struggle with what to call this FAAB run. Since the regular season hasn’t started and some leagues remain undrafted, I have typically referred to this as “Week 0 FAAB”; however, that probably leads to more confusion and for simplicity sake, I will just refer to which overall FAAB run it is, despite the fact that not all teams in the competition are participating in it. Therefore, let’s start digging into the Week 1 FAAB results!
LEAGUE ACQUISITION SUMMARY
There was FAAB activity in 27 leagues this past Sunday. There were leagues with as many as 28 acquisitions (and $974 in FAAB dollars spent) and as few as 1 acquisition. The average acquisition was $20. Here is the summary of activity by league:
PLAYER ACQUISITION SUMMARY
Most Frequently Added
Nine players were added in 20% or more of leagues participating in FAAB this week. The most frequently added player was Joe Jimenez, who was added in 9 leagues. This comes as no surprise following the news of the right shoulder soreness that will sideline Braves’ closer Raisel Iglesias for the start of the season. Presumptive backup A.J. Minter was already drafted in a few of the Main Event leagues prior to the injury news, so it makes sense that teams also chose to speculate on the less-expensive, right-handed compliment in the Atlanta bullpen in the event Jimenez finds his way into some save opportunities. Fellow Brave teammate Dylan Dodd was also a popular add given the news that Kyle Wright will open the season on the IL in order to allow more time to build strength in his right shoulder, which required a cortisone shot at the start of Spring Training.
Late Spring Training power surges from Dom Smith and Josh Donaldson made them popular adds, possibly as corner infield replacements for teams that lost Rhys Hoskins. The news that Kutter Crawford would not only make the Red Sox Opening Day rotation, but also pitch the fourth game of the season made him an intriguing add as that positions him for a juicy two-start week vs. Pittsburgh and at Detroit in Week 2.
Most FAAB Dollars Spent
Despite being added in only 4 leagues, the most total dollars this week was spent on Darick Hall, as leagues in which he was not drafted react to the Hoskins injury, followed by A.J. Minter as the likeliest recipient of Braves’ saves while Raisel Iglesias is sidelined. Jurickson Profar signing in Colorado was welcomed news for managers in leagues in which he was not drafted, while Graham Ashcraft’s 6 inning, 10 strikeout Spring Training start last Wednesday made himself a FAAB target in the two leagues he had not yet been drafted in.
Highest Average Cost Acquisitions
Many of these same players stand out when you sort by the average cost per add, so I will just provide you with the 20 most expensive players on a per acquisition basis and make note of the interesting ones. Dodgers’ news really drove a lot of the most expensive additions. First off, there was news that Ryan Pepiot won the 5th starter competition which understandably made him an expensive FAAB target in the one league he had not been drafted, while James Outman making the Opening Day roster also made him a must-add for the 4 leagues he was still available. Interestingly, Gavin Stone was a popular add despite losing the 5th starter competition to Pepiot, getting added in three leagues and dropped in only one. Similarly, Sal Frelick was added in five leagues and dropped in one, despite the expectation that he would be reassigned to minor league camp (which happened on Monday). J.D. Davis and Jesus Aguilar were expensive in the leagues they were added (more on that later). Lastly, Will Benson’s power and speed ability, plus favorable home park made him both a popular and expensive add.
ADD OF THE WEEK
The Add of the Week goes to Eric Heberlig from League #1282. Eric was able to acquire Graham Ashcraft over his competition, optimizing his FAAB bid by outbidding the runner-up in his league by a mere $3!
DROP SUMMARY
For all these exciting additions to rosters, there must be some players that are dropped, and the prevailing reason for the most popular drops this week are injuries (Hoskins, Votto, Wainwright, Crawford and Brantley) or demotions to the minors (Yepez, Peraza, Baty, Megill).
UNOPPOSED BIDDING
Something that caught my eye was the number of unopposed bids this week. Of the 322 adds, 199 were unopposed bids. That doesn’t necessarily surprise me, teams are making minor tweaks to their roster for the unique way the schedule falls to start the season, and they are just coming out of the draft room where they took players they feel strongly about and are understandably hesitant to cut them before seeing them in regular season games. What did surprise me is how much money was spent on those unopposed bids! $1,778 FAAB dollars were spent on those 199 bids, which comes to an average of about $9 per unopposed bid. The most unopposed dollars were spent on Jesus Aguilar, specifically one $133 bid! I sure hope it pays off for that manager given the FAAB dollars spent. If Aguilar doesn’t pan out, hopefully J.D. Davis does, as that same manager spent $77 unopposed dollars on him! Frelick once again appears here, as 4 of the 5 leagues he was added in were unopposed bids. David Hensley received a lot of buzz with the Jose Altuve injury occurred; however, it is possible opening the season as a UT-only player made him less sought after than if he began the season with 2nd base or Outfield eligibility.
With that, the Week 1 FAAB recap is in the books. It is now time to focus on lineup setting and for the 2023 season to finally start up. Best of luck to everyone!
