Week 4 FAAB Results - Some Hitters Emerge

It's been difficult to find difference-making hitters on the waiver wire in our deeper leagues, but a few prospects like Andy Pages and Jonatan Clase got the call last week, and another young player,  Wilyer Abreu, is getting more playing time. They highlighted this week's haul.

AL Tout Wars:

For once I acquired my top two targets, landing Jonatan Clase from the Mariners and Albert Suarez from the Orioles. There's some risk that Clase doesn't stick once Dominic Canzone returns, given Clase's lack of experience at Triple-A, but I think that he brings an element to the Mariners lineup that they're lacking a little bit, and I also think it's hard to find speed on the waiver wire. I'm grateful that he was in demand - I outbid nine other teams for Clase, with Jason Collette coming in second-highest at $119.

As for Suarez, he's only guaranteed one more start, but there's also a chance that he gets two this week with the second one coming at Oakland. I was impressed with what I saw in spring training and with his first start, and am hopeful he can carve out a spot in the Orioles' rotation over either Cole Irvin, Dean Kremer or Tyler Wells, though the O's still are planning to get John Means and Kyle Bradish back in the near future.

NFBC Main Event:

This was a frustrating result, to say the least. Not only did we get shut out on the top players after raising our bids, but our second pickup (Darius Vines) subsequently got sent down and won't even pick up a start this week. At least in the NFBC we don't have to leave him on our active roster, but there were countless other worthy alternatives that we could have rostered. Sadly, we still weren't close on stealing some saves from Joel Payamps or Hector Neris. Our buddy Chris Liss "boot-and-rallied" with Payamps, via his proxy Dusty Wagner, since Liss doesn't do his own bids. They drafted and dropped Payamps, only to pick him up later with a big bid. We've had some internal debate on how many saves to project for Payamps - I'm not convinced he's the full-time closer even right now, as I think Trevor Megill will factor into the mix. But even 5-7 saves over a month can make a big difference. 

We grabbed Tyler Freeman from the Guardians. Freeman is a post-post-post hype sleeper, with shoulder injuries contributing to him not fulfilling his once-high potential. He's coming off of a productive week and has the added value of allowing us to cut Jose Abreu.

Beat Jeff Erickson1:

This team has had a pretty good start despite losing Shane Bieber for the season and both Jhoan Duran for the start of the season and Luis Robert Jr. for most of the season so far - I'm stashing both right now, and won't have Bryce Harper or Merrill Kelly for the start of this week. So it's important to rid the rest of my roster of players that I won't be using anytime soon. Louie Varland (who got rocked yesterday and then was sent down today) and Hunter Harvey both qualify, unfortunately. I have / had a lot of both players in my leagues, and while Harvey has pitched well, it's tough to hold onto him in a 12-team league when he's not going to unseat Kyle Finnegan anytime soon. I took a stab at the Cubs bullpen with Mark Leiter Jr. (I was also in on Hector Neris but was outbid), and will use Yariel Rodriguez until they shoot themselves in the foot by choosing Alek Manoah over him.

Beat Jeff Erickson2:

Who has two thumbs and way overpaid for an injury-prone, UT-only player on a terrible team? This guy! This was a bad, rushed bid - not that I should not have bid on Eloy Jimenez, but I should have had a lot more self-control on the bid, especially in a 12-team league.

Yogurt:

I did a better job of controlling for the lack of activity in this league, landing Andy Pages at a price much lower than what he went for in my other 15-team leagues. I don't mind the overpay for Michael Massey (37 unopposed), as I didn't see much in the way of useful middle infielders and David Hamilton just wasn't playing all that much. Again, I'm committing the Cardinal Sin of over-stashing in this league (Royce Lewis, Luis Robert Jr. and Paul Skenes), so players like Hamilton and Louie Varland (again!) gotta go.

SCARF:

The fact that I still had Josiah Gray, Daniel Hudson and Yoan Moncada on my roster demonstrates how poorly I've FAAB'd in this league so far. Once again I landed Albert Suarez of the Orioles, and I finally had a winning bid on Hector Neris. It's a good thing too, as today I lost Peter Fairbanks, fortunately at least before roster lock. Finally, Sean Bouchard is on the roster probably for a week, and then we'll wait and see from there. He gets four games at home, and then two games on the moon (h/t Seth Klein). I wish he weren't batting ninth tonight, however.

LABR:

Jorge Polanco fetched a big winning bid after getting cut earlier in the season. I didn't bid on him because I have three solid middle infielders (Bobby Witt Jr., Marcus Semien and Anthony Volpe) and my UT is filled, albeit by the disappointing Joey Meneses. But once again I got aced-out on Wilyer Abreu, instead settling for Hunter Renfroe as my replacement for the equally disappointing Austin Hays. Again I grabbed Albert Suarez, and also added Garrett Cleavinger with the thought that Peter Fairbanks might be at risk to miss some time.

RotoWire Staff Keeper League:

Here's another reminder to pay attention to who has been dropped. Esteury Ruiz was available in this league, having been cut when the A's spitefully sent him down. He's back up now, and producing, and fetched a lot of bids this week. Somehow I missed that he was available (don't do your bids when you're exhausted at midnight after doing a podcast, kids) and didn't bid, though I doubt I would have paid more than the $17 that it took Howard Schindel to land him. I'm not against adding Ruiz or similar players in FAAB, despite my skeptical outlook on his draft price - it's all a matter of acquisition cost.

Adding another middle infielder was a priority this week, with Ozzie Albies the latest to go on the IL for me, along with Brandon Lowe. This is an 18-team Mixed Keeper league, with seven-man benches and 10-man minor league rosters, so the replacement level is pretty thin gruel. Josh Rojas was my "top target," this after I overpaid for Josh Smith last week. Things are going great!

I've also paused my attempt to trade off Spencer Strider for immediate help, due to all the injuries on this team. In addition to Strider, Albies and Lowe, I've also got Cody Bradford, Chad Green (who I really should have cut this week - oops), Kyle Bradish and now Pete Fairbanks on their teams' respective IL's. I can't even roster nine healthy pitchers this week, which is pressing me to consider whether I'm better off keeping and extending Strider than to make a go of it this year. Fantasy Purgatory is the worst in keeper leagues.