Free Agent Bidding Advise

colorado · Post by **colorado** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 2:46 pm

As a newbie I would appreciate bidding advise on free agents.

Quack · Post by **Quack** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 2:48 pm

Blow all $1000 on the one player you really want. That next player just may be the next Pujols

Spyhunter · Post by **Spyhunter** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 4:25 pm

Originally posted by colorado:

As a newbie I would appreciate bidding advise on free agents. A couple of thoughts (and btw, this is really hard and it totally depends on your league)

Here are some of the ranges I see people going at. I invite everyone else's thoughts:

1. newly annointed closers: 200-400 FAAB

2. newly promoted stud prospect: 200-500 FAAB

3. Occasionally you will see a highly ranked player who someone gets frustrated with and drops. Typically these types also go in the 100-300 range

4. A semi prospect pitcher, who comes up and has a good outing: 20-100 FAAB (typically if they are a K machine, the higher they go for)

5. A steals only type of prospect: 30-80

6. Everyone else: 1-100

Really, it depends on your needs, how many $ are left in your league, etc... Greg posts the weekly winning bids on players so study that

A key "trick":

Lets say I have 2 players I want to grab (or 2 players I am comfortable dropping). I setup the bid chain for 1, copy it, then adjust the 2nd dropping player.

Spy

Chest Rockwell · Post by **Chest Rockwell** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 4:41 pm

Yeah my advice is to not listen or solicit any advice on the subject regarding how much to bid.

Of everything you can learn from asking questions on here this one does not apply. Every league is different although I think Spy gave good guidelines.

I would give you 3 pieces of advice though:

1) Don't be scared to or kill yourself for overbidding a guy. It happens and it sucks when it does. If you bid 450 for Ryan Braun last year or 400 for Cole Hamels in 2006 you got your money's worth and that is the most important thing. I certainly would not bid silly with that in mind. The big question is did I get value not did I only outbid my competition by 5 bucks.

2) Have a FAAB plan write it down and adjust it when necessary. If pitching is your weak spot budget 700 bucks towards pitching etc. You can always tweak it as you go.

3) Many newbies do not realize you need to have spent most of your money by July 1st. Four reasons: 1) Most quality late season call ups are already rostered when they get called up. 2) the obvious thing of it is better to get a guy who help in May rather than August. 3) The little bit of inactivity, teams who blew their whole wad in April, and teams bidding to specific needs drive down prices the last 2 months. 4) 1-3 teams in your league are going to have horded so much money that you are going to miss that quality player anyway as they overpay.

I would certainly recommend keeping at least 50 bucks going in to September. You may simply be chasing at bats or trying to keep guys away from your opponents.

I hope this helps!

Chest Rockwell · Post by **Chest Rockwell** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 4:45 pm

One other thing- you will get more out of waivers than you think going in. More good players will be available via FAAB by bad or more specific injury required drops from other owners.

I finished in the money in all 3 of my leagues last year, but at some point via impatience or injuries threw back. Billingsley, Kemp, Loney, Carmona, B Butler, K Gregg. On the other side of it I got Garko, Accardo and a few others from my opponents making similar mistakes.

GOD Loves You · Post by **GOD Loves You** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:35 pm

Click on "search"

Type in "FAAB Bids"

Check the winning bids from last season to get a general idea.

bluenose · Post by **bluenose** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:27 am

This may sound stupid, but don't be afraid to overspend/overbid. There is no point hoarding FAAB. You should be bidding almost every week because there will almost certainly be somebody on the wire who can at least improve your bench or your pen.

By the time mid-augustr rolls around it's too late to improve your team terribly much.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:36 am

Originally posted by colorado:

As a newbie I would appreciate bidding advise on free agents. Here's the best advise I can give you: Take a look at last year's FAAB bids for a guideline, but realize that every league is different. We posted the winning FAAB bids for every league every week within the General Discussion and I'll show you how to get there.

Within the Message Boards, go to General Discussion.

Look in the upper right hand corner and you'll see an area that says "Show Topics For the Last 45 Days." Pull that arrow down to "Show Topics For the Last Year."

Then go to Page 21 and you'll find a thread that says Week 1 FAAB bids. There you'll see all of the winning bids for Week 1. Go to Page 20 and you'll find Week 2 and Week 3. Keep going back and you'll find them for all 26 weeks.

This is the best info you can find and you'll see that guys like Ryan Braun got bids all over the board. Good luck.