Jack's Flash - FAAB Strategy Revisited

[Jackstraw]

In the prior thread about FAAB Strategy that made people want to vomit, the offensive and defensive definitions should have been reversed. I laid out the offensive strategies as ways of trying to attack your opponents and the defensive strategies as ways to improve your roster. The simple definitions are that offense is the act of trying to score and defense is the act of preventing a score.



So that we get it right, FAAB offense is working directly on your roster since that is how you score. FAAB defense is protecting the FA list to prevent your opponents from scoring.



Now let’s move on to roster management in general. The way that your bench is treated is based a lot on what your draft strategy was and what your roster management strategy is now. On draft day many people will use those last seven picks to gather a few middle relievers who have a chance to close, a few high-potential prospects from the minors, a few multi-positional players to fill-in for injured players, and starting pitchers to rotate during the season. The general consensus is to draft players who are going to add some value to your team during the season. The truth is that it is nearly impossible to go an entire season without an add/drop.



If you do draft in this fashion then you are building a team that is more offensive-minded in terms of FAAB. Having a strong roster across all 30 spots reduces the need for you to dip into the FA pool, thus helping you to conserve money through the season. As the season progresses and owners are forced to dip into the pool and spend their money to replace weak players, you will be able to sit back and focus on spending your money near the end of the season. A strong draft across all 30 spots should leave you with lots of FAAB$ toward the end of the season where you can dominate less fortunate owners.



Noting that it is almost impossible to go an entire season without a pickup, how do you deal with the situation of being strong across all 30 spots and then you end up with a prime player on the DL? Many people seek advice day-in and day-out about who to drop in a situation like this. What do you do when your 30 players are better than anyone on the FA list and you have to make a replacement due to injury?



One way to deal with this problem is to prepare for the situation at the draft. There are going to be 7 spots that you draft that are not going to be worthy of starting on any given week. Also, the probability of never having to make a pickup in a season is slim to none. Then why not just draft a dead horse that you can throw away if needed?



Let’s take me and Shawn’s March 24th $250 satellite league as an example of FAAB defensive strategy. As we were doing the draft, I kept kidding around with him that I was going to draft Bonds. He raised all sorts of hell about it. I sensed there was a little hatred there. Well, he stays here and drafts with me all the way up to round 29. Then once the 29th pick was taken, he decides he is going to high tail it. No problem, I say. He walked out the door, and I walked right back to the computer and drafted Bonds with the 30th pick.



I had to deal with a lot of crap from him about it for a few days, but in the end it was a very good move for us. One, I got to pull his chain for walking out before the draft was completely over. Two, we got a player that we could throw away at any time. I really don’t want him on any of my teams either.



There are two different ways to draft your bench, and it is all a matter of strategy on how you want to proceed. There isn’t one way better than the other. You can draft strong across all 30 spots with hopes that you can get plenty of value out of each player. On the other hand, you can draft throw away guys at the end. This allows you to have guys that you don’t have to worry about dropping when the time comes.



Back to the example, we held onto Bonds for awhile dropping some other guys first. We had to deal with Kaz Matsui’s anal fissure issue in the first week and disposed of Ryan Spilborghs to get Ronnie Belliard. Spilborghs didn’t offer much for us, so we held Bonds because at the time we didn’t know for sure whether he had been completely blackballed. The next week we let go of Reggie Willits, still holding on to Bonds. Then Matsui came back and we sent Belliard packing. We never did drop Bonds until April 27th. The whole time we were left with someone that was less valuable and more expendable. But when it came time to start churning the FA pool, we had the right guy for the job.



We dropped Bonds to get Jose Vidro. Vidro has a good history and he is just not as bad as his numbers are; there was a possibility that we could have seen him start to heat up. Didn’t happen though. From Vidro we got Boggs. And let’s not forget about picking up Belliard for a couple of weeks. In the end we got to stream him right into Greg Smith. Oh yeah, Reggie Willits turned into David Murphy. A lot of these guys were picked up basically as flyers because they provided a little more value than we had on the bench. There was no concern about them sitting on the bench because it kept other people from having them.



And that is what it is all about… Defense that is. You can use your bench as your primary free agent pool and store as many players as you want. OR you can act as if the FA pool is just as much yours as your bench is. Hold on to someone that is expendable, someone that you don’t have to question whether to drop or not. When you see a player start to heat up in the FA pool, just drop your dead horse and go get him whether you need him or not. If you have him, then it keeps other teams from getting his stats. That is just as good as you getting more points with your active roster.