Aesop's Faables
Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 10:43 am
We can call this a continuation of my last post. Only this will deal more with the faab process itself. Faab is the most puzzling part of the NFBC for new folks. I get a lot of PM's from new folks and more than 50% ask about faab.
When giving it a lot of thought, it's a horrible process. Mostly because we are so limited by all of us being online instead of live.
Let's say I lost Mariano Rivera and wanted to replace him with both Robertson and Soriano. If the bidding were live, I would call out Robertson's name and most likely pay through the roof for his services. This happened here last week. Now, that I've secured Robertson, I'd want to handcuff Soriano. With Robertson already rostered, Soriano means more to me than the other 14 teams and he would be obtained for less money.
In our world, we pick two numbers and hope for the best. Worst case scenario would be to have little faith in Soriano and picking him up while losing Robertson.
Or sometimes we'll need four or five players and start strings for each dropped player. When we see the players received, we may get players that all have the same strengths and weaknesses, simply because those are the players that fell to us. So much luck is involved.
Like I said, a horrible process, but it's the best we got unless somebody can come up with something better.
We all have different thoughts about what our bench should look like.
When I first started here, I wanted coverage at as many positions as possible in case of injury. It sounds good, but most of the time the bench players ARE bench players and shouldn't be in the lineup anyway.
I've changed my thinking to get the best 30 players I can and have a nice mix of hitting and pitching reserves.
If injury occurs, I'll fix that with the next faab.
There was a post today that stated a catcher was picked up even though the bidder hadn't a need at catcher. If the catcher is a good enough hitter (Flores, in this case), having three catchers is all good.
However, he also stated that one reason was to possibly block another team in need of a catcher.
At this time of year, we really don't know who our true competition is. At the end of the year, he may need the team he blocked the catcher from getting to pass a team that he is in direct competition with in rbi or home runs, we don't know. Blocking a team for the sake of blocking a team at this time of year is meritless.
The most asked question is how much to bid.
First, I don't judge my bids by what the second bidder bid. I don't care. If I have a large need for a player, I will over bid. I will compare my bids with those from other leagues the next day, because I feel that those bidders had the same need I did.
I felt a couple of my teams needed more speed this past weekend. I set out to get Bernadina, Blanco, and Gentry or even two of them.
Bernadina has played well, has a spot near the top of the lineup, and has that mix of power and speed that fantasy folks like. I thought about bidding $100 with the thought of crushing all other bids. But the more I thought about the weaknesses of Bernadina's game....the hit in batting average, previous benchings and being sent down, and being a little injury prone....that $100 became $75, and the $75 became $55. I got Bernadina in one league and not the other. If I hadn't hedged my bets, I would have gotten him in both, but he is only filling (for my teams) one category of need.
Pitchers are different. Closers this year are out of the ordinary. It seems like there are two or three new ones each week. For the most part, they are lesser pitchers trying to fill a Managers dream. Santiago, Cashner, Cishek, Lidge, and Cordero have all gone for huge amounts of dough and given little in return. We are a 'I want it now! ' society, and when it's thought that a closer has the job, the money follows.
Unless absolutely desperate, I won't be a bidder. Instead looking to catch $1 or $2 lightning in a bottle by faabing a closer in waiting....Which with this year's pace, that wait will be a short one.
Starters are a different breed. A lot depends on whether they are fully in the rotation, their ability to get strike outs, the teams that are coming up on their schedule, and for streamers, how soon before he has a two start week.
I wanted Christian Friedrich (Now there is a name out of the tv show, 'Frasier')this week for all my teams. He impressed me with his first outing and he was signed with the thought that he could be a number two starter some day.
The fact that he has two starts, one at home (Sea) and one on the road (SF) actually worked against me a bit.
I have to increase my bid for Friedrich to leapfrog the planners and streamers that had less longer term faith in him, but liked his chances against those teams.
Depending on team, my bids were in the 30's and 40's and he was secured on each team.
Right now, we are buying players from faab. We should be paying more because we get these players services for the next 20 weeks. Saving faab and having the most faab money in your league has never been my style. And I'm a tightwad!
I'd rather be paying for players over a long period of time, than renting the players with two or three weeks to go in the season. If I have triple digit faab by the time September starts, I consider that a fail as to how I spent my faab. We won't need all that money in September. The rosters grow and predicting who will do well over just a months time is a lot harder than riding a player now with the ability to drop him for under performance.
This post is a little boring for the NFBC vets. For the new guys, keep fighting the fight. Nobody gets it right all the time and sometimes we're just attaching our saddle bags to a horse and hoping for a long ride.
Hope this helped.
When giving it a lot of thought, it's a horrible process. Mostly because we are so limited by all of us being online instead of live.
Let's say I lost Mariano Rivera and wanted to replace him with both Robertson and Soriano. If the bidding were live, I would call out Robertson's name and most likely pay through the roof for his services. This happened here last week. Now, that I've secured Robertson, I'd want to handcuff Soriano. With Robertson already rostered, Soriano means more to me than the other 14 teams and he would be obtained for less money.
In our world, we pick two numbers and hope for the best. Worst case scenario would be to have little faith in Soriano and picking him up while losing Robertson.
Or sometimes we'll need four or five players and start strings for each dropped player. When we see the players received, we may get players that all have the same strengths and weaknesses, simply because those are the players that fell to us. So much luck is involved.
Like I said, a horrible process, but it's the best we got unless somebody can come up with something better.
We all have different thoughts about what our bench should look like.
When I first started here, I wanted coverage at as many positions as possible in case of injury. It sounds good, but most of the time the bench players ARE bench players and shouldn't be in the lineup anyway.
I've changed my thinking to get the best 30 players I can and have a nice mix of hitting and pitching reserves.
If injury occurs, I'll fix that with the next faab.
There was a post today that stated a catcher was picked up even though the bidder hadn't a need at catcher. If the catcher is a good enough hitter (Flores, in this case), having three catchers is all good.
However, he also stated that one reason was to possibly block another team in need of a catcher.
At this time of year, we really don't know who our true competition is. At the end of the year, he may need the team he blocked the catcher from getting to pass a team that he is in direct competition with in rbi or home runs, we don't know. Blocking a team for the sake of blocking a team at this time of year is meritless.
The most asked question is how much to bid.
First, I don't judge my bids by what the second bidder bid. I don't care. If I have a large need for a player, I will over bid. I will compare my bids with those from other leagues the next day, because I feel that those bidders had the same need I did.
I felt a couple of my teams needed more speed this past weekend. I set out to get Bernadina, Blanco, and Gentry or even two of them.
Bernadina has played well, has a spot near the top of the lineup, and has that mix of power and speed that fantasy folks like. I thought about bidding $100 with the thought of crushing all other bids. But the more I thought about the weaknesses of Bernadina's game....the hit in batting average, previous benchings and being sent down, and being a little injury prone....that $100 became $75, and the $75 became $55. I got Bernadina in one league and not the other. If I hadn't hedged my bets, I would have gotten him in both, but he is only filling (for my teams) one category of need.
Pitchers are different. Closers this year are out of the ordinary. It seems like there are two or three new ones each week. For the most part, they are lesser pitchers trying to fill a Managers dream. Santiago, Cashner, Cishek, Lidge, and Cordero have all gone for huge amounts of dough and given little in return. We are a 'I want it now! ' society, and when it's thought that a closer has the job, the money follows.
Unless absolutely desperate, I won't be a bidder. Instead looking to catch $1 or $2 lightning in a bottle by faabing a closer in waiting....Which with this year's pace, that wait will be a short one.
Starters are a different breed. A lot depends on whether they are fully in the rotation, their ability to get strike outs, the teams that are coming up on their schedule, and for streamers, how soon before he has a two start week.
I wanted Christian Friedrich (Now there is a name out of the tv show, 'Frasier')this week for all my teams. He impressed me with his first outing and he was signed with the thought that he could be a number two starter some day.
The fact that he has two starts, one at home (Sea) and one on the road (SF) actually worked against me a bit.
I have to increase my bid for Friedrich to leapfrog the planners and streamers that had less longer term faith in him, but liked his chances against those teams.
Depending on team, my bids were in the 30's and 40's and he was secured on each team.
Right now, we are buying players from faab. We should be paying more because we get these players services for the next 20 weeks. Saving faab and having the most faab money in your league has never been my style. And I'm a tightwad!
I'd rather be paying for players over a long period of time, than renting the players with two or three weeks to go in the season. If I have triple digit faab by the time September starts, I consider that a fail as to how I spent my faab. We won't need all that money in September. The rosters grow and predicting who will do well over just a months time is a lot harder than riding a player now with the ability to drop him for under performance.
This post is a little boring for the NFBC vets. For the new guys, keep fighting the fight. Nobody gets it right all the time and sometimes we're just attaching our saddle bags to a horse and hoping for a long ride.
Hope this helped.
