Like many, I often decide to write for therapeutic purposes as much as to impart information. As always, I hope this column will prove to be an appropriate combination of the two.

You see, my second year representing CREATiVESPORTS in the prestigious National League Tout Wars competition did not go as I wanted. Coming off a respectable fourth-place finish in my freshman year of 2005 gave me hope I could show improvement this season.

Instead, in hindsight, I have christened my 2006 as “The Year of Bronson Arroyo”.

The corn-rowed, non-corn-rowed, then corn-rowed again starter from the Reds got out of the blocks fast. But, not only did his well-publicized 10 straight starts with no wins in mid-season ruin his promising campaign, it closely paralleled my Tout Wars experience, as I finished a disappointing 11th of 13 teams. Yes, Arroyo anchored my Tout staff, augmented by other fast-starting flameouts like Sidney Ponson and John Thomson.

While I never feel great after any draft, back in March I thought I had a competitive team, albeit one with some deficiencies. In a 13-team league drafting from the 16-team NL, I was the only owner to take two premium closers, Billy Wagner and Tom Gordon. I did so with the intent to trade them by mid-season to address other areas of need, but that left me with the aforementioned quality of starters.

In the early going, I sprung out of the blocks fast, actually leading the league in early May. But, even as my team fell back toward the middle of the standings, I knew I had bargaining chips remaining.

A major multi-player trade to address my shortfall in stolen bases and runs scored was engineered. The centerpiece of the deal for me was Rickie Weeks, he of the good average and considerable speed. My biggest loss was Gordon, who I feared all along was one just pitch away from injury, anyway.

I held onto Wagner, figuring I could remain near the top of saves while leveraging Billy Wags’ help in WHIP and ERA. That part worked out fine - for awhile, anyway.

Unfortunately, my injury risk seemed to pass from Gordon to Weeks, as the second baseman’s wrist injury ended his 2006 and with it, my chance to compete for a top division placement this season.

By the time I decided to move Wagner, it was too late. I couldn’t get value for him as the top teams were looking for offense, just like me.

Like Weeks, an important part of my power hopes, Washington outfielder Jose Guillen, struggled with nagging elbow injuries before eventually calling his season, too.

As I lost them and two others, too, this got me to thinking about how to assess the impact of season-ending injuries on this year’s NL Tout competition.

As luck would have it, the Tout constitution has an interesting clause, allowing a concept called FAAB reclaim. Very simply, when a player is certified as being out for the remainder of the season, upon request, that player’s owner is credited the amount originally paid for the player, whether having been purchased via the draft or via weekly FAAB bidding.

Maybe if I couldn’t win in the standings, I could win here.

Sure enough, when the votes were counted, over the season I reclaimed the most FAAB of any NL Tout owner by a considerable margin. My $55 was almost 40% more than the next closest team and represented over ¼ of the 13-team league-wide total of $202 reclaimed.

(As a side point, this was a straight-forward analysis due to the spreadsheet built and maintained by our excellent league statman, Todd Zola.)

I also quickly noticed our well-deserved league winner, Scott Wilderman of Fantasy Hot Sheet, did not have a single dollar of FAAB reclaim. Makes sense. Healthy teams win.

The second-place club lost just one player for $12, but the third place team’s otherwise excellent chances were clearly derailed by injury. After Rob Leibowitz of Fantasybaseball.com’s closer Eric Gagne went down, he punted the saves category and ended up 8.5 points out of first at least partially as a result.

Now, in all fairness, by definition FAAB reclaim means the money can be re-spent, minimizing the damage, at least conceptually. But, the cash doesn’t go nearly as far the second time. For example, there was no Gagne-quality reliever available for bid at any price to help Leibowitz recover.

(As another side point, in our league, players traded out of the league can still accrue stats, so they are not involved in reclaim.)

With a league so deep and with no much money chasing so few free agents, weekly bidding is always both intense and fresh meat is always overpriced.

To illustrate the point, to replace Weeks, I took a run at Julio Lugo when he was traded into the NL at the deadline. I (fortunately) lost him to a $50 bid, instead having to settle for a $44 Ron Belliard. To say that neither of us received value from our winning bids would be an understatement.

In closing, I am not saying injuries were the entire difference-maker in my 2006 NL Tout Wars season. Drafting better players as well as ones that stayed healthy would have been optimal. But, it is still interesting to note the injury situation.

And the lesson for you? If you play in a league with FAAB, consider adding the idea of reclaim. It is clearly not a panacea, but it can certainly provide some hope to those teams whose key players suffer serious injuries.

Brian Walton's work can be read daily at stlcardinals.scout.com.

Appendix: 2006 NL Tout Wars FAAB Reclaim Log

 

Player	Date	Team	Amount	Team total	Standings
Milton, Eric RECLAIM	9/29/2006	Walton	2
Nix, LaynceRECLAIM	9/22/2006	Walton	12
Guillen, Jose RECLAIM	8/4/2006	Walton	19
Weeks, RichieRECLAIM	8/11/2006	Walton	22	55	11
Escobar, AlexRECLAIM	8/18/2006	Hertz	8
Koskie, CoreyRECLAIM	9/22/2006	Hertz	11
Isringhausen, JasonRECLAIM	9/29/2006	Hertz	21	40	5
Walker, Tyler RECLAIM	7/28/2006	Lombardo	2
Martinez, Carlos RECLAIM	7/28/2006	Lombardo	2
Zambrano, Victor RECLAIM	7/28/2006	Lombardo	4
Wood, Kerry RECLAIM	8/4/2006	Lombardo	7
Rowand, AaronRECLAIM	9/22/2006	Lombardo	22	37	8
Backe, BrandonRECLAIM	9/8/2006	Leibowitz	2
Mueller, Bill RECLAIM	8/4/2006	Leibowitz	9
Gagne, Eric RECLAIM	7/21/2006	Leibowitz	24	35	3
Claussen, BrandonRECLAIM	9/8/2006	Levine	5
Wells, KipRECLAIM	9/8/2006	Levine	6
Mathieson, Scott RECLAIM	9/22/2006	Levine	9	20	9
Reitsma, Chris RECLAIM	8/4/2006	Pianowski	12	12	2
Matheny, MikeRECLAIM	9/8/2006	Fisher	2	2	6
Brazoban, Yhency RECLAIM	7/21/2006	Pliml	1	1	12
			202	202