The first couple of weeks of your fantasy season can make-or-break your entire year. Someone in your league is going to acquire an undrafted pitcher or position player that will put up near-superstar numbers. Without fail, every season, no matter how good the fantasy players at the draft table are, there are players that come from nowhere. Look no further than Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips and Rays first baseman Carlos Pena. Both were acquired off the waiver wire early in the season and gave their astute owners one additional top round bat.

One thing that I have learned over the years is not to panic and blow all kinds of money in week one. In Main Event Orlando 2, we were pretty well set on offense and there were no players that appeared to be game-changers. We bid conservatively on a long list of pitchers so that we could have someone to replace Scott Kazmir for the first week or so. Rick VandenHurk, Mark Hendrickson, Jarrod Washburn, Peter Moylan, Chad Qualls, Alan Embree, and David Riske were on one list of conditional bids. Good or bad will be determined on Tuesday, but for now we are happy acquiring VandenHurk for $3.

Scanning around the other NFBC leagues for free agent bidding results, we see a lot of money mismanagement. Remember, just because you believe that a player is really good and can help you win, that does not mean anyone else in your league does also. That was evidence in one league where Kyle Lohse was acquired for $311 when a bid of $1 would have done the job (there was no second bid).

I was happy to see the Jorge Cantu and Jayson Nix were among the highest priced free agents in the leagues where they were available. Cantu was our 19th round selection and Nix was our 29th round selection on Main Event draft day. Today Cantu went for over $200 in at least two leagues and Nix was over $140 in two leagues.

As a recommendation for week one of free agent bidding – try to bid a little bit lower than you think a player will go for.