To each his own, National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) style. As the year progresses, more and more big name players are finding themselves on the NFBC waiver wire.
It happens every year, and every year I am still amazed. Last season, a team dropped Ryan Braun in early September. The powers in charge of the NFBC, in keeping with fairness and all that, removed Braun from the free agent pool. The owner was allowed to drop him, but no one was allowed to pick him up.
This week, Nate McLouth was cut by one of his NFBC teams. My Saturday column will delve into details about this move. McLouth wasn’t the only big name cut, however.
Troy Tulowitki was dumped earlier this month by one NFBC team. Apparently, that team’s roster was so stacked that it couldn’t afford to hold Tulowitzki for another month or two. Right.
This week, twenty-two owners cut Andruw Jones. Jones, who was drafted on average around the 9th round in the fifteen-team leagues, has been a major bust thus far, and just went under the knife for surgery on his knee. The blimp-shaped Jones is due back in four to six weeks, with six weeks looking like the best case scenario considering Jones’ girth. Nonetheless, dumping him this early might prove costly.
With fifteen team leagues, the free agent wire isn’t filled with potential all-stars. Indeed, about the only way that anyone on the free agent list will see an All-Star game is by first purchasing a ticket.
Adam Jones was cut in multiple leagues this week, as well. Mike Mussina was let go in five leagues. John Garland was cut in two leagues, Eric Gagne in three leagues and Chris Duncan in three leagues. While none of these guys are likely to win you the championship, they’ve got to be better than the Scott Downs and Jeff Bakers of the world.
Last week, Bronson Arroyo was cut in six leagues after he pitched two scoreless games that week. Pat Lisch, Nick Blackburn and Dana Eveland also found themselves waived in various leagues. Phenom in the making, at least it looked that way in April, Johnny Cueto got cut in one league as well.
In my particular league, Salomon Torres was cut in week seven, only to garner a bid of $135 (out of a team’s maximum of $1,000) in week 8. Eric Chavez was released on March 30, and was available for a $1 bid since the beginning of Arpil. No one bit, until this week, when Chavez was purchased for $311.
The bottom line is simple. In the NFBC there isn’t enough available on the free agent wire to really justify dumping an otherwise serviceable player. With fifteen teams and rosters of thirty players per team, 450 players are rostered on any given week. With seven bench players, each NFBC team has enough maneuverability to hold onto a disappointing or injured player. But for the occasional Ryan Braun or Max Scherzer, the pickings are often slim, and cutting someone like Andruw Jones only guarantees that someone else will spend to pick him up. If Jones continues to audition for Goodyear as a stand in for the blimp, maybe that is a good strategy.