It’s been said that the best defense is a good offense. Can this be applied to fantasy baseball? Not literally. I’m not writing about errors or assists. But, can a fantasy owner play defense in an attempt to thwart opposing teams?
This is most likely the scenario in trading leagues, wherein a team with an excess of a category makes a trade. It works something like this. Basement Bound leads Staypuft by two league points. Basement has thirty more saves than the second place team. Staypuft is tied with two other teams for fourth place in saves. Basement trades a closer to one of those teams battling Staypuft in saves, so that this team can pass Staypuft. It happens often.
However, the question for the day is, “Is thwarting an opponent possible in a non-trading league?” Excepting collusion, (which none of us wants any part of), it is quite difficult to attack another team. The only way to add or subtract players is via the free agent acquisition (FAAB) process.
I’ve read columns about teams “wanting to make sure that the other teams are honest in the FAAB process. This doesn’t mean cheating, but instead, making certain that a team pays fair market value for a free agent. Those columns are bogus. You can’t keep a team “honest” in a blind bidding process. If the free agent process is a public auction, like the auction at the beginning of a league, a team could bid up a player.
However, if the silent auction style that makes up something like 95%+ of all leagues (OK, that number is a guess, but it sounds pretty good), it is nearly impossible to keep someone honest, for fear that you will end up overpaying for a guy that the team didn’t want in the first place. It’s a rare occasion that you can actually make this work.
I believe that I stumbled into that rare occasion. The first place team in my National Fantasy Baseball Championship league (let’s call them, Team O) has Victor Martinez and Joe Mauer at catcher. Martinez, as you all know, went down this week. So, Team O is in the market for a catcher. As you also know, in a fifteen team league that requires each team to start two catchers, there isn’t a whole lot of value at the catcher position on the free agent wire.
My catchers are awful. I have been through Josh Bard, Michael Barrett and Greg Zaun (all who I injured sometime shortly after signing them), before I “settled” on Rod Barajas and Jason Kendall. OK, neither are world beaters, but they haven’t killed me yet. Of course, I am still in the market for any catcher who can help. I also had one roster spot available, as I was holding onto BJ Ryan’s backup, Scott Downs.
When V-Mart went down, it became quite apparent that Kelly Shoppach would be getting the majority of the at bats for Cleveland. He’s averaged almost one home run for every twenty-five at bats over the past three years, and in Cleveland, he might not only drive in a few runs, but also score a handful as well.
While he isn’t much of an upgrade over Kendall/Barajas, he is an upgrade. More importantly, Team O has to want him. Shoppach makes a perfect replacement for V-Mart, considering the available catchers.
Now, I have two reasons to get Shoppach, with the most important reason to deny Team O. What to bid? In a normal week, Shoppach has no value. Indeed, he has been available all season with nary a bid. But, as a starter, Shoppach is fantasy gold (well, perhaps Copper or nickel). A bid of over $100 FAAB would virtually guarantee him, but frankly, Shoppach probably isn’t worth 10% of the beginning budget, and more than 20% of the remaining budget.
Team O had just over $700 FAAB left, and I had just over $500 FAAB left. Team O had no reason to assume that anyone else would be bidding on Shoppach. So, I had a stealth-like cloak (perhaps stealth-like isn’t the right wording, but you get the idea) and Team O probably assumed he was the only real suitor for Shoppach.
Looking at the available funds, I initially figured that $71 FAAB (over 10% of what Team O had left) would be just enough to get Shoppach. So, I put that bid in, and waited. But I was impatient and after sleeping on it, I couldn’t stomach spending $71 on Shoppach, when he really isn’t much of an upgrade. So, Sunday afternoon, I lowered that bid to $51. $51 could be enough, but I wasn’t sure. After a few hours of arguing with myself (I usually win), and with thoughts of $101, $71 and $51, I went the conservative route and bid $51.
Sunday evening, I learned the results. My bid of $51 was … just high enough to beat out another team’s bid of $44. Who bid $44? I don’t know for certain. However, only two other catchers were chosen. One (Jeff Mathis) went for $4 to a team that is in last place. What are the odds that this team put a $44 bid on Shoppach? Exactly.
The other catcher went for a remarkable $33. That catcher, Greg Zaun, went to, you guessed it, Team O. Was Team O the $44 bidder on Shoppach? You guess is as good as mine, and I am guessing, “yes.”
So, when all was said and done (usually more is said than ever is done), I got Shoppach and Team O has Zaun. I sat Barajas this week, using Shoppach and Kendall.
Postscript, as of Thursday night. Zaun went two for five with two runs, a home run and three runs batted in. Shoppach went one for eight with no other stats. Sometimes it doesn’t always work out the way you might have expected. Then again, one of the oldest clichés in baseball is, “it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.” One can only hope.
Best of luck,
Buster