The genesis of this story occurred during the 2006 baseball season. As our American and National League Tout Wars leagues headed toward their conclusion, an off-hand discussion with our founder, Lawr Michaels, stuck with me.
Lawr posed the idea of teams stuck in the depths of the standings potentially not bidding aggressively with their Free Agent Allocation Budget (FAAB). The concept would be for the have-nots to step aside, letting the haves battle it out for the best remaining players.
While we didn’t debate this at the time, I have thought a lot about it and have also asked more than one friend their view. Replies were decidedly mixed.
Personally, I am dead-set against it. Whether it is a $1250 entry-fee league like the NFBC and NFFC with $100,000 on the line or a for-bragging-rights-only local league, I simply wouldn’t be playing if I didn’t try to do everything possible to win every week. Pull out all the stops regardless of whether in first or last.
Yet, I inadvertently stumbled this past week in the NFFC New York League 1, missing a great opportunity. By fumbling my chance to pick up not one, but several potential impact players, a very scarce quantity, I ended up letting the big boys come out on top in this battle within a battle.
Last month in this space, I offered data on the use (and lack of use) patterns of FAAB money in NY1 league in 2006 versus 2005.
To illustrate my point that FAAB in football is leveraged less than in baseball, here is a look at the budget status in my league prior to last week’s free agent period. But before I list the numbers, realize that by last week, the FAAB season in the NFFC was already ¾ over.
That’s right. With Week 9 in the history book and Week 12 representing the final FAAB opportunity this year, look at all the money remaining – over 1/3 of the total season amount of $15,000 - $5,339.
Table 1: W9 FAAB balance
| NFFC NY1 Team |
W9 FAAB |
|
Balance |
| CREATiVESPORTS Walton |
827 |
| Team Maresca |
800 |
| 'Team Cummings' |
736 |
| john mark karr |
677 |
| Nutty Scrats |
500 |
| GODIRTYBLUE NOLES |
427 |
| Felix Flamingos Brother |
317 |
| Greenwich St. Tavern |
295 |
| HONOLULU HAMMERS |
205 |
| Golden Domers |
179 |
| The Fantasy Poet |
169 |
| Team suer |
106 |
| MGBS109 |
98 |
| Mongoose |
3 |
|
5339 |
The fact that I had the most FAAB remaining this late in the season is not something about which I was especially proud – I would have much rather had Marques Colston rostered and in my lineup for eight weeks, but that is history.
However, what this did mean was that my $827 controlled the table. Despite three other teams having more than half their money remaining, I could still take any player I wanted.
But, wait! Is any one player really worth that much?
Does it matter? Surely none of my competitors would actually bid more than $500 for a player unwanted just seven days previously, would they?
Sadly, the answer was proven to be a resounding “Yes”. More on that in a minute.
The broken ribs of Buffalo’s Willis McGahee created an opportunity of unknown duration for Bills running back Anthony Thomas. The A-Train is a proven, albeit unspectacular commodity. But, how many weeks would he be in the opening line-up?
And, there were some other new starters at skill positions this past week. Devery Henderson seeing quality time at wideout for New Orleans, Patrick Crayton for Terry Glenn in Dallas, Tim Carter for Amani Toomer with the Giants and David Garrard behind center for Byron Leftwich in Jacksonville.
When all was said and done, I got greedy, attempting to pick up both the A-Train and a receiver. The direct result was that I ended up with neither.
Table 2: CREATiVESPORTS Walton Week 10 FAAB bids
| First bid |
Thomas |
$505 |
| Conditional |
Garrard |
$205 |
|
|
|
| 2nd bid |
Crayton |
$205 |
| Cond #2 |
Henderson |
$155 |
| Cond #3 |
Carter |
$55 |
Table 3: NFFC NY1 Week 10 FAAB bids
| NY1 NFFC |
|
|
|
|
| Waiver Draft Week 10 |
|
Win |
Runner |
Walton |
|
Team |
Player |
Bid |
Up |
Bid |
| Team Maresca |
Anthony Thomas |
737 |
505 |
Runner Up |
| GODIRTYBLUE NOLES |
Devery Henderson |
376 |
155 |
Runner Up |
| Felix Flamingos Brother |
Patrick Crayton |
258 |
205 |
Runner Up |
| CREATiVESPORTS Walton |
David Garrard |
205 |
47 |
Win |
| Team suer |
Tim Carter |
61 |
55 |
Runner Up |
| 'Team Cummings' |
Cedrick Wilson |
34 |
|
|
| The Fantasy Poet |
Neil Rackers |
15 |
|
|
| HONOLULU HAMMERS |
Bo Scaife |
15 |
3 |
|
| MGBS109 |
Miami Dolphins |
6 |
|
|
| The Fantasy Poet |
Michael Jennings |
4 |
|
|
| Mongoose |
Vernand Morency |
3 |
|
|
|
|
1714 |
|
|
I took what I thought was a calculated risk that none of the three other teams would bid more than $500 for Thomas. I was only 2/3 right, getting trumped by a $737 bid, one that could only have been topped by me.
I tried to acquire Crayton, too, and still have a bit of cash after getting the two players. Turns out my $205 bid on him was about $50 short.
Ditto with my two conditional picks as both Henderson and Carter went for more than I had decided to pay. The fact that I came in second in the bidding for all four players was a very, very small consolation. In fact, it was no consolation at all.
When all was said and done, I ended up with an overpriced Garrard, a guy I hope I don’t ever need to play.
Moral of the story – Make sure you get who you want and don’t divert focus from the target.
Table 4: Week 10 League results
|
NFFC NY1 Team |
W10 FA |
W10 |
W9 |
|
|
Balance |
Spend |
Balance |
|
'Team Cummings' |
702 |
34 |
736 |
|
john mark karr |
677 |
|
677 |
|
CREATiVESPORTS Walton |
622 |
205 |
827 |
|
Nutty Scrats |
500 |
|
500 |
|
Greenwich St. Tavern |
295 |
|
295 |
|
HONOLULU HAMMERS |
190 |
15 |
205 |
|
Golden Domers |
179 |
|
179 |
|
The Fantasy Poet |
150 |
19 |
169 |
|
MGBS109 |
92 |
6 |
98 |
|
Team Maresca |
63 |
737 |
800 |
|
Felix Flamingos Brother |
59 |
258 |
317 |
|
GODIRTYBLUE NOLES |
51 |
376 |
427 |
|
Team suer |
45 |
61 |
106 |
|
Mongoose |
0 |
3 |
3 |
|
|
3625 |
1714 |
5339 |
The fact I still have over $620 remaining is hardly comforting, as time runs out on the 2006 season. Two other teams still have more FAAB as my team continues to try to get back to .500.
It is worthy of noting that three of the four teams that beat me out for those four free agents remain ahead of me in the standings. The team that picked up Thomas would have won in Week 10 even without his 109 yards rushing.
Still, I competed for the best players. I may have come up short, but at least I gave it what I thought at the time was my best.
I feel just a little bit better that way. But, only a little bit.
Yet, there's always next week, isn't there? Ladell Betts, anyone?
Brian Walton’s work can also be seen daily at stlcardinals.scout.com.