The first couple years of my AL-only experience, I was a careful spender, trying to only bid for players I really believed in. I carefully researched them, and if I was confident, I would make a bid. But then I'd bid a dollar and lose him. Or I'd bid more, but not enough. I told myself it was OK, he wasn't worth it, my roster's fine as it is, etc. But I didn't have the player, so I hadn't improved my team, and I wasn't getting the stats; meanwhile, another team had improved itself, and was getting the stats.
I finally broke through with Bengie Molina last year. I liked him going to a hitter's park in Texas, I liked his pedigree of steady production in the big leagues, and I liked the playing time he was going to get. He seemed a very safe bet to be productive in the home stretch of the season. I "broke the bank" for him and bid $20 big ones. What the hell, right? Well, I won him!
He turned out to be... a total bust. But it was a bold move that, if he had produced as expected, could've made all the difference and gotten me to finish in the money. More importantly, I got a taste for blood. I had won a blind auction with a big bid! It was a small victory in an otherwise losing season.
We're given a $100 Free Agent Acquisition Budget, and this year, I intend to use it. Last week, I made what another league owner called a "quixotic" $20 bid for Scott Sizemore, besting his own bid of $18. While his team sat pretty in 2nd place, my team wallowed in the basement. Why then was I making such a grand gesture, he asked? Lots of reasons:
Sizemore is a starting middle infielder, hitting 2nd in front of Miggy Cabrera. Just that makes him worth a flier this year with FAAB money. And if he goes let's say... 10/60/.270 with 10 steals, I'd consider keeping him at that salary next year. He doesn't sound like a keeper at $20, but consider how few starting players are available in a 12-team AL-only league. Consider Nishioka went for $21, Pedroia $30, and Macier Izturis went for $12 at auction. Productive middle infielders are hard to find! Moreover, anticipating my enemy's strategies, and then countering them, is a tried-and-true tenet of Tzu's Art of War. That is to say, a player on my team is a player not on my opponent's team. Worst case, if my team doesn't turn it around, he'll be attractive trade bait when you consider how many other teams wanted and bid on him.
With all that said, in Week 7 I made (and won) the following bids:
Andy Dirks - Skwirls:9, Usuals:6
Carlos Peguero - Skwirls:7, Liefers:3, Chaos:2
Tim Collins - Skwirls:1*, Owls:1, Highlanders:1
*Lower in standings wins.
My aggressiveness once again paid off. Let's review them quickly.
Andy Dirks (not to be confused with Andy Dick) gets the chance to play (we hope) now that Magglio Ordonez finally hit the DL. Clearly, Mags' ankle was not better and his pathetic statistics thus far prove it. Dirks is a "non-propsect" late bloomer getting his first shot at the bigs. I can see a Brandon Boesch/Nolan Reimold type potential here. Carlos Peguero is that "top prospect" you've never heard of. All of a sudden, he's the "top prospect in the Seattle organization" and possesses prodigious power. On the crawl on ESPN last night, it said his homer was the one of the longest in the league so far... take a look.
Tim Collins is a special case, a 5'7" little lefty who brings it in the mid 90's MPH. He's the shortest, and at 21, youngest, player to make an MLB roster this year. At a Flutiesque 5'7.75" myself, I always root for the underdog.
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