AL FAABing

[virgonomic]

"If you want Fuld tonight, you better spend BIG because I will stop at nothing to sign him."

What is the difference between doing that during the season and doing it during the auction?

"Did you guys notice that Josh Willingham is the last player on the board projected to hit 20 HR?"

The latter is heavily frowned upon. I think the former should be, too.

[SenorSmoke]

This is fantasy baseball not the No Fun League ;-)

Seriously though, you probably would not enjoy having me in your league. Our draft isn't sacrosanct and if bidding stalls on a guy who won the AFL batting title you can be darn sure I'll mention it repeatedly and loudly. I've even anointed AFL batting titles on guys who didn't even play in the Arizona Fall League. Or in the middle of a bidding frenzy I'll casually mention "my mag has him projected at 40 HR/20 SB" -- maybe true, or more likely they have him projected at 22/10. Who really knows? I didn't even buy a magazine this year LOL.

Admittedly, I tone it down during the auction (I'm usually too busy with my own draft to do any real damage) but the weekly FAAB process is a completely different animal. Most owners are already aware of high profile situations like Fuld/Hughes and if they're not for god sakes they should be for the health of the league. One of my abiding principles is that fantasy baseball should try to mimic real baseball as much as possible, and I'm guessing GMs/owners/scouts and agents play some pretty serious head games with each other during the draft/trade/free agent process. Just doing my part to bring more realism to our league :-)

Sometimes I'll announce I'm bidding $23 on a player and do just that. Next time I may announce $15 but bid $20. Or I'll say $12 and not even put in a claim. I typically save it for high profile situations throughout the season but if I'm bored I may find some ridiculously worthless free agent on a hot streak to hype. For some reason, it gives me great pleasure picturing my league-mates (mostly long-time friends across the U.S.) stressing out in their boxer shorts and t-shirts at 11PM on a Sunday night trying to determine if they *really* need to bump their bid to $17 in order to land the non-prospect OF who happens to be getting full-time ABs or if I'm just screwing around.

[chancellor]

SenorSmoke, that's great stuff. I love leagues with that kind of attitude.

[virgonomic]

I bid $6 on Bartolo and lost a tie. Argh! I have Braden and Humber and wanted a fill-in.

[Kevin Seitzer]

One of my abiding principles is that fantasy baseball should try to mimic real baseball as much as possible, and I'm guessing GMs/owners/scouts and agents play some pretty serious head games with each other during the draft/trade/free agent process. Just doing my part to bring more realism to our league :-)

I wish I were smart enough to do that. Mostly I'm hemming and hawing and questioning whether I should be bidding $5 or $25.

[Lucky]

I think I'm pretty much turned around on this issue by the arguments and analysis here. I like what Smoke has to say.

[bryanbutler]

i picked up fuld in JWRL for $8. been very happy with that (though it's not enough to save me from my awful auction!).

i agree that it's part of the game to make announcements in either the auction/draft or in FAAB bidding. in my main league we have a running joke about "i heard he's gonna run more this year" (pun intended ). it started back when lou piniella was managing the mariners and had said they were going to run more (see this story). about half of our GMs were in seattle that year. so, every year, that will come out at several points in our auction. along with things like "not much power left", or "why the hell aren't you bidding?" to the GM that has a bunch of money left and can keep one of our more powerful GMs from getting a player that will help them. i think it's part of the fun, frankly...