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This week’s mixed league FAAB run, especially in The NFBC where Corbin Martin is still available, will have the most money spent that I can ever remember. It reminds of an Only league at the trade deadline. There are just so many moving parts. I’m going to try to cover it all but let me know if any questions come up and I’ll try to answer them.

The guidelines:

• The ownership rates are from CBS since they have some quickdraw waiver wire leagues where players can be picked up at any time.
• The FAAB estimates are based on the 2018 15-team mixed NFBC leagues which used a $1000 FAAB budget. Owners are going to need to convert these values to their own league.
• The ownership values were taken from Saturday and lots can happen in between when they publish and FAAB bids run.
• Only players owned in 50% or fewer of CBS leagues are examined.

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Angels

• Tommy La Stella is leading off against righties and David Fletcher does against lefties.
• Shohei Ohtani has been batting third.
• Zack Cozart’s attempt to stay on the team is about dead. He’s hitting .136/.189/.160 and has not played in the last three games while Kole Calhoun was on paternity leave. Luis Rengifo played instead.

Astros

• The league’s steadiest lineup took a hit when Altuve went on the IL. Everyone else moved up a spot with Aledmys Diaz taking over at second base and batting 6th.

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A while back, I brought forward my thoughts on being 100% transparent about my weekly player acquisitions. The article started many discussions, but my thoughts kept coming back to one point. Does it matter that I have some skin in the game? I lucked into a position to provide fantasy content, does it matter if my ideas are successful when there is quite a bit on the line?

Note. For this article, I’ll use tout in place of an industry expert for consistency’s sake. Also, for the game’s participants, I will use owners.

I felt every tout should have some skin in the game and let their results do some of the talking. Some touts may disagree on this take, but I needed to find out and joined a few NFBC leagues. Besides just rostering a team, I felt I needed to be competitive.

Some of this belief may come from my own insecurities. I know I’m not close to the most entertaining personality, so I think my results may give me credibility. I have no idea if this is true.

Part of the belief comes from Ray Dalio’s book, Principles: Life and Work. In one section he states (p. 376):

“Remember that believable opinions are most likely to come from people 1) who have successfully accomplished the thing in question three times and 2) who have great explanations of the cause-effect relationships that lead them to the conclusions.”

So, do I need to be successful in all formats for others to believe me? So many questions.

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Another week of players heading to the waiver wire. Here’s a look at most dropped players in the NFBC Main Event (38 leagues).

Injured

• Drew Pomeranz (18): A lat injury has placed him on the IL but what’s really hurting him is the 5.93 ERA.
• Francisco Mejia (17): He’s landed on the IL (knee) and his owners moved on since he was just hitting .167/.207/.259.
• Mike Zunino (12): He’ll miss over a month with a quadriceps injury.
• Clay Buchholz (10): A bad shoulder is keeping him out.
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With just the normal closer speculation bids, I’d not be surprised if this week had the lowest percentage of remaining FAAB spent so far this season. With Derek Dietrich as the top prize on the hitting side, I don’t expect owners to be spending much.

The guidelines:

• The ownership rates are from CBS since they have some quickdraw waiver wire leagues where players can be picked up at any time.
• The FAAB estimates are based on the 2018 15-team mixed NFBC leagues which used a $1000 FAAB budget. Owners are going to need to convert these values to their own league.
• The ownership values were taken from Saturday and lots can happen in between when they publish and FAAB bids run.
• Only players owned in 50% or fewer of CBS leagues are examined.

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Angels

• Shohei Ohtani is batting third since coming off the IL with Brian Goodwin moving down to the sixth spot.
• With Tommy La Stella hurt, Brian Fletcher is leading off.
• Zack Cozart is batting 9th since returning from the IL. Luis Rengifo got demoted.

Astros

• The kings of set-and-forget keep chugging along.

Athletics

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I’ve been writing some variant of this pitcher transformation article from the beginning of spring training containing information from spring training velocities to pitch mix changes. With a new pitch or extra velocity, a pitcher can quickly change from one talent level to another. With the season now in full gear, the major preseason changes are known but now it’s time to start finding those pitchers who are slowly transforming themselves mid-season. Every week I hope to focus on these pitchers.

David Price

The 33-year-old Price continues to be a fastball/changeup pitcher. He keeps hitters off guard by throwing three different fastballs (cutter, sinker, four-seam). As his velocity has dropped, he’s started relying on his changeup increasing its usage from 14% in 2017 to 22% last year and finally 29% this year. The pitch has been dynamite with a 21% SwStr% and helped propel his strikeout rate from a 9.1 K/9 last year to career-high 10.5 K/9 this season. He’s pulling the old-man trick of throwing his non-fastballs more to stay relevant.

Rant: I’m not sure why pitchers wait until they start declining to make the change. Why not make the change immediately and become an ace.

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For the drops, I use the NFBC Main Event (38 teams) where owners are more likely to stay active with more skin the game. Here is who they are dropping and why.

Injured

● Matt Adams (30): He continues the circle of life of injured Nationals. Ryan Zimmerman makes one of his annual trips the IL and Adams stepped up. And gets himself hurt. Jake Noll and Howie Kendrick have each played first base since Adams went down.

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