The 2021 NFBC Unauctioned — Building an Offense, A Review

Yesterday, I reviewed the thrilling $14 offense I built with all hitters that averaged just $1 in auction cost in NFBC leagues as of the beginning of March. Today, I review an even tougher challenge — an offense composed solely of hitters who weren’t purchased at all in the seven auctions that occurred in the month of Feb.

Let’s find out how this team performed and if I uncovered any gems:

Yuck, that is one disgusting offense. Just like we saw in my all-dollar team, the group fell short of their ATC projected totals. Obviously if you owned any of the many disappointments, you would have replaced them rather quickly. Given their minimum cost, you didn’t risk much on them anyway.

A whopping seven batters, or half the group, failed to record 300 at-bats, another three failed to reach 400 at-bats, and no player reached the 500 at-bat mark. We know how important playing time is in fantasy leagues, especially for hitters, as four of the five standard categories are counting stats. So it’s difficult for a roster to perform well when players are simply not playing, either because they are injured, were benched, or banished to the minors. Luckily, it makes replacement much easier than if a player was playing every day, but still hitting poorly.

The best choice out of either roster (including the dollar guys yesterday) was easily Tyler O’Neill. The 26-year-old enjoyed a true breakout season, both in real baseball and fantasy. While he continued to strike out often, his power jumped to the level his minor league record suggested he was capable of, his BABIP rebounded off its ugly low in 2020 to an elite level, and he even swiped 15 bases. He was one of the surprise five-category contributors. While the steals were unexpected, they weren’t completely out of nowhere, as he stole double digit bases from 2015 to 2017. That said, it’s hard to bet on a repeat. There’s also obvious downside in his batting average as a .366 BABIP is awfully hard to maintain.

Willy Adames was the only other hitter to earn double digit value. After a brutal April, Adames rebounded and was as solid as ever over the next four months, even homering exactly five times each month from May to Aug. Moving into a much better hitting environment in Milwaukee is a major positive here.

My catching duo was pretty pathetic. It was extremely difficult to pick a catcher that was unauctioned that may have shown a pulse. While Tucker Barnhart was fine and earned a couple of bucks, Chance Sisco was actually so bad, and played so little, that he didn’t even make the top 70 catchers in dollar value, so that box was left blank. Given his power, I’m shocked at how quickly he has been given up on.

Injury limited Colin Moran to just 359 plate appearances, but while his power did fall back from last year’s spike, his HR/FB rate remained well above his 2018 and 2019 levels. He would have come close to matching projections and being a good value if he stayed healthy all season.

I figured this was a good exercise to take a gamble on Carter Kieboom. That didn’t work out. He failed to win a starting job out of spring training, recorded just two plate appearances in early April, and then was sent to Triple-A, where he spent the next three and a half months. He ended up playing a bit less than half a season and once again failed to show us why he was a former top prospect. It’s only been 414 MLB plate appearances so far, and he’s still just 24, so I wouldn’t give up on him yet.

Nomar Mazara also appeared second on my potential HR/FB rate surgers list, and his appearance there was a primary reason for making him one of my unauctioned outfielders. As we are well aware, that one didn’t work out and he recorded just 165 at-bats.

After a nice run in 2020, D.J. Stewart had a chance to win a starting job in the crowded Orioles outfield, or at least a strong side platoon role. Instead, he battled injury, his performance regressed, and he finished with just 270 at-bats. The speed he showed in the minors seems to be gone, as he’s swiped just three bases over a full season’s worth of plate appearances. The promise of both power and speed was one of the reasons he was so interesting as a fantasy asset. Since he’s poor defensively, he hasn’t hit enough to secure a long-term starting job with the team.

Was there anything more frustrating than the Royals’ treatment of Edward Olivares this season? He was recalled from Triple-A on nine separate occasions! The 25-year-old posted a scintillating .414 wOBA at Triple-A, clearly deserving of an extended look, especially for a team with no shot at the playoffs. Instead, the team doled out playing time in the outfield to the likes of Hunter Dozier (.293 wOBA), Michael A. Taylor (.286), Ryan O’Hearn (.274), and Jarrod Dyson (.247). While Olivares didn’t exactly hit well enough to force his way into everyday at-bats, his .301 wOBA was still better than all four of these names! Who knows if they view him as a long-term regular or he gets a shot to win a starting job next year, but if he does win one, he’s a prime sleeper.

I took a shot on Austin Slater, knowing he was more likely to platoon and mostly face left-handed starters than end up with a full-time role. He once again crushed lefties, but instead of being decent against righties, he was awful this time around and didn’t deserve additional playing time against them. With 12 homers, and 15 steals, though, he likely still earned a tidy profit in NL-Only leagues even with just 306 plate appearances.