Fantasy Fundamentals From The Factory: Living The FAAB Lifestyle

In all my seasons in fantasy baseball this year marks my first experience with a FAAB budget. In years past my leagues have used a Waiver Priority. The Priority was based on reverse draft order and the list was updated after each waiver claim. In other years I have used the Waiver Priority determined by the reverse order of the standings to begin the week. This year I wanted to embrace the very popular FAAB system. So this season I am in two leagues. My Yahoo league assigns recently added MLB players and recently dropped players to Waivers. These players can then be bid on using your FAAB budget. The budget for the entire season is $100. In the NFBC each team in the league is given a budget of $1000, but all players are acquired using your FAAB budget.

Since this season marks my first year dealing with FAAB I have really been trying to get a feel for how it works. From my limited experience I have determined very few people have the same idea of what a player is worth. Not even two months into the season the limited $100 budget has already been completely spent by one team while another has spent over half. The $100 budget was spent on Ervin Santana, Jose Lopez, Erik Aybar, and Jaime Garcia. Not a collection of players who will win you a pennant. But Ervin Santana and Lopez are two players who could make a difference during the season. Other big ticket acquisitions have been Javier Vazquez 17, Justin Smoak 40, Julio Borbon 11, Juan Pierre 11, Brad Lidge 12, Ben Sheets 10 and Kyle Blanks 20. Are these players worth those amounts? Heading into the season I associated players FAAB value with there Auction amounts. So if that is the proper way to evaluate one's worth then most of these players services are going at Market Value. So in this limited sample of FAAB activity it seems to be going as I had expected it to. It also tells me that the 64/60 isn't just a league of buddies, this is a league with players who know what they are doing.


The NFBC hasn't been as easy to asses. Though the budget is more every transaction requires a bid so unlike the Yahoo league once your money is gone you cannot acquire more players. Each week you have about 15-20 FAAB acquisitions per week so to list all of the transactions would be pointless but here are some of the big budget deals that have taken place. J. Chacin 187, E. Young 216, Andruw Jones 210, Ike Davis 207, Justin Smoak 160, Fernando Rodney 153, Chris Snyder 332, and Mark Lowe 100. All of these players took 10% or more of the teams entire FAAB budget and not a one will lead you to a title individually. It could also be argued that none of these players will finish the season as one of the teams top 10 players. You have had some bargains in this league but more often than not players are going for much more than they should. Unlike the 64/60 this league has provided me no baseline to determine a true value on player performance. More often than not I am left scratching my head each Sunday evening. Sad to say though we are in 11th place so what do I know.


Without a doubt I will continue to use the FAAB system from here on out. I like that every owner has a equal opportunity from the start of the season to acquire players. In both of the leagues I am involved in the winning bid is determined by the amount bid. Some leagues default to a dollar over the second bid on winning bids. For example if team 1 bids $100 on player A and Team 2 bids $1, Team 1 would only be charged $2 for the transaction. I would suggest avoiding this style if possible. I also recommend showing the highest losing bid. My Yahoo league does not show the runner up bid while the NFBC post it beside the winning bid. It can be quite painful spending 27 dollars on a player when the next highest bid was $1. Or bidding $81 on someone and they go for $88. This can also be a good guide for future bidding as consistent overbidding should indicate overvaluing players. The FAAB is a hard tool to figure out. I wish I could give you some type of plan that will win you your targeted player every time but all I can suggest is determine a fair value for that player and bid that amount nothing more nothing less. It's okay if a owner overbids you and goes beyond that players value but do not underbid and lose the player and give another team value because you go on the cheap.