As we say in fantasy, Memorial Day is the time to really take stock in one’s team and decide what changes are going to be needed to either get into contention or, hopefully, win the league.
As is the case for most of us, I imagine, I am doing better in some leagues than others. Through some good fortune (excluding my trading away National League ERA leader Hyun-Jin Ryu for shaky closer Jordan Hicks a month ago), my NL Tout Wars team currently has a lead.
I don’t want to sit back, but having $565 of my initial $1000 FAAB remaining in a league in which several owners still hold over $960 led me to accept the reality that I was not going to get any July trade plums.
As a result, I decided to push my biggest pile of chips into the center of the table right now.
As you might be able to tell from the earlier paragraph, my team’s primary weakness is in saves, as I lost my closer Corey Knebel before the season began. While I have been trying to snare an emerging closer via FAAB, neither it nor another trade have worked out yet. That won’t take $565 to address, though.
I have found in these “only-leagues” that power is the most precious commodity and that pitching can be acquired along the way, if needed. In fact, my biggest FAAB expenditures to date have been for pitching — starters Gio Gonzalez (now on the IL with a tired arm) and inconsistent Sandy Alcantara.
In parallel to my taking stock of my own roster, the environment is changing. Teams including Seattle and Kansas City have apparently already thrown in the towel on 2019 and are sending out messages they are prepared to start moving veterans for future considerations.
Another calendar item that may increase trade urgency is Major League Baseball’s elimination of waiver trades in August. As such, this year’s July 31 deadline will truly be a deadline.
Taking all of this into account, when Seattle’s wheeler-dealer GM Jerry Dipoto decided to deal Jay Bruce to the Phillies on Sunday, I went all-in — or, more accurately, I bid $401 of my remaining cash for the outfielder.
There was a rub, however. While the full details of the Bruce trade were disclosed on Sunday, including the details of salary moving between the two clubs, the roster transaction apparently had not yet occurred.
However, our stats provider, onRoto, placed Bruce among eligible minor leaguers in this week’s FAAB run, making him available per the Tout Constitution. It is from there I placed my winning bid. Several others may have submitted lesser offers for Bruce using a placeholder free agent.
However, I cannot see those other bids, so for all external purposes, it appears that as the only public bidder, I paid $400 too much!
No matter what others offered (or did not offer), I am very comfortable that had I waited, I would not have been able to secure a player of Bruce’s value later on. Though I have only one potential point to gain in home runs and RBI currently, strengthening my hold in those key categories has value. Further, I believe that I can trade offense later if needed.
Most importantly, I should get Bruce for four months, while those waiting for July 31 trades will only receive the final two months’ stats from their acquisitions. For me, it is Bruce now or probably the fifth or sixth-best interleague traded player two months later. Seems like a clear benefit to act aggressively.
If all goes according to plan, which of course never happens, I will have bolstered my position in the standings by the time calendars will be flipped over to August.
Only time will tell if my decision to go for it with Bruce will work, but even if it fails, I know I went for it rather than sitting back and waiting for the pack to catch up. And, if so, then I can finally stop beating myself up for trading Ryu.
Brian Walton was the 2009 National League Tout Wars champion, having scored the most single-season points in the league’s two decades-plus of history. He also holds the all-time NL Tout single-season records for wins and saves. His work can also be found daily at TheCardinalNation.com. Follow Brian on Twitter.
