I’m always fascinated by how people evaluate player worth on a weekly basis. Therefore, I’m always interested to see the weekly recaps of free agent bidding in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship, or the NFBC. These leagues are made up of 15 teams with 30 person rosters, so there is always a lot of prospecting going on each week as people are basically forced to pick up players, in most cases, that they hope will be able to help them in the future because very, very few full time players are on waivers at one time (therefore, anytime someone has a big week, you can almost be certain they will be a hot property). Here is a review of some of the players that were rostered off waivers this past weekend. Listed are the range of dollar figures for each guy, based on a season long budget of $1000.
Jeremy Accardo – $3 to $207
Wow, talk about a huge spread. Why everyone was so ga-ga over a guy who had spent the entire year in the minors is beyond me (I bid $18 for him in my league). If the club really thought he was that good, would they have let him toil in the minors all season? Anyway, my money is on Jason Frasor taking over the closers role with Scott Downs on the DL, though I don’t know about his long-term outlook. I bid $32 on Frasor, but was outbid in my league (someone went $177 on Frasor and $71 on Accardo in my league). By the way, Frasor went from $11 to $187 dollars overall.
Khalil Greene – $1 to $170
Back hitting home runs and playing third base. Of course, you could have had him for a $1 in about 95 percent of the leagues if you picked him up two weeks ago.
Livan Hernandez – $1 to $25.
You’ve got to be kidding me, right? You’d have to pay me to add him. Next.
Travis Ishikawa – $2 to $34
Seriously? Have you seen what the guy is hitting on the road (.102 with a .412 OPS in 49 at-bats) this season?
Pedro Martinez – $1 to $31
Trying to catch lighting in an old bottle. No team has signed this HOF bound all-time great as of this writing.
John Mayberry – $1 to $91
Will be playing full-time until Raul Ibanez returns, but then what? Most likely he will head back to the minors or be a rather useless fourth option for the Phillies given their top-3 strength in Ibanez, Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth.
Casey McGehee – $1 to $52
Hey, the guy is hitting .348 with 17 runs scored in 36 games. He should be on someone’s roster in a 15 team league with 30 man rosters.
Miguel Montero – $1 to $30
With Chris Snyder on the DL with a back issue, it shouldn’t take more than two weeks to heal up, everyone was on the Montero bandwagon even if they didn’t spend any dough to get him.
Fernando Nieve -$1 to $59
Keep pitching well for the Mets, and as of now he seems to be securing a rotation spot at the expense of the nearly healthy John Maine and/or Oliver Perez.
Scott Richmond – $21 to $122
Strike out 11 batters, and watch the dollars fly. I wonder how much Chad Gaudin will go for this weekend?
Ramon Troncoso – $1 to $28
Save prospecting as people were concerned that Jonathan Broxton might be forced to the DL with that sore toe of his. No such luck so far.
Oh, and one other moronic issue that I felt compelled to address…
The news broke today that Marlon Byrd has been working with Stan Conte, the man who ran BALCO and helped to destroy faith in baseball players with performance enhancing drugs like “the cream” and “the clear” What, was Satan or Mengele unavailable Mr. Byrd? Even if the supplements you are taking are “legal,” does it really make any sense to be dealing with the man who helped to bring baseball to its knees? Idiotic.
By Ray Flowers
