This past week, plenty of moves were made in RotoWire's Staff Keeper League 3 (SKL3) by contenders and rebuilders alike. Across the league, five trades were made prior to Friday morning's FAAB deadline, and one even took place shortly after the FAAB results were announced. These deals don't go into effect until today, but they did lay the groundwork for some teams' FAAB strategy. Here are the results from this week's bidding:
Player | Owner | Winning Bid ($) | Other Bids ($) |
Dinelson Lamet | Josh Fathollahi | 16 | |
Tyler Chatwood | Juan Carlos Blanco | 6 | |
Chris Carter | Sam Candee | 4 | 2 |
Erasmo Ramirez | Doug Thorburn | 4 | |
Ezequiel Carrera | Sam Candee | 3 | |
Brad Peacock | Josh Fathollahi | 2 | |
Jake Marisnick | Juan Carlos Blanco | 2 | |
Robbie Grossman | Josh Fathollahi | 2 | 2,1 |
Kurt Suzuki | Juan Carlos Blanco | 2 | |
Alex Wilson | Chris Benzine | 1 | |
Jeanmar Gomez | Josh Rudd | 1 | |
Mark Canha | Erik Siegrist | 1 |
The bidding itself was a bit more quiet this past week (likely a result of the various trades that took place), although there were a few notable pickups. First, Josh Fathollahi went all out to get Dinelson Lamet on the heels of his impressive big-league debut Thursday night, in which he struck out eight batters in five innings en route to the victory. Hindsight shows that he could've bid much less in order to get the 24-year-old on his roster, but given the lack of alternatives in San Diego at the moment, Lamet seems to be in the rotation for the foreseeable future and could prove to be a stealthy pickup if he continues to strike out batters at a high clip.
Based on the number of owners who bid on each player, Chris Carter and Robbie Grossman were the most sought-after players this week. Carter was snagged by Sam Candee, who presumably reeled in the slugger to fill the hole at first base that was created when he dealt Edwin Encarnacion to Clay Link in exchange for Jacob deGrom. I personally see this as an incredibly savvy move. Although it's unlikely that Encarnacion is going to struggle all season like he has thus far, Candee managed to flip him for an ace pitcher while still landing a first baseman who has just as much power potential. Candee also sits in third place in the league in home runs (13 homers out of first), so maintaining his power source in this fashion is pretty smart.
Fathollahi picked up Grossman with some assistance from the waiver claim order, but it may prove to be a nice boost to his team. Grossman has been playing more as of late thanks to the 1.076 OPS he posted over the past week, forcing manager Paul Molitor to deploy him in the outfield and as the designated hitter throughout the week. Fathollahi's squad ranks in the bottom half of the league in both batting average and runs scored, both of which can be aided by Grossman, especially while he's hitting toward the top of the Twins' order.
The award for busiest owner of the week is actually a tie between Fathollahi and Juan Carlos Blanco, who both picked up a trio of players. Blanco is currently in first place in the league, although his team put up fairly pedestrian numbers last week, leading him to drop eight rotisserie points in the standings. His team seems to be very hitter-centric (outside of Clayton Kershaw), so he went out to bolster his pitching staff by nabbing Tyler Chatwood, who allowed just two runs while striking out 12 over his past two starts. He also grabbed Kurt Suzuki and Jake Marisnick due to how well they're stroking the ball right now, but oddly enough they might not even have a spot in his lineup given the established options already residing on his team.
Finally, let's look back on the biggest winner from the past week's FAAB proceedings. One of the biggest movers in the standings was actually one of the owners who grabbed the most free agents last week: D.J. Trainor. His team leapt up 13.5 rotisserie points in the standings, moving him up from 16th place to 11th. Eddie Butler proved to be a solid pickup despite logging just eight innings across his two starts. He collected a win for Trainor, and he now holds a stellar 1.93 ERA on the season.
For your reference, here's a summary of each trade that was completed in the past week:
Owner #1 | Player(s) Received | Owner #2 | Player(s) Received |
Isaac Buttke | Craig Kimbrel Albert Pujols | Josh Rudd | Rick Porcello D.J. LeMahieu Justin Bour Colby Rasmus |
Isaac Buttke | Greg Holland Hunter Renfroe Chris Owings David Price | Mario Puig | Yoan Moncada |
Steve Broihahn | Cesar Hernandez Luis Alexander Basabe | Mario Puig | Greg Allen |
Sam Candee | Jacob deGrom | Clay Link | Edwin Encarnacion |
Tim Heaney | Kevin Kiermaier Roberto Osuna Stephen Strasburg Chris Davis | James Anderson | Rhys Hoskins Clint Frazier |
That's all for this week. Tune in next week for more analysis on SKL3's FAAB process. Good luck to everyone!