In keeper leagues, grabbing Hu at $1 is a play on the starting SS job next season with Furcal's three-year deal expiring at the end of this season.It is possible that Hu at $1 could very well reap dividends for his owner next year.
The question is whether the XB ability he showed between AA & AAA is real. If so, then Hu at $1 is going to yield something much better this summer when the bailing begins.
Keep in mind, though, that in this league, salaries jump up if the player is bought at a certain price. Hu at $1 will be Hu at $10 next year. He might be worth keeping at $10, given possible position scarcity. But, then again, he might not.
Another conundrum is that Hu can't be buried on the winning bidder's freeze list once the player he replaced comes back. His owner will have two weeks to trade or waive Hu, or trade, waive, or reserve another player.
There's nothing wrong with picking up players at weak position in the hopes that you'll have something to trade to the bottom feeders in the middle of the year. And you're not even looking for the next Ryan Braun here. Teams out of the running sometimes want nothing more than a bone, and Hu certainly could fit that bill.
Where you want to be careful is where such a strategy might hurt you this year. If Hu is sucking wind and you can get more production, you've got to cut bait. This applies even more if you've got a few players like this sucking your stats down. Eventually, you're going to be one of the bottom feeders if you grab too many future long shots, and Hu will be part of your 2009 hopes and dreams, and not your 2008 run to the title.
2 comments:
I've never been in a league where FAAB players who are bid under $5 don't have their prices adjust immediately to $5 or to $5 or $10 after the season. To allow FAAB prices to be keeper prices the next year is a terrible rule and promotes waiving near entire rosters by teams at the bottom, seriously impacting the race for the money. My leagues also have strict rules about September as well. Any player FAABed in September are on option year contracts. So, if you want to pick guys up for $5 for next year, take 'em in August, otherwise moves are only made to improve this year, not next, helping to preserve the money race.
My Al-Only has a $5 minimum FAAB bid with bids over $10 becoming contracts for the following season.
My NL-Only uses FAAB just for players traded into the NL and all of those bids are contracts for the next season.
One league is too liberal with its FAAB money and the other is too conservative.
As a starter, Hu is worth protecting at any of the mentioned prices - assuming last season's power shown in AA and AAA is real.
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