FAAB Review: Sabathia and Harden

As promised earlier, I'll take a look at the N.L. only bids for C.C. Sabathia and Rich Harden in the N.L.-only league I track for FAAB.

6th place (tie) (54). Sabathia $100. Harden $100. Wins 11th, ERA 9th, WHIP 11th.
This team's in contention, but clearly floundering in pitching. He decided to simply max out on both Sabathia and Harden, and won the standings tiebreaker on CC. I think he's got a poor chance to win, but an eight win jump is a seven point jump in that category alone, while he could realistically jump six points in ERA and WHIP combined. He's completely out of FAAB, and some of his other bids were rejected as a result. This is the right play though, since he's in the middle of the pack and already committed to this season.

3rd place (62). Sabathia $100, Harden $68. Wins 6th (tie), ERA 4th, WHIP 1st.
I had suggested earlier that the right play was maxing out on both Sabathia and Harden, but this team didn't agree, losing the tiebreak on CC and coming in 2nd on Harden, losing out on him by a full $8. Given how little CC would impact this team in ERA (possible one point gain) and WHIP (no gain), you could even question the bid on CC. Trading him would make sense, but this is a salary cap league, so bidding on CC and winning means you're probably stuck with him. The only problem here is that this team is still sitting on a mountain of FAAB, and I doubt anyone better is coming in to the league.

9th place (50). Sabathia $78, Harden $76. Wins 10th, ERA 11th, WHIP 8th.
A max bid from the 3rd place team would have shut the 9th place squad out on Harden, but it didn't work out that way. This team has $8 left the rest of the way for FAAB. Harden at $76 is a little more movable than CC at $100, and that should probably be the way to go given the big ERA/WHIP hole this team is in. Playing for 2009 and using Harden as a chip would be an even better play, since this team is dead in every category but power.

11th place (28.5). Sabathia $67, Harden $65. Wins 6th (tie), ERA 10th, WHIP 10th.
This team was simply bidding to dump these players to contenders, and bidding too high and running into cap issues wasn't the way to go. In context, these bids were solid. He only lost out on Harden by $11, and the bid was aggressive enough that it might have gotten Harden in a league that was more down on him.

1st place (72). Sabathia $66, Harden $62. Wins 9th, ERA 6th, WHIP 5th.
Hmmm... This team's stacked on offense and OK on the pitching side. The rub is that these were just about max bids, so a more aggressive bid on either pitcher by this owner would have been next to impossible. He opted instead to bid $4 on Josh Johnson and got him, so he knows that he needs to roll the dice on pitching.

12th place (28). Sabathia $67, Harden $57. Wins 12th, ERA 12th, WHIP 12th.
This team was in the same boat as the 11th place squad. There was nothing to do here but bid at or near the max bid and hope for the best. This team made a flurry of other moves, with the hopes of finding gold in the free agent pool and flipping some of those cheap FAAB players for some smaller chips down the line.

6th place (tie) (54). Sabathia $60, Harden $52. Wins 5th, ERA 3rd, WHIP 3rd.
The max bid here would have been well short on CC but only $3 short on Harden. I would have max bid both in this team's position, because as the Harden bidding showed, you can't expect the entire league to be aggressive. You might sneak someone like Harden in if everyone else is hedging their bets.

2nd place (66). Sabathia $53, Harden $53. Wins 3rd, ERA 5th, WHIP 6th.
This team is the only team, besides the Sabathia winner, who took my advice and bid the same amount on both players. I thought that was the right play because if you don't get Sabathia, Harden's probably the best player on the market not just this week, but the rest of the way. Once again, this team bid $3 within its max for both players, so the bids here cannot be faulted. Were there players that this team shouldn't have bid on earlier? That's possible, but when you're competing, you're trying to fill holes all year long, and sometimes waiting for CC or Harden doesn't make sense.

4th place (57.5). Sabathia $47, Harden $37. Wins 4th, ERA 1st, WHIP 2nd.
Here's a team that could have max bid both Sabathia and Harden and won Harden but didn't. This team is buried in stolen bases and saves, and perhaps could have flipped Harden for help in either of those categories. At this time of the year, there are certainly some deep staffs that don't want to waive a pitcher, but this squad is mostly being carried by Edinson Volzquez and Ben Sheets and had plenty of middle relievers to waive. I would have been more aggressive here and worried about the cap and the risk of not making a trade later.

10th place (45). Sabathia $17, Harden $15. Wins 2nd, ERA 2nd, WHIP 7th.
This team also could have max bid. He'll be dumping and will run up against the cap, but these bids - which were designed to grab Sabathia and/or Harden as keeps, don't make sense. You're not going to win these guys at these prices, and once again you're better off bidding to win and better off failing to make a trade with Harden than not having a chip like Harden to even try.

8th place (51.5). Sabathia $18. Wins 1st, ERA 7th, WHIP 9th.
This team had a mere $23 left to spend. Why he didn't bid on Harden I don't know.

5th place (55.5). No bids. Wins 6th (tie), ERA 8th, WHIP 4th.
This team had $61 left to spend. He would have lost the bidding on both, but I say you have to bid anyway and see what happens.

The most interesting thing I notice with all these bids is that nine of the 12 teams bid more on Sabathia than Harden. The right play would have been to bid the same amount on both. You're not going to get both since you'll run out of FAAB but you'll increase your odds on getting one of them. You're not going to add a player like Sabathia or Harden the rest of the way, and even if your bid craps out, these are the kind of risks you need to make to win.