FAAB and Keeper Prices

Over at Patton & Company, Mike Fenger wants to know the impact of FAAB players depending upon keeper price:

What is your read on the number of leagues that allow you to keep FAABed players at their acquisition price (at least for the next season or two), as opposed to requiring some boost in their price if they're to be a next-year keeper?

One problem I have is that I don't have a good data on the number of leagues using one format versus another. The best I can do is compare the A.L. and N.L. in which I track my FAAB logs every week.

In the American League I track, the minimum price for player FAABed under $10 is $10. So if I FAABed Juan Cruz for $1 in April, I can only keep him in 2010 if I want him at $10.

In the National League I track, the minimum keeper price is $5.

How many FAABed players were frozen in this N.L. and this A.L. in 2009?

National League (19)
$8 Josh Johnson
$7 Jason Motte
$6 Travis Ishikawa, Hong-Chih Kuo, John Lannan, Nyjer Morgan, Daniel Murphy
$5 John Baker, Clint Barmes, Emmanuel Burriss, David Bush, Matt Lindstrom, Ryan Madson, Paul Maholm, Ricky Nolasco, Pablo Sandoval, Skip Schumaker, Ian Snell, Todd Wellemeyer.

American League (13)
$15 Armando Galarraga
$11 Juan Rivera
$10 Mike Aviles, Grant Balfour, Shin-Soo Choo, Joey Devine, Gavin Floyd, Frank Francisco, Matt Joyce, Kendry Morales, Brandon Morrow, Denard Span, Brad Ziegler.

As you would expect, there were more players frozen in the league with the cheaper FAAB plays. But not that much more than you would have expected. Or there were more players frozen in this A.L. at $10 or higher than you might have expected. Galarraga at $15 seems shocking. Balfour at $10 is a lot for a middle reliever. Joyce is baffling, given that it seemed certain he'd go to the minors.

But how many of these guys in the N.L. would have thrown back if their owners had to say $10?

It's hard to say, but I'd think that both Kuo and Madson would have been tossed back. Snell and Lannan seem iffy at $5 and $6; at $10 I'd imagine that their owners' feet would have turned into blocks of ice. Baker's a cute play at $5; at $10, that seems like a lot of risk wrapped up in a career minor leaguer, even at catcher.

As far as strategy goes, there's probably more of an impact on teams playing for next year than teams wrapped up in a run at this season. Last year, I looked at players who were dumped in this A.L. and found that Marlon Byrd was the only FAABed player moved in a dump deal who could have been considered even a borderline target (and not simply a throw-in to satisfy a positional or salary cap requirement). The A.L. list above is similar. Only Aviles was moved in a dump trade, but this happened one week after he was FAABed, and at that point he was clearly a throw-in and not a key component of the deal.

If you're in a league with cheaper FAAB keeps, it should lead to more activity from the bottom feeders trying to collect cheaper freezes (assuming that transactions aren't fee-based). That's a good thing to a point...but I'm not necessarily sure I want someone who had a terrible auction and/or made terrible in-season moves to be rewarded by getting a bunch of $5 freezes.