Perk, Scanlon, Andy win season's first FAAB bidding wars

We saw 3 players get multiple bids this past weekend leading up to the first FAAB auction of the regular season.

Perka was able to nab Brad Boxberger for $3, beating out Scanlon's free bid. Boxberger is slated to be the Rays interim close while Jake McGee recovers. With Chapman, Betances, and Rodney, Perka shouldn't be spending too much of his budget on additional sources for saves. However, any time you can block your current weekly opponent from improving a weak area, it's a pleasant surprise.

The Kimbrel trade may have thrown dirt on Scanlon's already buried saves category, as the recent Padres acquisition will usurp the closer spot from Jeremy's only real closer, Joaquin Benoit.  But Scanlon was quick on the trigger and dropped a $5 spot on Jason Grilli, Kimbrel's likely replacement in Atlanta. You might remember Grilli's name from the highly unreliable stint he had as the Pirates closer not long ago. Jeremy beat out $1 from both the Travers brothers to get the potential closer, but saves is still a weak category for him, and he will struggle with saves until he can get a solid bullpen.

Andy also dropped $5 in the first regular season auction on Jhonny Peralta, who hit cleanup for the Cardinals last night in the victory. Unfortunately he went just 1 for 5, but the Cards have an efficient lineup and anyone in the middle of that order should be considered an asset. Andy beat out a $1 bid from Mark, and now (along with Jose Reyes) has 2 shortstops with significant upside, if there are any buyers out there...

Unnecessary payments include Russ spending $5 on the Red Sox "Ace" Clay Buchholz. He has no good defense for this, and is, at heart, a homer.

Also Perka spends $4 on Josh Hamilton, but will end up stashing him away on the DL until February.

Russ was also able to nab Curtis Granderson and Josh Collmenter, all while dropping no one, because he currently has 5 guys on the 15 day DL. "I have 4 pitchers on the DL and I'm concerned about hitting the innings minimum, so I grabbed a couple of opening day starting pitchers. It probably won't end well for my ratios..." he said to himself earlier today. This may be a nice first week for Richie.

Can't wait to see how these pick-ups affect week 1.