Week 1 fantasy baseball FAAB check-in

MLB Opening Day is only a few days away with our first week of FAAB occurring Sunday evening. Week 1 of FAAB will impact your first week of play, July 23-26. This weekly article will help you trim the fat off your roster each week while finding cracks in the market. Churning and burning is going to be emphasized more than ever and it starts now. 

Our first installment is going to focus on FAAB for TGFBI (15-team) and the NFBC RotoWire Online Championship (12-team). Paying attention to starting rotations and bullpen roles will be key this week with only the Dodgers and Giants playing four games. 28 of 30 teams are playing three games, only providing three pitchers per team to start. Fourth and fifth starters in a rotation are useless this week. In order to combat that, you’re going to fill their spots with relief pitchers in good roles, providing high strikeout rates while potentially vulturing a win or save. A large portion of this FAAB installment will be listing viable options to help bolster the lower part of your pitching.

Notes:
Hitters and pitchers are broken down into tiers based on their projected budget allocation for Sunday, July 19.
Budget allocation and ownership percentages will be used from the NFBC site.
Players mentioned will have an NFBC ownership of 50% or less.

TGBFI (15-team)

The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational was drafted at the end of February with rosters being locked until this Sunday evening when the first FAAB period runs. There are players currently rostered who have since been injured while other players have opted out for the season. It is vital for you to have an abundance of contingency bids for any player who has been ruled out for the season.

Hitters

Minimum bids: Adam Duvall, Adam Haseley, Colin Moran, Chris Davis, Christin Stewart, Dexter Fowler, Dominic Smith, Edward Olivares, Edwin Ríos, Eric Sogard, Johan Camargo, José Osuna, Josh Naylor, Mitch Moreland, Raimel Tapia, Rio Ruiz, Yan Gomes
1-5%: Brandon Crawford, Brendan Rodgers, Franklin Barreto, Isan Díaz, Jake Lamb, Jay Bruce, Ji-Man Choi, Monte Harrison, Steven Souza Jr., Wilmer Flores
6-9%: Stephen Piscotty
10-19%: Isiah Kiner-Falefa

Pitchers

Minimum bids: Adam Ottavino, Amir Garrett, Andrew Miller, Bryan Abreu, Chris Devenski, Chris Martin, Collin McHugh, Daniel Ponce de Leon, Joe Kelly, Matt Strahm, Robert Stephenson, Trevor Rosenthal, Ty Buttrey, Tyler Duffey, Yusmeiro Petit
1-5%: James Karinchak, Keynan Middleton, Nick Burdi, Trevor May, Trevor Richards
6-9%: Corey Knebel, Will Harris
10-19%: Kyle Crick, Tyler Rogers, Zack Britton 

RotoWire Online Championship (12-team)

Hitters

Minimum bids: Jake Lamb, Jake Fraley, Franchy Cordero, Garrett Cooper, Jay Bruce, Marwin González, Victor Reyes
1-5%: Andrelton Simmons, Jesús Aguilar, Kyle Lewis, Kyle Seager, Matt Carpenter, Stephen Piscotty, Victor Caratini, Willy Adames, Yoshi Tsutsugo
6-9% Brett Gardner, Robinson Canó
10-19%: Isiah Kiner-Falefa

Pitchers

Minimum bids: Adam Ottavino, Brad Keller, Bryan Abreu, Homer Bailey, James Karinchak, Kyle Gibson, Matt Barnes, Michael Fulmer, Michael Lorenzen, Nick Wittgren, Robert Stephenson, Ryne Stanek, Trevor Richards, Trevor Rosenthal, Ty Buttrey, Tyler Duffey, Yusmeiro Petit
1-5%: Aaron Bummer, Jonathan Loáisiga, Nick Burdi, Will Harris
6-9%: José Alvarado, Kyle Crick, Tyler Rogers
20-29%: Aaron Civale

Looking ahead

Pitchers listed below are sub-50% owned while being projected to have two starts the following week. Getting a week ahead of the field on two-steppers can save you a tremendous amount of FAAB budget in the long run.
Jonathan Loáisiga: vs. Phillies, vs. Red Sox
Merrill Kelly: at Rangers, vs. Dodgers
Michael Wacha: at Red Sox, at Braves
Zach Eflin: vs. Yankees, at Blue Jays 
Tyler Anderson: vs. Padres, vs. Rangers
Ryan Borucki: at Nationals, vs. Phillies
Trent Thornton: at Nationals, vs. Phillies
Sean Newcomb: at Rays, vs. Mets 
Kyle Wright: at Rays, vs. Mets
Tyler Chatwood: at Reds, vs. Pirates
Alec Mills: at Reds, vs. Pirates
Wade Miley: vs. Cubs, at Tigers
Zach Plesac: vs. White Sox, at Twins
Brad Keller: at Tigers, vs. White Sox
Jorge López: at Tigers, vs. White Sox
Pablo Lopez: vs. Orioles, vs. Nationals
Elieser Hernández: vs. Orioles, vs. Nationals