Searching for Billy Hamilton

[Texas Connection]

Yes if you were out in Vegas either weekend and happened to be in one of the 7 auctions I was in you may have noticed my affinity for the speedster. I believe I was the 1st or 2nd highest bidder each time on him. "He can't steal 1st base!" and "Do you know how many times he got caught last year?" were a couple of the big questions I heard on him. I think most experts have him for mid to high 50s in steals and I thought 90 was a better guess. The question that I then had to ask myself was how much more was he worth and how diversified would I be. I don't like to have all my eggs in one basket. I thought his value would be around $25 and I like to buy my guys under value but would see how things shake out.

The first auction was KJs auction and this auction has no in-season faab and was a single league auction. I figured there would be a lot of different strategies tried here with the unique set-up. My plan was to punt saves and batting average and grab hamilton and gordon to secure the speed. How did it work out you ask? Well I ran into Shawn Childs Hamilton man-crush. I knew he had rostered him in the LABR auction a few weeks earlier. We kept one upping each other until his $31 topped my $30 and I let him go. He later rostered Gordon at $29 to my $28 bid. These would be the highest bids they would go for in all of my auctions. I got caught enforcing on Goldy 3 or 4 guys later so my plan of dumping average was now out the window as well. That's what I love about the auction, a plan may have to be adjusted many times.

I was in 4 mixed auctions with an overall prize and he went for 22,24,25, and 26. I got him in 3 out of the 4 and Neal Moses at 26 was the only one to get him from me. Brian Ogan got him in the Ultimate Auction for $28. I rostered him for $21 in the Diamond. I would have gone to $30 in this one but was really pleased to get him at that price in the highest stakes league. He sold for the lowest in the highest stakes league. Billy's average auction value was $25 2/7 in the auctions I was in. I got him in 4 of the 7.

I was disappointed to totally whiff on Billy in the main events. His ADP was 47.41 for all the drafts and 48.38 in drafts since March the 1st. I decided I would not take him in my drafts where I had an early 3rd round spot at 32 or 34. I decided I would take him at 38 and 43 but sadly he was not there. Shawn took him at 30 in one of these.

Interesting side bets:

I took Hamilton steals over Moss Home Runs times 2 (with some Brandon Moss man-crush lovers)
Caesars had MLB stolen base leader at 61.5 and put $500 on the over

Run Billy Run!

Jon "Stats"

[ALL-IN JD]

Good luck Stats!!

[GetALife]

Pat yourself on the back some more.....nobody else in all of the NFBC had any knowledge that he could pull a Rickey or a Vince Coleman. We're all in the dark on it. This just in!

[Yah Mule]

Caesars had MLB stolen base leader at 61.5 and put $500 on the over

Run Billy Run!

Jon "Stats"

So this was technically a field bet, Jon?

Looks like a great investment.

[Texas Connection]

Caesars had MLB stolen base leader at 61.5 and put $500 on the over

Run Billy Run!

Jon "Stats"

So this was technically a field bet, Jon?

Looks like a great investment.

yeah if anyone gets there its a winner. Dee's got a shot too, right?

[Yah Mule]

Definitely. He was on pace for almost 80 last year before he slowed down in the second half.

[KJ Duke]

I was skeptical since he was still getting thrown out in ST. As a major Ham owner last year I was surprised to see him thrown out as often as he was and barely rostered him at all this year. I do have Dee on a number of big teams since I expected a higher success rate and I liked him more as a MI, plus there were a lot of cheaper 20-30 SB options this year.

Ham looks really good now that the season has started; if he keeps his legs 100% healthy all season he should crush Moss the way he's been running.