LABR FAAB Report: Week of April 16

Welcome to this week’s LABR FAAB report, on it’s new home. Look for the report to be posted early Monday morning,

The American League only and National League only formats are 12-team contests using standard 5×5 scoring rules. There’s an old-school flavor as players purchased in the auction cannot be freely bounced from the active to reserve roster. A player purchased in the auction can be placed on the disabled list if he’s on the MLB DL. However, he can’t be reserved then replaced by a player won with FAAB; he must be released. A auction-purchased player may also moved to reserves if subsequently sent down to the minors.

The 15-team Mixed LABR league allows free movement between active and six-man reserve.

In all three leagues, a player acquired via FAAB must be immediately inserted into the team’s active lineup.

Each LABR squad starts with 100 FAAB units, with a minimum bid of $1. Owners can ask for a FAAB rebate upon releasing a player on the DL.

Each week’s report will display the winning bids along with listing all contingency and failed bids so you get a feel for the level of interest in each player.

After the tables showing the successful and unsuccessful bids, Lawr Michaels, Brian Walton and yours truly will offer commentary for our respective leagues. I’ll share additional thoughts for each league.

The heading for each league doubles as a publicly accessible link so you can check the standings, roster and complete list of transactions.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Lawr Michaels’ Commentary

Having looked at the $77 that Ronald Guzman fetched in Tout Wars (out of $1000 FAAB cap), and having lost out to Jeff Erickson on said hitter by $4, I determined $7 was the correct relative amount with which to purchase the promising first sacker for my beyond struggling team.

Somehow, however, that did not seem enough for good looking young Ranger, so I bumped $10 into the mix just to ensure no issues. My original instinct was correct, for I could have saved $10 and copped Guzman, besting four bids, the highest of $6. Similarly, in trying to tweak my injury riddled roster, in addition to the highest priced player I went with Sergio Romo ($5) hoping some innings and whiffs, and maybe a rogue save find its way to my stat base. And, with eight men down, I also picked up Tyler Saladino for a buck, making me the most active owner as well as the one with the least FAAB. Ideally the Guzman gambit helps.

The remaining acquisitions were shared among five owners, with Ray Flowers putting up $6 for first sacker Jefry Marte, besting a pair of bids, while Brock Holt went to Dave Adler for $5. Holt did generate some interest with four losing bids, $4 being the top miss.

I had actually picked up Drew Butera a couple of weeks ago, thinking at least the catcher would get some playing time while Salvador Perez heals, but Butera’s bat was so anemic I dumped him last week. So, this week Mike Gianella went the same route, grabbing the Royals backstop for $2, actually besting a $1 attempt.

Finally, Steve Gardner spent a mere dollar on vet outfielder Craig Gentry, and that might well be the buy of the week, for Gentry swiped his fourth bag of the season on Sunday. That is more than either my Tout or LABR squads have altogether.

Maybe i should have been looking at speed before power?

Todd’s Take

It looks as if Lawr’s $17 bid would have actually fallen a buck short, but Rotolady fell victim to a nuance with the web site I’ve experienced myself. You need to either send a hitter to the DL or attach a drop with every acquisition for the request to be processed. Andrea didn’t win a player, meaning she didn’t have a space open. The other nuance of this site is a final submit button that I’ve failed to click a few times. I usually do all my FAAB in one fell swoop, which includes the NFBC. There, you don’t need to click in a final submit button, which I parrot in LABR and have missed out on winning players in the past.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Brian Walton’s Commentary

Two players dropped by first-place Howard Bender of Fantasy Alarm last week were among the top free agents this week in National League LABR.

With a bid of $13 for Matt Albers, Doug Dennis of BaseballHQ must think he has the confusing closing situation in Milwaukee figured out. Perhaps I am skeptical because I am a Jacob Barnes owner, but my man has been unable to consistently retire batters – a prerequisite for the job.

Also formerly on Bender’s roster, Washington infielder Wilmer Difo was my primary target, but my $5 offer was edged by Steve Gardner of USA TODAY’s $6 bid. Despite not being a “starter”, Difo still secures regular at-bats for the Nats and they are precious currency in an -only league like this one. In hindsight, I should have gone higher.

New Miami outfielder J.B. Shuck was the most in-demand free agent this week in terms of bidder quantity, with five. The winner was Jeff Erickson of RotoWire at $7. Now on his fifth big-league club, Shuck went 5-for-10 this past weekend against the Pirates, but temper the expectations, as the 30-year old is a career .253 hitter.

A believer in the two-starts-and-counting rebirth of Anibal Sanchez in Atlanta is Lenny Melnick, who dished out $5 to roster the 34-year old right-hander. If Sanchez can get past the surging Mets this week, his following turn would be at the home of the struggling Reds.

Todd’s Take

Some of the interest on Difo stems from the news Daniel Murphy will be out a few more weeks, paving the way for Difo to keep playing. Murphy is still in extended spring training, getting ready to embark on a rehab stint. The Nationals aren’t going to rush Murphy back from micro-fracture surgery, preferring to ,make sure their veteran is fully healed.

Compounding the confusion in the Milwaukee bullpen is Josh Hader being asked to get a 6-out save. The way he’s pitching, it won’t be long before we’re saying Andrew Miller is in the Hader role. Don’t expect Hader to get multiple-inning saves on a regular basis, but it does add another factor trying to read the tea leaves with respect to usage and likely ninth inning duty between Matt Albers and Jacob Barnes.

MIXED LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd Zola’s Commentary

It was a busy week for my league mates with 24 players finding new homes. All but one owner places bids, with 12 being rewarded with the friendly check mark in the site reports, signifying a successful try.

Jurickson Profar fetched the most FAAB units as Jake Ciely shelled out $14 for the former top prospect. With Elvis Andrus out of the building for 6-8 weeks, Profar will get a good chunk of playing time at shortstop. Still just 25, there’s plenty of time for Profar to make good on the hype that once had him rumored to be bait to acquire Giancarlo Stanton.

Mike Podhorzer must feel Bud Norris will fend off Greg Holland for Cardinals saves, at least for a little while. It’s easy to see where Podz is coming from. Norris has fanned 14 in 7.2 innings so far, posting three saves in the past week.

Todd’s Take

I opened up the wallet for the first time this week, needing a replacement for the injured Manny Margot.  I also had a second open reserve spot with Ben Gamel out. With UT open, I went after veteran Carlos Gomez, opting to go with the veteran as opposed to rolling the dice on one of the younger upstarts. Gomez is off to a slow start, fanning in one third of his trips to the dish, but he still has the ability to accrue double digit homers and steals.

My other purchase was Ronald Guzman, discussed by Lawr earlier. For me,  it was more a gut feel than number crunching. He’s not a huge power hitter, but he does make good contact so I’m hoping playing in hitter friendly Globe Life Park helps in the homer department. The Rangers have a lot of moving parts, including Joey Gallo, who’s moving to the outfield to accommodate Guzman playing first base. There’s no guarantee Guzman sticks, but he’s getting a look now and it’s a good time for me to grab him as my regular first baseman, Yonder Alonso is not only slow out of the box, he only has five games this week as the Indians have a two game set with the Twins in Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Puerto Rico.