Welcome to this week’s LABR FAAB report.
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.
| PLAYER | WINNING BID | |||
| Wily Peralta, KC | Fangraphs 11 | ESPN.com 9 | Colton & The Wolfman 6 | Baseball Prospectus 4 |
| Winning Fantasy Baseball 4 | SiriusXM 2 | |||
| Isiah Kiner-Falefa, TEX | Rotowire 3 | Baseball Prospectus 2 | Creative Sports 2 | NFBC 1 |
| Chris Herrmann, SEA | Colton & The Wolfman 1 | |||
| Adalberto Mejia, MIN | Colton & The Wolfman 1 | |||
| Jake Diekman, TEX | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Yusmeiro Petit, OAK | Winning Fantasy Baseball 1 | |||
| Jesse Chavez, TEX | SiriusXM 1 | Winning Fantasy Baseball 1 | ||
| Willians Astudillo, MIN | Creative Sports 1 |
UNAWARDED BIDS
| PLAYER | ||||
| Chaz Roe, TB | Winning Fantasy Baseball 1 | SiriusXM 1 | ||
| Heath Hembree, BOS | Winning Fantasy Baseball 1 | SiriusXM 1 | ||
| Felix Pena, LAA | Colton & The Wolfman 1 | |||
| Jesus Sucre, TB | Colton & The Wolfman 1 | |||
| Jose Briceno, LAA | Colton & The Wolfman 1 | |||
| Kaleb Cowart, LAA | Rotowire 1 | |||
| Jose Leclerc, TEX | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Noe Ramirez, LAA | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Ryne Stanek, TB | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Taylor Rogers, MIN | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Blaine Hardy, DET | Winning Fantasy Baseball 1 |
Lawr Michaels Commentary
With the All Star Break dead ahead, and the trade deadline looming, AL LABR owners were largely low key, bidding enthusiastically for a pair of players–Wily Peralta and Isiah Kiner-Falefa–with the remaining bids all $1 crap shoots.
My eternal search for catchers led me to the Twins Willians Astudillo who actually has a solid OBP line in the minors with 80 walks to 76 strikeouts displaying an eye that I hope will translate into the Majors. Though, it wasn’t just me as Rick Wolf and Glenn Colton went for Chris Hermann also hoping to milk some points from the backstop slot.
But, Rick and Glenn also nabbed another Twin–Aldalberto Mejia–hoping for some innings and strikeouts from the hard throwing former Giants prospect.
Otherwise, journeyman names like Jesse Chavez and Yusmeiro Petit, garnered the bulk of attention, even if only a buck’s worth.
Todd’s Take
Adam Dunn was known as a three true outcome player as he walked, fanned or went deep quite often. Well, Willians Astudillo is a zero true outcome player. Lawr referenced his eye. The thing is, Astudillo has never posted a walk or strikeout rate above five percent – that’s just silly. Add in he’s got minimal power and we have a guy putting the ball in play in almost every one of his plate appearances. Silly.
SUCCESSFUL BIDS
| PLAYER | WINNING BID | |||
| Shelby Miller, ARI | NFBC 10 | Colton & The Wolfman 3 | ||
| Wei-Yin Chen, MIA | Colton & The Wolfman 3 | |||
| John Gant, STL | Colton & The Wolfman 3 | |||
| Elieser Hernandez, MIA | Colton & The Wolfman 3 | |||
| Pablo Lopez, MIA | CreativeSports 2 | |||
| Ty Blach, SF | Baseball HQ 1 | |||
| Greg Garcia, STL | Fantasy Alarm – Bender 1 | |||
| Curt Casali, CIN | USA TODAY Sports 1 | Fantasy Alarm – Bender 1 | ||
| Erik Kratz, MIL | NFBC 1 | Fantasy Alarm – Bender 1 | ||
| Jose Castillo, SD | USA TODAY Sports 1 |
UNAWARDED BIDS
| PLAYER | ||||
| David Hernandez, CIN | Baseball HQ 1 | |||
| Tayron Guerrero, MIA | Baseball HQ 1 | |||
| Craig Stammen, SD | Baseball HQ 1 | |||
| Yadiel Rivera, MIA | Fantasy Alarm – Bender 1 | |||
| Brandon Dixon, CIN | Fantasy Alarm – Bender 1 | |||
| Max Moroff, PIT | Fantasy Alarm – Bender 1 | |||
| Spencer Kieboom, WSH | USA TODAY Sports 1 |
Brian Walton’s Commentary
Pickings were slim this week in National League LABR, but even so, 10 players were pulled off the waiver wire. With available offensive options very limited, seven of the 10 free agents acquired were pitchers and only one was a non-catcher, St. Louis infielder Greg Garcia, whose limited playing time will soon shrink with Paul DeJong already playing in rehab games. Garcia went to Fantasy Alarm’s Howard Bender, the league leader, for $1.
Once a top prospect of the Cardinals, Shelby Miller was traded twice and suffered a downturn in performance and finally, injury. The right-hander is back with Arizona after a year away and not surprisingly, was rusty initially. Greg Ambrosius and Shawn Childs, representing the NFBC, bid an aggressive $10. With no pitcher streaming in LABR, the pair is clearly banking on Miller making quick improvement.
With the third-highest bankroll coming into the week, Glenn Colton and Rick Wolf dropped $9 of it on three hurlers at $3 each. Two of them were on my roster earlier in the season – both Miami Marlins – Elieser Hernandez and Wei-Yin Chen. With a glut of starters, the Fish may be returning Hernandez to the bullpen and Chen has never been a source of strikeouts. The other Colton-Wolf acquisition is St. Louis’ John Gant, who had been pretty good covering for injured Michael Wacha before a rough outing against the Braves over the weekend.
Speaking of Miami hurlers, I added Marlins prospect Pablo Lopez for $2. Called up to make his first start on Saturday, Lopez tossed six innings of two-run ball. If he goes back to the minors for a while, I will make room for Lopez on my bench until his inevitable return. I dumped yet another Fish pitcher, injured Jarlin Garcia, to make room.
Hmmm. Perhaps there is a reason my club has been a disappointment this season.
Todd’s Take
Geez, I’m the writing version of speechless – I guess I’m wordless. Nothing at all stands out this week in NL Tout. With the NL playoff scenario being more up in the air than the AL, ,maybe there will be more buyers in the Senior Circuit, livening things up in the next few weeks.
SUCCESSFUL BIDS
| PLAYER | WINNING BID | |||
| Keon Broxton, MIL | Fangraphs – Sleeper & Bust 6 | Rotowire 5 | Scout Fantasy 1 | |
| German Marquez, COL | Baseball Prospectus 4 | |||
| Willians Astudillo, MIN | Fangraphs – Sleeper & Bust 3 | |||
| Jonathan Loaisiga, NYY | Fangraphs – Sleeper & Bust 3 | Baseball Prospectus 2 | Razzball (Rudy Gamble) 2 | USA TODAY Sports 2 |
| Rotowire 1 | Scout Fantasy 1 | |||
| Austin Slater, SF | Prospect 361 3 | |||
| Wily Peralta, KC | Mastersball 3 | USA TODAY Sports 1 | ||
| Jose Bautista, NYM | Rotowire 1 | |||
| Brad Miller, MIL | Rotowire 1 | Prospect 361 1 | ||
| Elias Diaz, PIT | Scout Fantasy 1 | |||
| Jorge Bonifacio, KC | Scout Fantasy 1 | |||
| Matt Harvey, CIN | USA TODAY Sports 1 | |||
| Sandy Alcantara, MIA | Scout Fantasy 1 | |||
| Chris Bassitt, OAK | Fred Zinkie 1 |
UNAWARDED BIDS
| PLAYER | ||||
| Danny Valencia, BAL | Razzball (Rudy Gamble) 2 | |||
| Derek Holland, SF | Rotowire 1 | Fred Zinkie 1 | ||
| Seunghwan Oh, TOR | USA TODAY Sports 1 | Mastersball 1 | ||
| Rajai Davis, CLE | Scout Fantasy 1 | Prospect 361 1 | ||
| Lou Trivino, OAK | USA TODAY Sports 1 | Scout Fantasy 1 | ||
| Aledmys Diaz, TOR | Fangraphs – Sleeper & Bust 1 | |||
| Steve Pearce, BOS | Fangraphs – Sleeper & Bust 1 | |||
| Christian Villanueva, SD | Scout Fantasy 1 | |||
| Hernan Perez, MIL | Scout Fantasy 1 | |||
| Kevan Smith, CWS | Scout Fantasy 1 | |||
| Max Fried, ATL | Scout Fantasy 1 | |||
| Mitch Garver, MIN | Scout Fantasy 1 |
Todd’s Commentary
We’re just past the midway point of the season and the high bid is a mere $6. This is the primary reason I don’t mind spending early and often in this league, there will be good players available on the cheap.
Keon Broxton got the call with Lorenzo Cain out, leaving Domingo Santana on the farm. Cain is due back this week, but with Christian Yelich dealing with a sore back, Broxton’s services may be needed a little longer.
An under the radar pickup is Austin Slater, who’ get a couple of early week Coors Field starts with southpaws Kyle Freeland and Tyler Anderson lined up to entertain the Giants.
Todd’s Take
Saves have been an issue for me all season, drafting only Brandon Morrow and Greg Holland. Normally, I’d look to deal from strength to upgrade my closers, but Luis Castillo, Zack Godley and Sonny Gray have other plans. Note to self, it’s OK to fade pitching and draft guys that you like more than the market – just maybe not three of them?
Oh yeah, saves. I threw three bucks in Wily Peralta’s direction and it was enough. Maybe that’s because he’s not very good, but he’s secured a couple of saves the last week and I’m not going to get much better with a small bid.
Please follow me on Twitter @ToddZola and visit me at Mastersball.
