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.
SUCCESSFUL BIDS
| PLAYER | WINNING BID | |||
| Brad Hand, CLE | ESPN.com 12 | SiriusXM 11 | Baseball Prospectus 5 | Winning Fantasy Baseball 5 |
| USA TODAY Sports 4 | ||||
| Melky Cabrera, CLE | NFBC 6 | |||
| Jeurys Familia, OAK | Baseball Prospectus 5 | ESPN.com 11 | USA TODAY Sports 4 | NFBC 2 |
| Winning Fantasy Baseball 1 | ||||
| Brian Goodwin, KC | USA TODAY Sports 4 | Baseball Prospectus 1 | ||
| Brian Johnson, BOS | NFBC 4 | |||
| Renato Nunez, BAL | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Blaine Hardy, DET | Baseball Prospectus 1 |
UNAWARDED BIDS
| PLAYER | ||||
| Kendall Graveman, OAK | NFBC 2 | |||
| A.J. Cole, NYY | NFBC 1 | Baseball Prospectus 1 | ||
| Jose Leclerc, TEX | NFBC 1 | Baseball Prospectus 1 | ||
| Adam Cimber, CLE | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Brandon Maurer, KC | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Burch Smith, KC | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Jace Fry, CWS | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| James Pazos, SEA | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Ryan Pressly, MIN | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Ryan Rua, TEX | Baseball Prospectus 1 |
Lawr Michaels’ Commentary
In a week where the excitement rests with just how much money was thrown at Manny Machado in NL LABR, where Willie Calhoun has patiently been waiting for this moment on the reserve list of Fangraphs, and in a league where I have just $6 to blow between now and the end of the season, it is hard to imagine the anticipation I had for this week AL trannies even if my participation is so passive.
Certainly the trade wars initiated the opening of wallets, with Brad Hand culling the high bid, besting four “wanna-bids” between $4-$11. With the desperate search for saves, that meant another new AL, Jeurys Familia went to Mike Gianella for just $5, besting three bids while newcomer outfielder Brian Goodwin also fetched a $4 price tag from Steve Gardner.
But, with all the moves, only Hand was priced beyond the range of my measly six bucks, meaning any of the free agents could have been additions to my team, and players like Melky Cabrera or Brian Johnson let alone Familia or Goodwin might not be of help.
It’s more I suspect there will be more players like them, and the prices are starting to bottom with the deadline, allowing me to be a bit choosier than I imagined. I just have to be careful not to wait too long.
After all, Renato Nunez is now on his third team of the season…
Todd’s Take
It flew under the radar this weekend but the Royals acquisition of Brian Goodwin is interesting on a couple of levels. Sometimes teams missed out on a player they liked a few years back. I have no clue if Goodwin was on the Royals radar when he was drafted, but it’s intriguing they dealt for him. Kansas City could give him a decent look the rest of the season. Until now, Goodwin doesn’t appear to be anything more than a reserve fly chaser, but anyone getting playing time is roster-worthy in AL only. The other noteworthy aspect of the deal is the Nationals must be comfortable with their current array of outfielders, which perhaps means Victor Robles recovery from his elbow injury could be going well. Again, just speculation, but a team doesn’t deal what could be a useful piece if they don’t feel he’s expendable.
SUCCESSFUL BIDS
| PLAYER | WINNING BID | |||
| Manny Machado, LAD | ESPN – Karabell 90 | USA TODAY Sports 88 | Colton & The Wolfman 65 | Baseball Prospectus 56 |
| Derek Carty 56 | Rotowire 50 | Baseball HQ 49 | ||
| Yahoo – DDD 15 | Fantasy Alarm – Bender 7 | |||
| Garrett Hampson, COL | Derek Carty 9 | CreativeSports 4 | ESPN – Karabell 3 | Colton & The Wolfman 1 |
| Phillip Ervin, CIN | CreativeSports 2 | |||
| Derek Holland, SF | CreativeSports 1 | NFBC 1 | Rotowire 1 | |
| Adam Conley, MIA | NFBC 1 |
UNAWARDED BIDS
| PLAYER | ||||
| Caleb Ferguson, LAD | NFBC 1 | |||
| Jason Vargas, NYM | NFBC 1 | |||
| Kyle Crick, PIT | NFBC 1 |
Brian Walton’s Commentary
ESPN’s Eric Karabell did not disappoint, as the $90 he has been saving all season went to acquire new Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Manny Machado. Eight other National League LABR owners made bids, hoping Karabell would be asleep at the switch. No luck. I am one of the three who did not bother trying.
My focus was on new Rockies infielder Garrett Hampson. The rookie has some pop and speed, too, and he plays half of his games in Denver. The downside is that his playing time is directly related to the duration of DJ LeMahieu’s DL stay. Word is that his oblique strain is minor, but we’ve heard that tune many times before with others. Derek Carty showed no trepidation, plunking down $9, blowing away my second-best $4 bid.
I settled for Reds outfielder Phillip Ervin, who joins my roster for the second time this season, at $2. Ervin had two hits and two RBI on Sunday, but of course, I don’t get those stats. I would be happy with two RBI all this coming week from him, to be honest, as his playing time is not assured.
Speaking of second shots, I added Derek Holland of the Giants for $1. On my opening roster, Holland was eventually jettisoned because LABR does not allow streaming and the Hollands – Derek and his evil cousin Greg – helped put my team in last place. But because I am a benevolent soul, and the fact Holland has really improved lately, reportedly due to rediscovering his curveball, I decided to give him another chance. Silly me.
Todd’s Take
LABR presents an interesting twist as the minimum bid for free agents is $1. I actually prefer this to Tout Wars which permits $0 bids. As I’ve said before in this space, I think the NFBC has it right, using a $1000 budget with no $0 bids. The point being, it’s a challenge deciding how much to leave, if anything, for the rest of the season. Eric had a few bucks more than the next highest amount of FAAB ($89 from Steve Gardner) so he was able to bid $90 and still have $7 in the kitty. The interesting part is Steve was willing to keep just $1 back for an emergency.
SUCCESSFUL BIDS
| PLAYER | WINNING BID | |||
| Garrett Hampson, COL | Razzball (Rudy Gamble) 23 | Baseball HQ 7 | Mastersball 7 | Prospect 361 6 |
| Scout Fantasy 1 | ||||
| Willie Calhoun, TEX | Fred Zinkie 10 | Scout Fantasy 3 | @TheFantasyFix 1 | |
| Robert Gsellman, NYM | Fangraphs 6 | Mastersball 3 | Baseball HQ 1 | @TheFantasyFix 1 |
| Scout Fantasy 1 | ||||
| Adam Ottavino, COL | Baseball Prospectus 2 | |||
| Kolten Wong, STL | Baseball HQ 1 | Mastersball 1 | ||
| Leury Garcia, CWS | Baseball HQ 1 | Mastersball 1 | ||
| John Gant, STL | Baseball HQ 1 | |||
| Phil Maton, SD | Mastersball 1 | |||
| Joey Wendle, TB | Mastersball 1 | |||
| Jose Leclerc, TEX | Prospect 361 1 | |||
| Chris Iannetta, COL | Razzball (Rudy Gamble) 1 | |||
| Steve Pearce, BOS | Razzball (Rudy Gamble) 1 | |||
| Felix Pena, LAA | @TheFantasyFix 1 | |||
| Jake Cave, MIN | Razzball (Rudy Gamble) 1 |
UNAWARDED BIDS
| PLAYER | ||||
| Aledmys Diaz, TOR | Baseball HQ 1 | |||
| Yusmeiro Petit, OAK | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Matt Barnes, BOS | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Edwin Jackson, OAK | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Welington Castillo, CWS | Razzball (Rudy Gamble) 1 | |||
| Matt Wieters, WSH | Razzball (Rudy Gamble) 1 |
Todd’s Commentary
Obviously, there aren’t crossover players in mixed leagues but that doesn’t mean there won’t be impact options later in the season. Two may have been this week’s big ticket items in Garrett Hampson and Will Calhoun. As Brian suggested above, Hampson has a little pop though his primary assets should be steals and batting average. I agree with the esteemed Mr. Walton, obliques can be tricky and I don’t trust the early prognosis of LeMahieu missing minimal time.
The other potential difference maker is Willie Calhoun. His bat isn’t a question, it’s more if texas is willing to put up with spotty defense to get the stick in the lineup. It’s unclear if Calhoun’s promotion was a result of Nomar Mazara being on the shelf or because Calhoun’s been raking on the farm. Regardless, Calhoun is getting a good look.
Todd’s Take
Without the assets to compete with the big stacks, I put in a couple of small bibs, snagging Phil Maton and Joey Wendle, each for a buck. Wendle was just some hitting insurance, eligible all over the place while Maton is a preemptive shot at a closer in the event Kirby Yates follows Brad Hand out of San Diego.
Please follow me on Twitter @ToddZola and visit me at Mastersball.
