LABR FAAB Report: Week of May 14

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.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Lawr Michaels’ Commentary

Perhaps the biggest move of the week of transactions in AL LABR was the trade between Fangraph’s Eno Sarris and me, where I sent Max Kepler, Avisail Garcia, and Dellin Betances to Eno for Mike Mahtook, Guillermo Heredia, and Shane Greene.

Ideally Eno consolidated an abundance of players coming off the DL (he can hide Garcia on his DL) and I can grab some speed and at-bats and saves and ideally move out of the cellar. Plus, this reduces my players on the DL to a season-low five.

The real point, however, is saves and closers were the name of the game this week with Tyler Clippard costing Clay Link $18, besting even bids ranging from $5-$12 (there were three $12 bids, interestingly).

The quest for conversions continued to Greg Ambrosius and Shawn Childs shelling out $13 for Blake Parker, with seven wannabe owners, while Larry Schechter grabbed Bruce Rondon for $9.

Staying on topic, Ray Flowers played his hunches with Ryan Tepera ($5), while Dave Adler got Wade LeBlanc for a five-spot.

Steve Gardner then went $2 on Boston’s Joe Kelly, with Rick Wolf and Glenn Colton stating their relief preference in the form of John Axford.

Finally, when the bids dropped down to the $1 bargain basement gambits, RotoLady Andrea Lamont nabbed backstop Greyson Grenier, Mike Gianella outfielders  Abraham Almonte and Johnny Field, while Link finished off the transaction run he started with Brandon Guyer.

Proving that there is sometimes a Blakian symmetry within fantasy baseball  without referring to the Detroit mascot.

Todd’s Take

Wow, the search for saves is serious. For reasons that will be quite clear later, I’m hoping Clay is right with Clippard. Parker has been maddening. He got first dibs on the closing gig but spit the bit. I knew he’d get it together – he’s too good not to, but the question was whether he’d be trusted with the closer role again. Since early season struggles, he’s tossed 14.1 innings with 15 whiff, twirling a nifty 1.88 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. Well, at least I have him on some draft and hold squads after jettisoning him from standard leagues. #fanticide

NATIONAL LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Brian Walton’s Commentary

It was an interesting bidding period in National League LABR, with four players going for $5 or more.

The parade begins with the unsettled closing situation in Philadelphia given the recent struggles of Hector Neris. Earlier in the day, in Tout Wars, Tommy Hunter and Seranthony Dominguez were purchased. After Edubray Ramos was called upon and picked up Sunday’s save, Derek Carty plunked down over 20 percent of his full-season stipend, $22, for the right-hander. It remains unclear whether Ramos has staying power, however.

Slugger Mark Reynolds is back from the minors and launched two long-balls in his debut Sunday. Perhaps that motivated Greg Ambrosius/Shawn Childs of the NFBC to bid $13. What is unclear, however, is if Reynolds is going to play other than against lefties and as a pinch hitter. Matt Adams is expected to be the regular at first while Ryan Zimmerman is on the disabled list.

The value of 21-year old Freddy Peralta skyrocketed based on 13 strikeouts and 5 1/3 scoreless innings for the Brewers at Coors Field on Sunday. I picked him up in Tout before the start for the comparable value of 60 cents in LABR money. That evening, it took $9 from host Steve Gardner of USA Today to get the job done. I upped my offer ten-fold, to $6, in a failed attempt for a double win.

Yahoo’s Dalton Del Don picked up Gregor Blanco for $5. Though Blanco is once again seeing regular at-bats in the Giants outfield, his playing time outlook when Hunter Pence returns from his rehab stint is unclear.

Todd’s Take

I was following the game Brian references with Ramos the surprise choice in the ninth. After the game, Gabe Kapler was non-committal, suggesting Neris is still in the circle of trust, he just felt Ramos was the best choice for the job on Sunday afternoon.

I confess, I didn’t see Peralta pitch but am eager to check out some archived video. He obviously made an impression on Brewers skipper Craig Counsell. The original plan was for Peralta to be one and done, at least for now, but Counsell was a little more committal, strongly implying Peralta will get another look. He lines up for an inter-league tussle against the Twins in Target Field on Friday night.

MIXED

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd Zola’s Commentary

In the least kept secret of the report, I dropped a third of my budget on Clippard. Call it a hunch, but I sense he gets the Jays closer job and keeps it for awhile. I need a second closer immediately as I took an ill-fated shot on Greg Holland thu shave been running with just Arodys Vizcaino. There are several clubs within shouting distance, so a second – and perhaps third – closer is crucial to keeping pace in the standings.

My other choices were all acquired, including Brad Ziegler, Edubray Ramos, Blake Parker, Seung hwan Oh and Jim Johnson. Aren’t saves fun?

Peralta’s performance squeezed 7$ out of my podcast partner Derek Van Riper. This is a good indication Peralta is indeed looking at another start as DVR is local to Milwaukee (let’s call it Madison) so he likely checked out local reports.

I also dropped $7 on Miguel Rojas in my latest attempt to get production from the spot initially occupied by Kolten Wong. I can’t really complain about injuries as my DL was vacant previous to putting Todd Frazier there. Instead of burning more FAAB, I opted to give Ronald Guzman another shot at corner.

Todd’s Take

Three of my pitchers are Luis Castillo, Zack Godley and Sonny Gray. I’ve received several buy-low offers. The problem is, I trust them all to get it together and have Justin Verlander holding things together until they do. Castillo has already turned it around, through he’s not as sharp as last season, but that’s OK, some regression was expected. I’m still confident Godley will be fine but am beginning to get worried about Gray. He seemed to be reverting back to more fastballs, but has gotten away from that. Still, as a vet, he should find a happy point between what he wants to do and the Yankees wishes.

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