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 | |||
| Adam Plutko, CLE | Baseball Prospectus 12 | USA TODAY Sports 8 | Winning Fantasy Baseball 8 | SiriusXM 7 |
| Colton & The Wolfman 2 | ESPN.com 1 | |||
| Frankie Montas, OAK | USA TODAY Sports 6 | Creative Sports 4 | ||
| Chaz Roe, TB | SiriusXM 5 | Winning Fantasy Baseball 4 | Baseball Prospectus 1 | Colton & The Wolfman 1 |
| Fangraphs 1 | ||||
| Jose Rondon, CWS | Roto Lady 4 | Winning Fantasy Baseball 1 | ||
| Dwight Smith Jr., TOR | Creative Sports 3 | Rotowire 2 | Colton & The Wolfman 1 | Winning Fantasy Baseball 1 |
| Daniel Gossett, OAK | Colton & The Wolfman 2 | SiriusXM 4 | Baseball Prospectus 1 | ESPN.com 1 |
| Fangraphs 1 | ||||
| Craig Gentry, BAL | Colton & The Wolfman 1 | Creative Sports 1 | Winning Fantasy Baseball 1 | |
| Yusmeiro Petit, OAK | Creative Sports 1 | Baseball Prospectus 1 | SiriusXM 1 | |
| Cam Bedrosian, LAA | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Doug Fister, TEX | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Andrew Susac, BAL | Winning Fantasy Baseball 1 | |||
| Jonathan Holder, NYY | Fangraphs 1 |
UNAWARDED BIDS
| PLAYER | ||||
| Dylan Covey, CWS | Roto Lady 4 | Colton & The Wolfman 2 | SiriusXM 1 | |
| Baseball Prospectus 1 | ||||
| Sergio Romo, TB | SiriusXM 1 | Baseball Prospectus 1 | ||
| Ryne Stanek, TB | Colton & The Wolfman 1 | Baseball Prospectus 1 | ||
| Ryan Goins, KC | Winning Fantasy Baseball 1 | |||
| Aaron Bummer, CWS | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Aaron Loup, TOR | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Brad Keller, KC | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Danny Coulombe, OAK | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Heath Hembree, BOS | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Hector Santiago, CWS | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Jesse Chavez, TEX | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Kevin McCarthy, KC | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Noe Ramirez, LAA | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Tim Hill, KC | SiriusXM 1 | |||
| Chris Young, LAA | Colton & The Wolfman 1 | |||
| Trayce Thompson, CWS | Colton & The Wolfman 1 | |||
| A.J. Cole, NYY | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Brian Johnson, BOS | Baseball Prospectus 1 | |||
| Richard Bleier, BAL | Baseball Prospectus 1 |
Lawr Michaels’ Commentary
The good news is that my team has wormed its way out of last place, rising as high as tenth for cup of coffee over the weekend, as Andrea Lamont, Ray Flowers, and I duke it out for the privilege of not finishing last in the league.
I tried hard to continue augmenting my pitching, placing bids for both Frankie Montas, and as a conditional, Adam Plutko, but both went elsewhere. Montas went to Steve Gardner for $6, besting just my only challenge, while Plutko became the property of Mike Gianella, who bagged the Tribe’s righty for $12, besting five would-be owners.
But, as I was just working with a $25 FAAB balance for the season, meting out money must be done, per the Wicked Witch of the West, “delicately.”
That does not mean I was not active, spending one-sixth of my budget first for Dwight Smith, Jr. for $3 to replace the injured Khris Davis and another buck on Yusiermo Petit to replace the ineffective Andrew Cashner. Smith was apparently a good buy, as three of my fellow owners also placed bids on the outfielder.
My partners at the bottom of the standings were equally active, with Ray Flowers grabbing Chaz Roe for $5, and RotoLady Andrea Lamont securing Jose Rondon for $4.
Second placers Glenn Colton and Rick Wolf continued their weekly stream of starting pitchers by grabbing Daniel Gossett for a couple of bucks, but the duo also picked up Craig Gentry who does steal bases. With Colton and Wolf sitting at second in steals with 42, the acquisition of Gentry could be pivotal as Larry Schechter’s team holds the lead with 51 swipes, but they are led by the now injured Dee Gordon, making for some interesting stat wars.
For his pain, Schechter wound up with Andrew Susac in this year of awful catchers, meaning a .220 average with four homers and 20 RBI between now and the playoffs spells stud.
Todd’s Take
With the note I am guilty of the same thing at times, it boggles the mind how we spend an entire off-season with our analytical hats on, dissecting numbers, often coming up with reasons not to like a player (he was lucky, he has no track record, etc.), but we throw it all out the window in-season after a decent outing for a pitcher or series for a batter.
This week’s example is Plutko. Coming into the season, his career track appeared to be as a spot-starter, long man, at best. He still may end up in that role, but a productive month has him usurping Josh Tomlin’s rotation spot.
Plutko began May with a spot start for the Tribe, pitching a solid 7.1 frames against the Jays. He returned to Triple-A Columbus where he spun a pair of strong efforts before being summoned for another start with the big club. A scoreless six stanzas against the Cubs, albeit with four walks, earned the 26-year old righty a rotation spot. He has a pair on the ledger this week, adding to his allure. Plutko relies on control and command as he won’t blow a 91 mph heater by many MLB hitters.
SUCCESSFUL BIDS
| PLAYER | WINNING BID | |||
| Jared Hughes, CIN | Baseball HQ 16 | Fantasy Alarm – Bender 2 | ||
| Eric Sogard, MIL | Yahoo – DDD 7 | CreativeSports 1 | ||
| Edgar Santana, PIT | Colton & The Wolfman 2 | Fantasy Alarm – Bender 1 | ||
| Brandon Dixon, CIN | Rotowire 2 | CreativeSports 1 | ||
| Clay Buchholz, ARI | USA TODAY Sports 2 | |||
| Socrates Brito, ARI | CreativeSports 1 | Rotowire 2 | ||
| Josh Fields, LAD | Fantasy Alarm – Bender 1 |
UNAWARDED BIDS
| PLAYER | ||||
| Luis Guillorme, NYM | Rotowire 2 | |||
| Elieser Hernandez, MIA | USA TODAY Sports 1 | |||
| Greg Garcia, STL | CreativeSports 1 |
;Brian Walton’s Commentary
It was a quiet week in National League LABR with just seven free agents acquired.
Hailing from the Queen City, BaseballHQ’s Doug Dennis is very close to the happenings of the Reds. Usually for him, that means pain, but this week, it translated into a strong resolve to acquire Jared Hughes, the presumed temporary closer while Raisel Iglesias is on the shelf. While Doug’s $16 offer got his man, in hindsight, $3 would have been enough.
Eric Sogard has returned from the minor leagues again and could see semi-regular at bats on the infield given Milwaukee’s demotion of Orlando Arcia. However, Tyler Saladino and Hernan Perez are also around, clouding the playing time picture. Dalton Del Don of Yahoo bet big on Sogard – $7 to be specific.
Reborn (at least temporarily) Clay Buchholz of Arizona was a nice stealth $2 pick up by host Steve Gardner of USATODAY. Earlier in the day in Tout Wars, the veteran right-hander went for an equivalent of over $12. Last it was verified, he is still Clay Buchholz, however.
Looking to plug a roster opening with cheap filler, I added another Diamondback, Socrates Brito. Brito no longer draws attention for the cool name. At this point, he is just another former prospect slowed by injury and ineffectiveness looking to hang on. In other words, my expectations are low, but so was the price – the $1 minimum.
Todd’s Take
Chatting with Rotowire’s Derek VanRiper on a recent podcast, he feel Tyler Saladino is the sneaky pickup. My assumption was Sogard would be the primary beneficiary of the surprise demotion of Orlando Arcia. Speaking of which, DVR and I agreed this could be a short stay in Triple-A if Arcia uses this as a wake-up call and gets his act together.
As usual, Glenn Golton and Rick Wolf are paying attention as Felipe Vazquez left Sunday’s contest with forearm tightness. Edgar Santana, along with the struggling Michael Feliz and Richard Rodriguez figure to vie for saves in the event Vazquez misses time.
SUCCESSFUL BIDS
| PLAYER | WINNING BID | |||
| Guillermo Heredia, SEA | Prospect 361 5 | |||
| Christian Villanueva, SD | Razzball (Rudy Gamble) 4 | @TheFantasyFix 3 | Scout Fantasy 3 | |
| Max Muncy, LAD | Prospect 361 4 | Scout Fantasy 2 | Rotowire 1 | |
| Richard Rodriguez, PIT | Fangraphs 3 | Baseball HQ 2 | USA TODAY Sports 1 | |
| Ryan McMahon, COL | Scout Fantasy 3 | Scout Fantasy 2 | Razzball (Rudy Gamble) 1 | |
| Ronald Guzman, TEX | @TheFantasyFix 3 | Scout Fantasy 2 | ||
| Jared Hughes, CIN | Baseball HQ 3 | Razzball (Rudy Gamble) 1 | ||
| Jaime Barria, LAA | Prospect 361 3 | |||
| Marco Gonzales, SEA | USA TODAY Sports 2 | Scout Fantasy 3 | Fred Zinkie 1 | |
| Adam Plutko, CLE | Rotowire 2 | Scout Fantasy 2 | Fred Zinkie 1 | |
| Martin Maldonado, LAA | @TheFantasyFix 2 | Mastersball 1 | ||
| Jace Fry, CWS | Prospect 361 2 | |||
| Tyler Saladino, MIL | Scout Fantasy 1 | Prospect 361 1 | Rotowire 1 | |
| Max Stassi, HOU | Mastersball 1 | @TheFantasyFix 1 | ||
| Chad Pinder, OAK | Rotowire 1 |
UNAWARDED BIDS
| PLAYER | ||||
| Mark Reynolds, WSH | @TheFantasyFix 3 | Scout Fantasy 1 | ||
| Wei-Yin Chen, MIA | USA TODAY Sports 2 | Rotowire 2 | ||
| Brent Suter, MIL | USA TODAY Sports 2 | |||
| Chris Stratton, SF | USA TODAY Sports 2 | |||
| Adam Engel, CWS | Prospect 361 2 | |||
| John Ryan Murphy, ARI | @TheFantasyFix 1 | Mastersball 1 | ||
| Amir Garrett, CIN | USA TODAY Sports 1 | |||
| Gorkys Hernandez, SF | Scout Fantasy 1 | |||
| Freddy Galvis, SD | Prospect 361 1 | |||
| Joe Jimenez, DET | Prospect 361 1 | |||
| Logan Forsythe, LAD | Prospect 361 1 | |||
| Francisco Pena, STL | Mastersball 1 | |||
| Nick Hundley, SF | Mastersball 1 | |||
| Omar Narvaez, CWS | Mastersball 1 |
Todd Zola’s Commentary
For the second straight week, hitters dominated the top spots with Guillermo Heredia leading the way. The Mariners appear to be moving Dee Gordon back to second, punctuated by the acquisition of Denard Span. This puts Heredia in line for more than right-handed platoon action.
Christian Villanueva’s four homer week finally convinced three of the Mixed LABRers to bid for his services. It certainly looks like he’ll man the hot corner for the Giants for the foreseeable future. In order to get Pablo Sandoval into the lineup, the Giants put Panda at second on Sunday night.
Baseball.
Ryan McMahon could prove to be a key pick-up if he shows more this time around. He’s currently filling in for DJ Lemahieu, but if he hits, he could reclaim first base after failing to capture the job earlier.
Todd’s Take
My only move was replacing Welington Castillo, stringing together a series of $1 bids. I landed on Max Stassi, which is fine. Brian McCann is in a rut so Stassi is getting a little extra playing time.
So, this time last week, I released Ronald Guzman, OOF! All he did this week was go 8-for-18 with 4 homers. Playing the what-if game, that boner of a move cost me six standings points, enough to jump a spot into third. Hopefully, this won’t come back to haunt me. For what it’s worth, the previous two weeks, Guzman posted an anemic .481 OPS.
Baseball.
Please follow me on Twitter @ToddZola and visit me at Mastersball.
