LABR FAAB Report: Week of May 7

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

The first week of May produced a lot of spring time activity within the American League LABR cartel.

I have to confess that I tried to change my approach in all my leagues this season, drafting much more heavily towards hitting than pitching. For, as I usually grab one ace and a pair of closers if I can, Craig Kimbrel was the only player among those possible choices I pursued.

In LABR specifically things did not work out as I anticipated, and Sonny Gray ($14) was the top of the line starting pitcher I landed, and the results are last place in ERA, strikeouts, and WHIP. Among my disasters was Alex Cobb, whom I released last week as the rules allowed to either activate, or drop and well, my numbers relative to Cobb speak for themself.

Which made it interesting that Larry Schechter was willing to ante up $45 for the guy I paid $4 for the privilege of torching my numbers. The interesting things is seven additional owners were willing to gamble on Cobb, who did have a decent start against the Athletics Sunday, ranging from $1-$13.

Still, it felt sink or swim time with respect to my team, this year, and any form of respectability, and though I must acknowledge that over the season between seven and nine players of mine have been on the DL, the failure of my pitching lies firmly with me.

So, I concocted trying to land Domingo German, Fernando Romero, Ryan Yarbrough, and maybe Brett Anderson, making four moves, and gambling the rest of my meager FAAB budget.

As for German, he went to Greg Ambrosius and Shawn Childs for $21, four more than I bid, besting seven more shots between $3-$8.

I did land Romero for the same $17, beating out six bids, four of which ranged for between $10-$13 which was interesting in that German did not elicit such a gamble, while Cobb generated a pair of $13 bids. So the consensus was that more owners were willing to gamble a higher salary on Romero than the other two hurlers even though German and Cobb wound up costing so much more than Romero.

Anderson went for too much as well, landing with Dave Adler of BBHQ for $9, with four bids from $1-$3 missing out, and then my $4 copped Yarbrough (two $1 bids).

So, part of my pitching staff might be ok, and, it would have cost me an extra $12 total to land all four sought after arms.

Following the Cinco de Mayo FAAB battle of the Arms, gambles on at-bats for the Twins catchers revealed itself with team Ambrosius/Child grabbing John Hicks for $4 with Adler picking up Mitch Garver, also for $4.

Clay Link nabbed Angels hurler Justin Anderson for $4 (beating six bids) while Mike Gianella took a chance on Doug Fister for $2 (I released Fister last week along with Cobb). Gianella also rostered one of my draft day catchers in Caleb Joseph (much of this explains why my team is in last) along with Craig Gentry ($1) in a scramble for some steals.

Link also nabbed Anthony Alford, unchallenged at a buck and Rick Wolf and Glenn Colton similarly acquired Will Harris and Josh Tomlin, with Tristan Cockcroft making the final buy with Ehire Adiranza, also for a dollar.

But, over that crazy first week, my team was involved with seven of the 15 players bartered suggesting I was doing something very right, or very very wrong.

Todd’s Take

Cobb is a conundrum. One thing I like about AL and NL LABR rules (this isn’t the case in Mixed LABR) is Lawr didn’t have the option of reserving Cobb. He had to play or dump him. Coming into the season, his numbers were due for a dip, trading the cavernous Tropicana Field for the bandbox in Baltimore. Still, translate Tampa into Camden Yards and Cobb should still be an AL only asset — you know, a $4 pitcher.

I love the Hicks and Garver purchases. Each was a target for me in AL only. Garver can hit, so he made a decent second catcher in AL only already. With full-time run while Jason Castro is shelved, he’s even better. Hicks is the backup to James McCann but entered the fantasy campaign only eligible at first. The grand plan was drafting Hicks to corner, then moving him to catcher once he gained eligibility, figuring it was worth the early low production at corner to eventually get a catcher only needing an injury to Miguel Cabrera or Victor Martinez to play regularly while they’re out.

I love it when a plan comes together, but like Lawr, need some other plans to manifest. What do they say — it’s still early?

NATIONAL LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Commentary and Take

Brian’s out on assignment so I’ll wrap up a light weak in the Senior Circuit. The top two purchases were hurlers with Andrew Suarez outpointing Zach Elfin. Suarez is more dominant plus works in a much better pitching venue, so the order makes sense. It’s interesting none of the three, bidding on Suarez, including top bidder Dalton Del Don were interested in Elfin while Howard Bender from Fantasy Alarm was Elfin or a reliever.

The rest of the winning bids were roster filler, better than a dead spot, but not exciting.

Looking at the unawarded bids, there are several relievers having under the radar solid seasons with Adam  Cimber and the rejuvenated Tony Cingrani heading the list.

MIXED

 SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd Zola’s Commentary

Pitching galore as one of the game’s top prospects, Mike Soroka made his long-awaited debut and with the news Anibal Sanchez is headed to bullpen, Soroka became even more popular. Caleb Smith and his sudden dominance earned the next highest bid followed by Fernando Romero and Domingo German. I was a guest on FNTSY with Lawr and Al Melchior on Sunday afternoon, while German was mowing down the Indians. We wondered if his stellar outing would propel him past the other hurlers, but alas, it did not. My guess is there’s a Yankee Stadium and AL East stigma.

I like German more than Romero and Smith, but opted to stay out of the pitching sweepstakes, liking where I’m at, willing to let Luis Castillo and Sonny Gray the chance to right the ship while staff ace Justin Verlander does his anchoring thing.

My focus is upgrading some hitting holes, especially Kolten Wong. This week’s dart hit Wilmer Difo. I know he’s been filling in for Anthony Rendon, who’s now back, but I’m hoping a modest nine-game hitting streak, including two homers, earns the switch-hitter some time at second while Daniel Murphy remains out. At the very least, he’ll be in some sort of rotation with Howie Kendrick and Matt Adams, perhaps being involved in some double-switches.

Todd’s Take

It’s interesting Joey Bats was everyone’s fallback plan. Well, not everyone, but he was a contingency for four bidders. I though about bidding but ultimately passed. Perhaps it was because subconsciously, I’m hoping the experiment fails since I have Austin Riley in several leagues. Riley is the third baseman of the future, recently promoted to Triple-A after crushing Double-A. I saw Riley at the AFL and was impressed. More importantly, so were others whose impressions are much more credible than my untutored eye.

Follow Todd @ToddZola and Mastersball.