Justin Mason Goes Full Labadini

by
March 9, 2026

In 1996, Larry Labadini had a dream. He entered the AL Only Tout Wars league with a plan that had never been attempted before: a $9 pitching staff. Labadini pulled it off, spending just one dollar on each pitching and the rest of his money on offense. He then built up a lead on offense before trading his hitting for pitching. He fell just short of winning the league, finishing fourth.

The plan was simple, load up on offense and just wait until the end to fill my pitching. I know from experience that at the end of this auction, there is plenty pitching left over. Typically I play the middle in auctions so this was not easy for me especially as some of my favorite pitchers went way cheaper than I would have been willing to spend normally, but with multiple people who also like to play the middle like Jeff Zimmerman and Ariel Cohen, this made for a perfect opportunity to do something outside the box.

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Here is my team:

Justin Mason’s 2026 Mixed LABR Auction
Pos Player Price
C William Contreras $20
C Shea Langeliers $19
1B Andrew Vaughn $1
2B Marcus Semien $3
SS Corey Seager $15
3B Royce Lewis $5
MI Xavier Edwards $8
CI Kazuma Okamoto $1
OF Aaron Judge $49
OF Corbin Carroll $29
OF Jarren Duran $23
OF Seiya Suzuki $17
OF Brenton Doyle $8
UT Jordan Westburg $1
P Reid Detmers $1
P Jack Leiter $1
P Ryne Nelson $1
P Shane Smith $1
P Robert Garcia $1
P Clay Holmes $1
P Taylor Rogers $1
P Kirby Yates $1
P Shohei Ohtani $49
Res Mick Abel $0
Res Nasim Nunez $0
Res Riley O’Brien $0
Res Chad Patrick $0
Res JoJo Romero $0

Let’s be honest, mistakes were made. First of all, technically this isn’t a $9 pitching staff because I moved Ohtani to my be in a pitcher’s slot. That was because of the biggest mistake I made all night: I got autodrafted Jordan Westburg. The nomination time was lowered from one minute to 30 seconds and while I was trying to decide between nominating Max Muncy or Kazuma Okamoto as my corner infielder, the clock ran out on me. In order to make room to add one of those two later, I moved Ohtani to pitcher.

The second mistake was a strategy I employed mid-draft. While I was livestreaming the draft, a viewer said that instead of throwing out more expensive pitchers that I would never get, I should throw out some $1 in the hopes that other people would go $2 and that would leave me more of the $1 guys I did want. This is how I end up with Clay Holmes, Shane Smith, and Reid Detmers. Not that those guys aren’t fine, but I probably would have preferred Connelly Early, Bryce Miller, or Zebby Matthews who are $1 or went in the reserves. 

Finally, I left money on the table. It is just $4, but that still would mean a decent upgrade somewhere else. 

On the plus side, I obviously love my offense, but I also like how I addressed my closer gambles. I think between Taylor Rogers, Kirby Yates and Robert Garcia, I will land at least one full time guy and then I locked up St. Louis saves as my second guy. I love Leiter and Nelson as high upside talent as one dollar guys. Honestly, I could see doing a modified Labadini where I lock up an elite starter and then go $1 guys. If I am ok with saves and I nail one or two of my starters, trading a piece or two from my offense, might be enough. 

Will this work? Probably not, but it was a bucket list item for me and while it isn’t as impressive in a 12-team mixed league as it was for Larry Labadini in an AL Only, I was happy with the result. I will have to be extremely active with FAAB and in the trade market, but I am hoping that the strength of my offense will bring people to the table for trades when others need to move a pitcher. 

Is this too extreme a strategy? Can I pull this off?





 

Justin is the co-host on The Sleeper and The Bust Podcast and writes for Rotographs covering the Roto Riteup as well as other periodic articles. In addition to his work at Rotographs, Justin is the lead fantasy writer/analyst and co-owner for FriendswithFantasyBenefits.com, and the owner of The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. He is also a certified addiction treatment counselor. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMasonFWFB.

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SaltyMember since 2017
2 hours ago

I think the modified plan you are considering is the Santana plan. Not sure if Ron Shandler, one of the other HQ guys, or one of the other experts came up with it, but the move was to lock up one ace (back then it was Johan Santana), and then go $1 guys the rest of the way.

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