My AL-LABR Process & Roster

This past Saturday night I endured Phoenix’s sun and mid-70’s temperatures (Ed. note: ENDURED?? More like basked in!!!) to participate in this year’s AL LABR acution. While I had been in the room before to help Eno Sarris out, it was my first time under the gun. The first item I noticed was that everyone in the room (besides Eno … don’t remind him, it’s a sore subject) had won at least one major industry league (Tout Wars or LABR) and most multiple times. Almost immediately I thought of this line from Rounders:

Usually, the FNG is the sucker so I tried to be ready for whatever was thrown my way.

I expected it to be tough to find deals and it was. There were none. A deal was maybe getting your player for $2 less than the projected return price. With the room at its best here was my plan.

• Split my resources 70% Hitting/30% Pitching. This was a last-minute decision as the recent auction results weren’t archived online and I decided to go with the theoretical 70/30 Standings Gain Split. It seemed a little hitter heavy, but I was fine with that because I’ve been able to find pitching gems. A second reason was that I planned on streaming some starters off my bench which leads to my next strategy.
• I needed to bid on a pitcher who is going to be in the minors or on the IL for an extended time. LABR has a unique rule that the only way a player can be in the starting lineup is if a player who was won with auction or FAAB dollars gets hurt or demoted to the minors. No other reasons are allowed. If an arm is having a start missed, the owner either needs to drop the pitcher or just get no stats. My plan was to bid on a pitcher who is immediately headed to the minors or the DL. With the pitcher in place, I could load up my bench with some pitchers to “stream” into the spot each week.
• Finally, I was just looking for values no matter how small. I don’t push up a star’s price beyond his value. I prefer the cost of lesser stars where I’m not overpaying for the same stats.

Here are my results (auction and reserve round results) and feel free to bash away in the comments.

My plan almost perfectly worked. My max bid was $25 for Aaron Hicks and I really feasted on hitters in the lesser stars range of $15 to $25. My pitcher/hitter split was exactly 70/30. Yes, I’m a nerd. And Griffin Canning filled in as my streaming pitcher slot after Tristan Cockcroft ruthlessly upped my $1 bid on Danny Salazar to $2. I thought Mr. Darkness was a friend.

Here are my thoughts on my team.

• I messed up, big time in one aspect. I have way too many potential steals. Instead of Mallex Smith or Dee Gordon, I should have picked up someone like Joey Gallo who went for around the same price. I tried to make up it later but kept getting overbid for power. Eno just had to roster Daniel Palka while I added more steals with JaCoby Jones. I can always trade for power and a couple of owners have already approached me about a potential swap.
• I really don’t like my starting catcher situation and I could see Plawlecki or Smith struggle. Gallagher provides a nice backup option and can be traded later if the other two are providing decent value. There will be one team not happy with the other 22 rostered catchers and we can work out a trade.
• The only two players I went over my prices on were Jurickson Profar and Masahiro Tanaka. With Profar (and Dee Gordon), I have the roster flexibility to add the best player from the wire instead of the best at that position. With Tanaka, the Aces were going fast and at high prices, and I need at least an innings anchor to help reach the league minimum and Tanaka fit.
• I targeted three closers in Osuna, Hand, and Chapman. Those three have talent, the closer’s job, and are on a good enough team that they won’t be moved at the trade deadline. The next focus for me was to see if I could roster another regular closer. With just 15 teams and some shaky bullpen situations still being worked out, there just isn’t enough set closers for every team to have one, yet alone two. I’m about 95% sure Boxberger will get most of KC’s Saves if he’s healthy. Once I rostered him, I didn’t worry about throwing darts for Saves but focused on starters.
• The two players I’m not feeling great about are J.P. Crawford and Jordan Luplow. It’s not that I rostered the pair as I think they have some upside.  My problem is replacing them if they struggle and are demoted to the minors. I don’t have a non-catcher replacement reserve bat so I’ll either need to drop a pitcher permanently losing that reserve spot or one of these two hitters. It’s not an ideal situation and I’ll just have to deal if/when it comes up.

Overall, I feel I have a chance to be competitive but will likely need to trade some steals for power. It’s going to be a long season and I can’t wait to start grinding away because …