LABR Draft Recap: Foiled By The Max Bid

This is a 12-team mixed league auction. Last year’s LABR team was:

C: Jonah Heim – $2
C: Hunter Goodman – $1
1B: Vinnie Pasquantino – $11
2B: Luis Rengifo – $5
SS: Gunnar Henderson – $36
3B: Junior Caminero – $16
MI: Ezequiel Tovar – $11
CI: Jazz Chisholm Jr. – $27
OF: Yordan Alvarez – $31
OF: Lawrence Butler – $20
OF: Steven Kwan – $7
OF: TJ Friedl – $1
OF: Parker Meadows – $1
UTIL: Lars Nootbaar – $1
Bench: Ha-Seong Kim

P: Cole Ragans – $25
P: Yoshinobu Yamamoto – $18
P: Josh Hader – $17
P: Sonny Gray – $12
P: Robert Suarez – $9
P: Nathan Eovaldi – $5
P: Bowden Francis – $1
P: Clarke Schmidt – $1
P: Ronel Blanco – $1
Bench: Aroldis Chapman, Kyle Harrison, David Peterson, Brandon Sproat

I came in 5th. That was with massive underperformance from my top two hitters and Cole Ragans, who did, well, whatever that was. This year I decided to stay under $30 and spread risk and reward around a bit more. As you can see from last year’s team, you may think the “expensive” players are the answer, but look at my team’s bright spots: Yamamoto, Eovaldi, Vinnie Pasketti, Hunter Goodman, Aroldis and, welp, that’s about it! $35 worth of my $260 budget last year got me 5th place. Let one of my “good” players actually perform this year and daddy’s going to repeat my LABR league win from 2024. (Was that a slightly awkward way to mention I won this league two years ago? P to the erhaps!) Okay, let’s now look at my team for this year. But first, he says like an informercial salesman, the league’s rules. Besides being an auction, weekly and two catcher, it’s very similar to our RCL leagues (spots available to take on me and all of your worst frenemies, and win prizes; it’s free — sign up for a Razzball Commenter League under that linkie-ma-whosie or at the end of this post.) Anyway, here’s my LABR 12-team, mixed league draft recap:

C: Logan O’Hoppe – $2
C: Agustin Ramirez – $11
1B: Matt Olson – $22
2B: Ozzie Albies – $6
SS: Kevin McGonigle – $4
3B: Manny Machado – $24
MI: Jose Altuve – $13
CI: Vinnie Pasquantino – $19
OF: Jackson Chourio – $29
OF: Pete Crow-Armstrong – $21
OF: Cody Bellinger – $15
OF: Tyler Soderstrom – $15
OF: Chandler Simpson – $4
Util: Otto Lopez – $7

P: Jacob deGrom – $22
P: Kevin Gausman – $13
P: Luis Castillo – $6
P: Brandon Woodruff – $5
P: Matthew Boyd – $4
P: Andrew Abbott – $2
P: Robbie Ray – $2
P: Ryan Helsley – $8
P: Raisel Iglesias – $6

Bench: Masyn Winn, Jordan Lawlar 
Bench: David Peterson, Clayton Beeter, Joey Cantillo

OKAY, I FEEL LIKE YOU WANT TO GIVE ME YOUR WAR ROOM VALUES, SO LET’S GET THAT OUT OF THE WAY.

Appreciate you teeing me up there, Mr. Al Capps.

I AM LOL’ING AT YOUR ERA SO FREAKIN’ MUCH. YOU’RE LIKE A WIZARD OF DUMB. YOU SPUN YOUR DUMB WAND AND PULLED OFF AN EXCELLENT WHIP WITH A GARBAGE ERA. WELL DONE, WIZARD!

So, yeah, I don’t know how I managed that.

BY BEING THE WIZARD OF DUMB, I LITERALLY JUST TOLD YOU.

Yeah, maybe. Like Tarantino might say, nice feat. I don’t know if it’s just a random quirk in the projections I managed to find, but I can’t imagine my WHIP is that good or my ERA is that bad. As the Boomer ladies say when you ask them their favorite movie, something’s gotta give. I will say my pitching staff, or as I like to call them, the 2016 All-Stars, should be solid if they don’t start “feeling their age.” For what it’s Wuertz, pitching in this league is a 12-team mixed league by name only. It’s actually an 11-team league, because someone in the league only spent $8 on all of their pitching. Here that is (there’s some free bench pitchers in this):

Honestly, I don’t know why one would punt pitching in a 12-team mixed roto league. H2H? Sure, I guess. Not my preferred method, but okay. In a deep league like an Only league? Yes, then you can try to sneak through because a few teams will have bad pitching. In a 12-team mixed roto league? No. Any hoo, back to my hitting:

WAIT A SECOND, I SEE PETE CROW-ARMSTRONG ON YOUR TEAM! YOU DIRTY FILTHY LYING SACK OF EXCREMENT!

You’re right, I wrote a Pete Crow-Armstrong overrated post and–

AND?! EVERYTHING YOU’VE EVER SAID HAS BEEN A LIE TO ME AND EVERYONE ELSE, BUT ESPECIALLY ME. I MATTER!

So, he was my first pick and I was playing around with the “max bid” button — it’s when you enter your top amount you wanna spend and it will keep bidding up to your max bid until someone outbids you — and PCA is down for $23.6

on the War Room, so I put in $21 and, lo and behold, nobody had him for more than $21 on their sheet, I suppose. Honestly, I was surprised by that. Live and learn, as someone said after they totally screwed up. On a brighter note, my hitting kinda fudges, only it didn’t say fudges, it said the mother of all curse words. I might lead the league in plate appearances, which in a weekly league is trés bien (sorry, been watching the WBC, and rooting for the French with their baseball bat-shaped baguettes or is that baguette-shaped bats). Only real out nowhere pick is Kevin McGonigle for $4 (Konnor Griffin went for $6, which is a good price). Had to cover for him with Masyn Winn or Jordan Lawlar in the freebies or hope McGonigle breaks camp (moved him up in my shortstop rankings recently). In reality, as you see from my previous year team, it’s a 12-team mixed league, so there’s guys on waivers, and anyone sent down can’t be picked up while they are in the minors, so it was draft McGonigle or wait until he was called up and drop $20+ in FAAB (out of a $100).

I LEGIT FELL ASLEEP DURING THAT LAST PARAGRAPH. I’D ASK YOU TO RECAP BUT ONE NAP PER DAY FOR ME.

This is a weekly league, and you have to dominant at-bats and innings. There’s guys on waivers for starters, the “Well, he’s not great, but he’s getting two starts” starters are abundant. Most weeks I find myself starting only one closer, and going with eight starters. Last year, there was prolly weeks when I went closer-less. To win this league, or any 12 teamer, you want to dominant hitting and hope your pitching is just good enough in ratios and saves while taking down Wins and Ks. It’s really that easy. If you want to put that to the test vs. me and everyone else in the RCL, join a league:

Click the LINK in the ‘League Link’ column (see below) for the time you want and voila, you’re in.  If you’re not signed up at Fantrax, you need to do that too (it’s free).  Damn, that’s too easy.  Oh, I guess I should also mention make sure you’re joining a league for free or for money, depending on your preference.  That’s it!  You can join as many leagues as you like.  If you accidentally join a league, you can quit a league by going to OTHER –> All Options –> Quit League (located at the bottom).  Now go join some leagues!