2020 LABR Mixed League Auction Draft Recap

Published: Mar 18, 2020

For the first time, I will be in a LABR league. This is the first year LABR held a mixed league auction and I took part in the 12-team auction on March 1. This is a 5x5 Roto League with average. Lineups are set weekly and there's a $100 FAAB budget with a minimum of $1 bids. There are unlimited IL spots.

I am used to playing in 15-team auction leagues, so this was different for me. My plan was to spend big on several players knowing there would be a lot of good $1 players and there will be a lot available on the waiver wire.

I thought the top players would go very high and it didn't happen. Ronald Acuna was one of the first few players thrown out and I was in on the bidding. I went $47 and Craig Mish went to $48 and I stopped. A few minutes later, I landed Mike Trout at $44. I was in on the bidding for Christian Yelich as well and he went for $47.

My plan was to get an ace and I was able to get Jacob deGrom at $40. I thought he would go for more. I was able to get Mookie Betts ($36) and Francisco Lindor ($33). I have four first-round picks with three offensive players that help in every category. With $153 of my $260 in four players, I had to sit back for a bit. I didn't spend more than $17 on any other player.

The $17 buy was Mike Clevinger . At that time before the postponement of baseball, it was a risk. It looks better now since he should be able to pitch whenever baseball starts. Clevinger was one of the best pitchers last season despite only pitching 126 innings. Clevinger still finished as a Top 20 SP. He went 13-4 with a 2.71 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 33.9 percent strikeout rate and 7.4 percent walk rate. I think he can finish as a Top 5 pitcher.

Nick Castellanos is one of my favorite outfielders this season and I got him at $16. After years in Detroit, Castellanos had a big second half with the Cubs and now goes to a great hitters park in Cincinnati. Matt Chapman is one of my favorite third baseman and he was $16. He's in a great lineup and he still has a higher ceiling.

I wanted to get one top closer and was able to get Roberto Osuna for $13. The only other possible closer I have is Tony Watson , so I need to add saves during the season. I got some upside arms with Dinelson Lamet , Julio Urías and Andrew Heaney .

Once I missed out on the top first basemen, I figured I would have to go cheap. I was hoping for Rhys Hoskins , but he went for $14. Once I got Yoán Moncada at $11 as my corner infielder, I didn't worry about first base and filled it with a $1 Christian Walker . Getting Cavan Biggio for $6 was big since he could provide runs, home runs and stolen bases.

I had nine $1 players, which I knew would happen. The plan was to go cheap at catcher and every team had two catchers before I had one, meaning I could wait until the end of the auction and get my pick unless someone was foolish enough to take a third catcher and no one did.

Overall, I like this team. The offense has excellent balance and I don't see a big weakness. I am clearly light on saves but can fix that. I'll need two of Lamet, Heaney and Urias to deliver and a couple of Freddy Peralta , Josh Lindblom , Adrian Houser and Sandy Alcantara to come through.

Some of the buys I liked by others in the auction were: Taylor Rogers ($9), Trent Grisham ($1), Mike Moustakas ($13), Ramón Laureano ($15), Franmil Reyes ($8), Yu Darvish ($19), David Price ($10), Frankie Montas ($10), Bo Bichette ($16), Eloy Jiménez ($17), Kenta Maeda ($7), Nelson Cruz ($19), Matt Olson ($20), James Paxton ($7), Kyle Schwarber ($13), and Michael Conforto ($12).