Mastersball

Each week, your friends at Mastersball will post the results of the weekly LABR FAAB run, featuring the winning bid as well a the runner-up bids. There are three LABR leagues, a 12-team AL only, 13-team NL only and 15-team Mixed League. You can see the complete standings for each league by clicking on the appropriate heading, located just under each player photo.

Included with each league report will be commentary from a Mastersball staff member participating in that league. We invite you to ask questions and post comments at the bottom of the report.

All contingency bids for awarded players are included. Sometimes, this bid is tied to a player that the owner received, so at times the bid amount is larger than the winning bid. We are including it to provide as much information and context as possible with each report.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

Perry Van Hook's Commentary

Well the big spenders were back – at least for FAAB in late June as both Jeff Erickson (Rotowire) and Brad Evans (Yahoo) put big eleven dollar bills on the table. Erickson got new Oakland catcher Derek Norris for his team to replace the departed Hank Conger. Evans put his bet on Tampa’s Chris Archer to replace his DLed Felipe Paulino.

For my M*A*S*H unit ( Matthew Joyce and Hellboy added this week to reach eight), I decided to spend more money on pitching – likely because I thought the three good young starters – Erasmo Ramirez (SEA),  Archer (TB), and A.J. Griffin (OAK) were far better than the offensive players available. So I bid $5 on Ramirez, $4 on Griffin and backed up both with $3 bids on Archer. I got Ramirez to replace Jeremy Hellickson but didn’t have enough for a second pitcher so I will activate Drew Smyly to get the two starts this week although I am not enamored with his first time back being in Arlington.

On the offensive side, my three dollar bid for Brooks Conrad was trumped by a five spot from BP’s Jason Collette, but I got Oakland infielder Brandon Hicks for a dollar to fill my utility slot and send Alex Liddi back to the reserves and KC fly chaser Mitch Maier for a buck to keep Joyce’s seat warm. I have fallen down to the middle of the pack but if I just got a few of the injured back soon and get a minor leaguer promoted to the Mariners’ rotation I think I can make up a lot of ground.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Lawr Michaels' Commentary

I would not so much suggest that there are pre-All Star/Trade Deadline doldrums in LABR NL, as opposed to a dearth or exciting names being promoted of late, commensurate to the spate of M*A*S*H unit worthy players on the DL these days. And, the intra-league swap of Kevin Youlikis over the weekend surely adjusted the monetary salivary glands of those NL LABR owners with some change in their FAAB wallets (me included).

I mean, what can you say when Eric Young, JR. tops the free agent acquisition list at $4  (by Rotowire and Dalton del Don, to spell Adron Chambers)? Well,OK, in fairness, I also spent $4 on Brad Lincoln, who "replaces" Shaun Marcum on my active list while the Brewers right-hander nurses what seems to be a National League version of Brandon McCarthy's AL shoulder woes. That is, bad enough to postpone starts, but apparently not bad enough to impact effectiveness every two weeks.

Otherwise, Dallas Keuchel, who has had a couple of nice starts for Houston was a $3 pickup by Full Moon (Rick Wolf and Glenn Colton) , while Doug Dennis was the big offensive spender risking $2 on Brian Bixler for his BBHQ squad.

Well, ok Tristan Cockroft of ESPN did pick up Josh Bell for a couple of bucks to replace Jason Bay, and aside from that, the names were Jeff Francis ($1), and Mike Gonzalez ($1).

Doldrums=Ho Hum?

You said it. In other words, bring on the trade deadline, or promote the likes Anthony Rizzo soon (though in fairness, USA Today's Steve Gardner already owns those rights, so maybe we are stuck in ho hum for a while?).

MIXED LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Todd Zola's Commentary

Year of the pitcher, the sequel? You wouldn't know it from my sorry staff. Welcome Jake Arrieta and Brett Cecil to replace the injured Anthony Bass and the feckless Kevin Millwood.

The closer of the week appears to be Bobby Parnell. There have been a number of examples of wild guys getting the control in check and succeeding (Brian Wilson, Jack Hanrahan, Kyle Farnsworth and Fernando Rodney to name a few). Bobby Colton hopes Parnell finally comes through on his closer of the future label.

There were a lot of starting pitchers selected this week. I like my picks of Arrieta and Cecil, though I don't like the AL East part of it. It will be interesting to see what happens.