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

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

None

Perry Van Hook's Commentary

I couldn’t see using my last dollar for two pitchers I don’t want on my staff, so the NFBC team added Randy Wolf, BAL and Al Alburquerque, DET in their attempt to hold off Nate Ravitz (ESPN) and win the league championship. Maybe I will get a chance next week, but there are no holes in my current lineup which moved back into 5^th place with just ten days to go.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

None

Lawr Michaels' Commentary

As we head into the penultimate FAAB period for NL LABR this year a funny thing happened.

Usually--and I would at least yield to the Tout Wars equivalents of this piece published earlier in the day, the big area where owners seek to gain points is in grabbing as many starting pitchers and throwing them out, hoping for wins or whiffs to facilitate the push.

However, the list of FAAB acquisitions this week shows the players who moved and shuffled were infielders John McDonald (to Ray Flowers) and Pete Kozma (to Greg Ambrosious and Shawn Childs) along with outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, and Scott Moore (grabbed by USA Today maven Steve Gardner).

The Ambrosius/Childs NFBC team did pick up hurler Tom Koehler for a buck, but otherwise, the arms activated were all reserve pick activations.

The big--and remaining--question is if Ray's serious Sirus/XM push past year-long leader Steve Moyer into first place by half a point (106.5 to 106) can hold the last ten days of the season.

If nothing else, we do have an exciting finish!

MIXED LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Todd Zola's Commentary

A running theme of this commentary has been how those expecting to pick up decent pitching have likely been disappointed as the landscape has changed and more useful pitching is now drafted and not as available as in the past. Well, this week is an exception as some really good reinforcements were available this week and in typical fashion, league leader Ray Murphy has pounced and gets the rejuvenated Lance Lynn for the home stretch.

Also in typical fashion, Fred Zinkie is still scratching and clawing and opted for John Lannan, another nice stretch option.

Each week, your friends at Mastersball will post the results of the weekly Tout Wars FAAB run, featuring the winning bid as well as 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.

Tout Wars uses a modified Vickrey system to award bids. For a complete description of the Vickrey system, click HERE for the Tout Wars constitution.

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 is a bid 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

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

None

Rob Leibowitz Commentary

The MLB season usually ends on a Sunday, so typically this would have been the last FAAB period of the year, but the Wednesday deadline has instead provided the participants in Tout, and most other leagues, with early-week transaction deadlines, adding one more FAAB deadline beyond today.

There is a recurring theme right now with everyone trying to grab as many starters as possible, hoping that adding a few wins and strikeouts will allow a move up the standings. I suspect my team might be slightly better off  had I shifted to more of a starter-only focus in July or August.

This week the prime AL Tout options were Royal’s prospect Jake Odorozzi who has middle of the rotation potential and Ricky Romero whom Ron Shandler used his last remaining FAAB four dollars to acquire.

I attempted to purchase up to five starters, and wound up with three including Martin Perez, Chad Jenkins, and Zach Stewart. The theory at this late a date in the season is the potential benefit of adding wins and strikeouts have greater value than the cost of damaging my ERA and WHIP, since wins and whiffs are derived stats and are blips compared to innings. Of course a team in a tight ERA/WHIP race would be shifting to a relief/best starters only focus down the stretch as long as they had cleared the IP requirements.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Brian Walton's Commentary

A quick scan of the bids this week in NL Tout Wars enables one to easily determine which teams are in second and third place. Trying desperately to make up the 16.5-point gap to leader Tristan H. Cockcroft of ESPN are Derek Carty of Baseball Prospectus and Phil Hertz of BaseballHQ.

Carty spent $8 on starting pitcher Collin McHugh of the Mets while Hertz dropped $10 (reduced from $11 by Vickrey rules) for red-hot infielder/outfielder Scott Moore of the Astros.

McHugh threw seven shutout innings in his MLB debut on August 23, only to get spanked for 10 runs, seven earned, over his next 8 2/3 IP. The right-hander did make a decent three-inning outing this past week, yielding just one run.

Moore, eligible at first, second, third and outfield, is making a bid for more playing time with the casting-call Astros as they lock up the first pick in the 2013 draft. The left-handed hitter went 6-for-14 (.429) last week, including three doubles and a home run.

Despite eight of 13 owners having positive FAAB balances, only Carty and Hertz made non-zero bids this period. Three of us made a number of zero dollar bids while eight other NL Tout warriors apparently spent their weekend tending to their fantasy football teams instead.

MIXED LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Zach Steinhorn's Commentary

One week after Chris Carpenter garnered the highest bid in NL Tout, the veteran righty earned the same honor in Mixed Tout, going to Fred Zinkie for $7. Considering Carpenter’s solid performance in his long awaited season debut, I was surprised that only two owners bid on him, especially since his next start is a favorable one, as the right-hander will face the lowly Astros. Carpenter is expected to make two more regular season starts, and I’m sure Fred is hoping that he can catch lightning in a bottle in his quest to overcome a daunting 16 point deficit in 10 days.

Scott Swanay had 12 FAAB dollars remaining heading into this week and decided to spend it all on two players: Jean Segura, who is batting .333 with 11 runs scored and three steals in September, and Nate McLouth, who sports a .284 average with two homers, 15 runs scored and three steals this month. Scott stands to gain a couple of points in runs and one point in steals with a strong finish, as he’ll look to lower his 2013 FAAB penalty. Rounding out the list of players who went for multiple dollars are Erasmo Ramirez ($4), Tyler Skaggs ($2) and Zach McAllister ($2), who are all in line for two starts this week.