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, 12-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

Perry Van Hook's Commentary

Amongst all the $1-5 bids for fillers and fliers there was on double digit bid on a player not on an AL roster in March and one most people hadn't even heard of. But opportunity knocked for Angels infielder Luis Jimenez in what was supposed to be filling in a few days for Alberto Callaspo but hitting over .400 and Callaspo hitting only the DL made Jimenez an attractive target for a team that had a dead spot and Greg Ambrosius of NFBC/Stats landed Jimenez for $13.

I also bid on a CI to fill my UT spot as the combination of Houston's Brandon Laird getting some regular playing time and his ability to hit the long ball (I think he had four or five home runs in the minors before the call) and that spot in my lineup being filled by one of my original reserve players (which importantly means they can be moved up or down in any week unlike players bought at the auction who can't be moved off the roster save for a DL trip or just cutting them. So Laird gets a tryout and Conor Gillaspie will wait on the bench. I also get to see if my $1 play for then Ranger outfielder Julio Borbon who I knew would be traded or subject to waivers when Texas needed to activate Nick Tepesch in Week 2 was claimed by the Chicago Cubs. So I moved Doumit back to catcher to play Borbon and said goodbye to Hank Conger.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Lawr Michaels' Commentary

One of the things I have found interesting this year so far in NL LABR is the number of FAAB moves and claims have really been at a minimum.

One explanation for this could be my league mates generally did two things: one they filled their active rosters with as many everyday players as they could; and, two, the leftovers who were snatched up in six reserve pick rounds went to supporting the active rosters immediately rather than in the future.

Speaking for my own squad, I did grab Steve Lombardozzi and Justin Turner who have indeed helped fill the gaps with injuries to Ryan Zimmerman and Logan Morrison. Although, I was also able to mitigate a Tony Cingrani bidding war by snatching the Cincy starter up on my reserve pick, a move I am now obviously happy I made.

Still, the bidding on Arizona shortstop Didi Gregorius was indeed gregarious this week as seven bids were logged, with Yahoo's! Brad Evans getting the infielder with a $31 financial plunge, acing out seven other would be owners lead by Rotowire's Jeff Erickson and a $25 attempt (I actually placed a failed $6 bid, so I was among the losers).

MIXED LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

 UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Todd Zola's Commentary

Yeah, I've been on a soapbox lately saying I need to take some chances with FAAB, if only to give myself the chance to hit it big, but neither Cingrani or Rendon offered me the upgrade in an area of need, so I passed. Cingrani has put up video game numbers on the farm, but I'm not sure how they'll translate in the bigs since he relies more on deception than pure stuff. Factor in I prefer to stream home starters and the Great American Ballpark is a rough venue, and I wasn't interested. As for Rendon, I'm stacked at corner and had no room, even at UT.

Where I could use a boost is in the middle, but I don't see Gregorius as an upgrade over Chris Getz or even Alex Gonzalez, so I stood pat this week.

Something I find fascinating and has some salient draft theory repercussions going beyond "this is cool" is how there were 20 contingency bids and only one had multiple bidders. This serves to really hammer home how we all value players differently.

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 four Tout Wars leagues, a 12-team AL only, 12-team NL only, 15-team Mixed Auction League and 15-team Mixed Draft League. The Mixed leagues use on-base-percentage instead of batting average. 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 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

 Rob Leibowitz Commentary

Journeyman third basemen Luis Jimenez is doing everything he can to rest the Angel’s starting third base job away from Alberto Callaspo. The bids this week reflect that. Quite frankly, a switch might benefit the Angels. While Jimenez is considered to be adequate defensively, the righty will never be an on-base machine. Still, Jimenez provides doubles and mid-to-high-teens homerun per season potential and that would indeed be an upgrade to Callaspo.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

PLAYERS AWARDED

 UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Brian Walton's Commentary

I threw $3 at Brewers starter Hiram Burgos based on his one run over five innings MLB debut against the Cubs on Sunday. The right-hander isn't exactly Tony Cingrani, but may be serviceable. Scott Wilderman of OnRoto and Tristan H. Cockcroft of ESPN agreed, both bidding $11, with the former taking Burgos on the inverse standings tie-breaker.

Cockcroft wasn't shut out, through. He added Phillies call up Jonathan Pettibone for a buck. In place of injured John Lannan, Pettibone should have two starts this week, beginning with his MLB debut against Pittsburgh on Monday. Just don't squint hard at Pettibone's 9.64 ERA in two Triple-A starts this month.

In a curious move, Texas did not trade outfielder Julio Borbon after designating him for assignment. The Cubs snapped up the 27-year-old, who immediately became their fourth outfielder. I bid a modest $2, losing out to Rotowire's Chris Liss, who paid $3 ($4 reduced by Vickrey Rules). Liss dropped Dave Sappelt, the Cubs outfielder most directly impacted by Borbon's arrival.

MIXED LEAGUE AUCTION 

PLAYERS AWARDED

 UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BIDS

Zach Steinhorn's Commentary

To nobody’s surprise, newly anointed (kind of) Cardinals’ closer Edward Mujica was this week’s hot ticket item in Mixed Tout. Mujica nailed down the save for St. Louis on Thursday, albeit in shaky fashion, as two disaster outings by Mitchell Boggs was enough of a reason to force the club to go in a different direction in the ninth inning. While it remains to be seen how long Mujica will hold onto the job, he does sport a solid big league track record and his low walk rate bodes well. That said, 22-year-old fireballer Trevor Rosenthal still seems like the most logical long-term option, provided that he can show a bit more consistency.

Scott Swanay’s $1 purchase of Mike Zunino and Derek Van Riper’s addition of Anthony Rendon for $3 are two moves that carry considerable profit potential. Zunino is tearing up Triple-A and Jesus Montero’s early-season struggles could lead to a Zunino promotion sooner rather than later. By pouncing on Zunino now, Scott saves a ton of FAAB dollars in anticipation of the inevitable call-up. Rendon, the Nats’ top prospect, will man third base while Ryan Zimmerman is on the DL, and with the extent of Zimmerman’s hamstring injury still unknown, Rendon has a good chance to stick around beyond the 15 days as long as he produces.

I know Daniel Nava’s hot streak could end at any moment, but I’m hoping it lasts for a couple more weeks. With Franklin Gutierrez banged up and possibly needing a DL stint, I figured that for a buck, Nava was worth a gamble. I’ll slide him into my OF5 slot. It beats getting nothing from a “day-to-day” Gutierrez.

MIXED LEAGUE DRAFT

PLAYERS AWARDED

 UNAWARDED CONTINGENCY BID

Perry Van Hook's Commentary

Good middle infielders are often in short supply and this week that meant that the high bids from the mixed league draft participants went to Didi Gregorius $15 for Anthony Perri (reduced by Vickrey from his $18 bid), and Brandon Crawford for $10 to Tom Kessenich down a dollar from his $11 bid.

I submitted several one dollar bids for outfielders to replace Raul Ibanez with the threat looming that the Mariners might do the same and was the winner of John Mayberry Jr. There were some attractive pitchers, notably Angels starter Garrett Richards or the Reds Bronson Arroyo but the necessity to play them the week you win the bidding for them and the resistance for me to change a very good staff (at least for the first few weeks) left me out of the bidding for them.