NFBC Message Boards

This weekend in Phoenix marked the 25th anniversary of the USA Today AL & NL LABR Auctions. I've been fortunate enough to be involved in these auctions each of the last 25 years, starting with the debut AL Auction League on the phone with Peter Gammons, Keith Olbermann, Paul White, Danny Sheridan and others competing that year through this year's live events at the Arizona News-Republic.

While it's been a blast to be the only person to be at every live LABR season, I'll admit that it's been a challenge. I had never competed in an auction before LABR in 1994 and while I finished 2nd that year and book-ended it with a 2nd place finish in the AL last year, I've won just one LABR league title (NL) with Shawn Childs three years ago.

Once again this weekend was a blast to see old friends, but as enjoyable as that was it was 100 times more maddening with the news that we lost one of our best friends in the industry. Steve Moyer, now of Yakkertech and formerly of STATS when he joined LABR in 1996, was scheduled to be in the NL Auction on Sunday night. When he didn't show up for a game on Saturday we got worried and that night we learned he had passed away in his Phoenix hotel room. The news of one of our close friends just passing away was shocking and almost unbelievable. I mean, Steve was 57 and full of life that last time most of us saw him at the Arizona Fall League Symposium in November. Even though he had some health issues in the last year, this was as unexpected as a 200 mph fastball from Gaylord Perry.

Steve was as good as they come. Not just as a fantasy player, but as a fun-loving friend good guy who always made folks feel welcome at the AFL and LABR events. He was usually the one leading us to Scottsdale for a good time at night and one of the guys you wanted to watch games with during the day. He had strong opinions on players during the AFL seminars and he was always looking for an edge in our leagues. He tied John Hunt for a LABR title during his first season of 1996 and won a few more along with Tout Wars titles. I believe he won the most XFL titles as well as he took an angle in that keeper league that none of us thought of beforehand. He started drafting high schoolers like Bryce Harper and foreign players like Shoehei Ohtani before they came into the spotlight and kept them on his 15-man roster even though they were years away from the majors. That led to titles in the XFL and a roster that is set up to compete for years to come. He was building for a bright future, in the XFL and is his life as the new VP at Yakkertech. His company was charting the spin rates of pitchers and in November he was so excited to work with even more MLB teams this year.

But the Big Guy had a bigger end game in mind. He went to the bullpen sooner than expected. We certainly missed Steve at LABR on Sunday night and we'll definitely miss him at XFL and every other industry draft we competed with him. It's hard to believe he's gone. Damn. Just not right. Steve leaves behind a wife and two kids. And a lot of sad friends.

I don't even feel like talking about our LABR Auctions, but Steve would want us to carry on, so we will. Last year in LABR, Steve Gardner made history by winning both the AL and the NL Auction titles. Shawn and I led the AL at the All-Star break and Steve was last in early July, but rallied back (behind J.D. Martinez) to win it. We finished 2nd in the AL and 4th in the NL. Steve edged Eric Karabell by a point for the NL title.

The AL Auction was on Saturday night and Shawn and I decided a new plan was in order. Shawn devised a plan to punt batting average and load up on power and pitching. It seemed like a good plan until two others concentrated on speed and power. Oh, and before we knew that closers would go for much higher than expected. I don't want to say the plan didn't work, but it definitely didn't work to perfection. We didn't get the saves we wanted or the speed we wanted and pitching was tough. We have some trade assets but we still have some work to do. Here's the AL roster:

NFBC LABR AL Auction Team:
C - Chance Sisco $4
C - Martin Maldonado $2
1B - Miguel Cabrera $23
2B - Yoan Moncada $19
SS - Tim Anderson $17
3B - Miguel Sano $18
MI - Roughned Odor $20
CI - Cheslor Cuthbert $1
UT - Nelson Cruz $26
OF - Jorge Soler $9
OF - Leonys Martin $10
OF - Matt Joyce $5
OF - Curtis Granderson $3
OF - Jorge Bonaficio $7

P - Chris Sale $38
P - James Paxton $21
P - Jake Odorizzi $8
P - Felix Hernandez $6
P - Tyler Skaggs $2
P - Kendall Graveman $1
P - Stephen Gonsalves
P - Ken Giles $16
P - Joe JImenez $3

Reserves:
Franklin Barretto
Jason Hammel
Jurickson Profar
A.J. Reed
Yohander Mendez
Andrew Moore

I think $96 in pitching is the most we've ever spent. Wow. Okay, thoughts on the AL? Bring it on.

Let's look at some of the top prices from the AL Auction League:

Mike Trout $42
Jose Altuve $39
Chris Sale $38
Corey Kluber $37
Mookie Betts $35
Carlos Correa $35
Manny Machado $35
Giancarlo Stanton $34
Francisco Lindor $33
Dee Gordon $32
J.D. Martinez $31
Gary Sanchez $30
George Springer $29
Byron Buxton $29
Josh Donaldson $29
Alex Bregman $29
Jose Ramirez $28
Brian Dozier $28
Joey Gallo $28
Jose Abreu $28
Khris Davis $28
Craig Kimbrel $25

Thoughts?

Shawn decided to go back to his aggressive ways on Sunday in the NL Auction. He wanted Trea Turner and Kris Bryant to start out and a top pitcher, maybe even Kershaw. I had an ulcer just thinking about that plan, but here we go. Turner was first out of the gate and we went $43. Bryant came out next and we let him go at $35 after bidding up to $34. Paul Goldschmidt came out shortly after and we bid $35 as the bidding was slow. Okay, that was the start. Clayton Kershaw went for $38 -- lower than the past few years -- and not only did we let him go but so did Derek Carty. Interesting.

Here was our final roster as we struggled to get out without some holes after being so aggressive that we were left with only $27 for our last 12 players. That was a bit much, as it turned out.

Here's the NL Auction:

C- Yasmani Grandal $11
C - Jonathan Lucroy $4 (free agent)
1B - Paul Goldschmidt $35
2B - Carlos Asuaje $1
SS - Trea Turner $43
3B - Jake Lamb $19
CI - Todd Frazier $13
MI - Enrique Rodriguez $1
UT - Brandon Phillips $1 (free agent)
OF - Kyle Schwarber $19
OF - Adam Duvall $16
OF - Matt Kemp $7
OF - Chris Shaw $1
OF - Austin Meadows $1

P - Madison Bumgarner $31
P - Yu Darvish $28
P - Luke Weaver $14
P - Matt Harvey $4
P - Tyler Glasnow $2
P - Tyler Mahle $2
P - Sam Dyson $2
P - Carl Edwards Jr. $4
P - John Brebbia $1

Reserves:
Adam Wainwright
Tyson Ross
Ben Lively
Preston Tucker
Pablo Sandoval
Austin Riley

We punted saves, but still spent $88 on pitching. Pitching was tough to find as Dalton del Don spent like $160 on pitching, leaving it tough for a lot of teams to get a solid staff. It was interesting for sure.

Thoughts? Bring it on.

Here's the top NL prices:

Justin Turner $43
Nolan Arenado $38
Clayton Kershaw $38
Max Scherzer $38
Charlie Blackmon $37
Bryce Harper $36
Kris Bryant $35
Paul Goldschmidt $35
Freddie Freeman $34
Anthony Rizzo $32
Joey Votto $32
Madison Bumgarner $31
Starling Marte $30
Christian Yelich $30
Noah Syndergaard $29
Cody Bellinger $29
Stephen Strasburg $28
Yu Darvish $28
Zack Greinke $28
Rhys Hoskins $28
Kenley Jansen $26

The AL team is going to be in the hunt. It has enough offense to be competitive in power and speed. The pitching staff has to earn enough to offset the weakness in batting average to win the league.

The NL format just doesn't have enough talent to fill out $260 of rosters for 12 teams. Most owners overspend for weak backend hitters or end up with deep pitching staffs just because of the depth of the pitching inventory.

I bet the owner that spent the $160 on pitching in the league is a factor in the league title. Either he deals an ace or two to help his offense or another owner or two takes him to the cleaners in the trade market.

At the very least, we have the power to burn in the NL with strength at the front end of our starters plus complementary starters on the bench to rotate in. This league isn't like the NFBC. If a pitcher is purchased in the auction and he sucks, you can't bench him. It's either ride him out, trade him, or cut him. This becomes extremely difficult if you spend double-digits on an arm. No one wants him and he's too good of a name to release.