Trout one of few certainties in chaotic AL LABR draft
At the first fantasy drafts in the League of Alternative Baseball Reality in 1994, the top experts at the time – including Bill James, Keith Olbermann, Glen Waggoner and John Hunt – conducted the AL and NL auctions via conference call. They took more than six hours to complete.
The participants quickly learned that in-person drafting was much better, and until this year that continued to be the case. But travel restrictions forced LABR online in 2021, adding another layer of uncertainty on top of everything else from last year’s 60-game season.
Leave it to defending AL champion Larry Schechter to throw one more curveball by picking Astros outfielder Michael Brantley as the draft’s first nomination.
The big names soon followed, however, with Gerrit Cole ($40) and then Shane Bieber ($41) setting the bar for pitchers and Mike Trout ($41) topping the hitters.
With participants clicking their computer mouses, not raising their hands, the bidding wars began almost immediately. Last-second snipes were common as the RTSports.com software accepted buzzer-beating shortstop bids of $30 for Tim Anderson (by The Athletic’s Ian Kahn) and $29 for Gleyber Torres (by Fantasy Alarm’s Rick Wolf and Glenn Colton).
In perhaps the evening’s most intense exchange, outfielder Eddie Rosario went all the way to $29 before Baseball HQ’s Dave Adler prevailed over Todd Zola of Mastersball. Rosario probably isn’t the first name that comes to mind when discussing the AL’s best outfielders, but only four others commanded a higher price (Trout, Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez and George Springer).
Besides Anderson, three other shortstops hit the $30 mark: Bo Bichette ($35), Adalberto Mondesi ($34) and Xander Bogaerts ($31). Third base was even more stacked with Jose Ramirez leading the way at $39, followed by Rafael Devers at $32 and the trio of DJ LeMahieu, Anthony Rendon and Alex Bregman, all at $30.
There’s far less top-tier talent in the AL when it comes to starting pitchers. Other than Cole, Bieber and Lucas Giolito ($35), no one else even hit the $28 mark. And just five others were in the $20s – an indication that managing an AL pitching staff might be trickier than ever in 2021.
The uncertain distribution of innings this season might have played a role in the spending decisions.
With saves being spread out among more pitchers these days, the rare reliever who gets almost all of his team’s save chances is going to command a higher price. That’s especially true in the AL.
Liam Hendriks was LABR’s top closer at $23, with Aroldis Chapman and Raisel Iglesias next at $19. But things got interesting when bidders staked claims among the less-settled bullpens.
Tampa Bay: Nick Anderson ($13), Pete Fairbanks ($8), Diego Castillo ($8)
Minnesota: Alex Colome ($14), Taylor Rogers ($9),
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Tyler Duffey ($5)
Toronto: Kirby Yates ($17), Jason Romano ($3) Cleveland: James Karinchak ($16), Emmanuel Clase ($2), Nick Wittgren (reserve)
Boston: Adam Ottavino ($7), Matt Barnes ($6) Texas: Jose Leclerc ($8), Jonathan Hernandez ($4)
And one final note: Make sure you’re familiar with your league’s eligibility settings. LABR uses a 10game minimum to qualify for a position. That caused some confusion in the draft room, especially with hitters eligible only at DH.
The LABR drafters prioritized them this way: Giancarlo Stanton ($26)
Yordan Alvarez ($24)
J.D. Martinez ($22)
Nelson Cruz ($21)
Franmil Reyes ($16)
Jorge Soler ($15)
Willie Calhoun ($6)
Miguel Cabrera ($2)
Khris Davis (reserve)
And we can’t forget Shohei Ohtani ($15), who’s eligible at both DH and as a pitcher but can be used in only one of those spots each week. With Ohtani doing both exceptionally well so far this spring, he could be the best pick of all – if he’s used properly.
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