On Saturday night at the offices of the Arizona Republic, the AL League of Alternative Baseball Reality (LABR) auction took place. It's a 12-team, 5 x 5 AL-only league with the standard roster configuration and six bench spots which are filled via draft after the auction. Here are the overall results.
And here's my roster:
| Pos | Player | $ |
|---|---|---|
| C | Hank Conger | 4 |
| C | Chris Jimenez | 1 |
| 1B | Miguel Cabrera | 36 |
| 2B | Johnny Giavotella | 1 |
| 3B | Luis Valbuena | 9 |
| SS | Eduardo Escobar | 8 |
| CI | Chris Davis | 31 |
| MI | Christian Colon | 1 |
| OF | Byron Buxton | 17 |
| OF | Michael Brantley | 20 |
| OF | Carlos Beltran | 10 |
| OF | Aaron Hicks | 7 |
| OF | Cameron Maybin | 7 |
| U | Prince Fielder | 20 |
| P | Dallas Keuchel | 26 |
| P | Chris Archer | 24 |
| P | Francisco Rodriguez | 12 |
| P | Daniel Norris | 4 |
| P | Henry Owens | 2 |
| P | Rich Hill | 6 |
| P | Eduardo Rodriguez | 8 |
| P | Blake Snell | 5 |
| P | Matt Shoemaker | 1 |
| R | Lewis Brinson | |
| R | Matt Duffy | |
| R | Joe Smith | |
| R | Zach McAllister | |
| R | Jarrod Parker | |
| R | Tyler White |
Going into the auction, my strategy was to (1) Buy the players I liked (within reason) rather than look for value; (2) Get my offense from the OF and CI spots while punting MI and C; and (3) lock down two aces. As you can see, things went more or less according to plan. In fact, on the short Southwest flight from LA to Phoenix, I had no wifi, so as I do every year, I occupied myself by filling out my ideal roster for what I imagined were realistic prices. I wound up with 12 of those 23 players:
| Pos | Player | Price | Expected Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1B | Miguel Cabrera | $36 | $35 |
| 3B | Matt Duffy | R | $3 |
| CI | Chris Davis | $31 | $31 |
| OF | Carlos Beltran | $10 | $9 |
| OF | Aaron Hicks | $7 | $9 |
| OF | Michael Brantley | $20 | $20 |
| P | Dallas Keuchel | $26 | $23 |
| P | Chris Archer | $24 | $22 |
| P | Matt Shoemaker | $1 | $3 |
| P | Henry Owens | $2 | $2 |
| P | Daniel Norris | $4 | $4 |
| P | Zach McAllister | R | $1 |
| Totals | $161 | $162 |
I made one error in the auction, and that was paying $4 for Hank Conger. The catchers were getting awfully thin, and I decided to get someone who was likely to start rather than two $1 backups. The extra $3 I spent on Conger cost me either Pablo Sandoval who went for $11 at 3B (I would have been able to go to $12, rather than letting him pass and settling for Luis Valbuena at $9), Matt Moore (I went to $2 which was my max bid at the time, and he went for $3) or Jose Ramirez (I went to $5 which was my max bid at the time, and he went for $6.) But maybe Valbuena will be better than Sandoval, Christian Colon/Johnny Giavotella will be as good as Ramirez or Henry Owens will be as good as Moore.
The only buy for which I got any flack on Twitter was Byron Buxton at $17, and I can see the objection. But I like to gamble on upside and actually think his healthy floor is pretty high given his running ability.
My favorite buys are Prince Fielder (there's no reason he can't duplicate last year's value), Michael Brantley (Stephania Bell told me the injury wasn't one that should hamper him), Aaron Hicks (he's ready, and he'll get at-bats on an aging, brittle team) and Cameron Maybin (he should be back in April.)