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RotoWire's AL LABR Team

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:

PosPlayer$
CHank Conger4
CChris Jimenez1
1BMiguel Cabrera36
2BJohnny Giavotella1
3BLuis Valbuena9
SSEduardo Escobar8
CIChris Davis31
MIChristian Colon1
OFByron Buxton17
OFMichael Brantley20
OFCarlos Beltran10
OFAaron Hicks7
OFCameron Maybin7
UPrince Fielder20
PDallas Keuchel26
PChris Archer24
PFrancisco Rodriguez12
PDaniel Norris4
PHenry Owens2
PRich Hill6
PEduardo Rodriguez8
PBlake Snell5
PMatt Shoemaker1
RLewis Brinson
RMatt Duffy
RJoe Smith
RZach McAllister
RJarrod Parker
RTyler 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:

PosPlayerPriceExpected Price
1BMiguel Cabrera$36$35
3BMatt DuffyR$3
CIChris Davis$31$31
OFCarlos Beltran$10$9
OFAaron Hicks$7$9
OFMichael Brantley$20$20
PDallas Keuchel$26$23
PChris Archer$24$22
PMatt Shoemaker$1$3
PHenry Owens$2$2
PDaniel Norris$4$4
PZach McAllisterR$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.)