Still dealing with the lingering effects of a global pandemic, the League of Alternative Baseball Reality had a new hurdle for participants to overcome before drafting this season, the MLB lockout.
The situation was a dire analogy in 1994, the year the league was founded, in which a labor dispute between baseball players and owners shortened the regular season and eventually led to the cancellation of the World Series. This led to the league’s acronym – LABR – coined by then-ESPN anchor and original league member Keith Olbermann.
This season presented another new challenge with the MLB lockout, which resulted in an unprecedented number of unsigned free agents, including many of the sport’s biggest stars. In an effort to deepen the player pool, but still maintain the separation between the two leagues, the top 12 free agents were excluded from the player pool and would be part of a separate bidding process once signed. .
Of the two leagues, the AL has the better overall collection of talent. And LABR participants aggressively attacked the top of the player pool on Friday night.
Defending champion Ian Kahn of The Athletic, who set a 12-team LABR record last season with 110.5 points, received the honor of the first nomination: Cleveland Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez.
1 fantasy option this season was predictably the most expensive player of the evening, going to Brett Sayre of Baseball Prospectus for a whopping sum of $42. One of the true five-class standouts, Ramirez’s base-stealing ability has been especially prized this season, in which piracy continues.
Other top strength/speed people included in the first 31 nominations along with Kyle Tucker ($38), Bo Bichette ($35), Louis Robert ($35), Shohei Ohtani ($31) and Cedric Mullins ($29) went.
What about perennial No. 1 target Mike Trout? He had to pay only $30 due to an injury last season after playing just 36 games.
To labor: Complete Draft Grid, Plus Reserves
On the other hand, ace pitchers were not in such high demand. Kahn spent $37 to grab Gerrit Cole ($37), but after that, Shane Bieber ($28) and Lucas Giolito ($27) were the only others to cross the $25 mark. (By comparison, Cole and Bieber were both $40+ pitchers last year, and six pitchers went for $30+ in 2020.) However, the middle tier was placed with excellent No. 2 and 3 starters.
The strength of the American League lies in its outfield depth, with 20 players eligible for as little as $20. Also of note, AL has far more “safe” closures than NL this season. Liam Hendrix could go for any $26, with Russell Iglesias ($23), Ryan Pressley ($20), Emmanuel Klass ($20), Eroldis Chapman ($19) and Jordan Romano ($17) making a clear top tier. Was the highest priced in the league.
Bidding rallied throughout the evening, leading to a lack of clear value selection – perhaps in addition to Salvador Perez, last season’s top catcher and USA TODAY’s 2021 fantasy MVP after leading the majors with 48 home runs, for only $ for 23.
Perhaps the biggest unknown this off-season is the impact the lockdown will have on the development and promotion of the AL’s impressive stock of top prospects.
Here’s how AL LABR managers value them:
- SS Bobby Witt Jr ($20)
- C Adley Ratschman ($9)
- 1B Spencer Torkelson ($8)
- Julio Rodriguez’s ($5)
- Off Riley Green ($5)
- SS Jeremy Pena ($5)
- SP Grayson Rodriguez ($4)
- Josh Lowe’s ($3)
- C MJ Melendez ($2)
Will they be on their teams’ opening day roster if the start of the season is delayed until at least mid-April? Or will they be held back even longer to make sure they are ready for the bigger companies?
One team in particular will have a vested interest in the answer. NFBC’s Greg Ambrosius and Sean Childs drafted those six prospects, along with SS Jordan Groshan in the reserve round.
Follow Steve Gardner on Twitter @SteveAGardner And follow LABR AL throughout the season at RTSports.com/labr-al.
