Fantasy Baseball: National League LABR Auction Recap

Following up on our coverage of the AL version of fantasy baseball’s highest profile auction, here’s how the NL LABR version broke down.

One night after the League of Alternative Baseball Reality (LABR) held its annual American League draft, it was the National League’s turn to take the fantasy baseball spotlight. The rules are the same, but the different player pool makes it a whole different ballgame.

As with the American League, this league is comprised of 12 teams owned by experts from around the industry. There is some overlap between owners in AL LABR and NL LABR. The rosters still have 23 players (14 hitters and nine pitchers), and teams still accumulate stats in the standard five hitting and five pitching rotisserie categories.

The same auction format is used for the National League as for the American League. $260 to spend on the 23-man active roster with a six-round supplemental draft immediately following. The variance in the player universe can make for some interesting shifts in strategy, though.

There are more stolen base threats in the National League, so they may draw less of a premium in the National League than in the American League. But the most significant difference is that there are fewer full time hitters in the NL due to the lack of a DH. While I’ve always found pitchers hitting to be incredibly boring, this difference is what actually has increased my appreciation for the designated hitter. If the National League ever adopts the DH, fantasy baseball may be part of the impetus for change!

In the American League you have 135 hitters in the lineup on any given day (15 teams with nine spots). In the National League you have just 120 hitters (15 teams with eight spots, as pitchers’ offensive statistics don’t count in fantasy) and a bunch of pinch-hitters. Both LABR leagues require 168 hitters (12 teams with 14 spots), so utility players who may not play every day are more likely to be present on NL fantasy rosters than on AL fantasy rosters.

Because of this, a stars and scrubs approach may be more viable in the AL than in the NL. You are more likely to find starters for a few dollars in the American League than in the National League, so it may be a better idea to create a more balanced lineup in the National League, or to divert some more of the budget to hitting from pitching.

Sure enough, where $975 (31.3%) was spent on pitching in the American League LABR auction, only $894 (28.7%) was spent on pitching in the NL auction. That’s not to say money wasn’t spent on top-end National League pitching: Clayton Kershaw drew the highest bid at $44. Once again, the results of the auction can be found online, so feel free to peruse the complete results as we examine some trends.