LABR winners didn't go by the book
10/23/2001
The two winners of the 2001 Leagues of Alternative Baseball Reality (LABR) shared one glaringly obvious trait. Superior expertise? Unique insight? Deft roster management?
Maybe. But they also left a combined $36 on the table on Draft Day.
Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com and Ron Shandler of Baseball HQ committed drafting's cardinal sin. No matter — they both won easily.
"When I left $26 on the table, I didn't think I had necessarily blown it completely, but I figured I had handicapped my chances severely," Mayo said. "After the draft, I thought my starting pitching was the key, and I turned out to be right. Getting Clemens for $15 was a huge steal, and Paul Abbott's year was a tremendous help."
After the draft, I figured Mayo's team, despite his $234 payroll, Doug Dennis' Monster Mailbag and my team were the strongest. I was right about the first two — Dennis finished second — but my pitching never came around. (I don't think Pedro will go for $40 next year.)
Shandler's fortunes, meanwhile, were tied to a handful of great bargains — probably the biggest overachievers not named Albert Pujols.
"Can I say I had a great draft? I dunno," Shandler said. "When I bought Paul Lo Duca, Luis Gonzalez, Aramis Ramirez, Juan Pierre and Bubba Trammell, it wasn't like I expected that $55 investment to yield nearly $150. You always have to take a chance on a few players, and expect to have some winners and some losers, but at the time, that was simply the going rate.
"I did think Lo Duca would be a steal for a buck, and even Gonzalez potentially at $22, but I gritted my teeth when I went $11 on Ramirez. There was equal teeth-gnashing when I spent $11 on Erubiel Durazo, and you know how that ended up."
But a few busts can quickly negate a handful of bargains, and Shandler did draft a few underachievers, too.
"Come to think of it, the $50 in losses I took on Durazo, Edgardo Alfonzo, Sean Casey, Benny Agbayani, Eric Owens and Gabe White gave back over half of the profit I made. That's not even taking into account the $10 I left on the table. So it's not as if I came anywhere close to having a 'perfect draft.' "
Shandler's $21 on starting pitching was well spent: Javier Vazquez, Brian Tollberg and Brad Penny. And he plucked a $3 Brian Lawrence off the FAAB pile.
"The bottom line is that winning is a process," Shandler said. "It's not like this title was won by any one player, or even by a small group of players. I can't believe some of the names that made cameo appearances on this team: Chris Truby, Ramon E. Martinez, Jack Wilson, Hideki Irabu, Troy Mattes, and my ultimate $1 FAAB pickup, Don Wengert. Ick.
"I guess the secret to success is to minimize the Wengert damage and maximize the Lo Duca gains. Not rocket science, huh?"
For Mayo, it was Rocket science, with Clemens at least. And, frankly, some nice surprises named Catalanotto and Menechino. He also was able to deal starters and closers late in the season in defensive trades to hold off any threat.
Oh, and as for Pujols, who got him?
CDM challenge winner Josh Paley bid $1 on Shane Andrews at the draft, only to hear, "going once, going twice ... two bucks!"
Yeah, that was me. I thought there was no way Pujols would see St. Louis this season. Paley then combed his list for a possible third baseman who wouldn't post a negative value, and arrived at Pujols through the process of elimination.
"I must admit that I did feel more than a bit sad about it at the time," said Paley, a Cardinals fan. "Who knew?"
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/bbw/2001 ... antasy.htm
Last edited by Conner on Wed Mar 02, 2005 7:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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