The Wolf/Cotton team spent $148 on five high end bats that included:

1. $39 Joey Votto
2. $32 Andrew McCutchen
3. $30 Matt Holliday
4. $29 Hunter Pence
5. $18 Aramis Ramirez

For our draft, Hunter Pence and Andrew McCutchen were not available. I spent $145 for six primary bats:

1. $39 Joey Votto
2. $37 Justin Upton
3. $39 Matt Holliday
4. $10 Pedro Alvarez
5. $10 Cody Ross
6. $10 Logan Morrison

Like Wolf/Colton, I have both Votto and Holliday. For their Aramis Ramirez selection, I already had Pedro Alvarez for that slot. I considered Cory Hart for the Hunter Pence slot, but decided with his injury to move the money else where. Instead, I combined Cody Ross and Logan Morrison for $20.

On pitching, Wolf/Colton  went with three good starters who were nicely priced, and a high end closer:

1. $20 Brian Wilson
2. $16 Jonathan Sanchez
3. $13 Matt Garza
4. $13 Ricky Nolasco

For my pitching, I had a similar makeup but I went with two closers:

1. $20 J.J. Putz
2. $11 Matt Latos
3. $13 Tommy Hanson
4. $10 Kyle McClellan
5. $10 Travis Wood
6. $6 Craig Kimbrel

Here is my roster for opening day:

Pos Edit Active Batters Salary

C Hernandez, Ramon(C) CIN

4 C Thole, Josh(C) NYM 6

1B Votto, Joey(1B) CIN 39

2B Young, Eric(2B) COL  10

3B Alvarez, Pedro(3B) PIT 10

SS Renteria, Edgar(SS) CIN 2

MI DeWitt, Blake(2B) CHC 2

CI Overbay, Lyle(1B) PIT 9

OF Holliday, Matt(OF) STL 39

OF Morrison, Logan(OF) FLA

10 OF Ross, Cody(OF) SF

10 OF Upton, Justin(OF) ARI 37

OF Venable, Will(OF) SD  4

U Hairston, Scott(OF) NYM 5

Bench

Bench (3B) Baker, Jeff(2B,3B) CHC  3

Bench (SS) Emaus, Brad(SS) NYM 10

Bench (OF) Jackson, Brett(OF) CHC  10

Bench (U) Gibbons, Jay(OF) LA  2

Pos Edit Active Pitchers Salary

P Hammel, Jason(P) COL 7

P Hanson, Tommy(P) ATL 11

P Kimbrel, Craig(P) ATL  6

P Latos, Mat(P) SD 11

P Marquis, Jason(P) WAS  1

P McClellan, Kyle(P) STL  10

P Putz, J.J.(P) ARI 20

P Wood, Travis(P) CIN  10

P Young, Chris(P) NYM  1

Bench (P) Luebke, Cory(P) SD  6

Bench (P) Mejia, Jenrry(P) NYM  7

Bench (P) Rodriguez, Henry(P) WAS 5

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1. PREAMBLE

We the people of the League of Alternate Baseball Reality (LABR), in order to promote the great game of fantasy baseball, prove all GMs idiots and obtain the biggest bragging rights in the nation do ordain and establish this constitution of the League of Alternate Baseball Reality.

2. OBJECT

To assemble a lineup of 24 National League or 23 American League baseball players whose cumulative statistics, compiled and measured by the methods described in these rules, exceed those of all other teams in the League.

3. SCORING

LABR uses a Ranked, Rotisserie Based Scoring System

The National League finished its auction draft (http://tinyurl.com/45ndqgt) which took place on Sunday March 6th. The American League draft finished up on Saturday.

The LABR is made up of professionals/ writers from the baseball publications industry. The LABR draft, when it takes place, is not open to the public. In years past they used web site  all-star stats to run the LABR leagues. Here is this years NL ownership:

Clay Davenport, Baseball Prospectus (6th year, 2 titles)
Greg Ambrosius/Shawn Childs, NFBC (18th year, @VuFantasyBBcom)
Steve Moyer, Baseball Info Solutions (12th year, 1 title)
Steve Gardner, USA TODAY (7th year, 1 title, @sgardnerUSAT)
Eric Karabell, ESPN (7th year, @karabellespn)
Dalton Del Don, Rotowire (4th year, @daltondeldon)
Brandon Funston, Yahoo (4th year @1befun)
Doug Dennis, Baseball HQ (10th year)
Bob Radomski, Sandlot Shrink (9th year, 1 title)
Rick Wolf/Glenn Colton, Rotoworld (10th year, 3 titles)
Tristan Cockcroft, ESPN (8th year, 2 titles, @SultanofStat)
Derek Carty, The Hardball Times (3rd year, 1 title, @THTFantasy)

The need for speed stole only 17 bags in 2010 but has stolen between 46 and 87 bags in each of his last four minor league seasons.  Ey Jr received a lot of playing time in the second half and stole 11 bases in only 140 AB.  If given a chance, he should steal 40.

Negative HR Splits Let’s take a look at which batters have been experiencing positive and negative trends since the break in the homerun department. Jose Lopez 107 – He’s usually a big second half guy.  Be patient.

1. PREAMBLE

We the people of the League of Alternate Baseball Reality (LABR), in order to promote the great game of fantasy baseball, prove all GMs idiots and obtain the biggest bragging rights in the nation do ordain and establish this constitution of the League of Alternate Baseball Reality.

2. OBJECT

To assemble a lineup of 24 National League or 23 American League baseball players whose cumulative statistics, compiled and measured by the methods described in these rules, exceed those of all other teams in the League.

3. SCORING

LABR uses a Ranked, Rotisserie Based Scoring System.

.

Yesterday, the American League branch of the LABR took place. Today, the National League does its auction draft.

The LABR is made up of professionals/ writers from the baseball publications industry. The LABR draft, when it takes place, is not open to the public. In years past they used web site  all-star stats to run the LABR leagues. Here is this years AL ownership:

Steve Gardner, USA TODAY (7th year, 1 title, @sgardnerUSAT)
Chris Liss, Rotowire (6th year, @Chris_Liss)
Brad Evans, Yahoo (3rd year @YahooNoise)
Dave Adler, Baseball HQ (5th year)
Larry Schechter, Sandlot Shrink (7th year)
Rick Wolf/Glenn Colton, Rotoworld (10th year, 3 titles)
Lawr Michaels, Mastersball (3rd year, @Masters_Ball)
Jason Grey, ESPN (8th year, 2 titles, @Jason_Grey)
Greg Ambrosius/Shawn Childs, NFBC (18th year, @VuFantasyBBcom)
Nick Minnix, KFFL (2nd year, @NicholasMinnix)
Perry Van Hook, Fantasybaseball.com (3rd year)
Tom Trudeau, Bloomberg Sports (1st year, @Tom_Trudeau)

Fantasy baseball’s field of dreams: 2011 #LABR draft weekend in Phoenix. Live coverage Sat/Sun on @SiriusXMFantasy

We have covered this event in the past:

LABR 2010 USA Today Sports Weekly Is Out

LABR 2009 USA Today Sports Weekly Is Out

Here are a few of the players making the 2011 top ten of the “100 Names You Need to Know:

#1 Aroldis Chapman

Bullpen is the answer to the first big question about the Cuban flamethrower for this season. That’s where he’ll pitch, though the Reds aren’t ruling out a future role in their rotation. The next question revolves around when and if he could take over for closer Francisco Cordero, who is entering the final guaranteed year of his contract ($12 million option for 2012) and allowed baserunners last season at the highest rate of his career.

#2 Craig Kimbrel

Kimbrel, 22, got a taste of key late-inning situations late last season and in the playoffs. His 14.4 strikeouts-per-nine-innings rate through three minor league seasons was impressive enough, but he boosted that to 16.9 in his 25 combined regular season and playoff innings in the majors last year.

#3 Freddy Freeman

Freeman will show up this spring with the first base job and expectations he can be as impactful as Heyward. A lefty like his close friend Heyward, Freeman’s best attribute might be his defense, though he finished in the Class AAA International League’s top 10 in batting before turning 21 in September. His 18 homers last year dispelled concerns the 6-5, 225-pounder might not develop big-time power.

#6 Logan Morrison

Florida has plenty to chirp about with its trio of young studs on offense. Twitter-happy Morrison – and not Mike Stanton or Gaby Sanchez – remains eligible for our list thanks to his late-July 2010 call-up. Morrison moved to the outfield last year after older Sanchez beat him out for the Marlins’ first base job.

With the NFL labor battle taking shape, the talk of any football is clearly on mute until that matter reaches a resolution. But, this just in: It’s baseball time again! As we speak, the Boys of Summer are on their way to spring training camps across Florida and Arizona. The pitchers and catchers arrive early, in order to get their arms warmed for the first game which starts on February 26th.

Over the next few weeks, the focus here at Baseball Happenings will be getting you thinking baseball again. Just like the players, managers, and the general managers, you have to prepare for the upcoming season. Fantasy baseball or Roto for that matter is all about making good business decisions.

There are certain strategies for the typical rotation drafts, and other ways for participating in a full blown auction draft.

I dabble in fantasy play. Or, you could say I live and breathe fantasy baseball. Each year I play in two NL only auction leagues. In addition, I am a commissioner for one mixed league rotation draft, and have a few other pending leagues that are getting started up.

Here we use both the traditional statistics such that are used in typical 5×5 leagues. As well, we make use of sabermetrics to help with some of the decision making.

Moreover, this year I plan on discussing some of the new strategies I have learned over this off season. These are ideas I have never used before, but have become educated on the new ideas.

Its the middle of May, and my team has not performed all that well.  I have started preparing for the future.

Lets talk about bargain players that are definitely back for next year.

Tim Hudson at $8, Mike Pelphrey $6

Nate Schierholtz $4, Josh Willingham $9, Carlos Gonzalez $15

These are players I like, but have a value on the market place:

Brian McCann $25, Adam LaRoche $32, Dan Uggla $26, Matt Capps $16, Ryan Dempster$26 , Everth Cabrera $12, Dave Bush $7, Todd Wellemeyer $6

These are players for the building blocks:

C Josh Thole 1B Logan Morrison 3B Matt Dominguez OF Yonder Alonso OF/1B Chris Marrero

IF Chris Dominguez SS Ruben Tejada OF Evan Frey IF Matt Downs OF John Jay

SP Jay Jackson SP Josh Lindblom RP Craig Kimbrel RP Blake Hawkesworth

• the ball park the player is coming from/to
• the playing time the player may receive with the new team
• with pitchers coming from AL to NL, the lack of DH in NL suggests better results

The list goes on, but lets take a look at the movement with the NL teams this off season.

The Braves bullpen is remade with the Wagner and Saito signings, but one of their best pitchers Javier Vazquez traded away. The Doctor is in for the Phillies, but sent Cliff Lee packing for Seattle pitchers Philippe Aumont and Juan Ramirez and outfielder Tyson Gillies. The Marlins traded away Jeremy Hermidia for Boston prospects Hunter Jones and Jose Alvarez.  The National brought in Matt Capps, Pudge, Miguel Bautista, Adam Kennedy, and Chris Duncan. Along with Jason Bay, the Mets signed Hisanori Takahahi From Japan. The Diamondbacks blew up the team with starters Ian Kennedy and Edwin Jackson coming over in blockbuster deal. They remade the left side of the infield in Adam Laroche and KellyJohnson/Tony Abreu. Their bullpen was upgraded with Bob Howry and Aaron Heilman. The Cubs took on Carlos Silva, and obtained pitcher Jeff Grey in trades. Chad Tracy and Kevin Millar were signed as possible backups. The Brewers added Randy Wolfe, Doug Davis, and outfielders Jim Edmonds Carlos Gomez. The Pirates traded with Rays for Aki Awamura, they signed Ryan Church, and added pitcher RHP Chris Jakubauskas.  The Reds shocked people by signing the Cuban defector Chapman, along with SS Orlando Cabrera, reserves Miguel Cairo and Josh Anderson. The Astros Ed Wade overspent for a new back end of bullpen. The Cards signed Brad Penny and Fellipe Lopez. The Rockies brought in Tim Redding and Melvin Mora. The Giants signed Mark DeRosa, 1B Aubrey Huff, and pitcher Todd Wellemeyer. The Padres stayed busy with additions of both the Hairston brothers, Aaaron Cunningham, John Garland,  Catcher Torrealba, and P Radames Liz. The Dodgers stayed busy with divorce issues and only signed Josh Towers, Jamey Carroll, and Nick Green.