Expert League FAAB Report - Week of 5/12
In a week of mostly mid-priced FAAB pickups, one buy in each league stood well above the rest.
Every Monday throughout the season, I’ll be reviewing some of the top purchases along with my own buys in the Tout Wars Mixed Draft alternate category league and the LABR Mixed league. Note that the Tout Wars season budget is $1000 with $0 bids allowed while the LABR season budget is $100 with a minimum bid of $1.
TOUT WARS MIXED DRAFT WITH IP & SAVES+HOLDS
TOP BUYS
Tim Elko ($442) - The most expensive FAAB buy of the season in this league, Elko was called up by the White Sox on Saturday and recorded his first career big-league home run yesterday. The 26-year-old first baseman has thrived at the Triple-A level in 2025, launching ten homers to go along with 23 RBI, 20 runs and a .431 OBP in 31 games. The rebuilding South Siders should give him every opportunity to stick around in the majors for good. Considering Andrew Vaughn’s season-long struggles, it would not at all be surprising to see Elko receive everyday at-bats from here on out, whether it be at first base or DH. The bad news for the Elko winner is that only one other manager placed a bid on him. The amount? Three bucks. Talk about wasted FAAB.
Cade Horton ($94) - Another Saturday call-up, Horton was decent but not great in his major-league debut facing the Mets, allowing three runs across four innings while striking out five. Serving as a long reliever in this outing, he managed to pick up a win despite pitching fewer than five innings. The Cubs could decide to give him a few starts until Shota Imanaga returns from the IL but the bulk reliever role would actually make him a more appealing fantasy option due to the win factor. Coming off an injury-marred 2024 season, the 23-year-old righty pitched extremely well at Triple-A this year and was effective enough over the weekend to deserve attention in deeper mixed leagues. Surprisingly, the winning bid for Horton was the only bid.
MY BUYS
Michael Lorenzen ($38), Daniel Schneemann ($36), Elias Diaz ($13)
Lorenzen isn’t exciting but he’s allowed one run or fewer in three of his last four starts and is fresh off a dominant performance versus a potent Red Sox lineup. I’m hoping that Schneemann can continue his hot hitting as a fill-in at second base for the injured Andres Gimenez. I have my doubts. The Diaz add is simply an attempt to get any sort of production out of my #2 catcher slot as I’ve had enough of Mitch Garver.
LABR MIXED
TOP BUYS
Cade Horton ($28) - Whereas interest in Horton was limited to one manager in Tout Wars, a total of five managers tried to acquire him in this league. The runner-up offering was only $13, so the winning bid proved to be excessive. Horton does carry upside but if I’m going to spend more than one-quarter of my season FAAB budget on one player, I’d target someone with a stronger and more stable fantasy outlook, both in the short term and long term.
Jake Meyers ($5) - My sole focus in LABR Mixed FAAB this week was to find an outfielder replacement for the injured Yordan Alvarez, and Meyers was my first choice. He’s playing every day and should provide useful multi-category production. Meyers is surely due for regression as his current stat line is way better than his career averages but I might not need him for long since Alvarez’s hand ailment isn’t believed to be very serious. Still, a $5 bid seemed warranted being that Meyers could be a quality bench option for my squad even after Alvarez is back in the lineup. As it turned out, my bid topped seven other bids, the highest of which was $3.
MY BUYS
Meyers was my only purchase this week. My remaining FAAB season budget of $65 ranks 6th among the 15 teams in LABR Mixed. As we near the second quarter of the season, I like where I stand in this department.
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