Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 28, 2026

LABR

LABR was the first high-profile fantasy sports experts league of its kind. Formed by John Hunt, the fantasy baseball columnist for USA Today Baseball Weekly, the league was first formed in 1994 and featured such celebrities as Peter Gammons, Keith Olbermann and Bill James. LABR stands for League of Alternative Baseball Reality and was given that nickname and the pronunciation ("labor") by Olbermann as a play on words with the labor strike in baseball at that time. Hunt ran the league and published the results of the LABR league in the Baseball Weekly's fantasy baseball preview issue each March from 1994 through 2006. He opted not to return for the 2007 league and was replaced with in-house staff. The dollar values players were sold for in the fantasy league are used as a benchmark for readers in their own fantasy drafts.

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LABR was the first high-profile fantasy sports experts league of its kind. Formed by John Hunt, the fantasy baseball columnist for USA Today Baseball Weekly, the league was first formed in 1994 and featured such celebrities as Peter Gammons, Keith Olbermann and Bill James.1 LABR stands for League of Alternative Baseball Reality and was given that nickname and the pronunciation ("labor") by Olbermann as a play on words with the labor strike in baseball at that time.2 Hunt ran the league and published the results of the LABR league in the Baseball Weekly's (now USA Today Sports Weekly) fantasy baseball preview issue each March from 1994 through 2006. He opted not to return for the 2007 league and was replaced with in-house staff. The dollar values players were sold for in the fantasy league are used as a benchmark for readers in their own fantasy drafts.

On its 20th anniversary in 2013 Steve Gardner of USA Today published the LABR of love: Experts fantasy league begins 20th season documenting its first two decades.

The LABR has lost its early status as the premier experts' league, as in 1997 a rival fantasy baseball experts league, Tout Wars, was created by Ron Shandler, who was fed up with the lack of promotion USA Today gave the LABR league.3

The LABR Mixed league,4 AL-Only league5 and NL-Only league6 are online and can be viewed by the general public.

The 2020 Major League Baseball season was a 60-game pandemic shortened season. LABR auctions and drafts occurred during Spring Training before the pandemic shutdown.

Scoring rules

LABR uses a Ranked, Rotisserie Based Scoring System of 5 batting categories and 5 pitching categories (5x5).

If there are N teams in the LABR, N points shall be awarded for first place in a category, N-1 for second place, down to 1 point for last place. In the event of a tie, the points will be split. Points will be aggregated over all ten scoring categories (see below). The team with the most points wins.

Example: LABR has 15 teams. Team A has the most home runs, and is awarded 15 points in that category. Teams B and C are tied for second in home runs; they split the second and third place points, and each receive 13.5 points. If a team finished first in all 10 categories, it would receive a total of 15*10=150 points. If it finished last in all categories, it would receive 1*10=10 points. In the case of ties in total points, the final places in the standings are determined by comparing the placement of the teams in the individual categories. The team ahead in a category is given a point. This is done over all categories. The team with the most points is declared the winner. Should the teams still be tied after this process, then the final result shall be declared a tie.

Batting Categories

  • Batting Average
  • Runs
  • Home Runs
  • Runs Batted In
  • Stolen Bases

Pitching Categories

  • Wins
  • Earned Run Average
  • WHIP (Walks+Hits)/(Innings Pitched)
  • Strikeouts
  • Saves

Each team will be required to attain a minimum of 950 innings pitched in order to qualify for placement in the pitching categories of; a) Ratio and b) Earned Run Average, and a minimum of 4,200 at-bats for placement in the batting average category. If these minimum innings or at-bats are not achieved the team will receive 1 point in these categories and every team that meets the minimum innings pitched or at-bats will be ranked in the standings with 15 points for 1st place and so on until all qualifying teams have received points.

Rosters

Rosters shall consist of a lineup of 23 players and a bench of 6 reserve players.

A team's active roster consists of the following players: 5 outfielders, 2 catchers, 1 second baseman, 1 shortstop, 1 middle infielder (either second baseman or shortstop), 1 first baseman, 1 third baseman, 1 corner infielder (first or third baseman), one utility player who may be of any position and 9 pitchers (who may be either starters, relievers or both).

There will also be six reserve players on each team's roster to be selected on draft day. Players who go onto the disabled list may also be reserved on a separate list. There is no limit to the number of disabled list players that can exist on a roster.

Only members of the active roster generate statistics.

Results

Past Champions
AL-Only Auction NL-Only Auction Mixed Draft
2025 Ian Kahn7 Matt Cederholm - Baseball HQ8 Ryan Bloomfield - Baseball HQ9
2024 James Anderson - Rotowire10 Doug Dennis - Baseball HQ11 Rudy Gamble - Razzball12
2023 Jason Collette - Fangraphs13 Glenn Colton / Rick Wolf - Colton & The Wolfman14 Ryan Bloomfield - Baseball HQ15
2022 Eno Sarris - The Athletic16 Mike Gianella - Baseball Prospectus17 Steve Gardner - USA Today Sports18
2021 Ian Kahn - The Athletic 19 Derek Carty - Derek Carty20 Jeff Erickson - Rotowire 21
2020 Larry Schechter - Winning Fantasy Baseball 22 Derek Carty - Derek Carty23 Fred Zinkie - Fred Zinkie 24
2019 Glenn Colton / Rick Wolf - Colton & The Wolfman 25 Derek VanRiper - The Athletic26 Steve Gardner - USA Today Sports27
2018 Glenn Colton / Rick Wolf - Colton & The Wolfman 28 Howard Bender - Fantasy Alarm 29 Derek VanRiper - Rotowire 30
2017 Steve Gardner - USA TODAY Sports 31 Steve Gardner - USA TODAY Sports 32 Jake Ciely - The Athletic 33
2016 Larry Schechter - Winning Fantasy Baseball 34 Derek Carty - ESPN/RotoGrinders 35 Todd Zola - Mastersball 36
2015 Steve Gardner - USA TODAY Sports 37 Derek VanRiper - RotoWire 38 Mike Gianella/Bret Sayre - Baseball Prospectus 39
2014 Dave Adler - Baseball HQ 40 Lenny Melnick - RotoExperts 41 Steve Gardner - USA TODAY Sports 42
2013 Larry Schechter - Winning Fantasy Baseball 43 Greg Ambrosius/Shawn Childs - NFBC 44 Fred Zinkie - MLB.com 45
2012 Brad Evans - Yahoo 46 Steve Moyer - Baseball Info Solutions 47 Jonah Keri - Grantland and Ray Murphy - Baseball HQ (tie) 48
2011 Chris Liss - Rotowire 49 Doug Dennis - Baseball HQ 50
2010 Steve Gardner - USA TODAY 51 Clay Davenport - Baseball Prospectus 52
2009 Jason Grey - ESPN 53 Derek Carty - The Hardball Times 54
2008 Jonah Keri - ESPN 55 Tristan Cockcroft - ESPN 56
2007 Rick Wolf/Glenn Colton - Rotoworld 57 Clay Davenport - Baseball Prospectus 58
2006 Jonah Keri - Baseball Prospectus Bob Radomski - Sandlot Shrink
2005 Jason Grey - Mastersball.com Trevor Braunig, CDM contest winner
2004 Michael McMahon - Baseball HQ Steve Yoder - Baseball HQ
2003 Rick Wolf/Glenn Colton - Rotoworld Mark Allen - amateur player
2002 Rick Wolf/Glenn Colton - Rotoworld Tristan Cockcroft - CBS Sports
2001 Jonathan Mayo - MLB.com Ron Shandler - Baseball HQ
2000 Michael Brown - amateur player Greg Faulkner - Owner’s Box
1999 Michael Brown/Malek Shubair - amateur players John Hunt - Baseball Weekly
1998 Gene McCaffrey/John Menna - Wise Guy Baseball Keith Law - Baseball Prospectus
1997 Bill Kulik - Forever Baseball John Hunt - Baseball Weekly
1996 Lenny Melnick/Irwin Zwilling - Rotisserie Sports Hour Steve Moyer - Stats Inc. and John Hunt - Baseball Weekly (tie)
1995 Lenny Melnick/Irwin Zwilling - Rotisserie Sports Hour Mike Vogel - USA Stats
1994 Larry Labadini - Fantasy Baseball Scouting Report John Hunt - Baseball Weekly
References

References

  1. Keri, Jonah (2007). "'Tis the season to project stats". ESPN.com.
  2. Gardner, Steve (Feb 24, 2011). "2011 LABR Drafts are coming to Sirius XM Radio". USAToday.com. Gannett. Retrieved 2011-03-07. The name LABR was coined by Olbermann and it played on the unsettled labor situation baseball had at the time.
  3. Walker, Sam (2006). "Fantasyland". Viking. p. 145. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
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