THE FINAL FAAB

MLB SEASON COUNTER 97.4%

There are 3 days left in the Major League Baseball regular season; no more FAAB session and one more lineup sets. Through Sunday October 2^nd, we have hit the 97% mark. Fantasy players entered in the Main Event have now pushed through all 27 FAAB exercises and have just the final three days of baseball to go – October 3^rd. October 4^th and October 5^th. How close are we to completing the season?

Is the Glasnow Half Empty?

After working his way back from injury, Tyler Glasnow became available in NFBC leagues with three days to go in the season. He’ll have one start to try to help NFBC fantasy managers boost their standings, and will look to build on his initial three inning outing last week. He might provide help in WHIP, ERA and strikeouts, but it would be a long shot if he qualifies for a Win since he’s expected to throw four innings or so. In any case, Glasnow was added in 41 leagues, with an impressive $68 top bid. In addition, 9 other players were picked up in 10 or more leagues (see chart below) – totaling 9 SP and 1 RP. The other additions included Johan Oviedo (scheduled for a Wednesday start against STL); Davis Martin (has a nice pair of starts coming up); Jimmy Herget (the one reliever cracking the top ten adds); Nate Eovaldi (Tuesday vs. TB); Bryce Elder (Monday at MIA); Eric Lauer (Tuesday vs. AZ); Javier Assad (Tuesday at CIN); and Graham Ashcraft (Wednesday vs. CHC).

THE FINAL WOW BID OF THE WEEK

The Main Event Wow Bid of the Week – goes to the largest bid of each FAAB period. This week that honor goes to a $68 bid for Tyler Glasnow, who was added In 41 leagues. In one case, though, an owner won Glasnow’s services handily – $68 to $1 (the highest bid he attracted in any other Main Event league was $7).

10/2: Tyler Glasnow: $68

9/25: Aaron Civale; $58

9/18: Hunter Greene: $111

9/11: Josh Jung: $87

9/4: Gunnar Henderson: $621 – Highest Main Bid This Year

8/28: Jack Flaherty $161

8/21: Dustin May $240

8/14: Vaughn Grissom $331

8/7: David Robertson $108

7/31: Salvador Perez: $277

7/24: Jesus Luzardo $142

7/17: Esteury Ruiz $311

7/10: Jorge Soler $201

7/3: Vinnie Pasquantino $373

6/26: Jake Meyers $315

6/19: Riley Greene $361

6/12: Stephen Strasburg $227

6/5: Edward Cabrera $331

5/29 Ryan Helsley $312

5/22: Nolan Gorman $482 – #5 Wow Bid

5/15: George Kirby $557 – #3 Wow Bid

5/8: Brendan Rodgers $424

5/1: Eloy Jimenez $452

4/24: Jesse Winker $508 – #4 Wow Bid

4/17: Matt Manning $475

4/10: Josh Lowe $613 – #2 Wow Bid

4/3: Matt Brash $244

Average Main Event Team FAAB UNSPENT: $58

(A Difference of 78 cents from 2021!)

For the 27 FAAB runs, there were 34,106 winning bids recorded. That means the average Main Event team over the course of the season won 48.4 bids this season (dropping down to 1.79 from 1.83 winning bids per team per week) and spent $942.07 per team. This dollar amount was – amazingly – just 0.1% lower than 2021 when $942.85 was spent per team. Therefore, last year $57.15 per team went unspent and this year it was $57.93. Are Main Event owners a consistent lot or what?

FINAL TRIP TO THE Colosseum: Four Players from Three Weeks Ago…Results: 2 Good Adds out of 4:

Again this season we have kept tabs on the 4 most added players from 3 weeks ago to see how some of the biggest free agent acquisitions have been doing for their fantasy owners. These are the players acquired in the most leagues on the 24^th FAAB run this season – on 9/11 (stats are from 9/12 through 10/2):

• Hunter Brown: 12.0 IP; 2 ER; 1.50 ERA; 1.42 WHIP; 14 K; 5 BB; 1 WIN – Brown was added across the board for his scheduled start on September 13^th and delivered a strong outing with a win to boot. After that, he was only called upon for 6 additional (scoreless) innings – giving 8 K and 3 BB. He didn’t really provide the SP some were looking for but he didn’t hurt either – I’m giving him a WIN just because he could have been used and certainly did nothing wrong. WIN.
• Josh Jung: 13-for-76 .181 AVG; 4 HR; 1 SB – Another tough one. Jung struck out 27 times vs. 4 walks, and did not help in batting average. He did hit 4 homers and contribute an SB, and the RBI (12) was solid. I think again that this just barely gets over the line – he played consistently, gave reasonable counting stats, and helped those looking for power. In the context of a 15-team addition – WIN.
• Luis Cessa: 21.1 IP; 10 ER; 4.22 ERA; 1.41 WHIP; 11 K; 9 BB; 1 WIN – Cessa was added for a two-start week at home against PIT and at STL. Surprisingly, he did poorly against PIT and his lone win came in the second game against the Cardinals. Some owners jumped ship after that and they didn’t miss anything, as two mediocre starts followed with no wins attached. This isn’t awful but certainly there wasn’t a lot of help provided over the three-week period – PUSH.
• Aristides Aquino: 12-for-61 .197 AVG; 3 HR; 0 SB – Back for a second round of Main Event additions, Aquino did produce three HR. His average was predictably poor, and he did lose playing time towards the end of this three-week stretch, however. His counting stats were not too impressive either – just 5 runs scored and 5 RBI. I’m calling this a LOSS.

FINAL 2022 RECORD:

• 36 thumbs up – 39% (full year 2021 24%)
• 20 side thumbs – 22% (full year 2021 27%)
• 36 thumbs down – 39% (full year 2021 49%)

Main Event owners did really well this season, and this week’s 2-for-4 effort pushes up the cumulative record of top Main Event additions. Good pickups were 39% compared to the 24% rate from last season, so Main Event owners have been averaged 1.33 good adds per week out of the four widest pickups each week (36 good adds in 27 FAAB periods). It’s a great performance by the 705 Main Event team owners!

Can Bob Cramutola Hold On?

Congratulations to Bob Cramutola for holding the Number One overall position after Scott Jenstad led two weeks ago! Bob was in first on 7/4, 8/8, 8/15, 8/22, 8/29, 9/4, 9//11 – skipped 9/18 – and now 9/25 and 10/2! Just three days to go! Mr. Cramutola (he asked that everyone call him that) has a lead of 139.5 – increased from last week’s 74 points but this race is not over! Scott Jenstad is still in second, and I’m here to say that 139.5 points i not insurmountable – even in the final three days.

The rest of the pack is still fighting for every point – Steven Weimer is now 3^rd (and 7^th!); Ben Tidd is 4^th; Robert Mirshak and Ian Kahn are singing opera in 5^th; Ned Donohue jumps up to 6^th; Stephen Jupinka is 8^th; Scott Fleming is now 9^th (and 19^th!); and Bob Catsiroumpas is 10^th.

In addition, Bob Mazur is 11^th; Matthew Davis is still 12^th, Shawn Childs and Scott Waggener are one point apart in 13^th and 14^th; Charles Sommer leads Matt Hurley by 12 points in the battle for 15^th place; Kyle Brinkmann is 15.5 points behind Hurley in 17^th; and the famous David Bone/Alex Thistlewood pairing is in 18^th. Finally, Craig Clarke is holding onto 20^th place, which is the last overall position to get an additional payout – but has certainly not wrapped it up. It’s an outstanding job by all members of the top 20!

Philippe Dussault: 65^th and 74^th    

Philippe Dussault has really had an excellent year. He has followed up his unbelievable 2021 with an impressive two teams in the top 75 overall – and deserves our respect for his fine performance. Thanks Phil, for being an example we all can look up to.

League of Legends

In addition, we have followed the individual league races this season. It is no small feat to win a league championship in the Main Event regardless of a fantasy owner’s overall place, and with three days to go here are the Main Event owners who are currently situated in the top three in each league. The top three, of course, earn a cash prize and deserve recognition. You can see the 47 leagues listed in the chart below – along with the top three in the standings as of Monday morning.

In addition, I have highlighted the 15 leagues with at least one challenger within 5 points of first place with three days to go – that’s almost one-third of leagues that are really tight for the Main Event victory!

There are multiple NFBC players who are in the top three places in more than one Main Event league. Extremely impressive!

 Shout-outs:

• ONE FIRST; TWO SECOND; ONE THIRD – Brian Slack
• TWO FIRST; ONE SECOND – Ned Donohue
• TWO FIRST; ONE THIRD – Mark Srebro
• ONE FIRST; ONE SECOND; ONE THIRD – Stephen Jupinka
• ONE FIRST; TWO THIRD – Eric Heberlig
• TWO SECOND; ONE THIRD – Philippe Dussault
• TWO FIRST – Scott Jenstad and Scott Fleming
• ONE FIRST; ONE SECOND – Steven Weimer; Clark Olson; Scott Waggener; Rusty Clark
• ONE FIRST; ONE THIRD – Shawn Childs; Rob Silver; Richard Dimondo
• TWO SECOND –Robert DiPietro; Toby Guevin; Daniel Prepas
• ONE SECOND; ONE THIRD – John Pausma; Jeff Erickson
• TWO THIRD – Mike Rothe

GOOD LUCK OVER LAST 3 DAYS!