Two And A Half…Men?

MLB SEASON COUNTER 89.7%

There are 17 days left in the Major League Baseball regular season; two more FAAB sessions and five more lineup sets  – or two and a half weeks. That’s at least enough time to pick up two and half men in FAAB (see what I did there? Thank you. I’ll be here all week.) Through Sunday September 18^h, we have hit 90%. Fantasy players entered in the Main Event have pushed through 25 FAAB runs (of 27) and have just the final two FAAB exercises yet to go – slated for September 25^th and October 2^nd.

Domingo Domination

Domingo Acevedo proved to be the most widely added player this past week, as there are fantasy owners still pining for help in the saves category. But not even Acevedo was added in 30 leagues, as the targets got more and more diffuse. Some Main Event owners need stolen bases, some need power, and others need strikeouts. But for those that are hunting saves, Acevedo looked good, and he was picked up in 26 leagues. In addition, 9 other players were picked up in 18 or more leagues (see chart below) – as fantasy managers prepared for the final push. Other additions included Hayden Yonathan Daza – who gets the benefit of the Rockies’ last home week; and Edward Olivares – who knows the way from Omaha to Kansas City like the back of his hand.

Domingo Acevedo: 26

Hayden Wesneski: 25

Yonathan Daza: 25

Edward Olivares: 25

Wade Miley: 22

Aaron Civale: 21

Bailey Ober: 20

Zach McKinstry: 20

Tyler Wells: 18

Carlos Santana: 18

The 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 $111 bid for Hunter Greene, who was added In 2 leagues. In one case, though, an owner won Greene’s services handily – $111 to the $22 runner-up amount (the other league he was won $5 to $3).

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

The Century Club Forced to Reopen!

IMAGE – CENTURY CLUB

Even though last week was the first time this season that there were no bids of $100 or more, there WERE people applying this week! Not only was Hunter Greene a new entrant, but he was joined by Aristedes Aquino, who got a solo bid of $103!.

Hunter Greene: $111

Average Main Event Team FAAB Remaining: $64

For the 25 FAAB runs thus far, there have been 32,681 winning bids recorded. That means the average Main Event team has won 46.4 bids this season (dropping down to 1.85 from 1.88 winning bids per team per week) and spent $936.25 per team. This dollar amount is just slightly ahead of last season’s pace (by 0.4%) when $932.35 was spent per team in the same time frame. In addition, approximately $57 per team went unspent last year as fantasy owners fell out of the running, so the active FAAB dollars left per team is more likely around $7 ($64-$57) for the final 2 FAAB runs.

Colosseum Stats: Four Players from Three Weeks Ago…Results: 3 Good Bids out of 4

IMAGE – GLADIATOR

Again this season we’ll be keeping 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 22^nd FAAB run this season – on 8/28 (stats are from 8/29 through 9/18):

·      Rafael Montero: 8.0 IP; 0 ER; 0.00 ERA; 0.13 WHIP; 9 K; 0 BB; 0 WINS; 4 SAVES – Wow – this worked out beautifully! Montero was added when Pressly was sidelined, and as he has for most of the season, filled in admirably – and the four saves were a great help to many owners. WIN.

·      Matt Manning: 19.2 IP; 11 ER; 5.03 ERA; 1.17 WHIP; 13 K; 5 BB; 1 WIN – I’m not going to lie, I can’t figure Manning out myself. Just when I think he is going to be bad, he fires a gem. And just when I think he’s turned the corner, he has a poor outing. In the four starts since his wide pickup he got rocked by Seattle; then lasted just four innings with 2 ER against lowly KC; pitched a nice 6.1 innings for the win in a return match with KC; and fired 7 shutout innings against the White Sox. So you tell me what’s next! – PUSH.

·      Brayan Bello: 20.1 IP; 6 ER; 2.66 ERA; 1.28 WHIP; 20 K; 9 BB; 1 WIN – Now this looks better to me – Bello has really helped his fantasy owners – with a good ERA, a decent WHIP, and a nice strikeout total – WIN.

·      Brandon Hughes: 9.2 IP; 4 ER; 3.72 ERA; 1.03 WHIP; 5 K; 3 BB; 0 WINS; 2 SAVES – the Cubs aren’t sure who they should use to close games, but I think Hughes is the right choice. In his eight outings in the past three weeks he hasn’t blown any saves, and he’s picked up two. He may not be the biggest strikeout guy, but I think he can get the job done. Even with the stats he’s produced over the last three weeks, I think this is another WIN.

2022 RECORD:

Ø  32 thumbs up – 38% (full year 2021 24%)

Ø  17 side thumbs – 20% (full year 2021 27%)

Ø  35 thumbs down – 42% (full year 2021 49%)

IMAGE – THUMBS UP/SIDE/DOWN

Main Event owners bounced back strongly from last week’s analysis, when we awarded four losses. This week the 3-for-4 effort pushes up the cumulative record of top adds in the Main Event. Through the first 25 FAAB periods good pickups stand at 38% compared to the 24% rate from last season, so Main Event owners have been averaging more than one good add per week thus far (32 good adds in 25 FAAB periods). I’m not sure if we should expect the 2022 or 2021 rate going forward, but either way it’s a good performance by the 705 Main Event teams.

We Have a New Leader!

Congratulations to Scott Jenstad for taking the Number One overall position after Bob Cramutola (aka “Big Bucks Bob”) was in first on 7/4, 8/8, 8/15, 8/22, 8/29. 9/4 and 9//11! However, Scott’s lead is a mere 6 points so there is no way to assume this race is over. This promises to be a much closer overall race than last season, when Phil Dussault won rather easily. Big Bucks Bob is out of FAAB so his team is set It’s going to be close!

The rest of the pack is in hot pursuit – Ben Tidd is 3^rd; Ned Donohue is 4^th; the Opera singers Robert Mirshak and Ian Kahn are in 5^th; Robert Catsiroumpas is 6^th; Steven Weimer is 7^th AND 8^th; Craig Clarke is now 9^th, and Scott Fleming is 10^th. It’s an outstanding job by all members of the top 20!

Philippe Dussault: 60^th and 78^th 

Philippe Dussault is moving up. He’s now a very respectable 60^th (and 78^th) overall – and says he doesn’t like the way I’ve treated him in these articles. As a past champ, Phil believes there should be some realization that he is above the fray and not to be trifled with. OK, OK, Phil. Have it your way…

Where are our 2022 Previous Overall Leaders?

Tim Lilly (4/11): Tim was moving up; reaching to 393^rd two weeks ago  – but fell back to 447^th last week and is now 501^st. Tim admits that it is “unlikely” that he finishes #1 overall “and maybe the top 20 is a long shot.” He says he will be back next season, though, and claims that there was one fantasy baseball article that threw off his concentration and cost him the overall victory.

Scott Fleming (4/18): Scott is 10^th AND 12^th overall – outstanding – and he is cashing in three Main Event leagues (see below)! He wants me to pass along his thanks to the Scottish Government because their sponsorship has allowed him to concentrate on fantasy baseball and not earning a living. I asked him what they gave him for agreeing to this sponsorship, and he replied “A lifetime supply of haggis!”

Chris Read (4/25-5/8): Chris is now down to 92^nd this week and blames it on the fact that Reader’s Digest wrote him that “it is unlikely that we will act positively on your application, but we thank you for your interest in our company.” He is taking this as a bad sign.

Tyler Jung (5/15): Tyler dropped back a bit to 39^th overall (from 29^th), but more importantly, we left our story when Tyler was on the way back from his “Welcome to the Jungle” tour in deepest, darkest Africa. If you recall, he boarded a flight in Maputo in Mozambique; his plane was re-routed to Reykjavic; he says took a ferry to Greenland; and boarded a trawler across the Labrador Sea bound for Goose Bay in Newfoundland. Upon arrival in Goose Bay, he wrangled his way with a local truck driver that was heading south to Montpelier, Vermont, and caught a Greyhound Bus in Montpelier trying to get to Youngstown, Ohio (or as Tyler likes to put it – JUNG stown). He now is planning to go to Arlington, Texas to see his nephew Josh Jung.

Leonard Ringle (5/22-29): Leonard is in 17^th place, down slightly from 16^th last week (nice job Leonard!) and says he is looking forward to mingling with the other Main Event owners next March after he sings his jingle about being single.

Bob Catsiroumpas (7/11, 7/18, 7/25 and 8/1): Bob held the lead for four straight weeks and is still fighting for the top in 6^th overall – and says his work at Montana State is paying off. He is working out with the Bobcats football squad three times per day and says “don’t worry about that 68-28 loss Saturday to Oregon State, we’re just waiting in the weeds for the game against the University of Montana!”

Mark Bendar (6/6; 6/20; 6/27): Mark dropped from 26^th overall to 43^rd and more importantly released this photo of of him with David Beckham…

League of Legends

In addition, we’ll follow 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 the top three in each league earn a cash prize and deserve recognition.

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

 Shout-outs:

·      THREE FIRST – Mark Srebro

·      TWO FIRST; TWO THIRD – Brian Slack

·      TWO FIRST; ONE SECOND – Ned Donohue

·      ONE FIRST; ONE SECOND; ONE THIRD – Scott Waggener

·      ONE FIRST; TWO SECOND – Philippe Dussault

·      ONE FIRST; TWO THIRD – Eric Heberlig

·      ONE SECOND; TWO THIRD – John Pausma

·      TWO FIRST – Scott Jenstad and Scott Fleming

·      ONE FIRST; ONE SECOND – Steven Weimer; Rob Silver; Robert Cramutola; Stephen Jupinka

·      ONE FIRST; ONE THIRD – Clark Olson; Shawn Childs

·      TWO SECOND –Robert DiPietro; Toby Guevin

·      TWO THIRD: Stephen Fiore and Daniel Prepas

GOOD LUCK OVER LAST 17 DAYS (the MLB regular season ends October 5^th)!