Whitestone’s Waiver Watch: NFBC Main Event (9/23)

The Final FAAB

MLB Counter = 96.3% of the season complete

There is now one week left in the season, so we are done with FAAB and have just two lineup sets remaining, and then it’ll all be over for 2024. But undaunted, I’m continuing a trip around the 57 Main Event leagues to try to find out which fantasy owners are likely to win a league title.

To be clear, this is an update on the last group (the previous three weeks we did the first three groups) of 15 Main Event leagues listed on the NFBC site, focusing on fantasy managers who have a chance to win the league as of Friday, September 20. In each league, there are likely unlisted teams that have a chance to finish second or third, but these charts are only focused on first place. Therefore, I’ve generally listed teams either in the top three places or within 10 points of the leader, in an effort to see which fantasy managers have a shot to win the league title.

There are five designations listed below:

• GROUP ONE – IT’S OVER (20 POINT OR MORE LEAD) – 3 leagues
• GROUP TWO – IT’S PROBABLY OVER (LEAD OF 12.0-19.5) – 2 leagues
• GROUP THREE – A GOOD CUSHION (LEAD OF 8.0-11.5) – 2 leagues
• GROUP FOUR – WORK TO DO (LEAD OF 4.0-7.5) – 5 leagues
• GROUP FIVE – DOGFIGHT (LEAD OF 3.5 OR LESS) – 3 leagues

Group One – Designation: It’s Over

Cavalcade of Stars – 23.5-Point Lead

League 1680 is definitely over. Michael DeCavalcante sported a 23.5-point lead as of Friday and has pulled away from the rest of the field, leaving the rest of this league in the dust. David McDonald and Sean Chambers (among others) have fought the good fight, but Michael has joined the cavalcade of stars in the Main Event. He’s also in 30th overall position as of Friday – so he has over a week to try to improve that position. Michael started his draft from the No. 15 slot with Matt Olson, Zack Wheeler, Marcus Semien and Emmanuel Clase.

My Favorite Martin – 21.0-Point Lead

Gregg Martin is a rising young star in the NFBC – who seemingly has this baseball thing figured out. Not sure how he did this, but rumor has it that he is from another planet in our solar system, which allows him to determine telepathically in advance which players will have a good week. Regardless, Gregg has built a 21.0-point lead with a little over a week to go, so this is all over from a league perspective. Gregg has won over solid players Tristan Hills and Matthew Dugan, but My Favorite Martin is also fourth overall as of Friday, so don’t rule him out of that competition. And finally, get this – his first four draft picks out of the No. 4 slot were Spencer Strider (out all season), Tyler Glasnow (pitched well but only got to 134 innings), Edwin Diaz and Jazz Chisholm. Fine work indeed!

The Jungle is Not Safe – 20.5-Point Lead

Our last big lead for this week is found in League 1778. And the culprit that ended all the fun in this league is Tyler (Welcome to the Jungle) Jung. Tyler has zoomed out to a 20.5-point lead, which will be more than enough to hold off the crowd led by Bryan Shorstein and Michael Amarante. In addition, as of Friday, Tyler’s team also sat in ninth overall position, so he has plenty to consider over the last week of games. Mr. Jung started out his draft from the 14th spot and picked up four solid players, José Ramírez, Zack Wheeler, Framber Valdez and Aaron Nola. That is one outstanding base.

Group Two – Designation: It’s Probably Over

Jason’s Third-Best Team – 16.0-Point Lead

Jason Santeiu, my goodness. He is leading three Main Event leagues, but this one is “only” 19th overall as of Friday. He must have made some mistakes here, right? Unfortunately for the rest of this league, he still has a 16.0-point margin and it doesn’t look like he’s really catchable. Tim Wagner and David Ehansipoor have done well but are really battling for second and third place positioning. Jason is another Main Event league winner with a late first-round draft slot (in this case #12) and led off this draft with Freddie Freeman, Elly De La Cruz, Gunnar Henderson and Jazz Chisholm.

Jason’s Second-Best Team – 12.0-Point Lead

No, this is not a mistake. Jason’s second-best team also has a solid lead in League 1676 – 12.0 points as of Friday. This team was second overall as of Friday, with a sizable cushion in the league over Todd Hoppe (who is 10th overall!) and Chet Lexvold. Jason drafted this team from the 15th position in the draft (sound familiar?) and got Shohei Ohtani, Elly De La Cruz, Oneil Cruz and Emmanuel Clase. Yikes.

Group Three – Designation: A Good Cushion

Schroter the Boater – 9.5-Point Lead

League 1692 proves that once a champ, always a champ. Glenn Schroter won the Overall Main Event in 2015 and led the overall competition this year for much of the middle part of the season. He faded a bit since then but did not lose control of this league and now has a comfortable margin over second-place Leonard Ringle (who has to battle with James Rodriguez). Schroter, who can often be found on his big yacht on a pristine lake, is also an outstanding 15th overall this year, so he’s done just great. How did he start his draft? He had the No. 3 position (at least this wasn’t a back half pick again) and went with Bobby Witt Jr., Tyler Glasnow, C.J.Abrams and Bobby Miller. A couple of slight misses on the pitchers, but Witt makes up for a lot of sins. Great job Glenn!

The Book Collects the Vig – 9.5-Point Lead

Zachary Viglianco is also looking good in League 1707, where he built a 9.5-point lead. He’s safely ahead of Glenn Giro and David Miller, so he’s just killing time over the final week to try to ease toward the finish. Be careful though, Zachary, because you aren’t quite home free yet. In any case, Zachary started out from slot 15 (another one!) and drafted Aaron Judge, Matt Olson, Logan Webb and Aaron Nola. That’s a nice, solid start.

Group Four – Designation: Work to Do

Doogie Does It – 7.5-Point Lead

Now the leagues are getting a little tighter. Matthew Dugan may have the seventh-ranked overall team as of last Friday, but he isn’t sure about winning League 1658. That’s because Chris Uram is scratching and clawing as much as possible hoping to close the 7.5-point gap. Doogie drafted out of the five-hole in this league and started out with Mookie Betts, Pete Alonso, Pablo López and Jazz Chisholm. Stay tuned though, because this promises to be a fight to the finish.

The Finnish Flash – 7.0-Point Lead

Ah, Finland. The Land of a Thousand Lakes. Despite this nickname, there are actually more than 180,000 lakes in Finland, according to my source, Jordan Rosenblum. Jordan is one of the few fantasy baseball-playing people in this great country (hard to believe I know), but he says he is really known locally as “The Flash” because of his great speed over the land (or perhaps over the ice?). In any case, Jordan had a 7.0-point lead over the rest of the league a couple of days ago and was also 17th overall as well. This, in my view, is an outstanding job. All of Finland is probably on the edge of their seat right now, hoping for a victory. Right, Jordan? Jordan started his draft from the third position with Bobby Witt Jr., Kevin Gausman, Vladimir Guerrero and Framber Valdez, so he seems pretty smart to me…

Corey’s Story? – 7.0-Point Lead

Corey M Evans is in front in League 1685, sporting a 7.0-point lead. So while it’s not completely comfortable, he does have the edge over his nearest competitor David Deterra in the last few days. Corey was smart enough to draft Shohei Ohtani from the 11th position and followed that up with Aaron Judge (wow, Ohtani and Judge!), Oneil Cruz and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Pretty darn good if you ask me. Corey also wants everyone to know that if he holds on he will divulge what the “M” stands for at the Las Vegas drafts next spring, so we probably should all be pulling for him, right?

Scott Has A Shot – 5.0-Point Lead

Scott Fleming is a solid fantasy baseball manager. But this league is pretty tough, as there are four players within nine points of the lead as of Friday. Scott did say “League 1820 is MINE!” a few weeks back, but that didn’t automatically give him the title. In fact, when you have Danny Bronski, Tyler Jung (he’s everywhere) and Tom Rodriguez on your tail, you have to grit your teeth through the last game of the season. Scott is trying to hold on after drafting his team from the 11th position where he got Freddie Freeman, Elly De La Cruz, Bobby Miller and Oneil Cruz.

Cramutola is on a Roll-a – 4.5-Point Lead

League 1837 is even tighter still! Robert Cramutola, the 2022 Overall Main Event Champ, led by just 4.5 measly points on Friday over never-say-die Alan Mitchell (who wants to be Rich-ell). Cramutola sports the 14th-best overall team this season, so by rights he should be in good shape, but I wouldn’t count your chickens just yet (do people still do that – count chickens, I mean?). This should be very close, but let’s see how Robert started out the season…it was from the fifth draft position where he got Bobby Witt Jr., Tarik Skubal, Michael Harris and Framber Valdez. Will it be enough?

Group Five – Designation: Dogfight

Anthony is not Donisch – 3.5-Point Lead

Now to our final three leagues – the closest of all out of our final 15. First up is League 1714, where Anthony Donisch, who likes a good danish but reminds me that he is not Danish, is leading Mike Ballschmiede (who owns a line of sporting goods stores) by just 3.5 points. Now, as of Friday, these two ranked eighth and 16th overall, respectively, so this is no ordinary shootout. Instead, this will undoubtedly go down to the wire as they fight for both league and overall positioning. Anthony drafted from the No. 8 spot in this league, where he picked up Shohei Ohtani, Rafael Devers, Tarik Skubal and Framber Valdez.

Step on the Gacioch – 1.0-Point Lead

Okay, you thought that was close? How about League 1649? David Gacioch had a one-point lead as of Friday over David Bone, and two points over FTN Favorite Jason Anthony. I don’t know how to handicap this one, so I think we’ll just have to say all three are in the hunt and anything could happen. Not helpful? Sorry. David started out from the fifth position and drafted Mookie Betts, Rafael Devers, Kevin Gausman and Zach Eflin. This is gonna be a nailbiter!

Don’t Let the Tail Wagg the Del Don – TIED

And finally, we have League 1650. In this league, there are four fantasy managers within 7.5 points of the lead, and at the top as of Friday were star fantasy players Scott Waggener and Dalton Del Don in a flat-footed tie (why are ties flat-footed, anyway?). But don’t forget about Mark Kieffer, 1.5 points back, or even wily Jeff Mitseff (7.5 points behind). This could be decided in the final at bat of the final game next Sunday. Scott started from the third slot and took Bobby Witt Jr., Bryce Harper, Kevin Gausman and Zach Eflin, while Dalton had the No. 11 position and started out with Juan Soto, Tyler Glasnow, Oneil Cruz and Blake Snell. Good luck to all four managers over the final few days!

NFBC Main Event FAAB #27: The Final FAAB

In FAAB #27 on September 22, spending trickled down even further as Main Event owners spent their last pennies. The top-10 widest acquisitions this week are in the chart below, and Main Event owners (see below) were scattered attempting to pick up players who fit their specific categorical needs. The most intriguing option was Luisangel Acuña, who has been hitting a ton since his call-up to fill in for Francisco Lindor. His performance spurred 35 managers to add him with an average winning bid of over $6 (wow – over $6!). Second was the Braves’ Ozzie Albies, who got an average winning bid of $10. The No. 3 and No. 4 widest additions were two Angels (one in the outfield) Eric Wagaman at $4 and ace pitcher Jack Kochanowicz (who gets two starts next week) at $6. Outside of the top 10, there were just two winning average bids of $10 or more (with at least five leagues added): Luis Castillo with an average winning bid of $12 in seven leagues and Pavin Smith $12 in six leagues.

NFBC Main Event – Luis is an Angel

Winning Bids over $100 and $200

I also kept tabs on players attracting the highest individual FAAB bids this year. In the 27th and final run on September 22, there were no winning bids over $200 or even $100. That keeps the final total of large bids this season to 311 winning bids over $200 and 803 winning bids between $100 and $199.

The Wow Bid of the Week: Clay is Moldable

The highest overall bid in FAAB Week 27 was for Clay Holmes of the New York Yankees, who was added in two of 57 Main Event leagues. The top bid for Holmes was, wait for it, $45. Of course this was the 27th-highest (OK, in other words the lowest) Wow Bid out of the 27 registered, but on the bright side it easily beat out the unsuccessful runner-up bid of $0.

The Wow Bids of 2024

• 3/24: Nolan Schanuel $200 (21)
• 3/31: Jason Foley $479 (5)
• 4/7: James McArthur $225 (19)
• 4/14 Brandon Nimmo $578 (3)
• 4/21 Wilyer Abreu $350 (13)
• 4/28 Pete Crow-Armstrong $355 (12)
• 5/5 Christian Scott $677 (Highest)
• 5/12 Taj Bradley $444 (7)
• 519 Reed Garrett $420 (8)
• 5/26 Wyatt Langford $248 (18)
• 6/2 Ben Brown $366 (10)
• 6/9 Blake Snell $360 (11)
• 6/16 Ryne Stanek $261 (17)
• 6/23 Michael Harris $281 (15)
• 6/30 Noelvi Marte $509 (4)
• 7/7 James Wood $462 (6)
• 7/14 Rece Hinds $609 (2)
• 7/21 Jordan Montgomery $189 (23)
• 7/28 Robbie Ray $400 (9)
• 8/4 Devin Williams $320 (14)
• 8/11 Ryan Walker $185 (24)
• 8/18 Zebby Matthews $217 (20)
• 8/25 Matt Waldron $199 (22)
• 9/1 Dylan Crews $271 (16)
• 9/8 Rhys Hoskins $120 (26)
• 9/15 Kumar Rocker $121 (25)
• 9/22 Clay Holmes $45 (27)

FAAB Summary: It’s Done

In the 27th FAAB week, Main Event owners successfully made 953 winning bids (about 18% less than last week), and the spending was – well, whatever was available. This year in total, Main Event owners spent approximately $931 of their $1,000 allocation, and this total amount finishes at the lowest level in the last three years (see below). This year’s Week 26 had spending of about $5 per team, compared to 2023 ($3), 2022 ($2) and 2021 ($4) levels. It’s interesting (to me, anyway) that owners spent at a slower pace in 2024 and never fully caught up. In previous years, about $40-50 per team has gone unspent due to owners throwing in the towel at the end of the year, but this year it reached almost $69 ($68.71).

Total Spent: Main Event Through 25 FAAB Periods

• 2024: $931
• 2023: $956
• 2022: $942
• 2021: $943

FAAB Spending Summary 2024:

Overall Leaderboard: Jason, Jason Jason 

Jason Santieu is trying to make a mockery of this contest. He’s in first place and second place overall with one week to go (and oh, by the way, 21st overall as well) ahead of some pretty smart and savvy fantasy baseball managers – notably Clark (The Shark) Olson, who is currently third. The thing is, though, that the margin is thin enough that there could still be movement in the last week. First of all, Jason leads Jason by only 83 points (pretty exciting, right?). But Clark is still fighting and is just 99.0 points away from first place. These two competitors are doing something special this season: Clark has four Main Event entries currently ranked third, 24th, 61st and 177th, but The Great Santini also has four Main Event entries and they are first, second, 21st and, wait for it, 485th. I can’t figure out the 485th team. That somehow seems more of a mystery to me than the team leading this contest.

Main Event Leaders in 2024

Let’s also mention My Favorite Martin – Gregg Martin – in fourth place overall, who has done great things but fell back this week from 128 points out of first to 258 back. He might not win the overall, but he has earned nothing but respect for himself and the rest of his people on Mars. And rounding out the top five is our Tony Award Winner Tony DiVincenzo, who is 411 points back and has proven his mettle over this long season.

The fresher Eric Drescher and Anthony Donisch (who likes a good danish) are holding in sixth and seventh, while Matthew Dugan (Doogie) is now eighth (from 10th). Todd Hoppe hops up to ninth from 11th and Tyler (Welcome to the Jungle) Jung rounds out the top 10 in fine shape. 

The Four “Bs” come next – Benger, Brody, Beckman and Ballschmiede. Drummer Griffin Benger is still on a roll and finds himself in 11th place overall, followed by Brody (the Coyote) John, Robert Beckman and the impressive Mike Ballschmiede in 14th. Following them is the irrepressible Robert Cramutola – Main Event Overall Champ in 2022 – who is in 15th place this year.

Then we have another Overall Main Event former Champ, Glenn Schroter, in 16th overall (these guys like hanging out together) and Eddie Gillis zooms up from 24th to 17th this week. The Finnish Flash Jordan Rosenblum is in 18th; another Mike Ballschmiede team is 19th overall and Andrew Deninno checks into 20th place from his den in Denton.

Others receiving votes include: Jason Santeiu’s third-best team in 21st overall; Real Neil Petersen in 22nd, Rotowire Prospect Guru James Anderson in 23rd and Clark Olson’s second-best team in 24th.

But all 31 of these fantasy managers are in the hunt for sure, and in a big 855-team contest like the Main Event, that’s very impressive, right? Nice job!

Top 31: Main Event 2024

League of Legends

Here are the 57 Main Event leagues with the current top three in the standings as of Monday morning!

Top Three: 2024 Main Event League Leaders

Shoutouts

There are some notable fantasy managers who have multiple teams placing in the Main Event at this late stage of the season, and they certainly deserve a shoutout! Leading the way is (of course) Robert Cramutola with two firsts and two seconds. Wow. Not to be outdone, Kyle Brinkmann has one first, two seconds and one third. Clark the Shark Olson has one first and three seconds. Jason Santeiu and Tyler Jung have three first places, which is also outstanding; Mike Ballschmiede has one first and two seconds, and two fantasy managers – Dave Rhydderch and Bill Gaffney – have the across-the-board positions of one first, one second and one third. Dalton Del Don has two seconds and one third, while Scott Waggener has three, count ‘em, three thirds. Those 10 fantasy managers alone have 13 first places, 13 seconds and seven thirds. Yikes.

But see below, as there are other fantasy managers with outstanding results. In fact, these 26 stars account for 23 first-places (40% of the total) and 65 cashing positions (38%), leaving not much for the rest of the field!

Two firsts; two seconds – Robert Cramutola
One first; two seconds; one third – Kyle Brinkmann
One first; three seconds – Clark Olson
Three firsts – Jason Santeiu, Tyler Jung
One first; two seconds – Mike Ballschmiede
One first; one second, one third – Dave Rhydderch, Bill Gaffney
Two seconds; one third – Dalton Del Don
Three thirds – Scott Waggener
Two firsts – Bradley Libros
One first; one second – Chris Uram; Alan Mitchell
One first; one third – John Pausma; Gregg Martin; Glenn Schroter; Michael O’Brien; Matthew Shepherd; James Gabal
Two Seconds – Abdulaziz Madani
One second; one third – David Miller; Joe Green; Andrew Sullivan; Philippe Dussault
Two thirds – Nelson Sousa; Brian Ambos

Good luck to all the competitors in the final week!