Whitestone’s Waiver Watch: NFBC Main Event (5/5)

Closing Time

2025 MLB Counter: 21.2% of games played

Slamming the Door

As you’d probably guess, the number of saves in MLB year-to-year stays about the same — usually about 25-26% of all games result in a save. This year is no exception, as there have been 269 saves through Saturday out of 1,028 total games (26%). The important question, though, is how well fantasy managers have been able to mine the saves that do occur. Frequent turnover by closers works against rostering saves, as does shared closing duties between two or more pitchers. Over the years, the Main Event 80% mark — usually cited as the bar needed to compete in the overall championship — is generally around 70 saves (see chart below). While it seems that the first month of 2025 has been difficult for the saves landscape, the 80% mark in the Main Event is actually at 17 saves — which works out to a full year total of 83 — significantly above the usual total. While we may not end up at 83 this season, it certainly argues against the idea that saves are more difficult to accumulate in 2025 — at least thus far.

Main Event 80% Saves 2019-2025 YTD

Drafting Closers

This is a chart of most of the top relievers drafted in the Main Event in March 2025 (without showing the secondary relievers drafted as backups) along with their ADP. I’ve also created a super-secret formula based on just saves and WHIP through Sunday to show you definitively how these draft selections have performed in the early going. Sure, there are other statistics that you can use (strikeouts, ERA, wins) to measure contributions to your fantasy team, but I prefer to show you the key statistics (this means I was too lazy to make it more complicated).

The chart shows there are four relievers — Mason Miller, Andrés Muñoz, Robert Suarez, Kyle Finnegan — who have earned a lofty grade of A. These have all been outstanding draft choices, and while one could say Miller and Muñoz were expected, Suarez and Finnegan were not (at least by me!). Nine more pitchers were graded B, five were at C, 10 at D and two failed completely — Jordan Romano and Chris Martin (although the latter never really got a chance). So since 12 of 29 choices are at D or F, I think it shows that it’s a tricky business drafting closers — there were land mines littered all over the draft board.

These 29 relievers account for 187 saves through Sunday, which is 70% of the MLB total, and have pitched to an average WHIP of 1.19 (the MLB average WHIP stands at 1.29 this season).

Top Relievers Drafted in the Main Event by ADP

Most Common FAAB Pickups in the Main Event: How Do I Get to Hogland?

Main Event Most Added Players: High on the Hoglund?

The top-10 FAAB acquisitions from Sunday are in the chart below, and Gunnar Hoglund, the former Ole Miss phenom who was excelling at Triple-AAA Las Vegas, was this most added player in the Main Event Sunday. Previously unrostered, he pitched beautifully Friday and was added as a result in all 57 leagues for an average price of $69. He’s slated to start against Seattle next week and perhaps could carve out a regular slot in the Athletic rotation if he performs well. Coby Mayo, former star prospect, was added in 50 leagues and was the second-most popular pickup, as he will have a chance to totally redeem himself with regular at bats in the wake of injuries to Jordan Westburg and Ramón Urías. Main Event managers are always looking for closers, and even though some Main Event managers were rather agnostic about Rockies’ closers, Zach Agnos was added by 49 intrepid managers as he seems to have some true believers. Tony Gonsolin was the fourth most-added player due to his good start and the fact that his place in the Dodger rotation appears secure. He was the only player in the 10 most added to attract a high average winning bid — at $166.

New Feature: Top Additions Based on Total FAAB Dollars Spent This Week (Tony for All the Money)

We’re adding a new feature this week — the top 10 acquisitions in the Main Event based on the total FAAB dollars spent. (And you readers said the staff at Whitestone’s Waiver Watch was not innovative! Come on!) Obviously, this chart can highlight players who have a higher average winning bid even though they were picked up in fewer leagues. Tony Gonsolin was far and away the leader here at $7,655 spent on his services, with Gunnar Hoglund second at $3,929. But there are a few different names on this list other than the first chart sorted by most additions — Javier Báez, Ben Casparius, Shelby Miller and Tyler O’Neill. Just for context, the $7,655 spent on Gonsolin represents about 0.9% of all FAAB available at the beginning of the season to all 855 Main Event managers.

The Wow Bid of the Week: A TON of Fun!

So who attracted the highest single bids of Week 7 FAAB? It turns out that someone was Tyler O’Neill of the Orioles at a — wow — hefty $522 figure (runner up $144). O’Neill was available in five leagues, and prices ranged from this top bid to two in the $100-199 range and two bargains under $100 (the lowest successful bid was $73). The average winning bid for O’Neill was a substantial $194 — largely because of this one big bid.

In addition to the players in the charts above, there were three other notable players added in one league each: Jackson Holliday ($323), Kyle Stowers ($300) and Luis Mey ($189), a 23-year-old Cincinnati Reds pitcher just recently recalled.

FAAB Summary: $390 Spent; $610 Remains

In the first seven FAAB weeks, Main Event managers have recorded 11,346 winning bids (2% more than the 11,113 in first seven weeks of last year — and about 13 total winning bids per Main Event team) and spent about $390 of their $1,000 allocation on those 13 winning bids. Spending is up about 7% over last year’s total of $365 in the first seven weeks. Since there were no huge targets like on last week’s Nick Kurtz and Agustín Ramírez, the average Main Event winning bid was just $29 in week seven, which was below the average winning bid of $33 in this week last season. Still, the average Main Event manager spent a healthy $62 — a mark which will inevitably fall as we move into the summer.

The Colosseum: 1 Thumbs Up; 5 Thumbs Down

Each week during the season, I’ll review the most common Main Event pickups from three weeks ago and evaluate whether it was a good addition based on the early stats (thumbs up); a bad idea (thumbs down); or simply a push. In 2024, these pickups were rated as 30 thumbs up (38%), a little worse than in 2023 (44% up).

Our fourth set of Colosseum combatants is listed below. This group is from April 13, and the top hitter addition that week — Chase Meidroth of the White Sox — did reasonably well but sustained an injury and didn’t accumulate enough stats to really help his owners. He gets a thumbs down. Jake Meyers of the Astros, on the other hand, has performed very well (even though a great deal of his production was in one two-homer game). That earned him a thumbs up from the emperor. And finally, Amed Rosario of the Nationals was supposed to steal bases but didn’t play all that much (29 AB) and didn’t steal a base. That’s a thumbs down. 

On the pitching side, three starting pitchers were the major additions April 13, and let’s just say this didn’t go well. J.T. Ginn of the Athletics threw 8.1 innings with an ERA of 6.48 before an injury struck, Chase Dollander of the Rockies threw more innings but with an even worse ERA (7.53), and Easton Lucas of the Blue Jays — well, if you’re a strong person you can glance at his stat line below. I wouldn’t study it too long, though. Nevertheless, Mr. Lucas is back in Buffalo and the Main Event managers who rostered him are still in recovery mode. All three get a thumbs down. That’s one up, no pushes, and five down and makes the cumulative score 10 up; three pushes; and 11 down after four weeks (42% thumbs up). Hopefully better weeks are in store moving forward.

The Most Added Free Agents from 3 Weeks Ago: Hitters

The Most Added Free Agents from 3 Weeks Ago: Pitchers

Overall Leaderboard: I’m Not Kidding

Well, it seems The Kid Ben Tidd didn’t like dropping down the leaderboard (he was fourth last week) and took matters rather seriously this week. He’s back to his customary top spot and claims he will stay there this time. Since my teams are nowhere near the top, I’m in no position to argue. But there are other contenders who don’t appreciate Ben’s leadership style. In second place is the well-known hashtag of @thefanaddict (a tag team of Brian Ambos and Adam Ronis), who were in first place last week. But in addition Ross (the iceberg) Berg who has moved from eighth into third and Kyle Brinkmann — geez, Kyle Brinkmann — is fourth, 12th and 14th. 

The top 34 Main Event entrants will earn a prize from the overall pool this year in addition to any league prizes awarded, and other notables include the dangerous Jason Santeiu in fifth, Mike Cameron in sixth and the man with no shirt or shoes, Kyle Pantalone in seventh. Also worth mentioning is Opera Aficionado Robert Mirshak, who is both 23rd and 24th overall.

Even though it’s still early, making the top 34 is a significant accomplishment — and we’ll follow the chase for the Main Event overall crown all season to see who can come out on top.

NFBC Main Event Overall Standings 

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2025 Final Table CLQ & Qualifier Standings

The first chart below shows the first annual CLQ Championship League Standings — these are the 15 fantasy managers who qualified last season by finishing with the best combined score in an across-the-board competition and therefore were invited to compete in an auction league in March. If you’re unaware, the CLQ requires fantasy managers to enter one specified team in the Online Championship, the Draft Champions and the Main Event. These top 15 in the 2024 CLQ qualified for this first-ever auction league with significant prize money at stake built from entry fees from all CLQ entrants (201 fantasy managers entered this competition in 2024). It’s the best of the best in a no-holds-barred 15-team league, so we’ll track it to see who can become the initial Champions League Champ (the Champs Champ?) — and this week Chris Uram has extended his lead — he now has 113.5 points — over the two second place fantasy managers — Brody John (aka Shawn Johnson) and Tim Sansome at 95.5 points. Fan favorite Toby Guevin is right in the thick of things in fourth place at 95.0, with Matt Leahy and Neil Petersen definitely in contention at 93.5 and 92.5 respectively.

Below that, I’m showing here the race for the NFBC CLQ — the Champions League Qualifier for next March. The top 14 in the CLQ qualify for the 2026 Champions auction league (the champion of the 2025 Champions Auction league automatically is invited back to defend their title). You can see the current 14 leading contenders to make the auction table in 2026 out of the 155 intrepid souls who entered this year. Matt Poole is leading the pack despite doing a great deal of swimming, while Kyle Pantalone sits on the pool deck with his shirt off. Aaron Jones, who plays for the Minnesota Vikings in his spare time, sits comfortably in third, Erik Sviggum, who owns significant stock in the Wrigley Corporation, is fourth, Michael Armstrong is in strong position in fifth, and Spencer Farmery is tending effectively to his crops in sixth. But all 14 of these fantasy managers have done an excellent job and have a leg up to be at the final table next March.

Good luck to all the fantasy managers in May — there’s still a long way to go!

2025 Final Table CLQ 

Champions League Qualifier Standings