Whitestone’s Waiver Watch: NFBC Main Event (9/18)

Our Finest Hour

Welcome to my weekly NFBC Main Event recap article. Each week, I’ll dig into the top free agents added in this premier fantasy baseball contest, letting you know who was added in the most leagues, how much money was spent and more. In addition, we’ll revisit the top pickups from three weeks ago and even scan the Main Event overall standings to see who’s at the top. 

MLB Counter = 92.4% of the season complete

Remaining

• Weeks: 2
• FAABs: 1
• Lineup Sets: 4 (counting today)
• Days: 14

There are just two weeks left in the regular season, and for Main Event owners, it’s crunch time. League Championships and Overall Positions are still up for grabs, and it just comes down to player performance and gut calls. There’s no use arguing about each individual decision, which was summed up well in the following exchange on “Apollo 13”:

Jim Lovell: All right! There are a thousand things that have to happen in order – we are on Number 8, you’re talking about Number 692.

Just make sure you don’t make that big mistake – that one that might haunt you in the offseason. Jack Swigert in “Apollo 13” figured out how to avoid this, and you might be well served to do something similar… 

Lovell: (pointing to yellow post-it with “NO’ written on it attached to a switch) – What is that?

Jack Swigert: Oh… I was getting a little punchy and I… I didn’t

wanna cut the LEM loose with you guys still in it.

Lovell: (long pause) That’s good thinking, Jack.

The top-30 entrants in the Main Event are listed later in the article – but with three weeks to go, here are are the top-five contenders for the 2023 crown and the only Main Event teams within 400 points of the top:

• Brian Slack and Dylan White
• Bob Catsiroumpas
• Gregg Martin
• Brandon King
• John Pausma
• Rey Diaz

Remember to Be Positive – Don’t Even Think About Losing

Most Common FAAB Pickups in the Main Event: Go Long

The No. 1 pickup this week was the deep threat, Sawyer Gipson-Long of the Tigers. Gipson-Long struck out 11 Angels in a no-decision on Saturday, which certainly served to raise his profile. And he lines up for an attractive matchup against the Athletics in the coming week. Gipson-Long was added in 47 Main Event leagues on Sunday as owners scrambled for starting pitchers for the final two weeks.

The 10 widest acquisitions are in the chart below, and in addition to Gipson-Long, they also feature a returning star from a few years back – Kris Bryant of the Colorado Rockies. Can Bryant recapture the magic over the final two weeks of the campaign? Well, one thing that might help Bryant perform well is the final week of the regular season, when the Rockies will be playing at Coors Field. He just might be great! The third-highest pickup was a rookie, Ceddanne Rafaela of the Red Sox, who is leading off and hitting well, while the fourth-highest pickup was Julian Merryweather, possibly the new Cubs closer. John Means, who might get a start or two to tune up for the playoffs, was added in 33 leagues and was therefore the fifth-highest pickup. The rest of the top-10 free-agent pickups are shown below – but in truth, there is a lot of disparity in the free-agent additions as fantasy team owners try to solidify their hold on different rotisserie categories.

The Wow Bid of the Week

So, who attracted the highest single bid of the week? The highest winning bid was for Red Sox outfielder Wilyer Abreu with a winning bid of $86.

• 3/26: Darick Hall $221
• 4/2: Dany Jiménez $363
• 4/9 Oscar Colás $372
• 4/16 Taj Bradley $557
• 4/23 José Alvarado $399
• 4/30 Tanner Bibee $504
• 5/7 Bryce Miller $468
• 5/14 Eury Pérez $415
• 5/21 Bobby Miller $329
• 5/28 Bobby Miller $412
• 6/4 Royce Lewis $429
• 6/11 Elly De La Cruz $650
• 6/18 Emmet Sheehan $178
• 6/25 Gavin Williams $228 (2)
• 7/2 Jordan Westburg $177
• 7/9 Colton Cowser $225
• 7/16 Aroldis Chapman $316
• 7/23 Christian Encarnacion-Strand $283
• 7/30 Giovanny Gallegos $155
• 8/6 Adrian Houser and Endy Rodríguez $150 each
• 8/13 Trevor Story $164
• 8/20 Hyun Jin Ryu $119
• 8/27 Jordan Wicks $356
• 9/3 DJ Stewart $77
• 9/10 Jordan Lawlar $311
• 9/17 Wilyer Abreu $86

FAAB Summary

In the first 26 FAAB weeks, Main Event owners have had 36,736 winning bids (so each Main Event team has won 46.2 bids on average YTD – 1.78 per week). Unsurprisingly, Main Event activity was again below 1,000 winning bids and at the lowest level of the year (except for Week 1). This week there were 919 winning bids (1.16 per team). In terms of overall spending, Main Event owners have now parted with, on average, $953 of their $1,000 allocation. Comparing that to the last two years at the 26-week mark, that’s still more than the $940 spent in 2022 and the $939 spent two years ago. 

Spending This Week: Roughly $4.34 per Team

You can see in the chart below (the average amount spent per team column) that there was a huge drop in weekly spending in Week 13 – from $65 spent per team to $28. Since then, it has been at a lower ebb, as from Weeks 15-21 it has ranged from $11.75 to $21.97. But in Weeks 22 and 23, we finally dropped below double-digits per team, and last week it fell to $7.51 before the last two weeks when it is now under $5. With 27 FAAB periods and $953 spent in 26 weeks, there are theoretically owners who have an average amount left ($47), but of course there is always a significant amount left unspent. The last two years this totaled $58, but this year it looks like it will only be about $43 because of the heavier early spending in 2023.

Overall Leaderboard: Houston!

I was planning on giving you a quote from Brian Slack about his outlook for the final two weeks of the season, but he was too busy trying to contact Mission Control to tell them he was concerned about his lead, which is down to 195.0 points with two weeks left! It seems that Brian wants Houston to fix his problem – which is a little strange because his Main Event-leading squad has been working with zero Houston Astros on the roster! Well, it’s always good to talk things over, Brian, but I’m not sure you’re going to get any help from Houston the way you’ve set things up…

However, now in second place is a man on a real mission, Bob Catsiroumpas. Bob was third last week and really thinks he can catch the Slack and White tandem. Not to be outdone, My Favorite Martin, Gregg Martin, has zoomed up to 3rd from 7th last week. He is not out of the race for the Overall Championship either! Speaking of threatening behavior, Brandon King is now in 4th (last week 5th) and is truly annoying his league-mate John Pausma. The great champion Pausma is in 5th overall and refuses to utter Brandon King’s name because he is so upset with him. Say Hey Rey Diaz dropped to 6th from 4th, but I say he’s still in the hunt because he is within 400 points of the top spot. I’d say it’s time to go in the other direction, though, right Rey (this is good solid advice I’m giving him…)?

In 7th is the ever-dangerous Clark Olson (who amazingly is also 13th overall), and the great opera fanatics, Robert Mirshak and Ian Kahn, remain comfortably resting in 8th after moving from 15th to 8th place last week. I think it might be time for that lucky aria, Ian! Bill (I don’t make any gaffes) Gaffney is still 9th, and that plucky unknown, Philippe Dussault, is now in 10th place overall. He might have done well in this event in 2021, but I can’t seem to find any confirming records of this…In 11th is Stephen Marshall, up slightly from 12th last week, and former leader Steve Maier is following the Clark Olson blueprint with teams in 12th and 29th overall. My arch-enemy in the auction, Steve Weimer is 14th, Michael O’Brien is 15th and Danny Bronski (more on him later) is 16th overall.

Other notables include Mr. Bronx Yankee, Michael Mager, in 19th, Richard Briskin in 23rd (still handling himself beautifully I must say – and he is up two spots from last week when he was 25th overall) and Kyle (on the Brink) Brinkmann in 25th. Finally, I must mention my Main Event partner and Rotowire prospect guru James Anderson, who is 26th overall despite getting weekly doses of poor FAAB ideas from someone who shall go nameless in this space.

Champions Update

I like to keep tabs on our recent Overall Champions, because they have proven their mettle over long, difficult campaigns and therefore must be threats to do so again.

Philippe Dussault: As mentioned above, Philippe is amazingly in 10th overall after having been as far back as 275th place (out of 795 total). You might be inclined to come to the conclusion that Phil knows a thing or two about fantasy baseball after this excellent performance, but I just chalk it up to a consistent lucky streak…

Robert Cramutola: Bob has up to 110th overall, but unfortunately he has drifted back and is now 233rd. Bob is nevertheless a great champion, and as far as I’m concerned, he is going to bounce back in a big way in this event in 2024.

League of Legends

Shout-Outs

John Pausma is still cashing in four Main Event leagues, but he only has one first place with two weeks to go (that’s pretty awful, right?). John is in five Main Event leagues and is only out of the money in one right now. Amazing.

With three cashing spots, we find the man and the myth, Danny Bronski, with two first places and one second (and 16th overall!); the irrepressible Clark Olson (two first, one third), the man on the phone with NASA Brian Slack (one first, two third), former overall Main Event Champ Glenn Schroter (one second, two third), the unflinching Douglas Gruber (two second, one third) and Mr. Consistent Ned Donohue (three third and unbelievably, Ned is tied for third in all three of those leagues with two weeks left). Those seven fantasy players have seven first-place positions, six second-place and nine third-place positions. Excellent job gentlemen!

Fourteen other players are in two cashing spots, with Philippe Dussault (there’s that man again) and James Anderson each winning two leagues. In fact, these 21 Main Event fantasy owners below have a combined 21 first-place positions (40%) and 50 cashing spots (31% of the 159 total available). With two weeks to go, the story of the season in the Main Event is Pausma, Bronski, Slack, Olson, Schroter, Gruber and Donohue. Houston, Houston, come in!!!

Good luck to all the participants in the Main Event over the final two weeks!