Fantasy Baseball 2024: NFBC Gladiator Overview & Strategy

The Gladiator competition provided by the NFBC was created last year, and it had an unpredictable amount of popularity. The fantasy baseball competition was generated to max out at 100 leagues, 1,500 teams total (15-team leagues) and did so at a crazy pace, selling out by Dec. 21. The people at the NFBC decided to increase the pool, providing us with a bigger overall prize that now sits at $10,000. That’s a juicy pot for just a $50 entry fee.

You’re going to want to start drafting or reserving your entries soon if you haven’t begun already, as the contest is already more than half full as I write this (1,800 teams). Now that we have a season in the books, we can look back at the successful teams to see what went right when it comes to this unique contest. A very small sample size, of course, but at least we have something to look back on that we didn’t during its first year. 

If you’re not familiar with the Gladiator, I’ll sum it up, but you can view the entire overview as well as sign up on their site. The contest is best ball with a twist, drafting all 23 positions without any reserve spots, so if somebody gets hurt, suspended or misses time for whatever reason, there isn’t anybody to replace that player. Prepare for the draft, execute the draft and it’s pencils down. No free agency or lineups to set, so this draft creates a different set of ADP caused by supply and demand for certain roster spots or roto categories due to not having any depth (reserves). I think it’s the perfect way to begin your fantasy baseball drafting season, as it gives you a feel for the player pool. You can also choose to do a standard draft (1 minute) or a slow draft with the options of a one-, two- or four-hour clock. 

Winning 

We should be cognizant of the percentiles per category as a roto category bookmark. Below are the 80th and 90th percentiles from last season’s Gladiator. 

80th Percentile

90th Percentile

If you’re not familiar with the percentiles for other contests, the 80th and 90th percentiles in the Gladiator are lower than the other contests like the Main Event, Online Championship and Draft Champions due to not having any replacement value from reserves or free agency. While those numbers will fluctuate a bit year-to-year, the Gladiator will always be lower than the other contests. Shall we say a little bit of leniency and wiggle room in this competition? I like it. 

I wanted to see the builds of the winning teams (top-10), looking at how they got their volume. I dug through every team, looking at each team’s average number of at-bats per hitter and average number of innings pitched per starting pitcher. The volume also correlates with health as well as a risk assessment, so looking at how many injured players (if any) these successful teams had along with how many rookies were drafted.

2022 Gladiator Top-10 Overall Winners

The total points listed for each team is viewable here along with the breakdown of each category. Just click the link and then click “Gladiator.”

Based on this, it seems inevitable you’ll have hitters (excluding catchers) who don’t eclipse 500 plate appearances, as most teams had at least two hitters not to do so. On the starting pitching side, you see most teams (80%) having a healthy enough starting pitching staff to have one or no starter throwing under 120 innings. The average innings pitched for starting pitchers on the teams above was 155, rather impressive all things considered. The average number of relief pitchers on each team was three, with only one drafting four — however, Rob DiPietro was able to make up for it with a healthy starting pitching staff that averaged the third-most innings per starter at 179. 

Early draft capital wasn’t spent on starting pitchers with well-known injury risks before the season. Only one team drafted Jacob deGrom, and that came with the “discount” in Round 4. Shoutout to the team that didn’t get a single plate appearance out of Adalberto Mondesi and still somehow cracked the top 10. In short: Avoid extensive exposure to players with an injury history or a substantial one in this contest. 

These successful teams didn’t take on too much risk by drafting rookies with an average of just one per team. Two teams took on some risk with four each, skewing the average a bit as 50% didn’t draft a rookie whatsoever. There were amazing rookies last season who were able to rack up the stats we desire, though only one of the top-10 teams had Corbin Carroll. None of them had the likes of Gunnar Henderson, Tanner Bibee, Bobby Miller, Eury Pérez, Nolan Jones, Spencer Steer, Francisco Alvarez, James Outman, Josh Jung or Matt McLain. Apologies if I missed your favorite rookie who balled out — either way, they weren’t part of the winning teams in the Gladiator. 

Catchers

Another thing that stuck out to me that isn’t listed in the chart above was that 60% of the teams had a catcher combination that accumulated over 1,000 plate appearances. When you include Daulton Varsho and MJ Melendez in the catcher-eligible pool, there were still only 12 catchers who had 500 or more plate appearances. Varsho and Melendez are no longer catcher-eligible, so that number shrinks down to 10. Volume is king in any format, especially in this one, as it’s survival of the fittest. Health is wealth and if you’re able to rack up those coveted plate appearances at catcher, it increases your team’s ceiling when it comes to plate appearances. When you remove injuries and increase projected playing time for a few of these catchers, there should be more than 10 catchers with 500-plus plate appearances. Looking from that perspective there are only 15 or so catchers that appeal from a volume standpoint. Securing both of your catchers by Round 16 seems like a near must to me, which isn’t the case for me in other formats, but in this one, I want to be conscious of the projected volume I’m drafting at both catcher slots. 

Relief Pitching

With 2023 being the first season of this contest, nobody had anything to go off, so we saw some crazy roster constructions, and rightly so. Last year, relief pitchers were going in the first round due to closer volatility and not having free agency to go to at any point. We even saw some success come to fruition by drafting two closers with the first two picks. Dominic Rello finished fifth overall last season and had an absurd 102 saves. Fortunately for him, Edwin Díaz was already drafted, so he avoided the biggest landmine in the Gladiator contest last season. Díaz had a first-round ADP but missed the entire season due to a torn patellar tendon. Even though I just mentioned the possibility of having success going heavy RP early as Rello did last season, I don’t think you need to, or should you. 50% of the top-10 teams had fewer than 50 saves, which was ample enough due to the highs and lows for relievers, and yet again, having no replacement value. There are always going to be pockets of perceived value(s) in drafts, identifying players to avoid and players to target. Some are too rich or risky while some are going later than they should be. At least according to your evaluations. ADP provides us with the market range on players or positions, so after seeing relievers go in round one last year, I wanted to list the relievers that are currently going in the first 10 rounds or inside the top 150 in ADP to see how the new market looks. 

Gladiator ADP (11/8-12/8, 38 drafts)

After digesting the reliever market, there is a clear top-20 and then a gap of 75-plus picks until another reliever (José Leclerc) gets selected. (I’m excluding Yennier Cano because the Orioles signed Craig Kimbrel, so Cano’s current minimum pick of 117 doesn’t hold any weight.) Cano’s new max is 307, so the market is certainly downgrading him with the addition of Kimbrel. Speaking of Kimbrel, he isn’t listed in the chart above, but he’ll likely find himself there as his new min pick is 130, which came after the news of him signing in Baltimore. 

If you’re drafting multiple Gladiator teams, I would create a different roster construction for each. I wouldn’t jump players too much in ADP, as there is a chance you’ll get that player at cost (near ADP) in your next draft. Spend early draft capital on a top-tier reliever in one of your drafts then force yourself to wait a bit until drafting your first reliever in the next draft. Mixing things up will help differentiate your builds and your player exposure in this contest. Without having FAAB or deep reserves like a Draft Champions (draft & hold) you don’t want to punt the position as you need to have some certainty of the reliever’s role on their team. Only one team in the top 10 had fewer than 30 saves (27) and 80% of the teams had more than 40 with an average of 61 saves per team. 

Last season only three teams didn’t draft a reliever in the first 10 rounds with the other seven teams drafting either one or two relievers by then. Only two teams didn’t draft a reliever after round 10 and they were two of the three teams that drafted two relievers in the first 10 rounds. 

Only the Strong Survive 

Be sure to do your due diligence when it comes to health profiles, not just the skills, projections, team context, etc. Starting pitchers have a higher health risk, so don’t go overboard on too much early draft capital at the position. 60% of the picks in the first 10 rounds were hitters and I would tend to lean that way to begin my builds as well. Everyday hitters amass the most volume and should be the focal point when building your foundation. Don’t inflate or evaluate multi-eligible players differently as their eligibility at their other positions is of no use once the season begins. You can slide them around to fit your roster construction during the draft, but after that, the players are stuck at their respective position. No need to force the likes of Brandon Drury, Whit Merrifield or Willi Castro onto your roster. The unknown can provide buying opportunities at times during the draft season, but I would steer clear of players with too much uncertainty in this contest. Fear the unknown. 

Only one team inside the top 10 had Ronald Acuña, and of course, it was the No. 1 overall team. However, the field of non-Acuña teams (90%) outweighed the one with, so even if you don’t land the unicorn that is Acuña, as Kevin Garnett said, “Anything is possible!”