Whitestone’s Waiver Watch: NFBC Main Event

Well folks, it’s a brand new baseball season, and for fantasy managers it’s time to see what type of stats result from those draft plans. For those playing in fantasy baseball’s premier contest, the NFBC Main Event, it’s also the start of a long six-month grind. In the Main Event this year, there are 53 15-team leagues, up from 47 in 2022. And I like to think that all 795 Main Event entries (many fantasy managers have multiple entries, so the total number of people in the contest is significantly less) are in good shape in early April with complete starting lineups. It’s also my belief that most fantasy managers were able to draft players they generally liked and wanted on their rosters. So everyone feels good, and no one has been eliminated, just like the Oakland Athletics. 

As the season goes along, some fantasy teams will sustain key injuries, some teams will fall back in their league pack and some teams will surge toward the top. We’ll follow it all in this space and see if we can pick up information from the roster moves and FAAB pickups of these generally excellent fantasy managers. 

Some of these moves – I can be confident – will give us insight into what we all should do. Others might be a tad more confusing, but we can always try to ask the question of…

Most Common FAAB Pickups in the Main Event

We have two FAAB (free agent acquisition budget) runs to go over, because in the NFBC one of the 27 FAABs occurred before the start of the regular season (Sunday, March 26). Since the first Main Event was drafted March 18, there wasn’t a lot of activity just eight days later, but there were some bids nevertheless. The top-10 acquisitions on March 26 are in the first chart below, and Joe Jiménez of ATL was added in the most leagues (9) on the theory that A.J. Minter wouldn’t get all the save chances while Raisel Iglesias is on the IL. Atlanta also supplied the No. 2 most-added player, starter Dylan Dodd, because he is expected to cycle in while Kyle Wright was sidelined (later, his position got a little safer as Max Fried also exited with an injury). Three other players were added in seven leagues: Dominic Smith of Washington, Christian Arroyo of Boston and LaMonte Wade Jr. of San Francisco – all with the idea that they will be playing fairly regularly in the early going.

The second FAAB run on April 2 was more active, as you can see in the chart below. However, the player added in the most leagues (all 53 in the Main Event) was still a closer candidate – Pierce Johnson of Colorado, who locked down the first save for the Rockies with Daniel Bard sidelined. Michael Grove is in a pristine spot for the Dodgers, not only joining the rotation of one of the top MLB teams but also getting a two-start week in his first action. He was added in 52 of 53 leagues and went for a high of $117. Speedster Ji Hwan Bae checked in third, added in 48 leagues while going for a high of $222 (and a low of $1), as fantasy managers felt he could run and play regularly for the Pirates. And new call-up, Joey Wiemer of the Brewers, was widely added as well, although his high bid of $123 was a bit below some of the other free-agent acquisitions..

Winning Bids over $100 and $200

I’ll also keep tabs on the players attracting the most FAAB dollars as well. In the first run on March 26, there were two $200 successful bids that won Darick Hall, now thrust into regular playing time with Rhys Hoskins’ unfortunate injury. Even though he is currently UT-only, he went for a high of $221 in the Main Event. The only other players attracting multiple winning bids over $100 were Minter (4) and Graham Ashcraft (2). 

In the second run on April 2, there were 24 $200 successful bids, half of which were directed at Pierce Johnson, and a high bid of $279, as one owner wanted to be sure to lock down saves. However, Tylor Megill, who is joining the Mets rotation, got a solid eight bids over $200, including a high bid of $255. While those two players had the most $200 bids, Dany Jiménez, who just might close for the Athletics, got 11 bids over $100. Fantasy managers will look for him to reprise his old role for a few weeks in 2022.

The Wow Bid of the Week 

So, who attracted the highest single bids of the week? In the first FAAB period before the season began, that someone was Darick Hall at $221 (the runner-up bid was $129). This past Sunday, Dany Jiménez’s services were won with a very strong $363 bid, which wasn’t fully needed since the runner-up bid in that case was $26.

• 3/26: Darick Hall $221
• 4/2: Dany Jiménez $363

FAAB Summary

In the first two FAAB weeks, Main Event owners have had 1,751 winning bids and spent about $80 of their $1,000 allocation. Comparing that to the last two years, this totaled about $97 in 2021, while in 2022 it was $63. So it’s in the middle of those two totals but still a fairly high number. The average Main Event winning bid was $35.83 in the most recent period, which was lower than the $51 two years ago but about the same as last season. 

The Colosseum

Each week during the season, I’ll take a look at the four widest 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 the chart below, you can see that the 2022 record was significantly better than 2021, with 39% good additions as opposed to 24% in the previous season. Obviously, we don’t have enough time to evaluate the first few pickups yet, but we’ll do so once we hit the three-week mark.

Overall Leaderboard: Wave the Henke

It’s important to get off to a good start, and these 30 Main Event entrants have done just that. Robert Henke is the leader after Week 1 and is the only player with over 7,000 points. Not far behind is John Pausma – who is not only second, but also fourth and 26th. Yikes. Adam Mayer is showing well in third, and one of my favorite fantasy managers (and the host of the Draft Champions podcast), Zachary Waxman is in fifth. 

Among the other fine top-30 contenders, I’d like to mention Joe Anthony in eighth, Bob Catsiroumpas in 19th (he led the Main Event for a good stretch last season), the Rotowire tag team of Jeff Erickson and Tim Schuler is in 14th, Jason Santeiuis is in 17th and 25th, perennial contender Clark Olson finds himself in 22nd, FTN’s own Matthew Davis is in 23rd, friend of the writer Yancy Eaton in 24th and host of the In the Cut podcast John FIsh rounds things out in 30th. 

But all 30 of these guys are luminaries in my eyes – even though we all have many weeks to go. It’s great to get off to a terrific start, and that’s what these top 30 have done.

Champions Update

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

Philippe Dussault: Our 2021 Overall Main Event Champ finds himself in 101st place out of 795 as we kick off the season. Phil hails from Canada, as almost everyone knows, and says that no one should worry about their place in the standings until Canada Day. He plans to be in the top 10 overall by that date and hopes that he will be “treated better by the Main Event media” prior to that point of the season (not sure who he’s talking about when he says Main Event media myself…)

Robert Cramutola: Bob is our defending champ and is as nice and gracious of a fellow as you could ever meet. He hailed from the Philadelphia area originally and is happy to be in 42nd (and 49th) overall after just three days of competition. He was hoping to be in 20th place to honor legendary Phillie Mike Schmidt, but that will have to wait until later in the season. Right now he’s happy with his spot and remains a difficult customer to beat in any Main Event league.

League of Legends

Shout-outs

Okay this first one is ridiculous – former Main Event overall champ John Pausma has four firsts and one third place after three days. Come on, John! Give everyone else a chance!

Other notables include

• Two firsts, two seconds – Jason Santeiu
• Two firsts – Brian Slack/Nick Sackett; Glenn Schroter; Dalton Del Don
• One first; two seconds – Kyle Brinkmann
• One first; one second – Tony Saccucci; Scott Fleming
• One first; One third – Thomas Warner; Mark Srebro; Bobby Brendler; Tony DiVincenzo
• Two seconds – Clark Olson
• One second; One third – Joe Green; Ken O’Brien; Christopher Cosley; Robert Cramutola
• Two thirds – Philip Glukhovsky

GOOD LUCK TO ALL FANTASY MANAGERS THIS SEASON!