Whitestone’s Waiver Watch: NFBC Main Event (10/2)

Brian Slack and Dylan White Win the NFBC Main Event

Welcome to my weekly NFBC Main Event recap article. Each week, I dig into this premier fantasy baseball contest, letting you know who was added in the most leagues, how much money was spent and more. This week, it’s the end-of-season wrap-up. Thanks for reading and congratulations to all the winners this season!

MLB Counter = 100.0% of the season complete

The 2023 fantasy baseball season is over, and for many Main Event owners, it was a banner campaign. But one and only one fantasy entry can be named Main Event Champion – and for this season, it was co-managed by fantasy all-stars Brian Slack and Dylan White!

The Final Main Event Standings 2023

Congratulations to the rest of the top-10 finishers (more on them below), but Brandon King was outstanding down the stretch and realistically could have won the Main Event in one of the other recent seasons. Bob Catsiroumpas, who was a serious contender last year, really cemented his legacy with a 3rd-place overall finish – excellent work by Bob! Say Hey Rey Diaz (so named because he says “hey” to everyone he meets in a rather friendly way) was a spectacular 4th, and Bill (I don’t make any gaffes) Gaffney kept on moving up all season to finish within the top five. The opera twins, Robert Mirshak and Ian Kahn, so named because I believe it is a confirmed fact that they attend every opera at the Met, were good in 2022 and great in 2023 – logging a 6th-place overall spot (a triumph, says the New York Times!) and the ever-dangerous Clark Olson (who amazingly finished 7th and 14th overall) proved he is a frightening presence in any fantasy baseball league. Gregg (My Favorite) Martin concluded a banner campaign in 8th, and former Main Event Overall Champion John Pausma decided in the end to let someone else win the overall championship – modestly taking just 9th for himself (thanks John from all of the rest of us!). In 10th place, we have the fellow who caused me a great deal of headaches for me in our auction league, and who is so accomplished that others study his fantasy baseball articles the way that archeologists look at dinosaur bones…very carefully…Steven Weimer. He is a great player for sure. 

In 11th place is that plucky unknown, Philippe Dussault, who was in 275th place overall mid-season (seriously, great work, Phil), and in 12th we find a guy who is seemingly good every season, Jason Anthony. We’ll have more to say about Danny Bronski’s amazing campaign later in this article, but suffice to say you will want to see what he was able to do this season, including a 13th overall Main Event finish. 

Other notables include David Miller in 15th; Michael O’Brien in 16th; Stephen Marshall in 17th; and the unassuming Scott Gilbert, who moved up to 18th from 28th in the final week. Great job Scott! Michael Mager finished a solid campaign in 23rd, and Steve Maier, who led in May, finished both 26th and 27th. Finally, I must mention my Main Event partner and Rotowire prospect guru James Anderson, who finished 22nd overall in his solo Main and worked with me to finish in a tie for 23rd overall in our joint effort. I guess he isn’t just good at prospect evaluation, right? I will add that I was able to somehow finish 30th overall with my own solo Main, but I will admit to some good fortune and luck in my corner (plus an excellent partner to discuss matters with me) which allowed that to come to fruition.

The Winning Entry

But let’s get back to the winning entry. How did they do it? Well, we’ve seen top overall teams with one or two misses in the top picks, but this team really had zero draft misses in his top seven selections (see below). Sure, their third-round pick (Daulton Varsho) got off to a very slow start, and his batting average was poor all season (.220). But Varsho did qualify at catcher and produced a solid 20 homers and 16 steals, so this was certainly not a total washout. But no matter your opinion on Varsho, look at the other selections in the top seven rounds (from the number 15 slot): Mookie Betts (outstanding); Spencer Strider (fantastic); Corey Seager (got injured but hit .330 with 33 homers anyway); Camilo Doval (39 saves); Blake Snell (2.25 ERA) and Joe Musgrove (injured a couple of times but still 10 wins and a 3.05 ERA). That is an incredible start.

But Slack and White didn’t stop there. They picked up Paul Sewald and Zach Eflin in the 12th and 13th rounds – these two were mainstays for the team. Then in the 15th round, they drafted perennially underrated Yandy Diaz and finished up by taking unsung Spencer Torkelson and Lane Thomas in the 21st and 22nd rounds. These were all fantastic selections.  

And contrary to the notion that you have to spend big to win, these owners only added four players via FAAB for more than $50 – Kris Bubic $188 (OK, that proved to be a mistake); LaMont Wade Jr. for $52 and both Triston Casas and Tommy Edman for $80 each. That’s it. Wow, what a performance.

How It Was Built: Team Unsound Methods

1. Betts, Mookie
2. Strider, Spencer
3. Varsho, Daulton
4. Seager, Corey
5. Doval, Camilo
6. Snell, Blake
7. Musgrove, Joe
8. Rosario, Amed
9. Happ, Ian
10. May, Dustin
11. McMahon, Ryan
12. Sewald, Paul
13. Eflin, Zach
14. Benintendi, Andrew
15. Diaz, Yandy
16. Matz, Steven
17. Donovan, Brendan
18. Laureano, Ramon
19. Haniger, Mitch
20. Torkelson, Spencer
21. Thomas, Lane
22. Diaz, Elias
23. Suarez, Jose
24. Grichuk, Randal
25. Straw, Myles
26. Gallegos, Giovanny
27. May, Trevor
28. Alvarado, Jose
29. Clevinger, Mike
30. King, Michael

Free Agent Winning Bids over $50

• 4/9 Kris Bubic $188
• 4/30 LaMont Wade Jr. $52
• 5/21 Triston Casas $80
• 7/23 Tommy Edman $80

Overall Leaderboard: What Are These Guys Like in Real LIfe?

As a result of his success, Brian Slack wants to thank everyone and asked me – this is just the kind of humble, friendly guy he is – to show the rest of his esteemed competitors, the top-10 overall finishers, in their normal habitat and poses. So thank you Brian, here they are for you (and for all your Main Event fans out there!):

1st: Brian Slack and Dylan White

2nd: Brandon King

3rd: Bob Catsiroumpas

4th: Say Hey Rey Diaz

5th: Bill Gaffney

6th: The Opera Singers – Robert Mirshak & Ian Kahn

7th: Clark Olson

8th: Gregg Martin

9th: John Pausma

10th: Steven Weimer

11th: And a Bonus one for our 2021 Champion, Philippe Dussault (the Robot)

2023 Main Event Leader By Week

Robert Henke was our first leader, followed by one week of John Pausma and then four weeks of Michael Mager. Michael actually built the largest lead of the season by week three – 545.0 points! Jeff Tudor overtook Michael in mid-May, and then Steve Maier took over in, appropriately, Maier (May). Then one of the Main Event favorites, Michael Kurland, moved into first in mid-June only to see Mr. Maier take over for one more week. Then we had the siege of Eric the Red (Eric Christenson) for most of July before John Pausma took his supposedly rightful place at the very end of the month and all the way through August. It looked like that would be it except that our intrepid duo, Slack & White, strode into first on September 3 and that was that.  Even though the margin was only 107 points, it never seemed like they were threatened (at least that’s what Brian told me).

League of Legends

The Main Event league races were also fantastic this season. I have listed below the top three positions in each league, but many races came down to the last few days and even hours. Congratulations to all who survived and emerged victorious!

Shout-Outs

DANNY BRONSKI! Wow! He won three Main Event leagues and got a second to boot! Can he hold on? John Pausma, let’s see, he entered five Main Event leagues and won 2; and added a second and a third. I’d say that’s a reasonably good performance! Then there is Clark Olson – not only did he finish 7th and 14th overall (see above), but he won two Main Events and finished third in yet another. Then there is our overall champ Mr. Brian Slack (he insists that I call him Mister now) with a first, a second and a third. Finally, also in the three team cashing club but a little under the radar, we find Douglas Gruber with a second and two third-place finishes. Those five fantasy players recorded eight first-place positions, four second-place and five third-place positions. Excellent job gentlemen!

Twenty-two other players are in two cashing spots, with Philippe Dussault (there’s that man again), Gregg Martin, James Anderson, and some unknown and highly lucky guy named Todd Whitestone each winning two leagues. In fact, these 27 Main Event fantasy owners below have a combined 22 first-place positions (42%) and 55 cashing spots (38% of the 159 total available). Brian Slack is the headliner, but I would say don’t forget about Bronski, Pausma, Olson and Gruber – three cashing positions in the Main Event is an outstanding achievement!

Congratulations to all the participants in the Main Event, and thanks to the NFBC for putting on such a great contest!