Whitestone’s Waiver Watch: NFBC Main Event (10/3)

Congratulations Clark Olson

MLB Counter = 100% of the season complete

Another baseball season is complete, and so is the NFBC Main Event Contest for 2024. So it’s time to congratulate the winners and let everyone know who deserves plaudits for this year (always wanted to use the word plaudits).

Overall Champ: In the End, It Was A Chompathon 

Jason Santieu tried to make a mockery of this contest. He was in first place and second place overall with one week to go seemingly safely ahead of Clark (The Shark) Olson, who was in third last Sunday (99.0 points out of first place). But those 99 points evaporated, and the Shark chomped his way to a 77-point win. Outstanding stuff. Regardless of the outcome, we witnessed something special from these two competitors: Clark had four Main Event entries — with two cashing in the overall (first and 23rd) — his others ranked 62nd and 240th — out of 855 teams. For his part, Jason (aka The Great Santini) also had four Main Event entries, and they finished second, third, 25th and 551st — so three teams that cashed in the overall. Wow. Combined they accounted for five of the 31 overall cashing positions this year.

It must have been the draft, right? While your Main Event writer was focused on players like Ronald Acuña Jr., Spencer Strider and the early first-round draft positions, Clark and Jason were happy to work from later draft slots — as you can see in the chart below. Clark’s first-place overall team had the 15th draft position and Jason’s second place team had the 13th. These are not usually considered ideal, but getting Shohei Ohtani was a huge leg up. Interestingly, Ohtani was the only player that these two teams both drafted. But there were similarities. Both had killer first- and second-round picks (Clark took José Ramírez and Ohtani; Santieu took Ohtani and Aaron Judge). Surprisingly, they also both drafted a somewhat underwhelming player in the third round, who nevertheless supplied the virtue of at least contributing all season (Randy Arozarena and Oneil Cruz). Both teams got their (moderately successful) closer in the fourth/fifth (Alexis Díaz and Jhoan Duran) as well as their lead catcher in the fifth/sixth — (Adley Rutschman and William Contreras). But a key to victory I think was the hits gained by both teams in the ninth and 11th rounds — where they picked up Josh Naylor/Ketel Marte and then Anthony Santander/Jarren Duran On top of that, both managers had an 18th-round stash that paid off big: Gerrit Cole and Paul Skenes These two really knew what they were doing, that’s for sure. My hat’s off to both of them!

Main Event Leaders in 2024

But there were other fine performances in the Main Event this season. My Favorite Martin – Gregg Martin – held onto fourth place overall and will be able to return to his home planet with pride. He predicted to me in March that I’d be writing about him and well, here we are. Kudos, Gregg.

And rounding out the top five is our Tony Award winner Tony DiVincenzo, who just barely held onto fifth place — probably because he was so excited to receive his trophy that he wasn’t focusing properly in the last week.

The fresher Eric Drescher and Anthony Donisch (who likes a good Danish) held sixth and seventh, giving both the time and resources to pursue their passions (as you can see below). Eric reminds all of us that you have to take a break now and then, and Anthony — well, he knows a good bakery if you need some assistance.

Todd Hoppe hopped up to eighth from 11th two weeks ago despite getting a scare in the mid-week, and …

… WOW — Mike Ballschmiede — moved up to ninth (and 21st) from 14th and 19th last week. Great job Mike! You have a lot of — er — well, um, good work…

Finishing out the top 10 is Brody “The Coyote” John — who picked up two spots in the last week, even though he somehow seemed bored by the entire thing. 

Tyler (Welcome to the Jungle) Jung — a truly excellent fantasy baseballer — finished 11th overall, while Andrew Deninno zoomed up to 12th from 20th in the last week — earning tons of admiration (and cash) as he benefited from working FAAB solely from his den. Matthew (Doogie) Dugan ended up 13th, Robert Beckman was 14th, and Steve Puntenney moved up to 15th from — unbelievably — 29th overall just one week ago. Outstanding work.

In 16th place overall is Eddie Gillis — who is a big Dallas Cowboys fan and manages his fantasy teams better than Cowboys management in my opinion. In any case, Eddie turned on the gas over the final few weeks of the season and even moved up one more spot from 17th this week. Drummer Griffin Benger was on a roll over several weeks but faded a bit from 11th to 18th in the final week. Nevertheless, this was an outstanding Main Event result from a talented NFBC player (and musician)! 

Real Neil Petersen finished 19th (he was 22nd last week) and sent this GIF out to all his fans asking for fantasy help — I’m sure they all want to thank you, Neil…

In 20th place overall is my Main Event partner, James Anderson. But this was not a shared team — this was his solo effort, showing everyone who has the brains in our joint operation. James is also the lead prospect writer for Rotowire, and my plan for 2025 is to listen to him much more carefully.

Following Mike Ballschmiede’s second team (in 21st overall) is Darren Wasney in 22nd, who moved up from 26th last week. And following Clark Olson’s second team in 23rd (sheesh) was 2015 Main Event Overall Champ Glenn Schroter in 24th and Jason Santieu’s third-best team in 25th. Yikes. Also cashing in the Overall (the top 31 get additional prize money for their overall finish — see below) were Richard Temkin in 26th; the Finnish Flash Jordan Rosenblum in 27th (there is a celebration planned next Monday where Jordan will get the key to the city of Helsinki from the mayor if anyone is in the area); Bill (who never makes a gaffe) Gaffney in 28th; Dublin-born Michael O’Brien in 29th; Knute Rockne aficionado Nicholi Knutson in 30th (he texted me that he had won this one for the Gipper); and finally talkative James (Gabby) Gabal, who is ready to hit the fantasy podcast tour to talk about his season.

Congratulations to all 31 of these fantasy managers as they finished in the top 31 of the NFBC Main Event, which remember is an 855-team contest. That’s very impressive, even if you’re not Clark Olson or Jason Santeiu!

Top 31: Main Event 2024

League of Legends

Here are the 57 Main Event leagues with the final top three in the standings.

Top Three: 2024 Main Event League Winners

Shoutouts

There are some notable fantasy managers who placed multiple teams in money positions in the Main Event in 2024, and they certainly deserve a shoutout. Leading the way is (who else) 2022 Overall Main Event Champ Robert Cramutola with two firsts and two seconds. Wow. Not to be outdone, Kyle Brinkmann gained one first and three seconds! Jason Santeiu and Tyler Jung won three — count ‘em three — first places, which is also outstanding. Mike Ballschmiede earned one first and two seconds, and Clark the Shark Olson (what else can he do?) finished in the across-the-board positions of one first, one second and one third. But wait — there are still more fantasy managers who cashed three teams – John Pausma (big surprise) had one first and two thirds, Scott Waggener had one second and two thirds, Bill Gaffney had three second places, Dalton Del Don had two second and one third, and Danny Bronski had three thirds. Those 11 fantasy managers alone have 12 first places, 14 seconds and 9 thirds. That’s 35 of the 171 cash spots (that’s 20.5%). Yikes.

But see below, as there are other fantasy managers with outstanding results. In fact, these 29 stars account for 24 first-places and 71 cashing positions (both of these represent 42% of the total), leaving not much for the rest of the field!

Notables:

• Two firsts; two seconds — Robert Cramutola
• One first; three seconds — Kyle Brinkmann
• Three firsts — Jason Santeiu, Tyler Jung
• One first; two seconds — Mike Ballschmiede
• One first; one second; one third — Clark Olson
• One first; two thirds — John Pausma
• Three seconds — Bill Gaffney
• Two seconds; one third — Dalton Del Don
• One second; two thirds — Scott Waggener
• Three thirds — Danny Bronski
• Two firsts — Bradley Libros
• One first; one second — Chris Uram; Alan Mitchell; Joe Green; Dave Rhydderch; James Gabal
• One first; one third — Gregg Martin; Michael O’Brien; Matthew Shepherd; Jordan Rosenblum; Matthew Dugan
• One second; one third — David Miller; Abdulaziz Madani; Justin Aspite; Brian Ambos
• Two thirds — Nelson Sousa; Adam Warner; Dominic Rello

Congratulations to all the Main Event competitors this year.