Whitestone’s Waiver Watch: NFBC Main Event (3/31)

2025 MLB Counter: 2.2% of games played

Well folks, it’s a brand new baseball season. It’s time for fantasy managers to see the data 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. Like 2024, the Main Event sports 57 15-team leagues (up from 53 in 2023 and 47 in 2022). And I like to think that all 855 Main Event entries (many fantasy managers have multiple entries, so the total number of people in the contest is significantly less) believe they are in good shape at the outset of the season. Everyone is confident, and no one has been eliminated from finishing first overall in this prestigious contest, very similar to the position of the Chicago White Sox. We all have hope!

As the season progresses, some fantasy teams will sustain key injuries, some teams will fall back in their league pack, and some will surge toward the top. This weekly article aims to follow it all and see if we can pick up information from the roster moves and FAAB pickups of these generally excellent fantasy managers. I’m confident that some of these moves will provide insight into what we all should do. Others might be a tad more confusing, but we can always try to ask the question of…

There are a few changes to Waiver Watch this season to streamline it and provide more value. Unfortunately, I won’t be reporting on the top three places in each Main Event league each week. It has been the most time-consuming part of this process, which requires heavy lifting and a ton of bandwidth. But I will report on the Overall Main Event standings, and I hope to see many familiar names up at the top! See below for the current standings.

Most Common FAAB Pickups in the Main Event

We have two FAAB runs to review because the first of 27 NFBC FAABs occurred before the start of the regular season (Sunday, March 23). Since the first Main Event was drafted March 11, it would seem unnecessary to make a great deal of FAAB pickups March 23, but Main Event managers are masters of their craft, so there were moves to be sure. The top 10 acquisitions March 23 are in the first chart below, and Graham Ashcraft of Cincinnati was added in the most leagues (26) in response to the fact that he might have the inside track to the Cincinnati closer job. The No. 2 most-added player, Tyler Freeman of the Colorado Rockies, was traded from the Cleveland Guardians March 22 and might get a regular gig in the Rockies infield. Brett Baty of the Mets appears to have won the 2B job, so he was the third widest addition. Three other players were added in 13 leagues: Alan Roden (TOR), Alex Vesia (LAD) and Landon Knack (LAD) – with the latter two added for their contributions in the first two games in Japan (a save and a win).

NFBC Main Event Most Added Players 3/23: A Crafty Pitcher

The second FAAB run March 30 was more active, as you can see in the chart below. The headline player was Luke Jackson, who is the newly minted closer in Texas and has two saves in the early going. He was added in all 37 Main Event leagues where he was a free agent (20 smart managers already had him rostered) for an average winning bid of $216. But the most widely added player was (checks notes) a potential Cincinnati closer (didn’t we do this last week?) — Emilio Pagán — added in all 53 leagues after his save for an average of $57. Max Muncy of the Athletics checked in as the second widest addition, added in 39 leagues while going for a high of $57, as he seems like now the primary ATH shortstop wherever they are playing. Leody Taveras of Texas was widely added as well — now the regular Texas Rangers center fielder.

NFBC Main Event Most Added Players 3/30: Cool Hand Luke

The Wow Bid of the Week

So, who attracted the highest single bids of the first two weeks? In the first FAAB period before the season began, that someone was Shane McClanahan at $478 (runner up $49), and this past Sunday, Luke Jackson’s services were won with a massive $379 bid, which was just enough since the runner-up bid in that case was $352.

Top Weekly Bid: Leagues Added; Winning Bid; Runner-Up

FAAB Summary

In the first two FAAB weeks, Main Event managers have scored 2,104 winning bids (more than the 1,770 in the first two weeks of last year) and spent about $58 of their $1,000 allocation. Last year, virtually the same amount ($60) was spent in the first two weeks. The average Main Event winning bid was $25 in the most recent period, which was lower than the $32 in the second week last season. 

The Colosseum

Each week during the season, I’ll review the four most common 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 2024, these pickups were rated as 30 thumbs up (38%), 39 down (49%) and 11 pushes (14%) — a little worse than in 2023 (44% up, 41% down, 15% push). For reference, the good pickups were 39% in 2022 and 24% in 2021. So you can see that these top four widest acquisitions generally result in helpful additions to our fantasy squads 40% of the time. Keep that in mind when you’re preparing your bids this season! Obviously, we don’t have any results yet this season, but we’ll do so once we hit the three-week mark. Promise!

Overall Leaderboard: Another Famous Clark?

It’s important to get off to a good start, and these 31 Main Event entrants have done just that (the top 34 Main Event entrants will earn a prize from the overall pool this year in addition to any league prizes awarded). Now remember Clark Olson won the Main Event overall title last season — so it should come as no surprise that a Clark is leading the Main Event after two weeks — but this time it’s KEN Clark! Not only that, but Ken is in first place and 16th place overall at this early stage. On top of that, these are his only two Main Event entries this season. Pretty fancy stuff! 

You can see the rest of the early top 34 below — there are perennial contenders like Alan Mitchell, Joe Green, Bill Gaffney, Ben Tidd, Kyle Brinkmann, Dominic Rello, Bradley Libros, Steve Maier and Matthew Davis sprinkled throughout — but the 2021 Champ Philippe Dussault is already in 33rd place overall, which should give everyone pause… One thing is for sure – 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 34 have accomplished.

NFBC Main Event Overall Standings

Finally, I’m showing here the race for the NFBC CLQ — the Champions League Qualifier for next March. If you’re unaware, fantasy managers are required to enter one specific team in the Online Championship, the Draft Champions, and the Main Event and the scores are combined in an effort to determine the best overall NFBC player for the year. The top 14 in the CLQ qualify for an auction league with significant prize money at stake to be held the following March. It’s a 15-team league, though, as the champion for that auction league will automatically get to defend their title. Right now, here are the 14 leading contenders to make the auction table in 2026 out of the 155 intrepid souls who entered this year.

Champions League Qualifier Standings

Good luck to all fantasy managers this season.