Whitestone’s Waiver Watch: NFBC Main Event (4/14)

Wild Pitching

2025 MLB Counter: 9.6% of games played

So let’s check in on the MLB pitchers at this stage of the season. Sure, it’s early, but how are they breaking out of the gate? To do that, let’s look at strikeouts and walks and not earned runs, since of course these stabilize more quickly.

Walks Are Up

So if you look at the chart below, you’ll see that walking is much more in vogue early in the season. As we discussed last time, batting average has been pretty lackluster early in the season, but the MLB WHIP is still only about even because hurlers are awarding more free passes (see chart below).

Strikeouts are up just a bit over the full year 2024, but unintentional walks per game have jumped from 3.14 last season to 3.35 so far this year (up 6.7%). This calculates to an improvement in the MLB K:BB ratio from 2.68 to 2.52. That would be significantly worse (from the pitchers’ point of view) than any season since 2018. Perhaps the umpires are calling a tighter strike zone with the impending use of the automatic strike zone, or maybe it’s just early season noise. Either way, it’s worth watching as the season plays out.

MLB Pitching Stats 2017-2025 YTD

Most Common FAAB Pickups in the Main Event

Where does the phrase “Grin and Bear It” come from? Like many sayings, it’s hard to pin down exactly when it was first said. Of course, most fantasy baseball managers are well aware that the English writer William Hickey used the phrase in his book Memoirs, which was written in the early 19th century, and reflected his experiences from 1749 to 1775. It was at that time, it is rumored, that he was managing his own fantasy team of fantasy colonies, in a league designed to select the English colonies most likely to rise up in revolution against England. Unfortunately, he used his first-round pick on Newfoundland instead of the 13 American colonies, so he lost the title that year. He responded by saying … well, you know what he said…”I’ll just have to (see above…)”

In any case, the top 10 FAAB acquisitions from Sunday are in the chart below, and fantasy managers were apparently drawing inspiration from 1775, since J.T. Ginn of the Newfoundland Athletics — um, I mean the Sacramento Athletics — was added in the most leagues (56) in response to the fact that he looked good Saturday in defeating the Mets. The No. 2 most added player, Chase Dollander of Colorado, is a highly touted rookie who pitched well against San Diego Saturday, allowing two runs on just three hits while striking out seven over 5.2 innings. This led Main Event managers to conclude that Dollander just might have the talent to handle Coors Field. The third most added player this week was Easton Lucas, who draws a beautiful two-start week at home vs. the struggling Braves and weak-hitting Mariners, and fourth on this list is another Chase — Chase Meidroth — who has been installed at shortstop by the White Sox. The only other player to be added in at least 48 leagues was Abner Uribe, who attracted interest as a possible closer since Trevor Megill is getting a second opinion on his knee this week.

NFBC Main Event Most Added players 4/13: Ginn and Bear It

The Wow Bid of the Week: The Veen Machine

So, who attracted the highest single bids of Week 4 FAAB? It turns out that someone was Zac Veen of the Colorado Rockies at a healthy $404 (runner up $122). Veen was available in 19 Main Event leagues and the prices ranged from this top bid to one in the $300-399 range ($344); three in the $200-299 range; and fourteen in the $100-199 range (the lowest successful bid was $105). The average winning bid for Veen — who is expected to get every day playing time in Colorado — was $183.

In addition to the Veen Machine, there were 11 other players attracting average winning bids over $30 that were added in 10 or more leagues (outside of the top ten most added pickups listed above). These players were: David Bednar (average winning bid $86; 11 bids); Edward Cabrera ($60; 34); Joe Boyle ($59; 16); Dillon Dingler ($51; 11); Andrew Abbott ($45; 39); Zach McKinstry ($44; 15); Luis L. Ortiz ($40; 11) Kyle Stowers ($33; 11); Blake Treinen ($32; 11); and both Gabriel Arias and Matt Mervis who were added at the same average price of $30 by 34 teams.

In addition, there were 11 notable players available in just one Main Event league each that attracted bids over $100: Ceddanne Rafaela ($305); Cam Smith ($252); Jack Leiter ($221); Bubba Chandler ($211); Jorge Polanco ($158); Ben Brown ($142); Ryan McMahon ($128); Will Warren ($117); Ranger Suárez ($111); Jesús Sánchez ($107) and Nolan Schanuel ($101).

FAAB Summary

In the first four FAAB weeks, Main Event managers have recorded 5967 winning bids (12% more than the first four weeks of last year — and about seven total winning bids per Main Event team) and spent about $183 of their $1,000 allocation. Spending is up over last year’s total of $162 in the first four weeks. The average Main Event winning bid was $30 in Week 4, which was about the same as the $29 in the fourth week last season. 

The Colosseum

Each week during the season, I’ll review the 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).

Our first set of Colosseum combatants are listed below. This season, we’re going to review the three most common hitter additions and the three most common pitcher additions. This first group from March 23 is a little different, though, as in this FAAB fantasy managers were permitted to add players (and their statistics) from their past performances in the initial Japan series a few days prior to FAAB. This led to the bids on Alex Vesia (who recorded a save) and Landon Knack (who had a win). The emperor gave both players a thumbs up because even though they were largely summarily dropped the following week, the Main Event owners who added them got what they wanted despite any following stats in the next two weeks. More traditional evaluations were done by the emperor for the other four players: Tyler Freeman got a thumbs down because he didn’t even play much (and now is on the IL); Brett Baty earned a thumbs down for his work in 31 largely empty at bats; and Alan Roden and Graham Ashcraft didn’t hurt but didn’t truly help fantasy teams so they got pushes from the emperor. That’s two up, two down and two pushes to start out the season.

The Most Added Free Agents from 3 Weeks Ago: Hitters

The Most Added Free Agents from 3 Weeks Ago: Pitchers

Overall Leaderboard: The Kid Ben Tidd Rides Again

It’s important to get off to a good start, and famous podcaster Ben Tidd has done just that! You can see how he is approaching with great calmness the fact that his fantasy team is leading the Main Event for the second straight week above, but Ben just says that is “youthful exuberance” and shouldn’t be taken as overconfidence by his competitors. Excellent work, Ben! In any case, the top 34 Main Event entrants will earn a prize from the overall pool this year in addition to any league prizes awarded, and there are some tough customers chasing Ben. Kyle Brinkmann has two teams in the top group — second and sixth overall — and is planning to finish one/two this season. Daniel Semsel, former overall champ, is sitting pretty in third overall; Steven Puntenney is now fourth; and Kyle Pantalone — who sometimes goes out without a shirt so he can wear his pants by themselves — is in great shape in fifth. Other notables include the Scout Dustin McComas in 13th; FTN Football Expert Nelson Sousa in 20th; Rotowire Podcaster Scott Jenstad in 23rd; the top player in Scandinavia Jordan Rosenblum in 27th; and FTN FAAB Expert Vlad Sedler in 32nd.

So even though it’s still early, making the top 34 is a significant accomplishment — and we’ll follow the chase for the Main Event overall crown all season to see who can come out on top.

NFBC Main Event Overall Standings

2025 Final Table Champions League Standings

I’m showing here the first annual CLQ Championship League Standings — these are the 15 fantasy managers who qualified last season by finishing with the best combined score in an across-the-board competition and therefore were invited to compete in an auction league in March. If you’re unaware, the CLQ requires fantasy managers to enter one specified team in the Online Championship, the Draft Champions and the Main Event. These top 15 in the 2024 CLQ qualified for this first-ever auction league with significant prize money at stake built from entry fees from all CLQ entrants (201 fantasy managers entered this competition in 2024). It’s the best of the best in a no-holds-barred 15-team league, so we’ll track it to see who can become the initial Champions League Champ (the Champs Champ?) — and right now Brody John is holding down first place with 118.5 points; holding a sizable 15.5-point margin over Michael Brophy (103 points). Tim Sansome is solidly in third (99 points); and the other fantasy managers with at least 90 points are Chris Uram (95.5); Michael Mager (94.5); and Matt Leahy (91.5).

Champions League Qualifier Standings

Finally, I’m showing here the race for the NFBC CLQ — the Champions League Qualifier for next March. The top 14 in the CLQ qualify for the 2026 Champions auction league (the champion of the 2025 Champions Auction league automatically is invited back 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. Please note Neil Petersen — he’s ninth overall in the Main Event, is in this year’s Final Table Champions League, and is fifth overall in next year’s CLQ qualification — sheesh! The Scout Dustin McComas is pulling off something similar — 13th overall in the Main Event, also in the Final Table League, and 11th overall in qualification for next year’s CLQ. Very impressive indeed!

So congratulations to all these fine fantasy players — we’ll follow their progress through the season to see who can take home the big prizes!