Whitestone’s Waiver Watch: NFBC Main Event (7/3)

Welcome to my weekly NFBC Main Event recap article. Each week, I’ll dig into the top free agents added in this premier fantasy baseball contest, letting you know who was added in the most leagues, how much money was spent and more. In addition, we’ll revisit the top pickups from three weeks ago and even scan the Main Event overall standings to see who’s at the top. 

Welcome also to Earth for all you aliens out there. Independence Day reminds us of how you aliens tried to take over our planet in 1996. Will Smith showed you a thing or two as I remember, and despite the fact that mankind was fighting superior technology, our will to survive ruled the day.

Independence Day: Welcome to Earth

MLB Counter = 51.9% of the season complete

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Most Common FAAB Pickups in the Main Event: Go Westburg, Young Man

The 10 widest acquisitions are in the chart below, and Main Event owners branched out this week and do not (I repeat, DO NOT) have a rookie starting pitcher as the top acquisition. Jordan Westburg, infielder for Baltimore, was added in all 53 leagues and was one of only two top-10 players to get over $100 as the highest winning bid – the other was Kolby Allard of ATL. The FAAB dollars are just not available. After those two, it was a mix of players with high bids of $17-38, still with a lean toward starting pitchers: Graham Ashcraft, Keaton Winn, Cristopher Sánchez, Ryne Nelson and Kyle Wright.

The Century Club

In the 15th FAAB run (see below), there were no $200-plus successful bids for the second time this season – we might have seen the last of them (down from 4) – and only 10 winning bids over $100 (six of these were for Westburg). As you can see below, we’ve had 528 total winning bids over $200 (which may be about the final total) and 1,260 total $100+ winning bids in the first 15 weeks of FAAB. It’s interesting to think that of the 795 Main Event owners, two-thirds on average have had one $200-plus winning bid, and each owner on average has had 1-2 $100-199 winning bids. Some owners have gone more “stars and scrubs” and have more than one $200 player, while others haven’t gone above $200 at all and are content with $100 and below.

The Wow Bid of the Week

So, who attracted the highest single bid of the week? The highest winning bid was for Jordan Westburg – with the top winning bid of $177 beating the $70 runner-up amount. Unsurprisingly, this was the lowest WOW bid of the year and the first one under $200 of FAAB.

• 3/26: Darick Hall $221
• 4/2: Dany Jiménez $363
• 4/9 Oscar Colás $372
• 4/16 Taj Bradley $557
• 4/23 José Alvarado $399
• 4/30 Tanner Bibee $504
• 5/7 Bryce Miller $468
• 5/14 Eury Pérez $415
• 5/21 Bobby Miller $329
• 5/28 Bobby Miller $412
• 6/4 Royce Lewis $429
• 6/11 Elly De La Cruz $650
• 6/18 Emmet Sheehan $178
• 6/25 Gavin Williams $228 (2)
• 7/2 Jordan Westburg $177 

FAAB Summary

In the first 15 FAAB weeks, Main Event owners have had 23,282 winning bids (so each Main Event team has won 29.3 bids on average YTD – roughly two per week) and spent about $823 of their $1,000 allocation. Comparing that to the last two years at the 14-week mark, that’s more than the $747 spent in 2022 and the $732 spent two years ago. You can see in the chart below (the average amount spent per team column) that there was a huge drop in weekly spending three weeks ago – from $65 spent per team to $28, and after holding steady at that $28 level last week, it’s now down to $17. But with 27 FAAB periods and $823 spent in 15 weeks, owners who have an average amount left are going to have to economize even further by averaging $14.75 per week for all their winning bids over the final 12 weeks of the campaign. It is time for some really strong $5 bids!

The Colosseum

Each week during the season, I 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 the results from the 10th FAAB period.  Andrew Abbott of Cincinnati leads us off and he’s been very good – two wins, a 2.00 ERA and a very nice K:BB ratio. He gets a thumbs up from the emperor of course. AJ Smith-Shawver of the Braves, however, did not perform as well and was recently demoted. He is a thumbs down as a FAAB acquisition. Scott McGough of the Diamondbacks, on the other hand, has been good.  He has five saves in three weeks with a nice K:BB ratio and WHIP and is awarded with a thumbs up. Finally, the phenomenon known as Elly De La Cruz has been electric. One could quibble with the batting average I suppose, but he’s homered twice, stolen six bags and is producing counting stats. This is another thumbs up from the emperor.

This now gives us 22 thumbs up for the season thus far (46%), 18 down (38%) and 8 pushes (17%). That’s better than 2022, which registered a 39% thumbs up on these weekly pickups, and well ahead of 2021 (24%). 

Overall Leaderboard: The Second Crusade for Christenson

Remember that the Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported and sometimes directed by the Christian Latin Church in the medieval period? And even though crusading declined rapidly after the 15th century, Eric Christenson believes that they should be brought back. Even though Eric does his FAAB prep on horseback (see below), he says he is ready to go to the Middle East on short notice for the pursuit of religious enlightenment. Eric has been steady and solid all season and assures us all that this crusade will end in victory!!

In the overall top 30 standing below, we find Steve Maier still in second place and Clark Olson – who moved ahead of Brandon King – now in 3rd from 6th last week. Mr. Olson is also 14th and 26th. Wow. Michael Mager is lurking in 5th (and he also has the 7th-place overall team) and Jeff Tudor is in solid position in 6th. The great John Pausma is now 8th (and 30th) and Andrew Geller is 9th. Dalton Del Don rounds out the top 10 and is always a threat.

Fantasy managers to watch out for include Bob Catsiroumpas in 11th; Michael Kurland in 12th; Scott Waggener in 13th; and Nelson Sousa – who is all over the leaderboard in 15th and 17th overall. 

There are a lot of other strong contenders in the top 30 list. Just take a look at the standings below, and with more than half of the season left, anything can happen.

Champions Update

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

Philippe Dussault: Philippe is back and sent me a message from his lawyers informing me that I get no credit for his rise toward the top. However, I must submit the following as evidence. I took Phil to task (purely as a motivational strategy) in this article, and Phil has steadily climbed from 275th place (out of 795 total) to 201st; then to 187th; 160th; 134th. 91st and now? 61st! Is this coincidence? Come on…

Robert Cramutola: Bob is now in 135th from 171st last week. Bob says he will have a press conference before the trade deadline to discuss options, but says he is mostly looking to acquire middle relievers to keep his payroll down.

League of Legends

Shout-Outs

John Pausma is still cashing in all five Main Event leagues but doesn’t quite have the iron grip when he led all five. Still, this is mighty impressive. But I can tell you that John is none too happy about only leading one of these leagues, so I’d watch out if I were in his league. 

Nelson Sousa is in a cashing position in four Main Event leagues and is making quite a name for himself. (He says it is due to the fact that he hired a new offensive coordinator this year – huh?). Danny Bronski continues to lead two Main Event leagues and is second in yet another, while Michael Mager is also leading two while placing third as well. Clark Olson and David Miller are each leading one and second in two more, and the famous tag team of Brian Slack and Nickolaus Sackett are quite even-handed because they have one first, one second and one third. Those eight fantasy players have 10 first-place positions; 10 second-place and 7 third-place. Wow. Excellent job gentlemen!

Twelve other players are in two cashing spots, with Jason Anthony winning two leagues. In fact, these 20 Main Event fantasy owners below have a combined 17 first-place positions (32%) and 51 cashing spots (32% of the 159 total available). There’s a long way to go of course, but right now the story of the season in the Main Event is Pausma, Sousa, Bronski, Mager, Olson, Miller and Slack/Sackett. But remember, it’s the second crusade this week! So with $177 average FAAB remaining, let’s head to the East (or at least to September)!

Good luck during Week 16!