Whitestone’s Waiver Watch: NFBC Main Event (8/5)

Pretty Darn Close!

MLB Counter = 69.1% of the season complete

There are now nine weeks left in the MLB season (and about 30% more season to go based on games played), so it’s time to take a look at some of the closest races in Main Event fantasy baseball leagues at this point of the season. There are 57 Main Event leagues, and of course some of them have one fantasy manager way out in front, while others have perhaps two managers who have separated themselves from the other 13 competitors. But there are a few that have up to half the league still in the hunt, and those are the most fun to break down. We’ll look at four leagues this week, so let’s dive in!

In Main Event League 1380, you can see below that the top seven in the league are within 25.5 points of first place. It looks like the top four have the best shot at the league championship, as Joseph Martens (whose favorite movie is Back to the Future) has surged 7.5 points over the past two weeks. Scott Waggener has stepped back by 4.5 points over the same period, but he certainly is right in the thick of the fight. Then we come to the two past Main Event Overall Champs — first Phil Dussault — in third place after gaining 10.5 points over the past two weeks, seems to have the top spot in his sights. But Robert Cramutola is also not out of the hunt — he is up 4.5 points, and we know he is capable of surging for two months. Michelle Smith, Lindy Hinkelman and Scott Reissman are a little further back, but if they can put together a couple of weeks, they will be among the league leaders as well.

NFBC Main Event League 1380: Martens McFly

In Main Event League 1460, Dalton Del Don has pulled away a bit from the pack — which is extremely bunched up. But the 5 points Dalton has gained over the past two weeks have given him a nice cushion — as he waits to see who will jump out from the big group behind him. Kristopher Reed seems to have the best chance — he’s gained 2.5 points and has edged into second place. But Michael Thompson is right there as well, and those two have a little gap on Mark Northan, Kyle Brinkmann, David Hinkel and Erik Sviggum, who are all within 2.5 points of each other.

NFBC Main Event League 1460: A Triple-D Jubilee

Main Event League 1485 shows — what a surprise — that the great John Pausma is now leading. John has gradually caught everyone in this league and has built a 6.5-point cushion. His closest pursuer, Daniel Semsel, is not cowed by John’s mantle full of Main Event Championships. He has gained 4.5 points in the last two weeks and is in the top 100 overall, so there’s no need to throw in the towel. But he’s not the only interesting member of the pack. Three others are about 14 points behind, Bill (the Skill) Gaffney, veteran and expert player Donald Warner, and Clark the Shark Olson who has no mercy for anyone. In addition, famed NFBC player Shawn Childs and Anthony (Everyone’s Pal) Palavis are not eliminated, lurking about 22-25 points out of the lead.

NFBC Main Event League 1485: Pausing for No One

Main Event League 1487 has an even closer grouping, with Dan The Man Thompson leading the way by just 3.5 points. But when you consider that Dan has gained 18 points while everyone else in the league has been backsliding this is even more impressive. Can he continue to surge ahead? The Magnanimous Brian Magnani says no. He has lost ground over the past two weeks but claims that’s just a “blip” on the radar screen and will soon be overcome. Similarly, Mike Ballschmiede and reliever expert Greg Jewett are 10 points behind and are reporting “no problems” in their plan to catch up with nine weeks to go. With a little more work to do are Adam Baker, Matthew Crane and Brennan Logue — while Adam and Brennan did not respond to my texts asking for comment — Matthew, let me know that he was working on a construction project for a high-rise building and had to supervise the operation of machinery:

NFBC Main Event League 1487: Dan the Man

There are at least four other leagues that are also close, and we’ll examine those next week…

NFBC Main Event FAAB 20: Spring Cleaning

In FAAB 20 Monday, spending stayed strong because four players were available — Jeffrey Springs, Coby Mayo, Devin Williams and Jackson Holliday. The top 10 widest acquisitions this week are in the chart below, and many Main Event managers (see below) decided that they wanted one of these four potential difference makers. Springs was the headliner, with a solid average winning bid of $81 over 57 leagues, but Mayo was not completely overshadowed, with an average winning bid of $83 in 47 leagues. The No. 3 addition was a former Dodger now in the Midwest — Miguel Vargas — who commanded an average winning bid of $17. Paul Blackburn is also worth mentioning, added in 46 leagues at an average of $12. Among the widest 10 pickups, Ryan Thompson (two saves this week), Victor Scott II (brought up again by St. Louis) and Calvin Faucher (who earned a save this week) were the only others above a $10 average winning bid. Outside of the 10 widest pickups, only three additional players (that were added in more than five leagues) attracted relatively high $30-plus average winning bids (and they went way over $30!). Those honors fell to Devin Williams of the Brewers (average of $187.46 from 13 bids), Jackson Holliday of the Orioles ($110.35 from 20 bids), and Hayden Birdsong of the Giants (average of $56.90 from 10 bids).

NFBC Main Event — Hope Springs Eternal

Winning Bids over $100 and $200

I’m also keeping tabs on players attracting the highest individual FAAB bids. In the 20th run Aug. 4 (see below), there were 7 winning bids over $200 — 5 for Devin Williams, 1 for Coby Mayo, 1 for Jeffrey Springs. In addition, there were 59 winning bids between $100-199, 51 of which were for the big four — Devin Williams (7), Coby Mayo (16), Jeffrey Springs (16) and Jackson Holliday (12). The lowest winning bid for each of the four is as follows — Devin Williams $77, Coby Mayo $17, Jeffrey Springs $14, Jackson Holliday $31.

The Wow Bid of the Week: Devin Is Heaven

The highest overall bid in FAAB Week 20 was for the Brewers’ Devin Williams, who was added in 13 Main Event leagues where he was not drafted and therefore only became available this week. Williams is now 100% rostered in the Main Event, and his new managers — especially the ones bidding the big bucks — apparently were responding to a higher calling (see below) and were dreaming of heavenly saves by the former top closer. The top Williams $320 bid was the 14th-highest Wow bid out of the 20 registered so far, and easily beat out the unsuccessful runner-up bid of $196.

The Wow Bids of 2024:

• 3/24: Nolan Schanuel $200 (19)
• 3/31: Jason Foley $479 (5)
• 4/7: James McArthur $225 (18)
• 4/14 Brandon Nimmo $578 (3)
• 4/21 Wilyer Abreu $350 (13)
• 4/28 Pete Crow-Armstrong $355 (12)
• 5/5 Christian Scott $677 (Highest)
• 5/12 Taj Bradley $444 (7)
• 519 Reed Garrett $420 (8)
• 5/26 Wyatt Langford $248 (17)
• 6/2 Ben Brown $366 (10)
• 6/9 Blake Snell $360 (11)
• 6/16 Ryne Stanek $261 (16)
• 6/23 Michael Harris $281 (15)
• 6/30 Noelvi Marte $509 (4)
• 7/7 James Wood $462 (6)
• 7/14 Rece Hinds $609 (2)
• 7/21 Jordan Montgomery $189 (20)
• 7/28 Robbie Ray $400 (9)
• 8/4 Devin Williams $320 (14)

FAAB Summary: Spending Remains Strong

In the 20th FAAB week, Main Event managers successfully made 1,895 winning bids (about 9% more than last week), and the spending was generally driven by four key players — Devin Williams, Coby Mayo, Jeffrey Springs and Jackson Holliday. After this week, Main Event managers have now spent approximately $838 of their $1,000 allocation, and although this remains lower than each of the last three years at the 20-week mark, it is now closing in on the three previous years. This year’s Week 20 had spending of about $37 per team, well above 2023 ($14), 2022 ($27) and 2021 ($22) levels. Still, considering there are just 7 FAAB runs left, managers still have more money to spend compared to the past (the average Main Event manager can still spend about $23 per week over the final 7 weeks).

Total Spent: Main Event Through 20 FAAB Periods

• 2024: $838
• 2023: $903
• 2022: $873
• 2021: $874

FAAB Spending Summary 2024

Average Weekly Spending Per Team (21-24)

The Colosseum

Each week during the season, I’ll 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. We’re focusing on the first three weeks after the pickup, when players can earn their new managers some good stats (as they are generally in the active lineup) or underperform badly, leading to an angry drop soon after they are added to the roster.

Three weeks ago, we had our 17th FAAB run, and we had one good pickup out of four. Both Rece Hinds and Yilber Diaz faded quickly and were sent down, so they get no love from the emperor. Ángel Martínez is still contributing with decent playing time albeit with a weak batting average and relatively underwhelming counting stats — we’ll award him a push. But the star of that 17th week has been Lawrence Butler, with an average well over .300 and solid numbers across the board. He’s a winner and gets a thumbs up for sure.

It’s still a relatively bad week overall, keeping the Main Event pickup record for 2024 below 2023 and 2022 — at least for the time being, with 25 thumbs up (37%), 34 thumbs down and 9 pushes. At least this is still better than the 2021 good pickups mark of 24%, but most of the good pickups were earlier in the season.

Colosseum Thumbs Up Record:

• 2024 thus far: 37%
• 2023: 44%
• 2022: 39%
• 2021: 24%

2024 Colosseum Thumbs Up Players

Overall Leaderboard: Clark’s Day Job 

Many people have asked (OK, no one asked but I was interested anyway) what Clark (the Shark) Olson’s day job is (of course his nighttime activity is solely devoted to his fantasy baseball teams), so I’m reporting to you that — unsurprisingly — Clark is a Loan Shark during his daytime hours. Clark is apparently very persuasive in getting money back from those who fall behind on their payments and is known far and wide as an efficient manager of resources. It is rumored that this is why Clark has $2000 of FAAB each year, and no one seems to be willing to question his methods or whether this is fair (personally I think it’s just fine!) Anyway, Mister Olson now has his biggest lead of the season — 292.5 points — which in fact is the biggest margin of the season for any leader (eclipsing the 255.5 by Glenn Schroter way back May 5). His message to the NFBC? “Get ready to pay me!”

Main Event Leaders in 2024

Right behind our unfriendly shark in second and fourth place is the Amazin’ Jason Santeiu. Now last week he was second and third, so this is a bit of a comedown for him. And Jason’s third best team is not even in the top 31 overall (35th). I just don’t know how we can have a lot of respect for a fantasy manager whose third-best team is no better than that, right? Who’s with me on this? In any case, the investigation into unfair competitive practices against Mr. Santeiu is reaching a critical stage. Jason’s team of lawyers submitted a motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that he is really good at fantasy baseball, but the opposition had what I consider an excellent response (they simply said “ha, no way!”). David — um — Robert Beckman — moved up to third place after he was awarded a penalty kick (and converted it), causing the Manchester United fans to rejoice. The top five is rounded out by my favorite Martin — Gregg Martin, who moved up from seventh — this kid has moxie, I tell you — even if he’s from outer space!

The Richer Alan Mitchell — who texted me to say that he’s smoking $100 bills in anticipation of cashing on this team in the overall — is still holding in sixth overall, after moving from 14th the previous week. But even more impressive has been the rise of Tyler (Welcome to the Jungle) — three weeks ago he moved up to 18th from 31st, two weeks ago he surged to 15th, last week he was 12th — and now? Seventh place! My goodness! The jungle is alive! The fresher Eric Drescher might need another short respite from the competition — as he dropped from fifth to eighth this week. He claims that the settings on his newly constructed refrigerated unit (designed to keep him crisp and fresh) were off last week and that he’ll jump back into the top five with the twist of a dial. Holding in ninth place is The Kid Ben Tidd — who made his 2024 overall leaderboard debut two weeks ago in 19th place, and last week reached this ninth overall position. Ben was breathing heavily from his recent climb up the rankings, so I asked him how he felt, and he replied wisely, “The ducks are on the pond.” Sure, Ben, very relevant. The Liberator, Bradley Libros, is back in the top 10 at 10th overall (still claiming he will liberate the masses of downtrodden Main Event owners) and he’s up from 13th, which he says will help the revolution succeed. 

The impressive Knute Rockne aficionado Nicholi Knutson resides in 11th (down from eighth) but says the Notre Dame defense is coming together nicely in their summer practices. And Anthony Donisch (who likes a good Danish) is seemingly having nice breakfasts lately as he surged from 17th to 12th overall this week. Back in 13th (from 10th) is Real Neil Petersen, who I think we can still count on to keep it real based on my past conversations with him. Then there is Brody (the Coyote) John — who also is doing well — jumping up to 14th from 23rd last week in a cunning display of trickery (in my opinion at least). In 15th place is 2015 overall champ and former 2024 leader Glenn Schroter, who has moved back into definite contention from 23rd two weeks ago but fell back a little from 11th last week.

Other notables include department store owner Bill Macey (16th), drummer Griffin Benger (17th), Sousaphone inventor Nelson Sousa (18th), Bill (The Skill) Gaffney in 19th, and Chris (UR A Monster) in 20th place (AND 22nd!). There’s also a fantasy manager who loves Easter — Todd Hoppe — in 21st; followed by “it’s all right” Eric Albright in 23rd; the very tough guy to get rid of, Dave Rhydderch, in 25th; movie producer Adam Warner of Warner Brothers in 27th; Jackson The Price is Right in 30th; and the man at the cliff’s edge (Kyle Brinkmann) in 31st.

But all 31 of these fantasy managers are in the hunt for sure, and in a big 855-team contest like the Main Event, that’s very impressive, right? Nice job, fellows!

Top 31: Main Event 2024

League of Legends

Here are the 57 Main Event leagues with the current top three in the standings on the morning of Aug. 5.

Top Three: 2024 Main Event League Leaders

Shout-Outs

The 27 players listed below account for 18 of the 57 first-place positions (32%) and 62 of the 171 total cashing positions (36%). So far, the most outstanding performance across the Main Events belongs to Robert Cramutola with three first-place positions plus one second! The next six are not too shabby either: Jason Santeiu has three firsts, Kyle Brinkmann and Dalton Del Don have two firsts and one second; Tyler Jung has the across-the-board positions of one first, one second and one third; and Michael O’Brien and Scott Waggener have two seconds and one third. Congratulations! But see below, as there are several other fantasy managers doing terrific work.

Notables include:

• Three first, one second — Robert Cramutola
• Three first — Jason Santeiu
• One first, two seconds — Kyle Brinkmann, Dalton Del Don
• One first, one second, one third — Tyler Jung
• Two seconds, one third — Scott Waggener, Michael O’Brien
• Two firsts — Bradley Libros, Chris Uram
• One first; one second – Anthony Palavis, Nelson Sousa
• One first; one third – Alan Mitchell, Clark Olson, Gregg Martin
• Two seconds — Dave Rhydderch
• One second, one third — Abdulaziz Madani, Christopher Vaccaro, Bill Gaffney, Danny Bronski, James Tomony, Dominic Rello, Joe Green, Tom O’Bryan, Michael Mager
• Two thirds — Matt Modica, Robert DiPietro, Mike Ballschmiede

Good luck to all the competitors in Week 21.