NFBC Weekly Profile - Michael Becker

[Tom Kessenich]

If at first you don’t succeed try, try again. That’s the old adage and it’s one Michael Becker has taken to heart in the RotoWire Online Championship.

Becker has three teams competing in the event this season and two have staked a claim for the top spot in the overall standings. His Beanballers III team led the event after Week 2 before the losses of Zack Greinke and Johnny Cueto precipitated a drop in the standings.

But if at first you don’t succeed …

Six weeks later another of Becker’s teams (Beanballers I) is back on top of the event. Becker holds a 239.5-point advantage over Joe Martino’s second-place team heading into action on Tuesday.

“I remember saying (when Beanballers III was in first place) that as well as that team was doing I had another I sorta liked more in terms of its potential,” Becker said. “And here it is in first place overall after a great week and a run up the standings.

“Hopefully, this will be more sustainable than my last run at the top with the other team. When you are competing against 1,100-plus teams it can fall quickly if anything goes off-kilter with your team.”

The key to this team’s success has been balance. Becker has compiled a standout offense as well as a strong pitching staff and is dominating his league in both categories with two months of the season nearly in the books.

His team’s offense has been anchored by his first four picks – Carlos Gonzalez, Prince Fielder, Adrian Beltre and Jacoby Ellsbury.

“I was hoping to get 100 home runs and 75 stolen bases out of that group and so far they are on pace to exceed that,” he said.

His pitching staff carries plenty of weight as well. The starting rotation is anchored by Adam Wainwright, Chris Sale, Jake Peavy and Homer Bailey with Jason Grilli and Joe Nathan leading the way in terms of saves.

“I am not sure whether it will work in the end but my approach to the 12-team leagues this year was that you should, if possible, draft 2-3 elite starting pitchers in the first 6-7 rounds, draft two of the upper level catchers in rounds 6-9 and draft three solid closers,” Becker said. “Solid middle infielders were available in the middle rounds and I thought you could wait on them. This team generally followed that plan, although I waited until the fifth round for my first starting pitcher.”

What Becker wasn’t able to do was amass a significant amount of value with his late-round selections – with one notable exception.

“I took a flier on David Ortiz late (in the 24th round) and it has paid off big time,” he said. “Most of my late-round picks are already waived but Ortiz has been a big plus.”

Becker has also worked the Waiver Wire aggressively. Mitch Moreland Jhonny Peralta have been his two biggest free-agent pickups although he’s hoping rookie phenom Jurickson Profar (who he acquired this week) will pay similar dividends.

Becker started playing fantasy sports 10 years ago and was immediately hooked. He later joined the NFBC and has focused his attention on our 12-team formats. He lives in Washington DC with his wife and two teen-age sons.

With June fast approaching, now is the time many fantasy owners believe they can more accurately assess what type of team they have and how it may fare the remainder of the season. Time will tell if Becker’s team has the stuff champions are made of but there’s no question he’s in an advantageous position as the month of May draws to a close.

“Like everyone I need my team to stay healthy,” he said. “I have had my share of injuries so far but nothing too critical. I drafted three closers and have already lost JJ Putz. If I lose another closer, I am in trouble in the overall competition.

“The other potential shortfall on my team is stolen bases. I need certain key speed players to perform and stay healthy. The one potential boost is that I have starting pitching reinforcements coming with Matt Garza and Colby Lewis. If they can pitch like they have in previous seasons my staff will look really good.”

[Greg Ambrosius]

Just a heads up that Michael Becker will be our guest on STATS Fantasy Advantage on SiriusXM 210/87 tomorrow night at 7:30 pm ET. We'll talk with him about his top Online Championship teams and his experience in the NFBC. Should be fun.

We'll also have Jason Collette of Baseball Prospectus and Rotowire.com on at 8 pm ET to talk about the top minor-leaguers. Sam Lubeck of STATS will have some great data in our first segment at 7 pm ET and we'll devote the last 30 minutes to fantasy football. See ya there.