2018 NFBC Championship Profile - John Pausma

[Tom Kessenich]

John Pausma is no stranger to fantasy sports success at the highest of levels. He’s a two-time national contest winner in the National Fantasy Football Championship.

But the dream he always had was to take home the glory in the NFBC. As much as he loves football, the baseball title was his Mt. Everest, the goal he had longed to achieve.

Last season, the goal became a reality.

Pausma cemented his standing as one of the premier players in the high-stakes industry by finally climbing the mountain of his dreams and placing his flag at the top when he took home the 2018 NFBC Main Event title.

“Winning a baseball title is something I have always wanted to do,” Pausma said. “I love real baseball, fantasy baseball and I love the NFBC version of fantasy baseball.

“I started out playing fantasy baseball during my freshman year of college. I remember drafting Jeff Bagwell – he was this hotshot rookie that was supposedly going to do something. I read about him in the special edition USA Today fantasy newspaper that came out each season. Crazy to think about how fantasy baseball was played back then.”

The times they do change but one constant for all players is the need to prep hard for each upcoming season. Pausma’s prep work began in January of 2018. He augmented his detailed work by doing some NFBC Draft Champions leagues. From there it was all about preparing for the live events.

Since Pausma lives in Tinley, Illinois he heads to Chicago every year on the NFBC’s opening weekend before trekking to Vegas for the final week of action. Last year, it was his Main Event work in the Windy City that proved most fortuitous.

With the second pick in that draft he began putting his championship roster together with Jose Altuve in the first round. He then landed pitcher Noah Syndergaard in the second before targeting someone close to his heart in Round 3.

And that pick not only satisfied his fan cravings but would prove to be one of the best picks he would make in any draft a season ago.

“Being a Brewers fan, I loved (Christian) Yelich at that spot,” he said. “I really should have taken him with my second pick.”

That pick proved to be worth the investment as Yelich went on to win the National League MVP Award while leading the Brewers to the playoffs and Pausma to NFBC immortality.

As enjoyable as the draft is, Pausma has played this game long enough to know the battle for big money in the NFBC does not end there. In-season roster management is often the critical X factor that decides which teams find glory and those that stumble by the wayside.

His work in FAAB proved pivotal and he had some extra thanks for the ease with which the process worked.

“Huge props to the NFBC programming crew for making part much easier,” he said. “The free agent search feature was something we never had before and was even more amazing than the Watch List feature.”

Armed with improved technology, Pausma went to work on the Waiver Wire. Max Muncy was his biggest addition but by no means the only one who factored into his championship season. Sean Doolittle was a nice pickup as well, as was Ross Stripling.

Armed with a strong team and savvy FAAB work, Pausma set about chasing the title of his dreams. And he made sure to leave no stone unturned.

“I tend to be fairly overboard on tracking everything,” he said. “I suppose that goes back to my math background. I was always going to be a math teacher but that got sidelined early on.

“Anyways, I set weekly goals for each team. A very wise man named Shawn Childs taught me such. I felt that in order to be on top at the end, the team on a weekly basis had to produce 42 runs, 12.5 home runs, 41 RBIs, 5.4 stolen bases, a .271 average, 3.8 wins, 54 strikeouts, a 3.88 ERA and 1.25 WHIP. Those are basically the 80th percentile numbers broken into weekly amounts.

“I knew if I hit those then the team would be in contention for the league title. If I could beat those and end up in the 90th percentile then perhaps it could contend for the overall.”

Contend this team did. By Week 12, it had moved into first place in his Chicago league and into the Top 10 in the overall standings. From there it was a race to the finish line with the hope of taking home the Main Event title and its $125,000 grand prize.

Last season, that meant one additional game with the play-in action on Monday. He had secured the overall title when the Sunday games concluded but to take home first place in his Chicago league there was more work to be done. As it turned out, that additional day of regular season action proved quite meaningful.

And memorable.

“I fell into second place in my league to the Brinkmann brothers,” Pausma recalled. “That’s right, I was first overall but second in the league. The (Monday) games play and the Max Muncy homer off of German Marquez on a 3-2 count in the 7th inning vaults me ahead of Brinkmann and I end up winning the league.”

It was that kind of season for Pausma, for sure.

“Looking back at it, I think a key to success was the prep work done in the offseason as well as meticulous calculating and tracing the category stats on a weekly basis,” he said. “It is a 162-game season but really it is a series of 26 weekly seasons and you need to win those.

“Grinding the FAAB pool is such a key. There are a lot of stats sitting on the Waiver Wire each week. It really does take all three areas to come together for a winning season – prep, draft and in-season management. It doesn’t hurt to have a little luck as well and I had plenty of that.”

Luck tends to favor the prepared and gifted and Pausma certainly is both as a high-stakes player. Pausma’s life is not entirely devoted to be a premier player, however. There’s much more going on.

“My wonderful wife Lisa who is slowly becoming a baseball fan,” he said. “We have four children that live in Indiana, Michigan and Colorado and – most importantly – two grandchildren. Besides work and fantasy sports we love to spend vacation time in northern Wisconsin as well as spending time volunteering at a variety of church programs.”

Now that he has achieved the goal of his dreams there’s no reason to sit back and bask in the glow of all his glory. Pausma will soon be hard at work attempting to do what no one has done in the NFBC before – win back-to-back Main Event titles.

And that means time to enjoy the live events in Chicago and Vegas.

“There really is nothing like a live event draft or auction,” he said. “My favorite memory from Vegas last year was sitting at a small restaurant with Dan Kenyon, his wife, his daughter, Chad Fleming and Scott Davis talking baseball for hours in Vegas. Scott would pull out his little notebook and write something down every once in a while. No idea what is all written in that book.”

Perhaps just picking the brain of a Main Event champion.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Congrats CHAMP and well done on the season review. It was a season for the ages and you won that $125,000 prize the old fashioned way: You EARNED IT. Lots of hard work and prep went into that title as was described here.

You also gave some lessons on how to win an overall championship. You have to play every week separately, every weekend separately. There is no rest during the season, during the week. It's not just Draft Day and Sunday FAAB. It's adjusting lineups on Mondays, Tuesday, Fridays and FAAB work seven days a week. Hitting your weekly goals is as important as trying to hit your weekly goals. Well done and a good lesson for others.

That's what Shawn gets for giving up those winning tips to a sharp guy like you!!!

Good luck in the NFFC Championship Round as you're in line for a couple of national titles there as well. And then good luck with the baseball prep. See you in Las Vegas in March.

[DOUGHBOYS]

John, John, John.
John Pausma is a player in the Steve Jupinka or Andy Nolan mode.
Not a loud mouth like me.
Guys like John Pausma are quiet assassins of fantasy sports.
AND, it is impossible to dislike the guy!
I hate him!

John, again, congratulations to you.
You didn't even have to win the Overall this past year.
Everybody still would have known you as one of the best.
BUT, you did, and now along with the respect that everybody has for you, we all now hate you too.

To be good at fantasy sports, one has to be dedicated.
To excel and be better than anybody at fantasy sports, you have to have no life.

Seriously, look at others.

Lindy spends more time with pigs than humans.

Jupinka is still trying to convince some that there's no 'r' in his name.

Potts talks through a guitar.

No life!

I'm not going to include myself with this illustrious group, but look at me, I'm typing on a Message Board constantly that is seen by around 10 people.
Again, No Life!

If John were to speak in front of 30 kids who all want to be fantasy guru's when growing up, John would say this....

"Hit the books hard, Kids.
The Forecaster, Bill James, and I try to memorize the Baseball Encyclopedia too.
If you study hard, you'll become a great fantasy player."

"Oh, and don't get too involved with life. It takes away from that study.
Sure, get married, have kids, BUT make sure that the wife knows that Sunday is FAAB day and make sure the kids know that 'Daddy is working' when looking at any monitor."

"Oh, and make sure that you get a job that leaves enough time for fantasy sports. Never forget your priorities!"

"Now, since I've been talking, I've only seen one kid in this class with his Forecaster open. I'm proud of you, Billy!
I have been mentoring Billy now for two years. He's about to take the next step."

Billy, looking up sheepishly from a JD Martinez snipet responds, "Thanks Mr. Pausma. Thanks to you, I now know the true meaning of Christmas.
The Forecaster!"

Tongue in cheek aside, Congratulations to John. You are one of the Best.
And to Billy, who will be