NFBC 2024 Champions Profile - Bob Catsiroumpas

[Tom Kessenich]

The NFBC Best Ball Cutline contest is one of the most unique contests in the entire fantasy ball industry. With its blend of Best Ball, a touch of FAAB and then its survivor-type playoff intrigue there’s nothing quite like it.

To win it once is a remarkable accomplishment.

Twice? Now that’s an impressive achievement.

Three times? An historic accomplishment to be sure.

And that is something Bob Catsiroumpas accomplished in 2024.

Having won the Cutline title in 2019 and 201, Catsiroumpas took down a field of 1,390 teams for the third time a year ago, capturing the $70,00 grand prize becoming the only multi-time champion in this format.

“I play many leagues and contests, so in late August I was happy and relieved getting two of my 20 Cutline teams to the final table,” he said. “My high stakes and other Roto teams were generally competitive, but it seemed clear that I was likely to be about break even with those
teams.”

He did much better than simply “break even.”

Catsiroumpas had 20 Best Ball Cutline teams and won five league titles and made the Championship Round with 10 teams and had nine other teams move to the Wild Card Tier. Eight of his teams made it to the second round of the Championship Round, while five teams advanced through the Wild Card Tier. He had two teams at "the final table" and seven teams in the final round of the Wild Card Tier.

Bob also won two RotoWire Online Championship league titles and finished sixth overall in that contest, while adding one Draft Champions league title, two Best Ball Championship league titles and one Gladiator league title. He finished seventh overall in the Best Ball Championship and 92nd overall in the Gladiator Championship.

Like many 2024 championship teams, Bob’s championship team was led by Shohei Ohtani, who he drafted in the second round with the 12th overall pick. But as fantastic as Ohtani was a season ago it was some lesser-known players who proved even more valuable in the stretch run.

“The team had a solid pitching that became elite during the playoffs/finals as four of my weakest pitchers (Yusei Kikuchi, MacKenzie Gore, David Peterson and Jose Quintana) pitched like aces down the stretch,” he said.

He entered the last three-week period of the Championship Round with the most points and he stayed on top the entire way, although it got close at the end. He also had a second team among the final table and that team finished 10th overall.

“Thanks to a huge second week I had what I thought was a comfortable lead, but a poor Saturday saw my lead fall from 120 to 27 points and the third-place team was also within striking distance,” he said. “On the final Sunday at 4 o’clock I was exactly tied for first with only a
handful of players left for each team. Fortunately for me, my opponent (Jim Costello) had three Texas hitters who were one-hit versus the Mariners and scored negative points, so I didn’t even need Ohtani and Michael Harris in the night game.

“In the end there wasn’t much separating my team on paper or the standings between myself and the second- and third-place teams and the Top 7 teams or more had a legit shot.”

When the dust settled it was Championship No. 3 for the 49-year-old Catsiroumpas who first joined the NFBC in 2018. A year later he took down the Cutline for the first time. Six years later, he has two more Cutline championships two his credit and he’s enjoying fantasy baseball more and more.

Will 2025 ring in Cutline Championship No. 4?

Only time will tell.

[judydon]

Amazing