Countdown to the NFBC

[rockitsauce]

the rockit sends wishes of a sixto* for you Glenny

sixto - 6 FG's of over 40 yds, also baseball player from the 70's
sixto.jpg


btw, my absolute FAV yr of Topps baseball card, is there a better time than when ur 7 ?

[Glenneration X]

Thanks Rockit, but even with the mighty Sixto in my corner, it just wasn't meant to be. Even though the odds were against me, I wouldn't be completely honest if I didn't admit that there was a small part of me deep down that truly believed that it was meant to be and that I was going to pull it off this time. TNT, the team that won did a better job than me and my own mistakes in the Championship rounds were my downfall. I didn't deserve to win. Still, when I had the lead and things were still going my way as late as early 2nd quarter yesterday, I could really start to taste it and allowed myself to get caught up in the possibility. I'm trying to once again be gracious in defeat but no matter how much I try not to, I can't help but feel disappointed for yet another close but no cigar finish in an Overall. This makes half a dozen top 6 Overall finishes the last two years with the only one I was able to land on top, in last year's WCOFB Online Championships one that I may never see a dime for. Still, I'm not one to languish in what could have been and won't. My catharsis now complete , it's time to be proud of where I did finish instead of disappointed in where I didn't, and to try once again to achieve my goal of landing on top of a High Stakes Overall (and in one that I'll get paid ).

My next opportunity starts in 86 Days. My goal like everyone else's, to be Champion.











C'mon, did you guys really expect pictures of anything else for this number??

[Glenneration X]

85 Days 'til our next chance to win the NFBC. Be prepared to be a media star if you do win. Our last champion, the great Lindy Hinkelman ended up being profiled in the New York Times, dozens of websites, and was even interviewed on TV.




However, this year if one of the rest of you win, you can be interviewed by Jim Rome like Lindy was.....




If I win, I'd prefer to be interviewed by a certain other host. Sure, she may not know much about fantasy baseball or even sports in general and yes, there will likely be a language barrier. Still, I hear she's very good at keeping the attention of her guests.....

[Money]

If I win, I'd prefer to be interviewed by a certain other host. Sure, she may not know much about fantasy baseball or even sports in general and yes, there will likely be a language barrier. Still, I hear she's very good at keeping the attention of her guests.....

Now we're getting back on topic!!!

[Glenneration X]

84 Days 'til the ninth annual NFBC. Prior to Greg's creation of our beloved contest in 2004, he made his mark in the collectibles arena of the industry. He could tell you that when the baseball card market transitioned in the early '80's from a kid's hobby to an investment industry, the 1984 Don Mattingly rookie card was one of the first to catch fire with the investment crowd. It reinforced a trend in the hobby market that rookie or prospect cards would carry an inordinate amount of value when compared to the cards of more established veterans.




The same can be said about rookies or prospects in our NFBC drafts. While I've seen some in our community like Doughy or Wayne Edwards subscribe to the Show Me Twice philosophy towards young players, prospects, or rookies, there are many others who feel there is "value" (sorry Doughy) to be garnered by grabbing these type of players before they show us twice. The early slow draft ADP's of some of these players seem to indicate that the NFBC crowd is still infatuated with the upside of players who've yet to 'earn' their ADP. We all have 84 more days before the live drafts to decide where we value them.

[Glenneration X]

83 Days 'til the live NFBC drafts. In the meantime we have the Slowwwwww Drafts to keep us occupied.




The Slow Drafts are a pretty cool concept created by KJ a couple seasons back with the Original Slow Draft whose participation included some of the best players in our game. It was such a hit that by the time I joined the Original Slow Draft II roster the following year, there were several other slow drafts already being formed. Today there are dozens of Slow Drafts each season, ranging from buy-ins of $125, $375, even Max Ogden's $1000 Slow, they start as early as Christmas, there's a Slow Draft Overall Championships, and the Slow Drafts have pretty much surpassed the satellites as the early season prep draft of choice in the NFBC. If done right, the Slow Drafts are not only great prep, but great fun as well.

Just beware, that at times an inconsiderate drafter may not realize that there are 14 other people in these drafts and decide that the 8 hour clock isn't a maximum allowable clock but a "mandatory" time period utilized to make a pick. Some feel that these drafters should be chastised, others feel that as I've seen put "It's a Slow Draft!!!" and there's nothing wrong with it. However, if you don't have the patience of Job or have been diagnosed with ADD, these drafters can be ummm, let's call it frustrating.






One more head's up. If you see this guy on your signup list.......



.....realize it could actually be this guy!




Lastly I do love these drafts if everyone's on board to keep them moving and am registered for Max's $1K Slow Draft this year due to kick off in a month. I can not wait.

[Glenneration X]

82 Days 'til the NFBC live draft season that I finally get to meet someone I already consider a friend though we've never met in person, someone I already feel like I know even though to date it's only been through the boards, E-mails, and phone. Greg, I look forward to having a Corona with you in Vegas come March, first round's on me.




Again only 82 Days 'til the NFBC, but tonight there'll be another Countdown winding down as we watch the ball drop on 2011 and the New Year usher in.



My resolutions:
1- Set the best example I can for my children and be the best father I can be.
2- Quit smoking and live a healthier lifestyle.
3- Help others in need.
4- Learn a new skill.
5- Win the NFBC. (This listing nowhere near in order of personal importance. I may have to push this one up to #2. After all, I can help more people with an additional 100K. )

Happy New Year's everyone. Here's to hoping 2012 is a great one for all of us.

[Glenneration X]

81 Days 'til the NFBC. In a year that saw the fantasy football season thrown into flux due to labor strife and the fantasy hoops season devastated, we are lucky that the baseball collective bargaining agreement was settled as early and relatively bloodless as it was. Now we can focus on our baseball prep instead of whether there'll even be a fantasy season.








I know some may now be waiting for an obligatory boob pic for Sally Field. Unfortunatly, I won't be able to oblige. However, I did run across an old photo from the early days of the NFBC showing her hitching a ride with Greg to Vegas where she was scheduled to facilitate. Happy New Year's everyone, 2012 will be a good one.

[Glenneration X]

80 Days 'til the NFBC. It's said that you need to average 80% across the board for all categories to compete for an Overall title. One of the keys to achieving that success is finding players who contribute to each of those categories.




Some players have so many tools, for them it's too bad fielding isn't also a category.











....and the full blown image of the original shot of the greatest "natural" player I ever personally watched play.

[Ando]

Glenn,

If I recall correctly, didn't Jr. break or sprain his ankle or lower leg on that last image? I remember the highlight and that he caught the ball, but I think that play DL'd for awhile that year.

[751542]

Glenn,

If I recall correctly, didn't Jr. break or sprain his ankle or lower leg on that last image? I remember the highlight and that he caught the ball, but I think that play DL'd for awhile that year.

i think he broke his wrist

[Ando]

Ah, yes. You are correct. Thanks RT!

[Glenneration X]

Yes. I'd say he probably broke his wrist right about here.....



Ouch.

[Winston's Empire]

Griffey was made to play baseball! I loved watching that guy and still have like 100 of his rookie cards... Well my son does at least

[Glenneration X]

Griffey was made to play baseball! I loved watching that guy and still have like 100 of his rookie cards... Well my son does at least

No doubt Max. I focused the pictures of today's Countdown post on Griffey's unbelievable defense, but let's face it, he also had maybe the sweetest left-handed swing in the game. He was a pleasure to watch play the game.

[Winston's Empire]

Was there anything better than that black bat with the white tape around the grip? Thanks for the trip down memory lane Glenn!

[Rainiers]

Thanks Glenn,

Griffey was far and away the best defensive centerfielder I have ever seen play. Seattle has had some very good ones, like Mike Cameron and Franklin Guiterez, but no one could play the wall like The Kid. What a joy to be dazzled regularly by his amazing talents.

Oh yeah, and that home run swing wasn't half-bad either.

[Glenneration X]

Thanks Glenn,

Griffey was far and away the best defensive centerfielder I have ever seen play. Seattle has had some very good ones, like Mike Cameron and Franklin Guiterez, but no one could play the wall like The Kid. What a joy to be dazzled regularly by his amazing talents.

Oh yeah, and that home run swing wasn't half-bad either.

Absolutely Robert. Griffey was likely the best player I've ever seen play, better than Bonds, better than ARod, better than anyone. The numbers might say different, but for me unlike when I play in these contests, it's not about the numbers. Back in the 90's, before Griffey's injuries reduced his playing time and dominance and before chemicals increased Bonds numbers and hat size, the debate on baseball's best player always centered around these two players. For me, there was no debate. Griffey had something that Bonds never had, that something that's not quantifiable, that something hard to describe. He brought that special something to every game he played, something Bonds never brought even at the height of his greatness, that sense that you were watching someone or something truly special. He had a magic to his game.

Many feel that when it comes to sports, I am the ultimate homer, a Mets fan, a Jets fan, etc. beyond the realms of logic. I am. However, even more so I am a fan of sport. I would turn off a Mets game to watch Junior in action and the chance to see that something special. Off hand I can only think of a very few athletes that for me had that magic, who gave you that feel that you had to watch them and when you were watching them, you were watching someone or something that noone else brought, that you may never see again. Lynn Swann going up for a football, Barry Sanders breaking defenders' ankles as he made them look foolish on the way to the end zone, Larry Bird and/or Magic Johnson on the hardwood but especially when it was Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson from college to the pros to immortality, Doc Gooden untouchable at 19. What these players brought were not always the best numbers and for some certainly not over time, but what they did bring was magic. Watching them was watching poetry on the sports field. There were several others I've seen that have brought that magic, some like Doc, just for very short times due to unfortunate circumstances that cut that something special too short, but what they brought was something to behold.

I imagine that's what Mays brought and Dimaggio, what made them legendary beyond their games. I hear others who've seen them play in their primes wax poetic about Gale Sayers and Elgin Baylor and Bobby Orr. I imagine that's the quality Doughy was describing in his great post on Shoeless Joe. Ruth brought raw power and dominance, Cobb ferocity, but Shoeless Joe was magic, never the greatest player in the game, but again special, magic. By the way, many of Doughy's posts bring that magic to our boards. I think that's what disturbs me the most about the Hall of Fame. Lynn Swann should have been a Hall of Famer the moment he qualified, Don Sutton should still be waiting. We know a Hall of Famer when we see them play. The writers should too. If you need their numbers to decide if they were, they weren't.

However, baseball more than any other game is about numbers. Our great contest, which also has that magic, is also solely about the numbers. That contest takes place in only 79 Days. Til then, our focus has to be apart from the poetry of the sport and on the raw statistics of it, the surface stats, the underlying stats, etc. Every season, more and more of these underlying stats are giving to us and supposedly tell us who the truly great players are and who are just lucky. They tell us who will continue to be great and who will fade when their luck runs out. Bill James was one of if not the pioneer in giving us this information, information we all utilize to some degree, whether you are a fantasy player or even an executive in a major league front office.



I utilize some of this information in determining my strategies for our contests. There was a recent thread started by a player asking what "reference materials" others utilized and found valuable in their preparations for the NFBC. Prior to my first NFBC draft in 2009, I came armed with only the NFBC's ADP and eligibility lists, the latest Rotoworld news, and the experience of one local league draft and a week's worth of MDC mock drafts. I cashed. In the two years since then, I've sampled just about every other source of information available out there to try to gain an edge. I've done alright in that time frame and with that information as well, but honestly not significantly better. Some of these reference materials like Baseball HQ & the Forecaster, Mastersball, Wiseguy, and the Fantasy Baseball Guide, I will try again this season. Others like the Baseball Prospectus, Baseball America, the Graphical Player, and ironically Bill James' Guide amongst others, I found less useful and more importantly less entertaining and I won't.

Either way, I miss the days when my fantasy choices were made solely on what I saw and the magic that I saw possible and were not encumbered by the numbers and underlying stats that the magic produced. 79 more Days to determine what both the magic and the underlying stats are telling me.

[Edwards Kings]

Thanks Glenn,

Griffey was far and away the best defensive centerfielder I have ever seen play. Seattle has had some very good ones, like Mike Cameron and Franklin Guiterez, but no one could play the wall like The Kid. What a joy to be dazzled regularly by his amazing talents.

Oh yeah, and that home run swing wasn't half-bad either.

Griffey was one of the greatest. When young and healthy, he was just magic.

However, give me Andruw Jones in his prime as centerfielder for defense. Any day of the week and twice on Sunday!

[rockitsauce]

However, give me Andruw Jones in his prime as centerfielder for defense.

Any day of the week and twice on Sunday!

ironically this is Andruw's response when asked how often he hit's the all-u-can eat buffet

[Glenneration X]

78 Days 'til the NFBC when both old rivalries and new get fired up once again.






Some of these rivalries are both professional and courteous like Childs vs Jupinka, or Lindy vs KJ, rivalries with no animosity, bourne more from circumstance and the question of who is the greatest amongst us.....




Some like Gekko vs Money, or Gekko vs Fandango, or Gekko vs (Fill in the Blank) carry a bit more history as well as a bit more antagonism.....




Still others are more on the lighter side like Max the Morman vs Mikey the Mouth, or RT vs Mikey the Mouth, or (Fill in the Blank) vs Mikey the Mouth, just can't help but make you chuckle a bit and sometimes ask yourself WTF?




Then of course, there are the rivalries we all want to see!!!




No matter, in 78 Days we're all rivals and for one of us it'll be a chance for immortality......

[Rainiers]

This is a beautiful thread, in more ways than one. My wife loves B&Bs. I generally don't. A great exception is Glen's B&B.
As in "Babes & Baseball". I'm not sure if it gets any better than this.

Wow, more follow up on great legends like the Grif.

A terrific pictorial about Rivalries in Baseball. My personal favorite: NY getting spanked by the Red Sox. Not to pick on the Yanks, I'd be fine with it the other way around.

A comment about my mentor into the world of Numerish, Bill James. I may not have his old Memeographs any more...did I lend them out or just lose them..damn...But many of his lessons stick with me today.

Gotta love it all. Thanks again Glen, for the memories. And for the fantasies Maybe this is why we call it Fantasy Baseball...

[BEF]

78 Days 'til the NFBC when both old rivalries and new get fired up once again.

No matter, in 78 Days we're all rivals and for one of us it'll be a chance for immortality......

I was at the Bucky Dent game in '78. Sophomore year in college, lived about three blocks from Fenway. As soon as we realized there would be a playoff game my roommate hightailed it up there, stood in line and got six tickets in the right field bleachers...I think they cost around $3 each. A lot of beachballs (the fad had just started) and a lot of medicinal herb out there in those bleachers, which is why the game itself is a bit fuzzy, other than the last popup, and of course the shot above from Bucky F*&kin' Dent...

[Rainiers]

However, give me Andruw Jones in his prime as centerfielder for defense. Any day of the week and twice on Sunday!

[/quote]

A whole lot of people would agree.

I remember one of the best, longest-tenured announcers in the game, Vin Scully, say that Andruw was the best defensive centerfielder he ever saw play the game. I can't quibble, never had the pleasure of going to a game seeing Andruw play while he was in his prime. Would have liked to, it would have been a real treat. You got to see a center fielder play the game live to judge them, I think.

(But then again, did Vin ever see Griffey play in a Mariner uniform when the Kid was in his prime?.. )

I digress. I concede Andruw might of been a better defensive centerfielder.

I will say this though, while I'm thinking about it. I seriously doubt that there was a better ALL-AROUND player than Griffey in the last fifty years. Running, jumping, catching, throwing, leaping, diving, stealing, sliding, swinging, belting, standing, watching, smiling. Who could do all these things so well as the Kid? No one. Not even those that cheated with PEDs. Not Bonds. Not McGwire. Not Sosa. Not ARod. Just my opinion. But it is a pretty strong one.

[Edwards Kings]

I agree on Griffey. One of the few complete, all-around players who was a game changer.

Watching Andruw play center could give you the wrong impression. He rarely seemed to jump, leap, slide. He had the best instincts and would just be there for the ball, making it look routine, whereas other guys might have to jump, leap, slide. He just made it look effortless and covered the acreage almost from foul pole to foul pole.