NFBC Weekly Profile - Rob Zamojski
Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 8:32 am
When it comes to draft preparation, many fantasy players love to do as many mock or practice drafts as possible. The more they do, the better prepared they believe they are to understand and project where players will go and when draft trends will come into place.
Rob Zamojski declined to any mock drafts before entering the NFBC this year. He didn’t want to be overloaded with preconceived ideas or information based on mocks that may hold no relevance once his Main Event draft took place.
With one week of the season in the books, Zamojski’s approach has paid off in a big way.
Entering play on Wednesday, Zamojski’s New York Main Event team was sitting atop the overall standings with 3,511.5 points. That was nearly 30 points better than the current second-place team.
“In years past I would obsessively participate in mock drafts in an attempt to gauge the market value of certain players,” he said. “I also put much less weight into available Average Draft Position data. Putting too much weight into mock draft results and ADP gave me a false sense of what round I would be able to obtain my targets. Then without fail I would be in my NFBC live draft and everything would go out the window.
“There is no way to accurately simulate a real NFBC draft. If you go into the draft with a specific plan you better have 10 different backups to that plan.
“By not doing any mock drafts this year I was better suited to react to the flow of the draft and take advantage of the situations that presented themselves. I was not paralyzed with the preconceived notions of what round a certain player should be taken in. I was able instead able to analyze what positions I needed to fill early and which I could wait on.”
No one can argue with the results thus far. Zamojski’s team has been well balanced but he places the primary key for the first-place start on a standout pitching staff.
“(Jered) Weaver, (Jeremy) Hellickson and (Justin) Masterson all pitched gems in their first starts and Frank Francisco chipped in an unexpected three saves,” he said. “My offensive attack has been fairly balanced up to this point but Rafael Furcal deserves a shout out. Furcal is the perfect late-round pick that can really make an impact in the success of a fantasy team.
“I’m confident my offense will put up good numbers across the board (the rest of the season). The players that I’m hoping will outperform (their 2011 production) this year are Shin-Soo Choo, Austin Jackson and Delmon Young. I really liked those players going into the draft and I am expecting big things from them.”
The 35-year-old Zamojski is no stranger to NFBC success. Since joining the event in 2009 he has finished at least third in his league every year.
“My first draft was a real wake-up call,” said Zamojski, who lives in West New York. “I held my own but it was definitely the toughest draft I had ever been a part of. Finishing in second that year convinced me I could compete with the big boys.”
He’s doing more than just competing so far this season. He’s setting the pace by which all Main Event teams are now chasing. There’s a lot of baseball left to be played and Zamojski is prepared for the inevitable ups and downs that await, but starting off the season impressively definitely beats the alternative in an event with $100,000 on the line.
“Hopefully this will be the year where everything clicks and I win the (national) title,” he said.
In addition to fantasy baseball, Rob is a lifelong animal lover who in his spare time is training his dog, Lucy, to become a therapy dog. His love of animals comes as no surprise when you learn that his team Buddy and Kitty Inc is named after his "two favorite cats".
Rob Zamojski declined to any mock drafts before entering the NFBC this year. He didn’t want to be overloaded with preconceived ideas or information based on mocks that may hold no relevance once his Main Event draft took place.
With one week of the season in the books, Zamojski’s approach has paid off in a big way.
Entering play on Wednesday, Zamojski’s New York Main Event team was sitting atop the overall standings with 3,511.5 points. That was nearly 30 points better than the current second-place team.
“In years past I would obsessively participate in mock drafts in an attempt to gauge the market value of certain players,” he said. “I also put much less weight into available Average Draft Position data. Putting too much weight into mock draft results and ADP gave me a false sense of what round I would be able to obtain my targets. Then without fail I would be in my NFBC live draft and everything would go out the window.
“There is no way to accurately simulate a real NFBC draft. If you go into the draft with a specific plan you better have 10 different backups to that plan.
“By not doing any mock drafts this year I was better suited to react to the flow of the draft and take advantage of the situations that presented themselves. I was not paralyzed with the preconceived notions of what round a certain player should be taken in. I was able instead able to analyze what positions I needed to fill early and which I could wait on.”
No one can argue with the results thus far. Zamojski’s team has been well balanced but he places the primary key for the first-place start on a standout pitching staff.
“(Jered) Weaver, (Jeremy) Hellickson and (Justin) Masterson all pitched gems in their first starts and Frank Francisco chipped in an unexpected three saves,” he said. “My offensive attack has been fairly balanced up to this point but Rafael Furcal deserves a shout out. Furcal is the perfect late-round pick that can really make an impact in the success of a fantasy team.
“I’m confident my offense will put up good numbers across the board (the rest of the season). The players that I’m hoping will outperform (their 2011 production) this year are Shin-Soo Choo, Austin Jackson and Delmon Young. I really liked those players going into the draft and I am expecting big things from them.”
The 35-year-old Zamojski is no stranger to NFBC success. Since joining the event in 2009 he has finished at least third in his league every year.
“My first draft was a real wake-up call,” said Zamojski, who lives in West New York. “I held my own but it was definitely the toughest draft I had ever been a part of. Finishing in second that year convinced me I could compete with the big boys.”
He’s doing more than just competing so far this season. He’s setting the pace by which all Main Event teams are now chasing. There’s a lot of baseball left to be played and Zamojski is prepared for the inevitable ups and downs that await, but starting off the season impressively definitely beats the alternative in an event with $100,000 on the line.
“Hopefully this will be the year where everything clicks and I win the (national) title,” he said.
In addition to fantasy baseball, Rob is a lifelong animal lover who in his spare time is training his dog, Lucy, to become a therapy dog. His love of animals comes as no surprise when you learn that his team Buddy and Kitty Inc is named after his "two favorite cats".