2006 NFBC Champion Profile - Matt Mickle
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:50 am
Before the start of the 2006 NFBC season Matt Mickle had a dream. It was a good dream. A rewarding dream. An exciting dream.
Mickle dreamed that he would win his NFBC league. But it wasn’t just a routine, run-of-the-mill type of league title. He envisioned it happening in exciting fashion – perhaps a walk-off home run or a 15-strikeout performance on the last day of the season.
At the time, coming down to the season’s final day seemed to be the stuff dreams were made of. Little did he know that the reality would be filled with considerably more stress.
Mickle’s title in New York League 3 didn’t come down to a heroic final at-bat or pitching performance. But the final few weeks were difficult for Mickel to endure, as every day was filled with tension and anxiety.
“Relief is the best way to describe how I feel about winning the league title,” he said. “It was flat-out torture the last couple of weeks. We couldn’t concentrate on anything other than baseball.
“Probably in June was when we first knew we had a shot (at winning the title). But on the other hand we knew it could blow up on us too. We could finish in first or fourth just as easily. Luckily, we held on.”
Luck may have played a part, but so did a concise draft plan.
“We went into the draft looking for balance,” said Mickle, who lives in Pittsfield, MA and has been playing fantasy baseball for the past decade. “We didn’t want to omit any categories.
“It’s funny. When we left the draft the one thing we were worried about was Stolen Bases. But our late rounders solid – Hanley Ramirez, Kenny Lofton and Luis Castillo – and we finished first in steals.”
Getting that type of surprise production was crucial given the competitiveness in New York League 3.
“Our league was a four-team race for most of the year,” Mickle said. “We had teams leapfrogging each other on a weekly basis. At mid-August we felt like we were on a rollercoaster.
“When we saw our draw in the beginning we did some homework and saw we had some former league champs and the big champ (2005 overall champion Brian Oldenski) in our league. At that point we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”
Hence the start of many sleepless nights. There were also some questions about how effective the FAAB bidding would be because Mickle admitted he had never used the process before.
“This was the one part of the league we were worried about,” he said. “We squirrelled our money money away and didn’t spend much of until we bid on Jon Lester and Chad Billingsley.
“There were many days we were questioning ourselves if we were using our money correctly. It seemed like a lot of owners spent most of their funds early and since we were rookies we thought maybe we were missing something.
“But it all worked out in the end.”
And helped Mickle sleep a bit more peacefully, perhaps daring to dream of more heroics in 2007.
[ January 25, 2007, 09:50 AM: Message edited by: Tom Kessenich ]
Mickle dreamed that he would win his NFBC league. But it wasn’t just a routine, run-of-the-mill type of league title. He envisioned it happening in exciting fashion – perhaps a walk-off home run or a 15-strikeout performance on the last day of the season.
At the time, coming down to the season’s final day seemed to be the stuff dreams were made of. Little did he know that the reality would be filled with considerably more stress.
Mickle’s title in New York League 3 didn’t come down to a heroic final at-bat or pitching performance. But the final few weeks were difficult for Mickel to endure, as every day was filled with tension and anxiety.
“Relief is the best way to describe how I feel about winning the league title,” he said. “It was flat-out torture the last couple of weeks. We couldn’t concentrate on anything other than baseball.
“Probably in June was when we first knew we had a shot (at winning the title). But on the other hand we knew it could blow up on us too. We could finish in first or fourth just as easily. Luckily, we held on.”
Luck may have played a part, but so did a concise draft plan.
“We went into the draft looking for balance,” said Mickle, who lives in Pittsfield, MA and has been playing fantasy baseball for the past decade. “We didn’t want to omit any categories.
“It’s funny. When we left the draft the one thing we were worried about was Stolen Bases. But our late rounders solid – Hanley Ramirez, Kenny Lofton and Luis Castillo – and we finished first in steals.”
Getting that type of surprise production was crucial given the competitiveness in New York League 3.
“Our league was a four-team race for most of the year,” Mickle said. “We had teams leapfrogging each other on a weekly basis. At mid-August we felt like we were on a rollercoaster.
“When we saw our draw in the beginning we did some homework and saw we had some former league champs and the big champ (2005 overall champion Brian Oldenski) in our league. At that point we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”
Hence the start of many sleepless nights. There were also some questions about how effective the FAAB bidding would be because Mickle admitted he had never used the process before.
“This was the one part of the league we were worried about,” he said. “We squirrelled our money money away and didn’t spend much of until we bid on Jon Lester and Chad Billingsley.
“There were many days we were questioning ourselves if we were using our money correctly. It seemed like a lot of owners spent most of their funds early and since we were rookies we thought maybe we were missing something.
“But it all worked out in the end.”
And helped Mickle sleep a bit more peacefully, perhaps daring to dream of more heroics in 2007.
[ January 25, 2007, 09:50 AM: Message edited by: Tom Kessenich ]