12 Spots Left: NFBC $1,000 2-Hour Keeper League

[Greg Ambrosius]

The NFBC first started in 2004 with two contests: The NFBC Main Event and single-league private auction leagues. We had 195 Main Event teams during that inaugural season and 36 auction teams. That was it.

Since then, we've tried to innovate with new contests and new offerings each year. Since that first year we've grown to more than 14,000 teams per year and more than a dozen different formats. Change is good in the NFBC.

This year we are going to venture into an area we've yet to pursue: Keeper Leagues. These will be 15-team leagues where owners build to win money today, while building a franchise that can win for multiple years. We are allowing owners to keep five players per year from their previous year's team and those players move up two rounds from where they were drafted in the year before. Owners will stay in that same league from year-to-year as it becomes more of a private, local league.

We are offering leagues at price points of $250 per team, $500 and $1,000 and each price point has a different deposit required with the initial signup. That deposit is returned and used toward your third year entry fee when you return for Year 3. You lose the deposit if you abandon your team after Year 1 or Year 2 and that may offset any loss we take for replacing ownership.

We have increased the prizes in each league to put payouts at 83.33 percent. Keepers move up 2 rounds from the previous year's draft when you keep them and if you kept your first two picks from 2021, in 2022 they would become your 1st and 2nd round picks of 2022. All of that is below. Here are the rules:

NFBC KEEPER LEAGUES
Game Information
Entry Fee: $250 (plus $100 deposit), $500 (plus $150 deposit) & $1,000 (plus $200 deposit). All deposits are put toward the 3rd year entry when the same owner returns for Year 3.

Overview:
NFBC Keeper Leagues require a deposit along with the initial entry fee (so $100 deposit with a $250 entry). The deposit is lost when an owner abandons a keeper league within the first two years, which allows the NFBC to more easily sell orphaned teams. Even orphaned teams will require a deposit. The deposit is put toward the third-year entry fee when the same owner returns for Year 3 of his/her Keeper League.

Prizes
The team with the most league points wins the top prize. We pay the Top 3 teams in each league as follows:

League Prizes - $250 Leagues
1st Place - $2,000
2nd Place - $750
3rd Place - $250

League Prizes - $500 Leagues
1st Place - $4,000
2nd Place - $1,500
3rd Place - $500

League Prizes - $1,000 Leagues
1st Place - $8,000
2nd Place - $3,000
3rd Place - $1,000

Keeper Guidelines:
Each team in each league is allowed to keep a maximum of 5 players (and you can keep less if you want) from the previous year. The players that are kept are bumped up 2 rounds from where they were drafted in the previous year. So if Sixto Sanchez was a 10th round pick in 2020, he can be kept as an 8th round pick in 2021. Anyone drafted in Rounds 1, 2 or 3 and kept the next year will be kept as a 1st round pick. If you have multiple players who would qualify as a 1st round pick, then it would fall to the next round, meaning they’d qualify as 1st and 2nd round picks (and even 3rd round for a third player who would move up to 1st round status). The deadline for designating each team’s 5 keepers is December 1st. If anyone trades a player, that player retains the value of its previous year's pick.

Drafts will be scheduled after January 1st for the various leagues the year after they have drafted. Undrafted free agents who were picked up during the season via FAAB will be designated as Round 20 keepers the following year. If you keep multiple players who were undrafted free agents, the designations would be Round 20, Round 21, etc.

Trading is allowed in the NFBC Keeper League. All trades will be submitted for review on the NFBC Keepers League site and will be approved or denied by the NFBC Commissioner. All decisions are final. Teams can trade future draft picks for current players, but no team can ever have more or less than 30 players at one time. At this point, trades must involve same number(s) of players going back and forth.

Here's the Contest link for all price points:

https://nfc.shgn.com/gametypes/baseball/194

Here's the Rules link:

https://nfc.shgn.com/rules/858

We are offering 2-Hour and 4-Hour Keeper leagues right now at the various price points. If anyone has 15 owners for a private league, we can create that league and get everyone signed up together. We can also do nightly drafts at 1 minute per pick when demand is there. Look for those offerings in March.

We started this in football and had a handful of leagues. We think this can be a lot of fun, and with only five keepers per team, it should be easy to sell orphaned teams if we happen to have any. Enjoy and thanks all for considering our newest contest in the NFBC family.

[Greg Ambrosius]

NOW 9 SPOTS LEFT in our debut NFBC $250 Keeper League, which will consist of 15 teams competing for prize money this year and dominance in this private league for years to come. Each team can keep up to only 5 players in future years, so winning now is the key, but building a dynasty for the future helps as well.

If you are interested in this format, check out the rules above and then think about this first $250 league. Could be fun.

Here's the current signup list:

NFBC $250 2-Hour Keeper League
Starts 30 Minutes After League Fills
1. ERIC NATHAN
2. Johnathan Roberts
3. John Roberts
4. John Riccio
5. MATTHEW BLUM
6. Ryan-Allen Guenther
7. edward kiss
8. Richard Talley
9. Brian Teras
10. Seth Trachtman
11. Andrew Viglietti
12. Aaron Seefeldt
13. Adam Stone
14. WAYNE DERSCH
15. Jim Delaney

[Greg Ambrosius]

SOLD OUT: The first NFBC $250 2-Hour Keeper League is now full and will start in the next 30 minutes. Please set your KDS preferences now and look for draft spots in the next 15 minutes. I hope this becomes a long, lasting, competitive friendship through this league. Enjoy all.

Here's the final lineup card:

NFBC $250 2-Hour Keeper League
Starts 30 Minutes After League Fills
1. ERIC NATHAN
2. Johnathan Roberts
3. John Roberts
4. John Riccio
5. MATTHEW BLUM
6. Ryan-Allen Guenther
7. edward kiss
8. Richard Talley
9. Brian Teras
10. Seth Trachtman
11. Andrew Viglietti
12. Aaron Seefeldt
13. Adam Stone
14. WAYNE DERSCH
15. Jim Delaney