Ride the Puffins The Week 2 Winner

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 2:49 am

Congratulations to Ride the Puffins for being the Week 2 winner of the NFBC. This week's prize is a Ken Griffey Jr. autographed bat with a retail value of $399.99. Congrats again to Ride the Puffins and good luck to everyone this week.

Team Herron · Post by **Team Herron** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 3:15 am

Great Week, Puffins - thought I might catch you (Statistical Apocolypse) - but ended the week as strong as you started.

Team Herron

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 3:46 am

Ride the Puffins was the top team in Week 2 of the NFBC season, using a strong performance to win an autographed Ken Griffey Jr. bat from Upper Deck Authenticated, a $350 item. Led by Scott Podsednik, Jacque Jones, Esteban Loaiza, Odalis Perez and Brad Penny, Ride the Puffins padded its lead in New York NFBC League #2 and moved into second place in the NFBC overall standings.

So who is the driving force behind Ride the Puffins? Let's find out.

The team owner is Michael Fishman, 25, who graduated from Yale three years ago and has since been living in New York City. Fishman is an actuary for an insurance company who also is an independent baseball statistical analyst. He's been playing fantasy baseball since 1991 and in recent years has been focusing on CDM's national fantasy baseball contests like Diamond Challenge and Internet Challenge. In 3 of the last 4 years, he's finished in the top 10 overall in the Diamond Challenge (2000) and Internet Challenge (2002 and 2003).

Fishman, whose co-owner is David Martin of Waynesboro, Va., drafted sixth in New York League #2, taking Todd Helton and Eric Gagne with his first two picks. He followed those up with Richie Sexson, Kevin Brown, Ivan Rodriguez, Brandon Webb, Scott Podsednik, Esteban Loaiza and Luis Gonzalez. His strategy thus far has worked.

"My draft strategy was to take the best value at any point in the draft, not to focus on getting any specific positions or players early," Fishman said. "Getting Scott Podsednik in round 7 has been a key to our success as his base stealing rivals, Carl Crawford and Juan Pierre, went four rounds earlier."

Ride the Puffins rode three shutouts to win the Week 2 prize. "A large part of our Week 2 success is due to getting three 2-hit shutouts

in one week," he added. "Thank you Brad Penny, Odalis Perez and Esteban Loaiza. But we got contributions from pretty much everyone. Even J.D. Drew hit a homer on Monday before sitting out the rest of the week."

Our two Weekly winners have been Kings of Queens and Ride the Puffins, both from New York NFBC leagues. Who will be our next winner?

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:58 pm

No doubt about it--New York rules.

Congrats to the Puffins...

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 6:29 pm

Interesting, 6 of the top 9 teams are not from Vegas, which had the most teams. Conclusion so far - Vegas rules!

The more competitive the league, top to bottom, the harder it is to draft a team that can win overall ... wishing I would have flown to NY or Chicago to draft against weaker opponents.

PittIsIt95 · Post by **PittIsIt95** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 2:41 am

No doubt about it. The teams that will finish in the top 3 overall will come from weak leagues that had about 4-5 BADLY Drafted teams. If NY and Chi does well in the overall standings this year, alot of the Vegas guys will travel to those locations to get in with weaker competition.

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 5:39 am

People starting to cry already? It's a long season. Better get a couple boxes of tissues ready.

Rey · Post by **Rey** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 8:19 am

Originally posted by Gordon Gekko:

People starting to cry already? It's a long season. Better get a couple boxes of tissues ready. Agreed. Why is there "no doubt" the top teams will come from weak leagues? Why can't the top teams be considered the guys who simply drafted the best? At this point, the only thing that seems certain is that the teams that finish in the money will go home convinced they're the best fantasy players in the world...and the teams that don't finish in the money will be convinced it was all luck. Until, of course, they themselves finish in the money, at which point it will be about skill again.

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:34 am

Why do New Yorkers love to refer to an opinion that is different from their own as crying?

My above post was an o-b-s-e-r-v-a-t-i-o-n. Of course, I do realize that word is much bigger and harder to say than crying, but if you learn it your vocabulary would go up by 1, and you may find it useful some day.

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 2:29 pm

Here's an o-b-s-e-r-v-a-t-i-o-n. Some owners are clueless.

Just an o-b-s-e-r-v-a-t-i-o-n.

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 6:16 pm

I'm proud of you GG, you're a fast learner.

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:22 am

Let's see if I get this right. It was SKILL that I drafted Jason Bay and Dmitri Young, and LUCK that I picked up Danny Bautista, Ray Lankford and Jose Acevedo. Or is it the other way around?

Seriously, I think it's way too early to make conclusions about where the "good" owners are (see Ronnie Belliard, Jack Wilson, etc). Besides, all 195 teams were compiled via a straight draft--meaning there would have to be a LOT of "poor" owners, all in succession, to make a difference.

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:33 am

KOQ, you da man! Keep up the good work. You are representing NY very well. Don't let any of those naysayers bring you down. They are jealous (I checked the standings ).

Drinks on you this summer.

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:20 am

Originally posted by King of Queens:

Let's see if I get this right. It was SKILL that I drafted Jason Bay and Dmitri Young, and LUCK that I picked up Danny Bautista, Ray Lankford and Jose Acevedo. Or is it the other way around?

Seriously, I think it's way too early to make conclusions about where the "good" owners are (see Ronnie Belliard, Jack Wilson, etc). Besides, all 195 teams were compiled via a straight draft--meaning there would have to be a LOT of "poor" owners, all in succession, to make a difference. I agree its early to draw conclusions, and I wont discount anyone that is winning their league, however, I wonder if you and the other weekly winner would have done so if you drafted out of Vegas.

Not giving an answer, just asking the question.

Oh, and Acevedo - I wanted to draft him, but he was taken in the 25th rd, Bautista went in the 26th. Both of which suggest that LV#5 was perhaps a bit smarter not to let those guys slip to the waiver wire.

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:23 am

Originally posted by Gordon Gekko:

KOQ, you da man! Keep up the good work. You are representing NY very well. Don't let any of those naysayers bring you down. They are jealous (I checked the standings ).

Drinks on you this summer.

KOQ - True, I am lower half in the NFBC on the hitting of A-Rod and Baldelli ... should've known I'd get screwed by a Yankee sellout! But I do have a nice lead in the NL Auction lge.

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 1:17 pm

Originally posted by KJ Duke:

quote:Originally posted by Gordon Gekko:

KOQ, you da man! Keep up the good work. You are representing NY very well. Don't let any of those naysayers bring you down. They are jealous (I checked the standings ).

Drinks on you this summer.

KOQ - True, I am lower half in the NFBC on the hitting of A-Rod and Baldelli ... should've known I'd get screwed by a Yankee sellout! But I do have a nice lead in the NL Auction lge. [/QUOTE]I know EXACTLY what you mean. Three of my first four picks were Pedro, Renteria and Derrek Lee. Just have to hope those guys give me a little something.