NFBC Champion Profile - Bob Catsiroumpas

Post Reply
User avatar
Tom Kessenich
Posts: 23904
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2004 6:00 pm
Contact:

NFBC Champion Profile - Bob Catsiroumpas

Post by Tom Kessenich » Thu Jan 27, 2022 11:43 am

We all like to believe the key to a great fantasy season begins with our first pick on Draft Day. That No. 1 pick can often set the tone for what’s to come. It’s a big part of the allure that makes the drafting season so exciting.

Bob Catsiroumpas was hoping that would be the case when he selected Mike Trout first overall in one of his Cutline drafts a year ago. Little did he realize at the time Trout would endure the worst season of his career, but that injury-riddled campaign would turn out to be a magical one and a history making one for Catsiroumpas.

While Trout struggled with his season, Bob’s team enjoyed a banner campaign. He put together a record-breaking final week of the 2021 season to win the Cutline contest and its $75,000 grand prize, becoming the first two-time winner of the contest in NFBC history.

“I felt two main emotions first, excitement because I knew how fast standings change in the Cutline finals,” said Catsiroumpas, who first won the Cutline in 2019. “Second was mostly relief because my high-dollar teams were disasters and I invest a large amount of time/money in fantasy baseball, so when I made the finals and was near the top early I felt a huge sense of relief.

“There is some amount of luck especially in the Cultline that separates you from the other top teams such as Jon Lester becoming a top pitcher during the three-week finals. However, going all the way and winning twice is a big accomplishment and I think anyone who wins or comes near the top in any of these national contests should feel pride in knowing they are competing against the top players in the world.”

Bob qualified for Round 3 of the Championship Round by finishing fifth overall through Round 2. He trailed Wood Lay by 146.2 points entering the final three-week sprint,but moved into second place after one week as he trailed Aaron Jones by just 23 points. He fell to fourth overall after Week 2 and trailed Jones by 160.5 points heading into the final week.

But then he had a record-breaking week as his team scored 815 points during the final week. He outscored every other team in the Championship Round by at least 76 points to vault up three spots and take the title.

“Heading into the final week I was pretty calm as I was still within striking distance and there was some separation from the rest of the field so I was confident I could land a Top 5 finish which is a solid payout,” the CDM Hall of Famer said. “In the final week my team took off moving to first by midweek and extending its lead into the weekend, finally closing the contest with an 86-point margin of victory.

“Full credit goes to Aaron Jones who had two great teams and ended up 2nd and 3rd.”

Bob began seriously playing fantasy sports in the early 2000s playing at CDM Sports focusing mainly on baseball and football. He joined the NFBC in 2018 and quickly became a fan of the Cutline.

“I loved the structure of the contest,” he said. “I played 15 teams in the Cutline using Greek letters to identify the order. My winning team ‘Gamma’ was my third draft. I started doing this before Covid.

“I generally employ a value/balanced approach, but I will target certain players based mostly on gut or feel. On my winning team last year and on one other team I used a unique strategy of taking the consensus Top 2 catchers in the early rounds then not worrying about catcher until the very end of the draft. This strategy worked out very well in 2021 because Salvador Perez set the home run record for catchers with 48.”

Although Trout struggled to stay healthy last season, Bob’s championship team was otherwise a model of good health and that was a key component in his run to the title. That’s obviously vital with the Cutline’s modified FAAB periods.

“My next 19 picks (after Trout) enjoyed near full health and while some of those players under-performed I had some major hits with Rafael Devers, Salvador Perez, Matt Olson, Marcus Semien and Sandy Alcantara.”

He also hit big on the Waiver Wire, landing Tyler O’Neill during one of the Cutline’s two FAAB periods.

“I prioritized him over Adolis Garcia,” he said. “That was a question faced by most managers in the Cutline and I trusted my gut and went with O’Neill on most of my teams.”

The stretch run was not without its moments of anxiety, though, especially with so much riding on the outcome.

“Surprisingly I had the most stress during the semifinal phase of the contest, a three-week period where the contest cuts from 100 teams down to 20,” he said. I was fortunate to get seven teams to the "semifinal" and once there I took a close look at the rosters and realized one team (my gamma team) was quite a bit stronger than the others. Early in the semifinal I had a couple of teams doing well but I was concerned because gamma started slow and was about 50th after the first week.

“Team gamma slowly climbed and was on the bubble to advance on the final day of the semifinal. That Sunday a couple of big pitching performances and some timely hitting helped the team shoot up a dozen or so spots to qualify sixth. I also had a second team nab one of the final spots which was great, but its roster was flawed, and it ended up finishing 15th overall.”

Then came the finals and that’s when Catsiroumpas’ team rose to the top. The $75,000 grand prize was his and for the first time in NFBC history, there was a two-time winner in the Cutline.
Tom Kessenich
Manager of High Stakes Fantasy Games, SportsHub Technologies
Twitter - @TomKessenich

Post Reply