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Actor Nic Cassavetes of Los Angeles, California and his good friend Chris Hill teamed up to win the 2023 NFBC Diamond Auction league and the $75,000 league prize. Their Hill Street Blues team picked up seven points during the final week of the season to jump from second place to first place, securing their first Diamond Auction League title. The pair have won the NFBC Platinum League before as well, so this is another big title to add to their resume.

Nic is a Charter Member of the NFBC who has been with us since 2004 and he loves the live events in Las Vegas. He especially loves the banter in the Diamond Auction League and with this title he might have some fun banter next year during the auction league!!! They finished three spots ahead of the Andy Robinson/Eddie Gillis team as they finished with 109 points to win the $75,000 league prize. Andy and Eddie won $35,000 for their runner-up finish. Matt Shepherd and Chris Cosley tied for third place at 95.5 points and will split $30,000, with each owner winning $15,000.

Cost of entry for the Diamond Auction League was $10,000.

This was a huge comeback victory for Nic and Chris as they were in sixth place after Week 23, a whopping 24 points out of the lead. They were actually 29 points out of the lead after Week 22 and seemed to have no shot at the title. But they picked up 14 points in Week 24 to vault all the way up to second place and then kept chipping away at the lead. Andy had a four-point lead heading into the final week, but Nic caught him during the week and held on for the three-point win. Great job guys and congrats on the perseverence.

Nic becomes our first new NFBC Diamond Auction League winner since 2017. Shawn Johnson had won the last four Diamond Auction League titles and we didn't host this event in 2020 because of the pandemic. We have now had four different champions in the eight years of this contest.

This was another great season for the NFBC Diamond Auction League and we'll return in 2024 in Las Vegas on Sunday, March 24th at 10 am PT. Plan accordingly and we'll see you there.

Here were the final standings:

2023 NFBC Diamond Auction League Standings:
1 Nick Cassavetes Hill Street Blues 109
2 Andy Robinson Jackie Robinson 47 ROY 106
3 Matthew Shepherd HELLFIRE CLUB 95.5
3 Christopher Cosley COZnitive Dissonance 95.5
5 Jason Duponte Cue the Duckboats Diamond 93.5
6 Toby Guevin Blizz 2--Back with a Vengeance 87.5
7 Jon Stadtmueller Texas Connection 82
7 Alan Mitchell Tequila Sunrise 82

NFBC Diamond Auction League Prizes:
League Prizes
1 $75,000
2 $35,000
3 $20,000
4 $10,000

Nic Cassavetes is our first new champion in the NFBC Diamond League since 2017 as Shawn Johnson had won the last four Diamond Auction League titles. He had won five of the last seven league titles before this year. Here's the list of winners:

NFBC Diamond Auction League Champions:
2015 - Glenn Schroter
2016 - Shawn Johnson
2017 - Bill Phipps & Eric Kesselman
2018 - Shawn Johnson
2019 - Shawn Johnson
2021 - Shawn Johnson
2022 - Shawn Johnson
2023 - Nic Cassavetes

Here was Nic Cassavete's lineup from the auction portion of the Las Vegas Diamond Auction League:

C - Gabriel Moreno $6
C - Logan O'Hoppe $2
1B - Spencer Torkelson $3
2B - Jazz Chisholm $24
SS - Xander Boegarts $14
3B - Jose Miranda $7
CI - Andrew Vaughn $9
MI - Marcus Semien $26
UT - James Outman $2
OF - Corbin Carroll $30
OF - Juan Soto $30
OF - Jarred Kelenic $8
OF - Austin Meadows $2
OF - Joc Pederson $2

P - Devin Williams $20
P - George Kirby $18
P - Reid Detmers $15
P - Hunter Greene $12
P - Nick Lodolo $15
P - Grayson Rodriguez $5
P - Koudai Senga $7
P - AJ Minter $1
P - Justin Steele $2

Reserves: Brandon Marsh, Kendall Graveman, Josh Donaldson, Ranger Suarez, Will Brennan, Mike Zunino, Marco Gonzales.

Here were all of Nic's free agent pickups during the course of the season in the Diamond Auction League:

Hill Street Blues
April 2:
Nolan Gorman 147
Will Smith 117

April 9:
Ryan Pepiot 2
J.D. Davis 5

April 16:
Michael Grove 47
Rafael Montero 3

April 23:
Joey Lucchesi 49
Bo Naylor 1
Bryan Abreu 39
Pavin Smith 3

April 30:
Logan Allen 237
Joey Ortiz 2
Dylan Carlson 2

May 7:
Luke Raley 3

May 14:
Andrew Knizner 33
Kyle Freeland 13

May 21:
Nick Martinez 19
Tyler Anderson 8
Mickey Moniak 44
Jose Caballero 23

May 28:
Jordan Walker 23
Andres Munoz 27
Michael Massey 7
Patrick Bailey 13

June 4:
Elehuris Montero 3

June 11:
Mickey Moniak 3

June 18:
Travis d'Arnaud 33
Donovan Solano 4

June 25:
Eduardo Escobar 4

July 2:
Brett Baty 9

July 9:
Joel Payamps 3

July 16:
Brandon Bielak 4

July 23:
Mitch Garver 4
Alek Thomas 1

July 30:
Cade Marlowe 2

August 6:
Curtis Mead 5
Brayan Rocchio 5
Jason Adam 4
Brandon Bielak 4

August 13:
Nick Lodolo 9

August 20:
Noelvi Marte 13
Jordan Hicks 1

August 27:
Adrian Houser 1
Enrique Hernandez 2
Brusdar Graterol 1

September 3:
Wade Meckler 1
Ryan Yarbrough 2

September 10:
Evan Carter 3
Jordan Lawlar 3
Luke Little 1
Colin Rea 1

September 17:
Ceddanne Rafaela 3
Shane Bieber 2

September 24:
Sean Manaea 2