Matt Shepherd Wins 2024 NFBC Ultimate Auction & $40,000

[Greg Ambrosius]

Matthew Shepherd of Napa, California won the 2024 NFBC Ultimate Auction League title and the $40,000. Matt's ULTIMATE STEPBROTHERS team was in third place with two weeks to go in the season, but it jumped into the lead in Week 26 and held on by 2.5 points to win his first Ultimate Auction League title.

Matt finished with 118 points to finish 2.5 points ahead of Philippe Dussault, who won $20,000 for his runner-up finish. Doug Gruber's team finished with 112 points to finish in third place, while earning $7,500.

He built his championship team around a group of stars, bidding $45 for Mookie Betts, $42 for Julio Rodriguez, $33 for Zack Wheeler, $32 for Elly De La Cruz and $25 for Max Fried. But it was his first Reserve Round pick of Paul Skenes that likely made the difference in this league. Oh, and he got Devin Williams with his last Reserve Round pick.

Matt Shepherd won the 2023 Auction Championship title and added to his resume this year with this Ultimate Auction League title. He had another good year, winning another Main Event League title and a Las Vegas $2500 Auction Championship League title, while finishing second in the Las Vegas Diamond Auction League. Well done Matt and congrats on the titles.

Matt becomes our 14th different champion in the 18 years of the NFBC Ultimate League as we have had only two multi-champions of this event. They are Jon Stadtmueller, who has won four titles, and David Longood, who won three Ultimate Auction League titles.

Great job everyone and congrats to all of the money winners. Here's the final standings:

2024 NFBC Ultimate Auction League Final Standings:
1 Matthew Shepherd ULTIMATE STEPBROTHERS 118
2 Philippe Dussault The Robot U5 115.5
3 Douglas Gruber Dougs Dawgs ULT AUC 112
4 Lindy Hinkelman Beaver Cleaver 99.5
5 Jason Anthony Booms Ultimate 94.5
6 Matthew Anderson AndoGiese 83.5
7 Rob Silver Silver 82.5

Here's the prize structure for the NFBC Ultimate Auction League:
League Prizes
1 $40,000
2 $20,000
3 $7,500

[Greg Ambrosius]

We have been hosting the NFBC Ultimate Auction League since 2005 and Matt Shepherd is the latest new champion to be crowned. He joins a select group of owners who have won the NFBC Ultimate Auction League over the last 18 years. We actually had TWO NFBC Ultimate Auction Leagues in 2013 and 2014, but we also had a two-year hiatus in 2020-21 because of the pandemic. Here's the list of champions:

NFBC Ultimate Auction League Champions:
2005 - David Longood
2006 - Greg Morgan
2007 - David Longood
2008 - Ken Norred
2009 - David Longood
2010 - Will Tyrer
2011 - Kevin Kirves
2012 - Jon Stadtmueller
2013 - Glenn Lowy
2013 - Jeff Dobies/Steve Jupinka (League 2)
2014 - Dave Potts
2014 - Sam Botnick/Todd Zola (League 2)
2015 - Jon Stadtmueller
2016 - Ross Longood
2017 - Jon Stadtmueller
2018 - Jon Stadtmueller
2019 - Matt Modica
2022 - Shawn Johnson
2023 - Jason Duponte
2024 - Matt Shepherd

[Greg Ambrosius]

Here is Matthew Shepherd's winning roster that was started in the auction and continued in the 7-man reserve round:

Cue The Duckboats Ultimate:
C - Francisco Alvarez $8
C - Gary Sanchez $1
1B - Ryan Mountcastle $3
2B - Mookie Betts $45
SS - Elly de la Cruz $32
3B - Colt Keith $1
CI - Carlos Santana $1
MI - Jordan Westburg $1
UT - Brenton Doyle $1
OF - Julio Rodriguez $42
OF - Jazz Chisholm $18
OF - Jordan Walker $7
OF - Nick Castellanos $9
OF - Jorge Soler $5

P - Zack Wheeler $33
P - Max Fried $25
P - Sonny Gray $12
P - Jose LeClerc $8
P - Lance Lynn $2
P - Chris Paddack $3
P - Michael Wacha $1
P - Jose Quintana $1
P - Frankie Montas $1

R - Paul Skenes
R - Max Scherzer
R - Emmet Sheehan
R - Joey Meneses
R - Alex Wood
R - Brady Singer
R - Devin Williams

[Greg Ambrosius]

Here were all of the free agent winning bids by Matt Shepherd in the NFBC Las Vegas Ultimate Auction League:

ULTIMATE STEPBROTHERS:
March 31:
Drew Smyly 5

April 7:
Mike Clevinger 9
Fernando Cruz 4
Ivan Herrera 10

April 14:
Eloy Jimenez 134
Tommy Pham 50

April 21:
Joel Payamps 204
Hector Neris 89
Elehuris Montero 17
Nick Fortes 1

April 28:
Brandon Lowe 27
Justin Lawrence 20

May 5:
Wilmer Flores 3
Eduardo Rodriguez 2
David Fry 1

May 12:
Jorge Mateo 5
Whit Merrifield 4
Paul Blackburn 7

May 19:
David Robertson 2
Bryan Abreu 2
Luke Weaver 2

May 26:
Jackson Holliday 5

June 2:
Jalen Beeks 20
DJ LeMahieu 9
Jorge Polanco 9

June 9:
Eloy Jimenez 27
Jack Suwinski 12
Wenceel Perez 12

June 16:
Spencer Torkelson 27
Ty France 27
Ryne Stanek 27

June 23:
Yimi Garcia 5

June 30:
Reid Detmers 2
Austin Wells 1

July 7:
Junior Caminero 10
Xavier Edwards 2
Jalen Beeks 3

July 14:
Hunter Harvey 16

July 21:
Jeff McNeil 6
Luis Garcia 2
Kris Bryant 1

July 28:
Tylor Megill 8
Jackson Holliday 3
Parker Meadows 1

August 4:
Hayden Birdsong 47
Anthony Rizzo 4
Jonah Bride 3

August 11:
Andrew Nardi 1
Cade Smith 1

August 18:
Andres Chaparro 12
Garrett Crochet 8
Jacob Wilson 4

August 25:
Porter Hodge 6
Anthony Rizzo 2

September 1:
Seth Brown 5
Evan Phillips 20
Tyler Kinley 4
Cade Povich 3
Victor Caratini 1

September 8:
Trevor Story 20
Ezequiel Duran 7
Edouard Julien 7
Dennis Santana 3
Matt Strahm 3
Griffin Canning 3
Bo Naylor 1

September 15:
Miguel Rojas 1

September 22:
Jason Adam 1