2024 NFBC Champions Profile - Jason Weir

[Tom Kessenich]

Bargain hunting is often a great way to spend a weekend. Finding the right values can make all the difference to turn an ordinary shopping spree into something truly magical.

In an auction it’s often the difference between greatness and a near miss.

Unlike many national champions in 2024, Jason Weir’s Online Auction Championship team wasn’t blessed with the awe-inspiring wonder of Shohei Ohtani to lead the way throughout the season. Instead what he had was a roster filled with bargains that powered him to a title and a $12,500 grand prize and a season he’ll never forget.

Gunnar Henderson for $23.

Jackson Chourio for $11.

Anthony Santander for $10.

Chris Sale for $14

Jarren Duran for $12.

Jack Flaherty drafted in the reserve round.

Garrett Crochet off the Waiver Wire.

That’s how you put together a championship roster.

“I approached this auction with a balanced approach,” he said. “My strategy was to not spend over $30 on any one hitting and have close to a 50/50 hitter/pitching split. “I targeted cheaper power bats and then tried to pair them with my more expensive five-category hitters.’

That approach worked extremely well. But the competition was fierce throughout the season although it was roughly halfway through the season when he started thinking he had a realistically opportunity to win the overall title.

“I noticed in early July that my team was doing really well so I started giving that team extra attention and really scrutinizing what categories I could gain the most points in,” he said.

Making things difficult was the fact his team didn’t have that one powerful presence – namely Shohei Ohtani – which was such a dominant force for so many teams in the NFBC a season ago.

“I had a lot of nervous moments throughout the last few weeks,” he said. “Especially knowing that he wasn't on my team. It was stressful seeing how many points the other teams were gaining from him.”

Ultimately, Weir’s balanced lineup proved too difficult for the competition to overcome. He won the national championship with 8,642.5 points, earning 90.02 percent of all available points. He finished 172.5 points ahead of Derek Ishler in the overall competition as Derek earned $3,100 for his runner-up finish.

The 40-year-old Weir had a strong overall 2024 season in other contests as well. Besides winning two OLAC league titles, Jason also won six NFBC $150 Draft Champions league titles and a $125 Satellite League title.

Celebrating the Auction championship was a short-lived feeling of excitement for Weir, however.

I felt relieved to know that my team was able to hang on but then my mind already started shifting to 2025 contests,” he said.