2007 NFBC Champion Profile - Keith Stuart

[Tom Kessenich]

NFBC CHAMPION PROFILE – KEITH STUART MARCH 8th $100 WINNER TAKE ALL LEAGUE 2



1. How did it feel to win your league title?

Winning the league title was quite honestly a feeling of relief verses the expected excitement. I entered the weekend tied with Terry Haney (the overall champ) at 102 points knowing that I could, at best, end up at 103. Terry was in the same boat as me – at best, he could also end up at 103 points. From my perspective, the main category I was focusing on was wins. I had John Maine and Gavin Floyd going on Saturday, while the team I was tied for 2nd in wins with had Andy Pettitte going for them. Maine threw the game of his life on Saturday afternoon (while Floyd got a ND in 7 innings while allowing only 1 run) and for a while I was up by a full point – 103 to 102 over Terry, but in the night game Pettitte pitched 5 IP giving up 8 earned runs and still earned the victory. This, combined with some other factors caused me to end the day in a dead tie once again.



On Sunday, I had Matt Garza going, while my competitor in wins had both Jeff Suppan and Ubaldo Jimenez on the mound. In the early going, it was looking good Garza was throwing well against Boston and the Red Sox had pulled all their starters off the field in about the 5th inning. On the other hand, Suppan was lit up early against the Brewers giving up 3 early runs. It was looking like I might be able to pull out the league by a half a point. Until the Padres started to comeback – Suppan ended up with the win and I ended up tied for 2nd in the wins category and for the overall league title.





2. What were the keys to your championship season?

The keys to my championship were undervalued bats and young pitching. Despite taking Johan at #1 overall (which wasn’t part of my initial strategy, I didn’t have any plans on taking him with the #7 overall pick) I was able to get Justin Morneau, Garrett Atkins, Prince Fielder and Chipper Jones to anchor my offense. I also grabbed Sabathia and Beckett later which, combined with Santana, clinched most pitching categories for me. Unfortunately, being my first year in this format, I didn’t realize that there wasn’t a 180 start max for pitching. So, I ended up with terrible 3-6 starters, going with Brandon McCarthy, Jason Hirsch and anyone else I could find. Fortunately, I drafted Yvonni Gallardo and Matt Garza in the draft and held them all year knowing that they’d be helpful come August/September. Once they both were called up I had a very formidable 1-5 rotation.





3. What draft day strategies worked best?

Regarding draft day strategies – my philosophy has always been to get the best talent in each round. This usually causes me to focus on power numbers for hitters and strikeouts for pitchers. I ended up first or second in both categories.





4. Were there any draft day strategies that didn't pan out?

Poor draft day strategies that are a by-product of the above include the fact that I usually put off grabbing closers and/or speed until the later rounds, but in a 15-team draft where you have up to 30 picks in between turns, speed and closers tend to come and go in spurts. I ended up last and second-to-last in steals and saves. Not a good formula for success, but the league was very deep and so I was able to get away with it. I wouldn’t expect that to work in 2008. I also totally missed on my SS/C selections which nearly cost me any shot at the league. I picked Chris Iannetta, Mike Napoli and Stephen Drew expecting them all to be average at their respective positions. I ended up sticking with each of them way too long, which caused me to lose a lot of ground in the batting average category.





5. How did FAAB work for you?

FAAB wasn’t a huge factor in my success – I got a couple home runs from Willy Mo Pena (and mainly avoided him going to another team) and a nice start from John Maine at the end of the year, but I mainly won the league based on who I drafted.



6. How long have you been playing fantasy baseball/fantasy sports?

I’ve been playing fantasy baseball for about 10 years now. I never before had done a league with 15 people, I’ve mainly been involved in 10-12 team mixed leagues and the draft for NFBC was a bit of a drag simply due to the amount of time it took. I intended on using the draft here as a prep draft for my other leagues, but ended up winning this one anyway!





7. Personal - single/married/occupation/where do you live?

I’m married with two boys and a wonderful wife. We live just outside Boston, MA. I work in the finance field by day and read/watch as much baseball as I can during the day. I also run my own fantasy baseball site – thebaseballjunkie.com which I just started prior to last year. It’s more work than I was expecting, but a lot of fun nonetheless.