2008 NFBC Champion Profile - Neal Moses and Charlie Casey

[Tom Kessenich]

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

Charlie Casey, an avid Giants fan, ranks the Las Vegas 1 League title up there with Joe Morgan's 1982 home run on the last day of the season to knock the Dodgers out of the playoffs. On the other hand, Neal Moses, a rabid Dodgers' fan, ranks the victory just above Mike Piazza's two home runs that knocked the Giants out of the playoffs on the last day of the 1993 season. Our rookie year in the NFBC was just as memorable and climatic. With the top three teams in LV 1 separated by 1.5 points, our season came down to the Monday make-up game and subsequent tie-breaker on Tuesday. We were literally a Bobby Jenks' and John Danks' strikeout away from finishing third. Simply being in contention all year in a league of competitors as talented as Las Vegas 1 was an exciting experience. Winning the league capped a great, albeit, roller coaster season that took us from being #1 Overall for one day in late May and up 30+ points in our league to being almost out of the Top 100 and in 4th place in our league in early September to squeaking out a victory in the last week.



2. What were the keys to your championship season?

To start off, we got some great advice on preparation from a lot of the NFBC veterans. The articles by Shawn Childs should be required reading for those entering the Main Event. We also jumped into some early mock drafts and bantered back and forth on picks and strategy. Kent Stermon was kind enough to pass along his learning and advice on drafting from seasons past. As for the players that made our season, we did a good job

drafting after Round 10 - Ellsbury (11), Votto (15) Pedroia (16), Garza (17), Jacobs (18), E. Santana (22) and Giambi (23). Good fortune like that makes up for a lot of in-season FAAB and sit-start mistakes.



3. Was there a point in the season when you began to realistically believe you could win the title?

We thought we had the league title in the bag way too early. Ah, to be naïve rookies.



4. What draft day strategies worked out the best?

Sitting in the No. 5 spot, we planned draft scenarios around getting Reyes or Cabrera. We figured ARod (1), HRam (2), DWright (3) and we would take either Jose Reyes or Miguel Cabrera. If Reyes, get power in Round 2 and if Cabrera get speed. Well, Holliday and Rollins were picked just before us. Charlie could not say Hanley Ramirez fast enough. Now, we had both power and speed in one pick, so with Peavy on the board, we went pitching early. And our whole draft plan went out the window from there. Of our first 10 picks, six turned out to be busts, including Peavy, Posada, Gordon and CBYoung.



5. How did FAAB work for you?

"Poorly" would be an understatement. Neither of

us had ever participated in a league with FAAB, so it was a learning experience all around. We were saved from ourselves in the Max Scherzer lottery by two dollars. We still spent our budget like drunken sailors on leave. Hopefully, we wise up this year.



6. How was the competition in your league and the

overall event?

It was outstanding. As rookies coming in we only knew of Terry Haney (defending champion) and Todd Zola (Mastersball.com), so we figured the competition would be stiff. We didn't know about Aaron Smith (2nd) and Kenneth Magner (3rd), but we soon learned that most of our league was filled with great competitors.



7. How long have you been playing fantasy football/fantasy sports?

We started playing in a league during Business School at Vanderbilt with some of our classmates. In the seven years the league has been in existence, Neal has won the league 6 times and Charlie once. Our fellow classmates and friends

keep trying to knock off the champ, but are blinded by the glare of Neal's ego. We have decided to "allow" another member from our league to join us in Vegas this spring and learn from the best (not Charlie and Neal) in hopes that he might raise his game up to our lofty levels.



8. Personal info - married/single, where do you live, what do you do for a living?

Charlie is married with two wonderful daughters in San Francisco. When he is not busy traveling the world, enjoying his plush seats at Pac Bell Park or avoiding Neal's incessant emails and phone calls, he is the President of Pacific Foundation Services. An HR Professional with Ford, Neal is also married with a little girl and a little boy. The extra hours of managing his NFBC teams has forced Neal to do undertake running as an activity to take off the weight. With running ranking up there with his disdain for the Giants, Neal completed his first half-marathon on Thanksgiving Day.



[ February 23, 2009, 10:23 AM: Message edited by: Tom Kessenich ]

[poopy tooth]

Congratulations guys! Good to see rookies win a title!

[Chest Rockwell]

2 good guys who give every rookie hope. You should post you all's entire draft it was as good as any I have seen in my 5 years of doing this.

[Sack]

Well deserved title holders, great battle all season in LV # 1.



Hoping to CATCH up with you guys in Vegas this season - from a different League! Neal, are you still buying the first round?





Congrats again guys.

KM

[Top Dawg]

Guys - Great story. It's cool to see a couple of rookies do so well in year one. Congrats and good luck in '09.



Pete

[Asumijet]

Originally posted by Chest Rockwell:

2 good guys who give every rookie hope. You should post you all's entire draft it was as good as any I have seen in my 5 years of doing this. Kent- you exaggerate. More importantly, you will be missed in Vegas. Come on, change your mind and join us.



ROUND PICK PLAYER

1 5 Hanley Ramirez

2 11 Jake Peavy

3 5 Magglio Ordonez

4 11 Chris Young

5 5 Brian McCann

6 11 Joe Nathan

7 5 Alex Gordon

8 11 James Shields

9 5 Jorge Posada

10 11 Pat Burrell

11 5 Jacoby Ellsbury

12 11 Joe Borowski

13 5 Kevin Kouzmanoff

14 11 Tim Hudson

15 5 Joey Votto

16 11 Dustin Pedroia

17 5 Matt Garza

18 11 Mike Jacobs

19 5 Luis Castillo

20 11 Jon Garland

21 5 Wily Mo Pena

22 11 Ervin Santana

23 5 Jonny Gomes DH

24 11 Andrew Miller

25 5 Jason Giambi

26 11 Daniel Cabrera

27 5 Jayson Nix 2B

28 11 Jon Rauch CL

29 5 Mike Hampton MR

30 11 Dmitri Young 1B

[Asumijet]

Originally posted by Sack:

Well deserved title holders, great battle all season in LV # 1.



Hoping to CATCH up with you guys in Vegas this season - from a different League! Neal, are you still buying the first round?





Congrats again guys.

KM Ken- absolutely. Meet you on Thursday at the Flamingo Sports Book?