In-Season Surprises Spark Strong Finish For Thomas

[Tom Kessenich]

A fantasy baseball season is often about surprises. Surprises can come in the forms of players who perform better – or, unfortunately, worse – than expectations. They can also come in the form of in-season developments that the owner or owners may not have foreseen.



Such was the case for Jeff Thomas in the NFBC this past season.



Thomas, the owner of Sports Buff.com, admitted he did not realize how important the free-agent maneuvering would be during the season. But it was their in-season moves that played a large role in Thomas and his partners winning Las Vegas League 1 and finishing fifth overall in the NFBC.



“Free-agent moves proved more important to the overall championship than we had thought going into the contest,” Thomas said. “Some of our top moves during the season were Doug Davis in May for $3 and Casey Blake and Jake Westbrook for $1 each.



“In July, we added Adam Everett and he supplied much-needed help at MI where we struggled most of the year. When he went down, it really hurt. Kevin Millar was another nice July pickup for us. His home runs were huge. August’s addition of Carlos Pena and September’s Pat Burrell both provided sparks at times.”



The road to the league title and Top 5 finish wasn’t always a smooth one for Thomas.



“We started out slowly, trailing Who Dat Is? in our league for several weeks and then going back and forth until the All-Star break,” Thomas said. “After the All-Star break, we surprised ourselves by posting a 20- or 30-point lead in our league and by taking over first place in the nation. Everything fell into place for us. We had the highest weekly score in the nation in Week 12 and then the 2nd highest score in Week 14.



“Our run on top of the leader board from July to September was exciting and a lot of fun for our team. But, being at the top of the leader board for more days than any other team doesn’t win the $100K. We battled injuries successfully all year, until the last few weeks when Triple A slipped ahead of us overall.”



All that led to some intense final weeks for Thomas’ team.



“Week 24 was a decision week for us,” Thomas said. “Going into Sunday’s free agent bidding was tough. We were confident that we could lock up second place with a conservative approach, but that same conservative approach wouldn’t allow us to catch Triple A. So we took the $85,000 gamble, deciding to go for the gold, even if it cost us the silver. We benched (Jason) Isringhausen, (LaTroy) Hawkins, and all of our one-start pitchers other than (Ben) Sheets. We picked up any and all two-game starters we could find, including (unfortunately) Brad Halsey of the Yankees who was projected to start Tuesday and Sunday. He pitched 1 inning of relief and Issy and Hawkins posted 6 saves and 1 win for the week. Ouch.



“After slow starts by (Edgar) Renteria, Mike Cameron and Brad Fullmer started worrying us, we were forced to lean on some fringe players and fortunately Travis Hafner and Danny Buatista heated up. About a third of the way into the season, we started to realize we could compete for the overall championship. We were hitting on all cylinders until (Andy) Pettite went down for good and (Brad) Penny had his freakish injury occur. We spent the rest of the year trying to find replacements to these two solid pitchers, but guys like (Kris) Benson and (Gil) Meche never really filled their shoes.”



But Thomas’ team persevered and won the league title and flexed its muscles in the overall competition, finishing fifth. Thomas said the strong finishes was the result of a total team

effort.



“When I decided to compete in the NFBC, I knew I would need help, because most of my experience has been with salary cap contests like our Mr. Fantasy Baseball contest,” he said. “So, I called two friends and a cousin… which turned out to be the best GM move I made all year. Our combined experiences and knowledge formed a formidable team, although managing input from everyone and trying to come to a consensus on free agent moves and weekly rosters took extra time and effort every week.”



With a strong debut showing under his belt, Thomas is looking forward to the second season of the NFBC.



“The NFBC is the No. 1 high stakes baseball contest in the country and we look forward to competing again (this) year,” he said. “We hope the ride leads us to another exciting September.”