Chasing the NFBC - A Fantasy Baseball Blog

[Glenneration X]

It's just shy of 10PM, a rainy night on Long Island. My 2 1/2-year old son and twin baby girls have been down for an hour now, and my loving wife went to bed exhausted shortly after (can you blame her). I'm on the couch finally relaxing after another stressful day at the office and then coming home to help my exhausted wife with the kids. I'm shot, from work, from the newborns, and still not fully recovered from back to back weekends of fantasy football drafts. Typically, now would be the time I'd whip open my laptop to pour over the night's boxscores and the Live Scoring on my various league pages to see how my players and fantasy teams are fairing that day.

Unfortunately today's Thursday, typically a light day on the baseball schedule, this Thursday being even lighter with only six games on the board. Westbrook's in line for a win which would help a couple of my teams, most importantly my Super squad where I'm trying to make a late run into a money spot. Hopefully the Cards can hold a tight lead and give me the chance at an added bonus with a save from Franklin which would help my Main Event squad. My team's hitters started 0 for 11 tonight until Mr. Pujols contributed an RBI double which helps both this team and my Hot Tub squad as well. Not much else is going on. It's going to be a slow night.



That's when my mind started to wander to where it's been wandering a lot lately. 172 1/2. 172 1/2. That's how many points I trail the Great Jupinka in the overall. 172 1/2.



During the course of a normal day, Fantasy Sports crosses my mind a 1/2 dozen, a dozen, maybe more times a day. I love Fantasy Sports. It's become my favorite hobby. Drafting, FAAB, team management. It's all so much fun for me. So a dozen times, maybe more may seem like a lot to some. To me, it seems about right. However, since my recent run up the Main Event standings, multiply that dozen by what seems like another dozen. I can't wait until the games start. I can't wait until the next morning so I can see if I moved closer or further away from my ultimate goal. Now I know even holding onto 2nd place is far from assured as there are many great teams just points behind me. Still being where I am right now, today, I can't help but dream of doing what we all dreamed about when we first registered for this event. Winning the NFBC Overall Championship.



After a tumultuous year on the Message Boards, the last month or so have been real quiet outside of Doug Schwks fascinating "Cold Hard Look" series and Dan Kenyon's consistently great posts. Inspired by Wayne Edward's interesting "Weekly Thoughts" threads of the past couple years, I thought I'd add to Doug & Dan's efforts with a blog of my own thoughts, as I chase what we all dream of chasing, a High Stakes Fantasy Championship. 2 1/2 more weeks, 5 more lineup changes, 2 more FAAB's, 172 1/2 points. Fantasy Sports thoughts are going to cross my mind much more than a dozen times a day during that time, I thought I'd keep track of them.



Glenn

[Glenneration X]

Steve Jupinka is the Anti-Christ.



Now don't get me wrong. I met Steve for the first time in AC back in March and he struck me as a very nice guy. He's always a gentleman on the message boards with a funny, dry sense of humor. There's also nobody who plays fantasy sports who's quicker at the draw with a picture post to add to any thread.



Still, he's the Anti-Christ. As we all know, he's currently atop the NFBC. His current lead is 169.5 points. To put that margin in perspective, the spread between he & I in second place is the exact same 169.5 points as my spread in 2nd place over Robert Conti....in 11th place. He's the Anti-Christ.



I'm currently in three leagues with Steve, an auction & two slows. In the three, his current standings are first, first, and an embarrassing for him third. :rolleyes: He's the Anti-Christ.



In a competing baseball contest, he's not doing as well. He's only in 2nd overall....with another team in the top 9. He's the Anti-Christ.



And with all that, I look at the NFFC football standings this week and guess who's in first overall there as well. Yes, Mr. Anti-Christ.



Now again, I know Steve is a nice guy. I know he's very popular and respected in the fantasy community. Still, ask yourselves.....is there any logical way to explain that level of success other than he's pure evil and has made a pact with the devil. Case closed. The defense rests.



All joking aside Steve, an amazing year that you should be extremely proud of and the rest of us should marvel. Keep up the great work (but if you do slip up a little in an event, this one wouldn't be a bad place to do it in...say by 169.5 points?).



Good luck the rest of the year Steve.



Glenn

[Glenneration X]

Koji &^%$& Uehara and Alex &%^$# Rodriguez.

Someone please check ARod for steroids goddamnit!!!



Glenn

[Glenneration X]

For the third straight day, I woke up this morning expecting to see that my team had dropped in the overall standings. Today, it finally did. I'm now in 3rd place, 218 points behind first, 11 points out of second, and 34 1/2 points ahead of fourth. It's not fully unexpected considering I haven't had a starter go since Tuesday and both closers that pitched for me yesterday gave up runs (Koji &*%#& Uehara was one strike away from a scoreless save and instead gave up 3 runs in his 2/3 inning blown save). I've been bleeding pitching points the last few days, but am hopeful for a turnaround this weekend. I have four starters scheduled this weekend (should be five but Jaime &%^$# Garcia's 2nd start is being skipped....wimp!! ). Big weekend.



The team that passed me into second is owned by the infamous Mark Srebro aka Gordon Gekko. I don't think there's a person in this contest, or any contest he enters, who elicits more of a universal reaction to one extreme or the other than Mark. You either love him or hate him, but it's impossible to ignore him. While Steve Jupinka is likely playing the role of sentimental favorite in this chase, Mark is probably cast as the villain in many eyes.



Personally, as I've commented on these boards several times, I think Mark is a cool guy. I've met him at a couple of these events and he's interesting to talk to, a very nice guy, and unbelievably knowledgeable about this hobby of ours.



His strength in my mind is player evaluation. While someone like Steve Jupinka seems to be an expert in team construction, someone like Mr. Gekko thrives at finding the breakout player and going out & getting him. A perfect example is Carlos Gonzales. While just about every "expert" I read or fellow fantasy player I spoke to was enamored of Justin Upton or Nelson Cruz this year, Mark was pimping Cargo non-stop. I know many had Gonzales on their breakout list, but I can't think of anyone besides Mark (and Gene McCaffrey) who predicted this level of production this year. Mark told anyone who would listen at the drafts that Cargo would be this year's Ryan Braun in the 6th round. Well he was Ryan Braun for me in the 7th round. I wish I got him on as many teams as Mark did. You could learn a lot just chatting with someone like Mark, but make sure you filter what you listen to.....if you read "Rev up the FAAB", stop listening immediately.



The fact that I'm chasing players with the history & successes in the NFBC and of the caliber of Steve Jupinka & Mark Srebro is daunting, but is making the chase even more exciting. I'm obviously one of the underdogs in this race, and not only because I'm currently behind them, but also because of who they are. I feel like the '69 Mets taking on Ernie Banks' Cubs, Hank Aaron's Braves, & the O's of Brooks & Frank Robinson. Still we all know how that turned out. Hopefully, I can pull off a similar miracle and catch them, but if not it's still fun being in the race with them. They both are good guys, they both deserve to win and if I don't, I hope one of them do.



Glenn

[Quahogs]

"The Anti-Christ? That's bogus man. I just have a ruddy complexion. Don't forget to support the team"

[Glenneration X]

I'm a little grumpy this morning.



Last night was my turn to handle the overnight feedings for the twins (I couldn't fall back asleep and have been up since about 3 in the morning) and even worse, just about every team I have in contention in the NFBC did poorly yesterday. In the game I was most interested in, Tim Lincecum got pulled in the 5th inning trailing 2-1 in the middle of a pennant race....nice managing Bochy. The one saving grace is that Milwaukee held on for that 2-1 win giving Axford a save that helped my WCOFB Main Event team move up to 7th overall.



Yes, the NFBC Main Event team I'm writing about in this blog is not my only fantasy baseball team. Like most of us, I have multiple squads. Before last year, I never had more than one fantasy team for any baseball season. It seemed like enough for me. However after drafting my Main Event team live in NYC last year, my first in the world of High Stakes Fantasy Sports, I got the fever. I grabbed an Online Championship team, a $500 satellite, & joined the Diamond Challenge all in the week between the NFBC live draft and Opening Day. When added to the mid-season satellite I entered & my local league team, I was in a total of six leagues when all was said & done. I did relatively well. I finished in the money in 4 of the 6 leagues and contended in all. Boltstered by my first foray into multiple leagues, I upped the ante this year....to 15 leagues. They ran across multiple contests and multiple formats. I've had varied success.



Though I know that there are those that can handle that number of leagues easily, I've discovered that I'm not one of them. For me, fantasy baseball requires too much time & attention to each league to perform at the level I want to, not so much in player evalutions which shouldn't matter whether you have one or 100 leagues, but in individual league category analysis, FAAB, lineup changes. I've found that I ended up dedicating the vast majority of my focus to a few select leagues and rushed through the rest. I will definately be cutting back next year, I have some thinking to do on where. The following is a rundown of the different leagues & formats I took part in this year, how I'm faring, and some thoughts on each.



- Diamond Challenge - Last year I tried this contest for the first time. I led my league for most of the season before fading in September to my eventual 3rd place finish. It's a fun contest, yet time consuming. I rejoined this year when Fanball offered a special league for only NFBC Main Event participants. I led for the first few weeks before starting to fade towards the middle of the pack. My biggest problem with this contest is that you pay for all transactions, whether pickups, lineup changes, even switching a player from a set position to a "flex". This is alright while you are in contention. However if you start to fall out of the race, there comes a point when you're just throwing good money after bad. While in a standard roto league, a concientious player will continue making lineup changes & pickups when necessary even if he's hopelessly out of the race. In this format, to do so you'd be penalizing yourself financially. I continued making moves & transactions until the accumulated costs surpassed any practical reward, then I called it a day. I haven't even logged into that league in probably a month. I know there are those that swear by these salary cap games, some of them who also participate in the NFBC. I just don't think it's for me and it's unlikely I return next year.



- Live DP & Online Championships - I took a 3-pack this year and my current standings are 9th, 6th, & 6th. I have an outside chance of finishing in the money in one of these leagues as I'm only 9 points out of first and there are more than that many points realistically available to me. Still, I'll probably only join one league in this format next year, preferably a Live DP if offered. With the vast majority of my leagues being 15 or 14-teamers, it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to get a true reading on the player pool in these 12-teamers. All the teams look solid with no weaknesses and the free agent pool looks loaded each & every week. I've also found that whenever time is limited, I focus all my available resources elsewhere and leave the short end of the time & focus stick to these teams. There's been several weeks that I've utilized so much of my available time to my other leagues, I've literally left only minutes combined to these leagues for FAAB, lineup decisions, etc. I'm not sure why, whether it's the price point, the league prizes, the format, I just know it is. If I cut back next year, this likely will be one of the directions I look towards.



- Slow DC's - These drafts run during the early draft season and reward a Main Event entry to each of the top 3 finishers. These leagues are typically loaded with knowledgeable die-hards and are a great draft prep. Currently I have one team in 3rd (just tied up last night by my ex-Bud BillyWaz ) and one team out of the running. As we all know the problem with DC's are that there's no recourse if you're beset by a run of injuries. I'm currently dealing with something along these lines as I've been forced to start the "hardly can be considered even part-time" bats of Andy Marte, Luis Castillo, Corey Patterson & the likes and have had no resource to truly substitute for the lost arms of Strasburg & K-Rod & the categories they supported over the past few weeks as I watched my standing dwindle from competing for league lead to barely holding onto 3rd. That said, I'll almost definately be participating in one of these again next year. It's great early season draft prep, it's great prep on the player pool with the draft running 45 rounds deep, and most importantly it's great fun. There's many a time during these drafts that you're in a chatroom with several knowledgeable players waiting on someone's slow pick where the baseball talk, the fantasy talk, & the smack talk is flowing.



- SCL & Hot Tub - These were the first two "fast" drafts of the year. They are early season private FAAB leagues filled with some of the cream of the crop of the NFBC. These leagues provided tremendous early season draft prep and tremendous in-season competition. Currently my standings are 5th in the SCL and 2nd in the Hot Tub. In the SCL, pitching was my downfall. I was competitive for a money spot into August where my hitting stood at 73 points....but my pitching at about 25. When my hitting started its inevitable regression to the mean while my pitching stayed as is, my ship was sunk. In the Hot Tub, I've been chasing Mr. Doughboys for the better part of a month or so, coming to within two points of his lead a couple days ago. Unfortunately part of yesterday's disaster was a slide in these standings and Dan is now back to a 6-point spread. Still, there's more than 6 points realistically within my grasp and if I can grasp them.... . If these leagues are offered again next year and I'm invited back, they can count on my participation in both.



- Auction Championship - There's no draft format more fun than an auction. The snake draft just can't compete. Every player is available to every team, you can bid on each and every player you want. The stress & anxiety of going that extra dollar, there's little like it in this game we play. The auction for this league was my first for baseball in years. I went the extra dollar on too many players and left with too many holes that I just was never able to fill during the season. My team just never was competitive. Still, I intend on returning next year having learned the lessons from the schooling I got this year determined to try again. If the $1300 NYC Auction is available, I may give that league a try.



- Super - Along with my Main Event teams, I probably dedicated most of my focus, attention, time, & hopes on this team. Unfortunately, I probably dedicated most of my angst & anxiety on this team as well. Around the All-Star break, I sat in 3rd or 4th place, first within reach, my hitting was productive, and my pitching was about to be bolstered by the impending returns of Erik Bedard & Brandon Webb, both who were getting good reports, Bedard even scheduled for a start. Then the bottom fell out. Over the next month & a half, the Bedard & Webb news turned ugly, I lost Ordonez, Willingham, & Josh Johnson for the season, Ian Kinsler for over a month, Carlos Pena & John Buck were DL'd, Nate McLouth was hurt & then sent to the minors, Qualls lost his closer position, & Derek Jeter forgot he was Derek Jeter. I dropped to 10th place. Somehow though I've recently managed to crawl back up to within longshot range of a money spot. I'm 8 points out of 3rd with about that many points available to me. It would take a major run in a very short amount of time, but $2500 would be a nice reward. I love the premium league format. The payouts are great, the excitement is intensified due to the higher stakes, and the chase of a cash spot is intensified by the reward. Beat only the 14 people in your league and cash $20K. Who wouldn't love that? Good luck to Matt Bauler who's fighting for that goal in this league. I'm rooting for ya. If I play in any league at all next year, it'll be a Super, or an Ultimate, or dare I say a Diamond ? We'll decide that when the time comes. Still, there's nothing like these premium leagues and I'm definately up for it again.



- WCOFB - Return on investment, that says it all. The WCOFB did not get the signups necessary to cover the advertised prize structure this year. Still, they decided to go forward with the contest and keep the prize structure as is. I took two Main Event teams. Similar to what I'm experiencing in the NFBC Main Event, I have one team that's been climbing recently and is now seventh in the overall standings and I have one also-ran. The competitive team has no chance at 1st in its league as the runaway overall standings leader resides in this league (lucky me :rolleyes: ), but I'm currently ahead of Shawn Childs in our season long back & forth battle for 2nd. There are others I can think of that I'd rather be trying to hold off, but you play the cards dealt you. In the overall, I have a realistic chance at climbing to 4th, and if I do..... $$$ . I also have a team in their NYC Invitational where I'm currently in 3rd trying to hold off a close personal friend who's been chasing me all year. You can imagine the private E-mail & phone call smack talk going on there. I think the WCOFB did a decent job in their return to baseball this year. My one complaint is that their FAAB back end needs work and is not user friendly. It takes me as long to complete my FAAB for three teams there as it does for nine teams in the NFBC. Still, I'll likely participate in their contest next year if offered, how much is totally dependent on what improvements they make to their back end.



- NFBC Main Event - I have one team that sucks and one team that's chasing a dream. Enough said. Except that I'll definately be returning next year. Two years now and it's been great fun.



Glenn

[Glenneration X]

My team performed well yesterday. Two wins, a save, and an all around good offensive performance has pushed me back into second overall after a two-day hiatus.

I was also able to move up one spot in the WCOFB contest to 6th overall.



Still, as good as yesterday was it could have been so much better if not for the bain of my existence.....

relief pitchers.



Arizona had a 2-run lead going into the bottom of the eighth and I was in line for a save opportunity for Juan Gutierrez, saves being a category I can still make up some ground in the NFBC Overall. An added bonus was that Dan Hudson was in line for the win for my WCOFB team, a category in which I can make up some ground there. Hold onto the lead and receive a double blessing from the Fantasy Gods. Of course, in comes Aaron Heilman (who was obviously created in Fantasy Hell), and a few runs later both the win & the save were up in smoke. Throw in the great Mariano Rivera blowing a save for me in that other contest and once again, bullpens have done me in.



By the way, have I mentioned that I hate relief pitchers?



Glenn



[ September 20, 2010, 11:57 AM: Message edited by: Glenneration X ]

[Glenneration X]

FAAB and team management. Who & how much to bid and who to start. Once the draft is over, in a no-trade FAAB league, these are an owner's only resources for improving his team and helping determine it's place in the final standings.



I've recently received some kudos for my in-season management and how it's been the overriding factor towards my being in contention in the overall. However, my management in recent weeks deserves anything but kudos, and may result in a lower standing when all is said & done in two weeks.



Sometime in the season's 2nd half, I came to the determination that the lead I had established in my individual league standings was at a point where I could focus my energies & strategy towards the overall & my goal of a top 10 finish. Looking at the overall standings, it was obvious that the categories I had to make my move in were SB's, W's, & Saves. These were the counting stat cats that I had serious room to grow. I was near the top in all other counting stats (though with some room to grow in K's) and figured it was too late in the season to try to manipulate the ratio categories.



Regarding SB's at the time, I had both Coco Crisp & Brian Roberts recently returned from injury and both contributing to this category. I also had Pujols, Cargo, Rasmus, Kendrick, etc. who could contribute with the occassional steal. Although confident I could move up the SB standings with that lineup, I did not feel it would provide a great enough impact. I decided to wholeheartedly commit to the category. With most of my remaining FAAB, I started to accumulate a stable of potential speedsters in Brantley, Bourjous, Eric Young, Jr., Espinoza, Bonafacio. I started as many of them as I could each week alongside Roberts & Crisp, pretty much committing half my lineup to Judy's. I was risking moving down in the power cats, but had to hope the remaining players in my lineup could hold the fort there. This strategy worked perfectly. Not only did I start a serious move up the SB standings, surprisingly I kept rising in the power categories as well.



The pitching side was a little more complicated. Overloading for both wins & saves is hard to do. I felt I had to try to somehow maximize both starts & save opportunities.



First I had to get some closers. Franklin was getting limited opportunities & both Qualls & Lindstrom crapped out in the 2nd half. I started grabbing would be closers as soon as I'd hear an inkling that there could be a change in roles so I wouldn't have to blow my entire budget. There were several misses as the Putz's, League's, Heilman's, & Parnell's all found temporary homes on my roster. Still, over time I was able to secure Uehara, Gutierrez, & Hensley to go along with Franklin. I decided in order to move as much as possible in this category, I'd start each of them every week. Not surprisingly, I quickly moved up the saves standings.



The problem with starting four closers each week is obvious, the negative impact to both wins & K's. Over the course of the year, I had managed to put together a pretty formidable staff. Lincecum, Wainwright, Myers, Brett Anderson, Morrow (before being shut down), Jaime Garcia, Cecil, Chacin, et al, were the main reason I was winning my league & competitive in the overall. For most of the season, I would just start some combination of these guys with the occassional odd hot pitcher. However, with four closers I felt I had to maximize starts as much as possible. This was my first screwup. Over the past month and a half, I would pick up a 2-start pitcher every week I could and throw him in the lineup, sitting players who were perfoming for me like Anderson, Chacin, Cecil, even Wainwright. I did this three times over five weeks and the starters used were Rzepczynski, Harang, & Maya.

Total wins accumulated in the 6 scheduled starts by these one week rentals.....zero.

Total wins that would have been accumulated if I had just stayed status quo....three.

Three wins may not seem like a lot, but if I had three more wins right now, I'd be FIFTY points closer to Steve Jupinka.

Fifty points left on my bench with this misguided strategy....well done.



My second screwup occurred yesterday while finalizing my FAAB bids. I had set my bids in the morning, but always try to check the latest news and make adjustments the half hour or so before the deadline. That's when I discovered both Coco Crisp & Eric Young, Jr. were hurt over the weekend. I still needed to move up in steals if I had any remaining hope of catching Jupinka. Desperately, I searched the free agent pool for a potential impact steals guy....I found one. Carlos Gomez, exactly what I needed. He was getting playing time, hitting well recently, and most importantly...running. Initially, I was only bidding on Kyle Drabek & Chris Young. I was worried about next week. Garcia may not start again, Cecil may get shut down, who knows...Chacin, Anderson, Myers all could be candidates to have their final starts skipped. Drabek & Young have the potential to give me an impact start if needed to replace my regulars or even if I decide I need to go all-in with starters the final week. I had $6 left in FAAB. I checked the waiver history and saw that over the past month, noone's bid on an outfielder for anything other than $1 in my league unless they went all in for someone like McClouth or Blanco, and in those cases the bids were well over the $6 I had remaining. Looking back, I needed Gomez enough that I should have gone all in for him. I got greedy. I wanted him and at least one of the pitchers. Reviewing the waiver history, I came to the determination that $2 would be enough for Gomez. I bumped it to $3 just in case someone was thinking the same as me. I bid $2 each on Drabek & Young and left $1 in the bank just in case for next week. I was reasonably confident I played this right. I didn't. When I checked the bid results, the winning bid was $3....by someone lower in the standings than me. I got both Drabek & Young and have $2 left in the bank, but I have noone to replace Crisp or EY,Jr. Throw in the injury news today on Bonafacio and my run up the SB category is likely crippled. Two pitchers I may not even use are now on my roster and I lose out on a player I had to have. I should have gone all in. Terrible job by me, hopefully it won't be too costly.



Glenn

[Glenneration X]

The last couple nights, my team hasn't done much to help or hurt my standing in the Overall. The offense has been average, a couple homers, some runs & RBI's, but no steals. I've had no starters go, but have gotten a save, and left one on the bench. I now stand at 3656 points, still good enough for 2nd overall.



I recently read an article by Shawn Childs, the professor of Fantasy Sports, where he listed the goals for each category in order to compete for the Overall title in another contest. He based this goal on 80% of the available points per category. I've seen Shawn and others reference this figure before and it seems to be acknowledged amongst our fantasy community as the established benchmark to compete.



I decided to see how my current total stacks up. With 435 teams, the maximum number of available points in the Overall is 4350. As mentioned earlier, I currently stand at 3656 points, good enough for 84% of the total available. Damnit, based on Shawn's formula, I should easily be in first!!! Of course I realized that was just a referenced goal.



I decided to see how that 84% stacked up to previous winners of the Overall. The following is what I found.



2004 - 81%

2005 - 86%

2006 - 86%

2007 - 87%

2008 - 83%

2009 - 88%



Looking at these figures, it appears my current percentage is certainly good enough to compete, but would have ended up on top in only two of the six previous years of the NFBC. I'm probably where I should be.



I then checked out Steve Jupinka's total. He currently has 3906.5, good for 89.8% of the available Overall points. Not only is that obviously the best percentage this year, if he continues the pace, that'll finish as the best percentage in the history of this contest.



Over the past week, Steve has not only significantly increased his lead over the rest of us, but also his Overall point total. At the pace he's going, he may shortly surpass the 90% figure. It appears that while the rest of us are chasing Steve, he's not only chasing his first Overall title, but an historic record breaking one as well.



Glenn



[ September 22, 2010, 05:48 AM: Message edited by: Glenneration X ]

[DOUGHBOYS]

Enjoy the ride, Glenn.

The ride is the best part.

Every once in a while take your eyes off the odometer and look out the window.

You've got a great view.

[Glenneration X]

Dan, thanks for the words of wisdom Bud. Believe me when I tell you that the ride's a blast and I'm enjoying every single minute of it. I'll admit right now that I may be living & dying with every game, every inning, every at-bat, every pitch, but that's all part of the fun. The intensity is just gripping, but that's what I've always loved.



When I was younger, I played every sport I could. Baseball, football, hockey, or hoops. Organized or sandlot. Summer, winter, spring, or fall. Day or night. It didn't matter, I just wanted to play. I was the kid who couldn't sleep the night before a game. I was the kid who couldn't think about anything else but the game from the moment I woke up until I was finally on the field or on the court. I was the kid (OK, and young adult ) who'd lay in bed the night after the game reliving it while falling asleep. I loved to play, I loved to win, but mostly I loved to compete.



At the time I got married in my late 20's, I was still a part of six organized sports leagues. Eventually, as happens to most of us, marriage, work, making a home, starting a family and the time each takes become the priorities, and age starts to make the effort to play (and recover) less of one. Hockey, football, hoops, baseball all fell by the wayside one by one over time. This year, with the birth of my twin girls, Sunday softball was the last to go.



Fantasy sports is now my outlet to compete and I love it as much as I loved playing when I was younger. Right now, I'm back to that kid who couldn't wait to get on the field. Competing amongst the top 10 in the NFBC & WCOFB is my Little League World Series. This blog is my reliving the game each day like that kid in bed while trying to fall asleep way back when.



Dan, I recently caught your post on 2005. It was another great post and I enjoyed it immensely. You know where I'm coming from, you've lived it. Trust me, I'm checking out the view and it couldn't be better.



Glenn

[CC's Desperados]

Glenn-



The 80 % number is a target to be a top contender. Depending on the size of the overall competition, you need to get 80 % plus a few points. In the past, it's been 80 % plus a 100 or so. With 435, maybe that number rises to 150. You team has made a hell of a run, but there's one team that just happen to be solid in all ten categories. If that dam Tulo would play well for the month instead of two weeks , you chances might increase.



I haven't follow your team real close, but I did talk to Mr. Anti-Christ the other day. He's locked and loaded on what you were chasing for points.



It's a tough road chasing saves and maintaining wins and K's. A couple of years ago I tried to find any live body to get a save the last week of the year. I figure there a chance I could get 12 saves in one week if I had the right players. I also thought I wouldn't lose much ground in wins and K's with all the pitchers being shut down the last week of the year. I cut Hamels and Maine and the pitched great in the last starts and struck out something 23 batters. I'm not sure I would have done any better as I was solid in the other 4 pitching categories.



If you land somewhere between good and evil, you will be happy with your baseball season.

[Glenneration X]

Thanks Shawn. By the way, just took a look at the updated Live Scoring at the WCOFB and noticed that you're closing the gap in our league and right up my a** in the overall. Go away please.



It's funny, I have a tendency to focus so intently on what's in front of me, I forget to look back and see what's coming up from behind. I'm like the racehorse with blinders on, working so hard to chase Man O' War that I don't notice Secretariat flying on by. Here I am in the last few days of these contests trying to come up with anything to catch Jupinka, Erickson, & Morgan just to wake up this morning to the uncomfortable sight of Childs & Srebro only 5 points behind and Sousa only seven.



After tonight, only 10 days are left in this race. When I look ahead, I wish it was 10 weeks. When I look behind, I wish it was 10 seconds. Either way, it's 10 days, and I'm chasing Jupinka, Erickson, & Morgan and trying to hold off Childs, Srebro, & Sousa. I'm surrounded in the standings by people I've read and people I've read about. How'd I get here?



Glenn



[ September 23, 2010, 08:47 PM: Message edited by: Glenneration X ]

[Gekko]

Glenn - Your NY team is having a great, great season. I believe I told you that after I saw your draft and how you got poodles, lincecum AND cargo on the same team.



i would like to know your thoughts as to WHY one of your teams is doing so very good, but your other one isn't doing as well? major injuries? different draft plan?



anyways, great job this year and i think you'll have a # of people watching to see if you can cement your name with the greats of the game.



[ September 23, 2010, 08:43 PM: Message edited by: Gekko ]

[Glenneration X]

Thanks Mark, I really appreciate the kudos. Though very flattered, I think your comment about the greats of the game is extremely premature.



I had a pretty good rookie year in High Stakes last year. This year I think I followed up with a decent year as well. Having teams with the opportunity to finish in the top 10 of both overalls, the possibility of cashing in a 1/3 or more of my entries, and the outside chance to finish in the top 5 of over 1/2 my leagues are goals that are still attainable and achievements I would be personally very proud of. Still, honestly they cement nothing.



One of the things I am most proud of this year is being competitive in some of the satellites I entered, at least partially entered because of the level of competition in them. If you want to see the true greats of the game, check out those league owner pages, they are littered with them.



Though my year has been solid, I think the only reason it's gotten noticed at all is that my two best teams happen to be in the Main Event Overalls of the two major competitions (and because I post a lot on these message boards ). If those teams were instead in a pair of $125 satellites, I'd still be just Glenneration Who?



You're having a much greater year than me, so is Steve, so are many others. More importantly, you've done it year in and year out, so has Steve, Shawn, many of the others I've mentioned in this blog, and many I haven't. Those are the greats of the game. If and when I can do that, then we can revisit this topic.



I hope noone looks at this blog as my attempt to cement anything or toot my own horn. It is just an outlet for me during a new, fun, & very exciting experience for me in this hobby and a way to share my thoughts during this time with those who can relate.



As far as my 2nd NFBC Main Event team (further evidence of a lack of greatness ), I was planning on providing a review of that team as part of this blog. I'll probably get around to it sometime this weekend.



Glenn

[Sebadiah23]

I'd prefer not hearing about this other competition Glenn. I felt that part was hooting your own horn a little bit, since many of us didn't know about how you're doing in it, I didn't, and since I don't care about that competition, as it is smaller and inferior, and not really appropriate for this board, I'd rather you leave it out of this great blog.



Great job so far man. I was worried that your league was a bunch of zombies until you finally mentioned getting outbid on Gomez recently.



Maybe I missed it in the blog but what we your top 5 FAAB misses this year (picks where you bid on the guy but it wasn't enough.)



Thanks and keep it up.



-Craig

[Quahogs]

C'mon Craig. There's no foul here. I think it's a great contribution to the MB community. Maybe he can put a spoiler alert out there for you when he's about to talk about another contest. That way you can skip over it lol...

[Glenneration X]

&%^$ you Craig! Nah, just kidding. I like you Craig. We haven't always been on the same side of issues on this board, but I've always respected the fact that you state what's on your mind in your posts, no filter, no concern for PC. That's all I'm trying to do with this thread, state what's on my mind, whatever that may be, at whatever time I'm writing.



A little over a week before I first started this thread, I was somewhere in the teens of the overall, where I had been for most of the season, just trying to get into the top 10 somehow, someway. Then I had the kind of week we all hope for. I won the week for the NFBC (and a Buzz Lightyear Fathead for my son ), but more importantly I had gone from the teens of the overall to 3rd and then 2nd seemingly overnight.

It happened so fast and so unexpectedly, I didn't know how to react. I was so excited by it, I needed an outlet, and I started writing.



When I wrote that first post, I had no idea where I would go with this blog. Honestly, I didn't even know if there would be a second post. I certainly didn't know I'd be writing about my other NFBC teams, or other NFBC participants, or playing ball as a kid, or my kids, and I definately didn't expect to compare myself to a racehorce or Steve Jupinka to the Anti-Christ (sorry Steve, it was meant as a compliment ). All I was doing was documenting my thoughts as they related to this Fantasy hobby and trying to do so in my own way.



Now "that other contest" as you put it , while certainly not the main subject of this blog, is justifiably a big part of my thoughts right now. I don't believe this would truly be a blog about my thoughts or how they relate to this game if I didn't mention them.



Craig, thank you for the compliments on the blog. I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'm enjoying writing it.



As far as your question on free agent misses, three immediately come to mind.

To get to five will take a bit of thought, I'll sleep on it.



Glenn

[Cocktails and Dreams]

Interesting read. Very good season. As far as posting about the other contest, I think it is perfectly appropriate. Mr. Childs is a pretty good judge of what is appropriate and what is not, and if mentioning this game in his articles on the main page over there is fine, then you mentioning that game here is certainly okay in my book. Good luck the last week.

[Sebadiah23]

Some contests are more equal than others guys, the ones that don't pretend we are attracting contestants outside of the US and Canada, and the ones that stick with 4 letter acronyms. Leave SCUBA, RADAR, and PEBCAC alone.



Glenn, I hope you win the "other" contest and then it retires at it's peak. Love live the NFBC!

[Glenneration X]

I'm up at 4am, having just spent the last hour or so taking care of the overnight feedings for my girls. I can never seem to fall back asleep afterwards, but Friday & Saturday nights are when I try to give my wife a break. I remember way back when I used to rest the weekends, only 18 to 21 more years 'til I can sleep again.



My NFBC team had a good night. Offensively, it gave me a little bit of everything, but most importantly I had four starters go and three of them won. I'm anxious to see how my place in the standings were affected, but the updated standings won't be up for another hour or so. Over at the WCOFB, my Main Event team started 0 for 24. I obviously bled some points there, but at least I knew how many instantly. They have live overall standings there, something I've asked for here and think is a benefit for the player. As my leaguemate Klaude put it on another thread, I'd have to have an Excel spreadsheet to know my Overall standing here before morning (and no Klaude, I don't ). Craig, there are pluses and minuses at every contest. There is nothing wrong with enjoying more than one.



I'd rather not turn this blog into another "My Contest is better than your Contest" thread. There's more than enough of those out there. Still, I have a couple thoughts on the matter.



I love the NFBC. It was my first High Stakes contest and remains my favorite. Greg, Tom, & Ryan have all been very, very good to me in my time here. I also truly enjoy these message boards, more than any other. I feel at home here, I'm not sure I'd be as comfortable writing this blog at any other site. All that said, I do play other contests. I do enjoy other contests.



There seems to be a prevailing atmosphere on the boards of ALL the major contests to "protect" their home turf. God forbid someone bring a valid criticism, God forbid someone state a preference or even a fondness for another game, God forbid someone mention that an aspect of another game works better than theirs. There seems to be a rooting interest amongst the players of various games for competing games to fail. Granted, the "loyalty" on some boards is a bit more rabid than others. Still, I've never been able to understand why "the player" would be against there being other successful games out there. Choices are good for the player, choices are good for everyone. As long as the other contests are honest and pay out their prizes, how do we lose if they exist? Just because you prefer GM, do you root for Chrysler or Ford to go out of business? Seriously, the owners of these contests play each other's contests, why shouldn't we?



That said, thanks for rooting for me win that other contest Craig, but I don't think that's happening. Short of a big turnaround in the next week or so, Chad will likely be crowned champion there. Lucky for me, that team is also in my league. :rolleyes:



Chad, an amazing season over there. There's a good shot that you end up pretty much the wire to wire champ. It's funny, when I first saw that you were in my league, I really didn't worry about it. I figured I'd have to beat the Childs, the Morgans, the Dobies, the Nolans. You were just one of the football guys I figured were donating. Guess not. Great job and good luck the last week. When did you become a baseball guy?



Glenn



[ September 25, 2010, 03:27 AM: Message edited by: Glenneration X ]

[Greg Ambrosius]

Guys, competition is good, even in business. We know that a lot of our die-hard players are competing in multiple baseball contests and it doesn't devalue the NFBC at all. Heck, as Glenn said, Ryan and I have teams in the WCOFF this year and Jesse and Dustin have teams in the NFFC. It's a big business and if you run your business first class you'll be fine even with added competition.



In 2004 when I unveiled the NFFC, Lenny programmed his message boards so that if anyone tried to post about the NFFC on the WCOFF boards it came up as ****. We were a swear word to him!! That stayed that way for two years until he finally left NFFC be printed. The WCOFF was selling out every year back then by late July, so we weren't even a concern, but any competition was seen as bad when they had the only high-stakes game in town.



Nowadays it's the customers who take this more personally than the game operators. We need to take care of our own business here and if we do we'll be fine. As for the players, who am I to argue with them winning as much money as is available to them in this fine industry?

[Cocktails and Dreams]

To be honest Glenn, I am not sure I am. I think I got pretty lucky to have stayed fairly highly ranked in the power categories, with Bourn and Pierre, Reyes, Hanley and CY overkilling steals. It is far from over. I just hope I can hang on for nine more days. My team is horrible and I am amazed they have held down the fort this long to be honest. Would feel a lot better with Youkilis. I was lucky to find some help off the wire. They panned out just well enough to possibly survive.



But the main thing is I think I was fortunate with the rules. I have never played fantasy baseball before. Therefore I just read the rules and played the game as I saw fit. I think I do understand game theory pretty well and had one set of rules to worry about. I think I understood what had to be done on the pitching front. I think it may have been difficult for players that are a hell of a lot better than I am at fantasy baseball to make that adjustment from this game to that one. That is one possible factor. But basically just very lucky. My team is not one of the top 50 right now. I just hope I can survive a little longer.

[Sebadiah23]

Greg, I don't know if Best Buy devoured Circuit City and Tower Records, or Walmart, Target, Amazon, and ITunes devoured Circuit City and Tower Records, but either way I hate that kind of stuff and am just looking out for the good peoples. Wouldn't want to them to eat each other up. And it doesn't sound like you think they will. Good stuff.

[Glenneration X]

During the fantasy baseball season and religiously over the last couple weeks, my mornings have followed a pretty standard routine. I wake up, the rest of my family usually still asleep, and head over to the kitchen. I throw a single hitter K-cup into the Keurig coffee maker, grab a Marlboro while the coffee's brewing, and head out to the deck for my morning smoke. I grab my coffee after coming in, start up my laptop, and finally check how I fared in the standings from the previous day's games. I've grown comfortable with this morning ritual. I find it an enjoyable & relaxing way to start my day.



Of course how I'm faring in the standings any particular morning helps determine how enjoyable it is. Today was a good day. I woke up to find that I had closed the gap on Jupinka by nearly 100 points and had extended my lead on third to over 100 points. It was a good morning.



Thursday morning was a good morning as well...and it had absolutely nothing to do with any of my teams contending for overall or league prizes. My 2nd NFBC Main Event team had finally made it out of the 400's in the overall standings. After nearly 5 full months with a 4 in front of my overall standing, there it was. 397. I had made it.



The soar up the standings continued as today I'm only languishing at 392. :rolleyes: Doug Schwks and Craig in the "Cold Hard Look" thread and Mark in this one all made reference to the fact that I have one team excelling while another floundering and were curious of the dynamics behind this anomaly.



The one thing I can absolutely say is that it wasn't for a lack of attention or focus on this team. I hated having a Main Event team perform so poorly and badly wanted to see this team finish as high as possible. Not only did I never abandon this team, I dedicated as much time and effort to it as any of my other teams. What it honestly has to come down to is the decisions made in constructing this team. While the majority of the decisions I made in draft and in-season management worked for my contending team, it's likely not nearly enough worked out for this team.



Inspired by the queries of Doug, Craig, & Mark, I decided to take a look back at where this team went wrong....



First the draft:



1 - Matt Kemp

2 - Jimmy Rollins

3 - Felix Hernandez

4 - Ben Zobrist

5 - Aaron Hill

6 - Billy Butler

7 - Lance Berkman

8 - Nate McLouth

9 - Ian Stewart

10- Max Scherzer

11- Ryan Doumit

12- Kerry Wood

13- Jair Jurrgens

14- Brad Lidge

15- Ben Sheets

16- Octavio Dotel

17- Homer Bailey

18- Erik Bedard

19- Cameron Maybin

20- Drew Stubbs

21- Alex Gordon

22- Brandon Wood

23- Kelly Shoppach

24- Desmond Jennings

25- Rick Vandenkurk

26- Luc Hochevar

27- Jack Cust

28- Felipe Paulino

29- Nate Schierholz

30- Luke Gregerson



Yikes!!! It's worse than I remember. I think it's obvious this was a brutal draft and the overriding factor in why this team is where it is. Outside of King Felix, and maybe Stubbs, maybe Lidge if feeling generous, is there anyone else in this draft one can say even performed up to their draft position, let alone surpassed it? In addition, there's not a single upside play that even remotely worked out. I should have known this team was cursed after the announcement that Kerry Wood would miss the first 6 weeks of the season came about 15 minutes after I drafted him. This is about as bad a draft as you can have.



There actually were a few decent hits in FAAB, most notably Trevor Cahill, Jose Tabata, Alex Gonzales, Neil Walker, Ryan Raburn. But this draft was just too brutal for any in-season management to fix.



I guess I should consider myself lucky that most of my terrible draft decisions were dedicated to one of my Main Event teams instead of split between the two. I think I prefer having the one solid team & the one bad team rather than two mediocre ones.



Glenn



[ September 25, 2010, 06:04 PM: Message edited by: Glenneration X ]