Bill Phipps/Eric Kesselman Win NFBC Diamond Auction

[Greg Ambrosius]

The team of Bill Phipps & Eric Kesselman had a historic 2017 season in the NFBC and that's because they swept the three biggest high-dollar private leagues. That's never been done before. Heck, nobody has ever won two of these events in the same season. But they dominated the Platinum League and they dominated the Diamond Auction League from start to finish and won the $75,000 league prize here. Great, great job guys.

Phipps & Kesselman finished with 125 points to win the Diamond Auction League title by 26 points. Matthew Shepherd finished second to win the $35,000 runnerup prize, while Shawn Childs finished third to win $20,000. KJ Duke finished a half-point out of third to win $10,000, but it was a huge battle for those last three money spots as you can see below:

NFBC Platinum League Final Standings:
Phipps, mostly Phipps 125
In-Moncada-Da-Vida-Baby <> 99
DH's Desperados 97.5
K9 || Diamond 97
Tony "Big Tuna" Accardo 95
Cue the Duckboats LV Diamond 94.5
Team Miller 89

The winning strategy in this 15-team auction wasn't to spend on the superstars as their highest bid was just $26 for Buster Posey and $25 for Brian Dozier. Instead, they found some bargains later on and went heavy in the mid-tier levels. They spent $14 on Carlos Carrasco, $13 on Dallas Keuchel, $11 on Wade Davis, $14 on Eric Hosmer, $14 on Anthony Rendon, $12 on Elvis Andrus and $8 on Marcell Ozuna. A $75 bid on Justin Smoak on April 30th was the first big FAAB pickup, with the biggest pickup being Aroldis Chapman on July 30th for $225. There were other solid, smaller FAAB pickups throughout the year.

Great job everyone and let's do it again next year.