Chris Hill Is Our Week 1 Winner

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 2:55 am

Congratulations to Chris Hill, whose Ozville Flying Monkeys team in Las Vegas League 9 topped the NFBC field in Week 1 with 3,376 points.

Big weeks from Jason Kendall (.467, 5 runs), Rick Ankiel (.348-3-6), Justin Upton (.333-3-3) and Nate McLouth (.429, 7 RBIs, 6 runs, 2 SBs) led the way offensively. On the mound, Jake Peavy won twice with 12 Ks while Chris Young and Johnny Cueto combined for 22 Ks.

Congratulations again to Chris and good luck to everyone in the NFBC this week.

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 3:32 am

Are there no weekly prizes this year?

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:09 am

We're still working on the weekly prizes. We hope to have something to announce soon there. Stay tuned.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:28 am

Originally posted by bjoak:

Are there no weekly prizes this year? We have a nice deal in place with a major memorabilia company that just needs to be signed off. Chris will get a nice prize, trust me.

And Chris is such a patient guy, that the wait won't hurt him at all!!!

Good job Chris.

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:48 am

Fantasy baseball championships are never won in Week 1. But there is nothing quite like the feeling of a strong start to the season.

Especially if there's $100,000 on the line.

Chris Hill tasted such success in Week 1 when his Ozville Flying Monkeys team in Las Vegas League 9 topped the NFBC field in Week 1 with 3,376 points.

Big weeks from Jason Kendall (.467, 5 runs), Rick Ankiel (.348-3-6), Justin Upton (.333-3-3) and Nate McLouth (.429, 7 RBIs, 6 runs, 2 SBs) led the way offensively. On the mound, Jake Peavy won twice with 12 Ks while Chris Young and Johnny Cueto combined for 22 Ks.

"My week was, to put it mildly, very lucky," Hill said. "My late draft catcher was supposed to be Chris Snyder and my late draft first baseman was planned as Nick Johnson but both were taken by gentlemen smarter than I. So I simply stumbled into Jason Kendall and Ben Broussard, key contributors, though desperation and luck at picks 29 and 30.

"I was incredibly fortunate this week in that my three No. 1 starters (James Shields, Jake Peavy and Chris Young) all had two strong start while my young pitchers (Phil Hughes, Johnny Cueto and Carlos Villanueva) were outstandng. Nine quality starts is not an every week event.

"My hitting came from everywhere. Can we stop the season now?"

That isn't in the cards unfortunately but Hill's success in the first week wasn't due entirely to luck. He spent an extensive amount of time before the draft preparing for the season. That preparation has paid dividends in the early going.

"I worked with Eric Price and Nick Cassavetes extensively pre-draft," said Hill, who lives in Santa Fe, NM with his wife and four children. "Eric did a remarkable analysis of the 2007 draft by z-score (deviation from the mean) – indicating that most of the top finishers were top finishers because of solid picks through the first five rounds and because of upside in players drafted one or more rounds after their projected pick – especially pitchers.

"So in the first five picks I tried to select players very likely to repeat or improve their 2007 z score, in the second five picks I tried to take the pitchers that the three of us agreed were being left later than they should have been- Nick was particularly strong on Chris Young starting pitcher at pick seven.

"With a 3 percent sample size, all we really know is that there are 155 games left, but it certainly was fun checking my score each day."

Go Getta · Post by **Go Getta** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 am

Congrats on a nice week.