2008 NFBC Overall Champion Profile - Bobby Jurney

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 4:12 am

Bobby Jurney had it all planned out. He had been preparing for the glorious moment for weeks. He knew precisely what he wanted to do if the baseball season ended and he was sitting atop the National Fantasy Baseball Championship.

He wanted to share his joy with the world and he didn’t care who heard him. This was a special moment deserving of a special celebration.

“I kept telling my wife I was going to get up at 3 a.m. on the final day and if I won, I was going to scream at the top of my lungs and wake up the whole house,” he said.

But as they say when it comes to those best laid plans …

“I thought better of doing that,” he said. “I would have had to stay up the rest of the night with my 2 year old.”

Instead of a raucous celebration, Jurney settled for a kiss from his wife and the realization that the NFBC’s $100,000 grand prize was secure in his grip. The Dunkirk, MD resident had become the fifth different overall champion in the event’s five-year history.

“It was absolutely amazing (to win the title),” he said. “I could not wait for the season to finally end. Once we got into first overall, the final week seemed like it took forever to end.”

The championship culminated an incredible season for Jurney, whose team was nearly at rock bottom in the early going. A rough start to the season had his team ranked 398th after Week 2. But Jurney never lost faith.

“I thought we had a chance to win when we finally cracked the Top 10 overall,” said Jurney, who teamed up with his co-manager, Joe Rawlings, for the fourth straight year. “The team kept hovering from 12th to 20th for about four weeks and then we finally cracked the top. Then I began to look more closely at the top team’s rosters and see what I need to happen on a nightly basis.”

Though his fantasy skill was certainly a critical component in winning the overall title, Jurney acknowledged some good fortune played a role as well.

“I think there are three components to a winning season,” he said. “Luck of the draw for league assignments is one. I saw a couple of the league assignments and they were just sick with the number of league champions in them.

“I think we got pretty lucky with the draw even though we had a main event runner-up in the league and a few names that we recognized. But we also had a couple first timers. The main event is not your local league so the new ones hit a few bumps in the road and it helped us in the long run.

“You also have to have the luck of the draft to have players fall in your lap. And finally, you need to have good free-agent pickups. I think two words sums up this one for me – Cliff Lee.”

The road to the $100,000 grand prize began for Jurney on Draft Day in Chicago. That is where his team took shape and where the thoughts of the wondrous prize at the end of the 26-week season began to crystallize.

“I think to win the overall title, all of the Draft Day strategies have to work,” he said. “The biggest had to be adjusting on the fly. Everyone wants to have a balance between hitting and pitching, but certain hitters kept falling and I could not pass on them.

“I had to wait until the next round for a pitcher, catcher and closer. I think it happened three times during the draft. In the fifth round, Carlos Guillen was there. In the sixth round, Shane Victorino was still there and I was targeting a pitcher in the fifth or sixth round. Then in the 12th round, Johnny Damon was still there and we wanted our second closer.”

But even though Jurney made successful adjustments in his draft, a critical free-agent pickup provided his team with plenty of season-long juice.

“We got Cliff Lee in Week 2 for $43 and he went on to get 21 more wins for us,” Jurney said. “We had a bad run at middle infield and filled it more than adequately through free agency with Alexi Casilla, Ian Stewart, Asdrubal Cabrera and Willie Harris. They all played a significant role for us.”

Jurney also said Rawlings’ impact on the championship season was a critical component.

“This was Joe’s first baseball draft to attend and it definitely helped having a second person there to bounce ideas off of as the draft progressed,” Jurney said. “It was amazing how good we felt about our team that day.

“As the year progressed, Joe was a lot of help with FAAB choices and money management. We did not always agree, but I think that made our team stronger, having good discussions about weekly decisions.”

The 41-year-old Jurney is a seasoned veteran of fantasy sports. He first joined the hobby nearly 20 years ago playing fantasy football. He joined the NFBC in 2005 and won his first league title in 2006 before struggling to a 345th-place finish the following year.

The 49-year-old Rawlings is a controller for a Farmland Foods meat processing plant in Wichita. He is divorced with one daughter.

In addition to winning the NFBC overall title, Jurney also won a pair of Winner Take All satellite leagues helping to culminate a sensational fantasy baseball season. A route manager for the Washington Post, Jurney is married and has five children.

So there are no shortage of people in the Jurney family excited about the fact he is $100,000. And what will he do with his grand prize winnings?

“I think I’ll do what just about everyone would do in this economy – pay off some bills and put the rest in the bank,” he said. “I might get a new set of golf clubs and a new laptop as a present to myself.”

Schwks · Post by **Schwks** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:59 am

First Congratulations to Bobby and Joe. It has got to be a great feeling beating out all of those other teams.

After participating for the first time this year in a satellite league, I am contemplating doing the main draw in 09. In analyzing Some Assembly's team, it becomes clear that the league in which you are placed plays a significant role. It makes you realize that in order to win, you need not only the skill that you can control (draft and FA pickups) but also significant luck, since you cannot control the play in any league of which you are not a part.

In looking at Some Assembly's team, I saw that they ended the year with both Pujols and M Cabrera. Since both were gone by the 9th pick of even my home 12 team league, I was surprised. I went to the league draft page and saw that Pujols was picked at the 20th pick!!! I know he had some inj concerns, but I did not see one mock or regular draft where Pujols slipped that far.

Then I see that Manny was taken with the 7th pick of the 4th round. That means that players in Chi League 2 felt that there were 55 better players then Manny Ramirez. I know that Manny was slightly off in 07, but he still had an ADP of 40 in NFBC 2008. That means that he went 15 picks later in Chi 2 then he did on avg in the NFBC!!!

Manny seems to have been a key because the Quahogs in 2nd place got him with the 11th pick of the 4th round.

Some Assembly had a very good first half of the draft, but from 15 round on really got nothing to use: Sanchez, Bartlett, Blanton, Scott, Jacobs (exception) Paulino, Castillo, Bonser, Buck, Owings, Colon, Miller, Gathright, S Shields.

My point: If you are really looking to test your skills on a national level, is this the best format?

CC's Desperados · Post by **CC's Desperados** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:36 am

Originally posted by Schwks:

My point: If you are really looking to test your skills on a national level, is this the best format? YES

Quahogs · Post by **Quahogs** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:43 am

Rob's compilation of of skillful choices and good fortune were on a higher level than the other 389 players all of which were bound by the same rules. Pretty much cut and dry in my book.

Less than Dave · Post by **Less than Dave** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:39 am

Bobby, I'm so happy for you that you won it for our league! It was great talkin to ya after the draft.. I still remember Vander saying he thought you and I were his biggest competition.. well, he was right about half of that! Good luck next year, and I hope to see ya around! And God help me, I hope next year goes a lot better than this year did... it's all about learning though, right? Congrats, buddy.

~Dave

headhunters · Post by **headhunters** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:52 am

ltd is back !!! - and dear greg A- give the poor winner a break, even he wasn't in 398th place. maybe 388

Bobby J · Post by **Bobby J** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:30 pm

Yes it is good to hear from LTD. Dave, unfortunately, you could not succeed this year, you lost at some point about 8 out of your top 12 picks. I think I lost Pujols and Guillen and that is about it. Hope to see you in Chicago next year

Bobby J · Post by **Bobby J** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:36 pm

Schwks, nice post, but how many teams had more than 3 of their last 10 to 15 picks. I think I had one left and use FA to offset my deficiencies of round 16 on. There are so many things that went right this year. Can't really judge the mocks on Pujols, you can take him in a mock with no risk. Once the main starts you tighten up with every pick and no one wanted the risk of their season going down the drain with the end of the first or beginning of the second round, pick being done for year. I did not want the risk either but Tex and Ortiz went right before us and we said we are taking either Tex, Ortiz or Pujols, in that order 2 picks before us and we got a little lucky that the 2 teams before us forced our hand, there was no one with his kind of value left in the 2nd round.

Bobby J · Post by **Bobby J** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:38 pm

HH, I noticed that also, since there were only 390 teams, I had to be pretty bad in week 2 to be in 398th place, but quite honestly the team was just that bad in week 2, glad this contest was 26 weeks

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:47 am

Originally posted by Schwks:

First Congratulations to Bobby and Joe. It has got to be a great feeling beating out all of those other teams.

After participating for the first time this year in a satellite league, I am contemplating doing the main draw in 09. In analyzing Some Assembly's team, it becomes clear that the league in which you are placed plays a significant role. It makes you realize that in order to win, you need not only the skill that you can control (draft and FA pickups) but also significant luck, since you cannot control the play in any league of which you are not a part.

In looking at Some Assembly's team, I saw that they ended the year with both Pujols and M Cabrera. Since both were gone by the 9th pick of even my home 12 team league, I was surprised. I went to the league draft page and saw that Pujols was picked at the 20th pick!!! I know he had some inj concerns, but I did not see one mock or regular draft where Pujols slipped that far.

Then I see that Manny was taken with the 7th pick of the 4th round. That means that players in Chi League 2 felt that there were 55 better players then Manny Ramirez. I know that Manny was slightly off in 07, but he still had an ADP of 40 in NFBC 2008. That means that he went 15 picks later in Chi 2 then he did on avg in the NFBC!!!

Manny seems to have been a key because the Quahogs in 2nd place got him with the 11th pick of the 4th round.

Some Assembly had a very good first half of the draft, but from 15 round on really got nothing to use: Sanchez, Bartlett, Blanton, Scott, Jacobs (exception) Paulino, Castillo, Bonser, Buck, Owings, Colon, Miller, Gathright, S Shields.

My point: If you are really looking to test your skills on a national level, is this the best format? I do agree that people who got lucky enough to get Pujols in round 2 had a formula for success. He almost got packaged with Reyes in my league (I picked 2nd so no luck there). However, there were plenty of owners who got him in late round 1/early or mid round 2 and they didn't win 105K. Then there were all the hundreds of owners who passed on him. And there were hundreds of others who set their KDS too high to take advantage (like me). In other words, everyone in the NFBC is to blame, pretty much except those who reaped the rewards. Dan Kenyon was on here warning everyone to not let this happen in their league, but it did and you got some nice teams out of it.

I'd say Pujols went too late in every league. Where did he go in yours Schwks? Where did you pick? If you picked 8th and passed on Pujols weren't you one of the weak owners you speak of? Clearly he was better than that. If you get him with the 6th pick of round 2 aren't you one of the fools who let him slip in round 1? And why didn't you set your KDS for 10-15 so you could have him?

As for Manny, we've had people on here talking about that nonsense before. 1. You are cherrypicking an example. You can find guys like this in every league. 2. It is easy to say in hindsight. No one was too jazzed about Manny a year ago. Do you have a post where you said how he should go in round 2? In my league, Sheffield went about 4 rounds later than average (not by me!). But no one is going to come out and say that owner took advantage of league strength. You'd be more likely to say my league was smarter than average, but it's just more conjecture on a pick that did or didn't work out.

Schwks · Post by **Schwks** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 5:40 am

First let me state that in order to win amongst almost 400 contenders, you need to know your stuff both before and after the draft. So I by no means mean to belittle Bobby J's fantastic achievement. Further, since I did not participate in the main draw, I have no sour grapes. I like to analyze, in an effort to a)aid myself for next year and b)because I love the fantasy and regular baseball game.

I was neither a Pujols nor a Manny fan going into the draft. But he went 8th in my satelllite league and 5th in my home league. His 2008 ADP in NFBC was 15. To have the best hitter in baseball fall into your lap at 22 is more than good fortune. Manny had an ADP of 40 which speaks for itself.

Another common denominator that I saw when looking at the top teams, was getting Lidge in the 10th Rd (ish) range. Some Assembly got him there and I think the Quahogs got him as well(?). What this says to me is that getting a closer who explodes, from a late(r) round is one key to success. So getting a guy like Soria, B Wilson, Lyon (at least early on) in the middle-late rds, is more valuable than a K Rod or Nathan in 2-5 because even if thoe latter guys go crazy, they are doing so at cost of top hitter.

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 5:51 am

If I had a nickel for every person who doesn't play but has it all figured out based on his success in a Yahoo league, I'd have 100K. Any player going 15th will usually go as late as 22nd. If your strategy is to pick the low hanging fruit you will not disappointed as every league has it. Come play next year.

Schwks · Post by **Schwks** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 6:06 am

Bjoak, No need to get personal. I won my satellite $250 league agaisnt guys who are on NFBC's all time money list (at least two). While I did not particpate in Yahoo, I did particpate in a home league of rabid fantasy players.

CC's Desperados · Post by **CC's Desperados** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 7:01 am

Originally posted by Schwks:

Bjoak, No need to get personal. I won my satellite $250 league agaisnt guys who are on NFBC's all time money list (at least two). While I did not particpate in Yahoo, I did particpate in a home league of rabid fantasy players. I think he is defending the home court.

You question the overall winner's draft.

You question the event.

You state your home league has rabid players.

Where do you think the 390 players came from?

These are the best players in the country and I'm sure every player has had some success at some level. There is no doubt they can play. It's just a matter of getting enough passengers on the bus.

As we all would like the event to grow, we don't need to take shot at possible customers. This is best baseball event in the country. The 15 team format is what I call the Pro Format. So if you think you can play, all it takes is $1300 to punch your ticket. You can then can see if you can find the next Pujols who slides into the second round. The problem is he might end up looking like Troy Tulowitzki.

Until you step into the batters box, you are just another guy who think he has it all figured out. We welcome the competition because we want your money. It's your job to prove you can win at the highest level. And yes this is the highest level!

Schwks · Post by **Schwks** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 8:26 am

CC: The winner himself, Bobby J, included "good posting"(as have several others privately) when responding to my posting. Why is that...because it provoked thought and insight into the league format, what it takes to win and Roto strategy in general. I meant no attack on anything, but merely sought to provoke some ideas in addition to the general rah rah. Additionally, there is no disputing the fact that utilizing the same rules as everyone else he finished first amongst many others, not including myself admittedly.

I elected to start with a satellite league to see whether I liked the format, could compete etc prior to plunking down a nice piece of change. If I do the main draw this year, the sat league definitely prepared me for a league without trades, to the range of FA bidding, the depth of overall knowledge (which was astounding)

CC's Desperados · Post by **CC's Desperados** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 8:45 am

I have no problem with your original post other than the question about this being the best format.

Seeing how you ask the question, do you think there is a better option availible?

Schwks · Post by **Schwks** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 9:08 am

Is it a bad thing to question something...does doing so necessarily amount to an indictment? Isn't it always better to think about something rather then just accept it as being so?

CC have a good weekend...Im on your side, believe me. Its us vs the wives/girlfriends and haters that seek us to stop spending our time and money right?

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 9:10 am

Not to belittle a win in satelite leagues vs NFBC opponents, or rabid local leagues, or Yahoo leagues, but, apples and oranges.

The Yahoo vs. NFBC argument is intriguing, only in its reoccurrence. Overall, I'd bet that the difference between the average NFBC player and that of the Yahoo player is staggering. But lets even put that aside.

Lets put those 15 NFBC players in a Yahoo league. Will they draft the same as at a NFBC live draft?

No.

The reason?

Money.

With nothing or even satelite money on the line, the Pujols pick becomes a much easier pick, a lot less to lose. I'm sure Pujols adp in leagues other than the NFBC was mid-first round. It doesen't make either side smarter, the risk was just greater with more money on the table.

The analogy would be going all-in with a pair of nines in a dollar limit poker game and doing it at the WSOP, again apples and oranges.

The money and/or $1300 entry fee is not what sets the NFBC player from others although it does have an effect. With that money on the line the NFBC player will put more time and effort into furthering their skills. In many cases, using many months of the off season to track trends, analyse data, and entertain ideas on how to construct their draft. Meanwhile, the typical Yahooer needs the e-mail from Yahoo reminding them that its baseball season once again.

Yes, the NFBC is the highest level. If you've won a league anywhere else, be it Yahoo, ESPN, rabid local, or even an NFBC satelite, the omittance of having not competed at the live draft leaves a void on your resume.

Join us at a live draft, it's like going from dial-up to broadband, you will never go back.

[ October 24, 2008, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: DOUGHBOYS ]

CC's Desperados · Post by **CC's Desperados** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 10:36 am

Originally posted by Schwks:

Is it a bad thing to question something...does doing so necessarily amount to an indictment? Isn't it always better to think about something rather then just accept it as being so?

CC have a good weekend...Im on your side, believe me. Its us vs the wives/girlfriends and haters that seek us to stop spending our time and money right? Around 2006, I started to get a free pass at playing fantasy sports. I'm sure she would like me to spend my time differently, but I could be doing a lot worse things.

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 11:03 am

I actually drafted Braun then Pujols (in the 2nd) in my Yahoo league this year, but I think my league has a higher quality of people than average. Bobby used to play with us, in fact, I'll mention since we are hijacking his thread.

Really interesting to note, though, that as doughboys outlined, there may be some ways to take advantage of a more sophisticated group.

CC, that is funny about the girl. Girls don't mind your geeky hobby so much when it starts earning you 50K paychecks!

Schwks · Post by **Schwks** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:13 am

I was wondering how do the points within the league translate into "overall points"?

Bobby J · Post by **Bobby J** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 5:04 am

it is based on your numbers compared to the rest of the overall number of teams in the main event So if you are 10th overall in runs scored you get 381 points towards the overall. You could actually be lower in your league and higher in the overall than the team ahead of you in the league

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 5:11 am

Originally posted by Schwks:

I was wondering how do the points within the league translate into "overall points"? Within your league has no bearing on the overall standings. Their have been times when the overall leader was actually second in his own league.

Entering for the first time and need to know how it works and what you'll need to be in the running for $100,000?

1. Go to overall standings.

2. Pick out a top 10 team.

3. Click on teams league.

4. Analyse what it takes to win a league.

5. Go back to overall standings.

6. Check out the batting and pitching points needed to be in contention for the overall.

7. Scroll down to the bottom and hit each individual category to see how that team compared from league to overall.

8. I also like to see what that team did each week to remind me how consistent a team has to be, so I hit each weeks # at the bottom also.

I do this exercise every year, but it is a must for newcomers. Hope this helped.

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 5:13 am

Sorry to step on your toes, Bobby, I was writing while you posted.

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 6:16 am

I like to just take the overall leader and see how many points he needed to win if he was equal in all categories. Kind of like doughboys but I'm just looking for averages rather than what one specific team did.

So Bobby had 3269.5 points. Divide that by 10 to see how many points he needed in each cat and you get 327. Subtract that from the total number of teams (390) and you see that you needed to average 63rd place in each category to win the overall. You can then look at the specific categories to find out what it equates to. For example, the person who got 63rd place in homeruns had 277, so if you were equal in all categories, you'd need 277 homeruns to win the overall.