Sold on Sale

By Ryan Rufe on

On Saturday, March 23, I drafted my second and final entry into the $125k grand prize NFBC RotoWire Online Championship. One advantage to drafting on this day, in particular, is hundreds of the world’s best fantasy baseball players were in Las Vegas for the live NFBC Main Event drafts. No NFBC draft is ever a cake walk, but avoiding some the best players could improve our chances of assembling an overall contender.

Speaking of the NFBC Main Event, it’s definitely something I’d like to experience in the near future. Reading draft recaps via the Rotowire MLB Blog and seeing all the pictures on Twitter had me feeling a bit jealous. Not to mention, there are dozens of NFBC veterans and people in the fantasy industry that I’d love to meet in person. One day it will happen – I promise you that!

I drew the 8th pick, which was my 3rd KDS preference. My plan going in was to hammer pitching early. There are plenty of hitters I love in Rounds 3-15, but I’m not confident in the starters being drafted in that range. Here are the results (scroll down to see the full draft board):

1.8 (8) – Chris Sale – Two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have even considered Sale in the first round. I may have even passed on him in the 2nd. Rotowire’s Clay Link and Jeff Erickson had me convinced after listening to the Rotowire Fantasy Baseball podcast that the velocity dip and health risk was far too great to spend an early round pick on him. Then the Red Sox signed him to a contract extension. This alleviated any concerns I had and the Las Vegas Main Event participants agreed, pushing Sale up their draft boards to the 5th-13th pick range overall (at the time of my draft). Granted, pitching inflation is more apparent in the Main Event vs. the Online Championship, but Sale quickly went from potential draft bust to a FOMO (“Fear Of Missing Out”) target of mine. Jacob deGrom was available, but Sale has the better track record, better team and higher strikeout upside. deGrom and Aaron Judge were my backup plans if Sale wasn’t available.

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Main Event – SP Inflation is Real and Spectacular

By Jeff Erickson on

A continuing theme in the NFBC universe is the escalation of starting pitching prices – with an overall contest, you can’t just punt starting pitching down the road. You have to get your wins and strikeouts, and there’s a finite number of aces out there to help you get there, and a finite number of second-tier starters that we can trust. Add in injuries to Luis Severino, Clayton Kershaw and Carlos Martinez, and our inventory of aces has dwindled. While strikeouts are up in the game as a whole, starting pitchers are going shorter into games, meaning that it’s harder to find our workhorses.

It’s under this backdrop that I drafted in Saturday’s NFBC Main Event in Las Vegas, at the Park MGM Casino and Hotel (formerly the Monte Carlo). In the last two live Main Events I’ve done, the push on aces has been pronounced, but this one went to another level, as you’ll see with the full grid after the jump:

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AAF Week 7 Barometer

By Juan Carlos Blanco on

Welcome to the Alliance of American Football (AAF) Week 7 Barometer, a column in which I’ll strive to take a pulse on the week-to-week state of the league by highlighting some of the best performers on each team. The AAF already is past the halfway point of its inaugural season, and the strengths and weaknesses of each team are naturally starting to come into clearer focus.

The same applies to individual player performances to a significant extent. With its role as a developmental/second-chance league, the AAF’s depth charts are admittedly a bit more fluid than one would see in the NFL, including at the skill positions. However, there are already multiple players on each team that have secured established roles and volume through their play.

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Collette’s 2018 Tout Wars Recap

By Jason Collette on

This year was my 13th year traveling to New York City for Tout Wars. The highest finish I own is a distant second place finish, and that annoys me greatly. I put in a tremendous amount of pre-planning for this auction every year, but the end result is never as good as I want it. Part of the problem is undoubtedly my in-season management as I am notoriously too cautious early in the FAAB process, or I stupidly cut Francisco Lindor two weeks before he was promoted to the big leagues so I could roster a backup catcher. This year, I tried something different, but not by choice.

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