The 64/60 at the NFBC

The NFBC is Fantasy Baseball equivalent of the World Series of Poker. I purchased the NFBC Fantasy Magazine in early January and on page 44 my life changed forever. Two of my greatest pleasures in life are combined Fantasy Baseball and High Stakes gambling. This could be the greatest thing that has ever happened to me (beside my beautiful wife and wonderful children of course) or this could begin my demise to busted and broke. The NFBC has several playing options. You have Premium Individual Leagues where owners pony up as much as 10K to win the league prize of 75K. You have the Main Event where owners pony up 1300 to battle in a 15 team league for league prizes then all 27 leagues are combined into one pool for the 100,000 dollar grand prize. The Double Live Event is a 12 Team league who competes against 25 other league for a Grand Prize of 25,000. Double Play Leagues are also eligible for the Grand Prize of the Online Championship which is 60,000. The Online Leagues are on Fanball.com and cost 350 per team. Auction Leagues are available to those who prefer that format cost is 850 and the Grand Prize is 15K. Last season Lindy Hinkelman, a farmer from Iowa won 241,300 playing Fantasy Baseball. With the addition of Satellite Leagues the NFBC has something for everyone. For a full list of gaming options go to Fanball.com to learn more.

It was a tough sale to get Mrs. Coleman to approve of such a poor investment but once I got Christopher Lee on board to split the cost Mrs. Coleman signed off on it. We decided to go with the 500 Double Play Option instead of the Main Event as 250 is easier to hand over than the 750. Drafts were being conducted in 4 cities over 6 weekends. Both the Bellagio and Flamingo held events in Vegas, Citi Field in New York, The Cubby Bear in Wrigleyville and Pujols Grill in St. Louis. Geographically and financially St. Louis made the most since so Pujols Grill here we come. If are other choices throughout the season mirror this selection a 12th place season is certain. To call the area St. Louis is like referring to Ashland as Huntington or vice versa. As we approached the Arch the adrenaline began pumping but according to the Englishman on the GPS we still had 22 miles to travel. So goodbye to the Gateway to the west and hello flat fields and farmhouses. Are final destination was a Industrial area with nothing else to offer besides the Westport Plaza. The Westport Plaza is similar to Newport on the Levee but half the size and no nightlife to speak of. We stayed at the Sheraton Lakeside Chalet however after the three day stay I still never found the lake. So are first impression of the event/weekend wasn't very positive.

For as bad as the location was the Draft Setup was first class. Fanball planned the event and representatives from Fanball Facilitated the Draft. You had five employees to man the draft as one managed the clock, one manged the Sticker placement and two people handled the player name plates. Another worker simply observed everything to make sure the event went smoothly. Each owner had 1 minute for each selection and it wasn't a 64/60 minute. The draft lasted 30 rounds with 3 10-15 minute breaks and totaled a running time of five hours. After the draft food and drink was served on behalf of Fanball and the Bopper and I actually talked Fantasy Baseball until 2:30 AM with another NFBC Owner Paul Weber. We actually drafted with a Editor for ESPN Fantasy. The room was filled with a nice mix of personalities. You had a nice variety of players two other owners other than us are first timers. While players such as Paul have been playing for several season.

As for the draft itself it was in many ways no different than a typical 64/60 draft while at the same time completely opposite. Like the 64/60 the draft was hard to script. Many players came of the board much earlier than you would expect such as Jose Reyes 1st pick 3rd Rd and Juan Pierre 4th RD. Naturally with the high stakes owners a very prepared. Players who may be deemed "sleepers" don't apply to this league. If owners feel that a player will perform this season then they will not drop for example Ricky Nolasco and Matt Cain were two players I had targeted for the 8th or 9th RD for stud pitching on the cheap both were taken in the 5th RD as was Hamels and Billingsly two other players I thought would go for cheap. What you didn't have with the NFBC.

So you may be asking yourself "How did the 64/60 fare?" The answer would be a Andy Clark "Solid". We knew are draft spot prior to the draft so in the pre-draft prep we had a goal of Prince Fielder and David Wright with the 1 and 2 picks. The draft went as planned. With the third selection we targeted Rollins but he was selected two picks prior so we had to regroup. We chose Brandon Phillips to solidify the 2B position. At the time we loved the pick but as the draft played out we selected Brian Roberts in the 8th RD. So the third pick would have been better spent elsewhere. Are 4th and 5th picks were pitchers as Sabathia was nabbed at 4and during my absence Carpenter was selected 5th(I was highly disappointed with Bopps selection here, but it was my fault I was absent and should Carpenter remain healthy I won't be disappointed). We selected Broxton with are 6th pick to give us an elite option at closer. We had a goal of building a strong IF and with the aforementioned selections along with Wieters and Napoli at C and Adsdrubal Cabrerra and Nick Johnson we accomplished just that. At the expense of the IF will be the OF. I was shocked at how quickly the OF talent went of the board but with 5 OF slots in your lineup I shouldn't have been. By the time we selected are first OF in Rd 10 Alex Rios was the best option. At that point we decided to use the worst or first mentality so all OF selected have huge upside but haven't lived up to that level just yet. Are pitching isn't lights out but it should be no worse than 5th or 6th in any mark.

At days end I felt we have a real shoot at winning. Are success or failure will depend on injury, which is a given, and OF production. If 3 players in are OF can have effective season then we will be contenders. I am not sold on are pitching but if we can land a surprise starter or good closer from the FA pool sometime throughout the season then that could be all we need. We actually got a chuckle with the Chris Young selection in RD 20 which was the only such outburst of the night. I am not sure of the intent of the chuckle but I took it as a insult. Anyone who is a real Fantasy Nut should make it a point to try one of these leagues everything is top notch and the inside information given out on the website is often two days ahead of the Yahoo's and ESPN's. Here is the official roster of 64/60 Sports. Please give us your thoughts on the roster and how you think the team looks. We will give a weekly update on are standings and various league news throughout the year.

64/60 Sports NFBC Roster

C- Wieters , Napoli
1B- Fielder , Nick Johnson
2B- Phillips , Roberts , Sean Rodriguez
SS- Cabrerra
3B- Wright , Encarnacion
UTIL- Ortiz
OF- Rios , Bruce , Hart , Swisher , C. Young , Francoeur , Hermida , Maybin
P- Sabathia, Carpenter, Danks, Bucholz, Zambrano, Latos, Colby Lewis
RP- Broxton, Frank Francisco, Matt Guierrier, Mike Adams