Mike Rothe Is Week 3 Online Championship Winner

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:31 am

Congratulations to Mike Rothe, whose Wiffle Ball Legends team led the way in the Online Championship last week with 5,022 points.

Curtis Granderson (.333-4-6), Brandon Inge (.400-3-6), Prince Fielder (.304-2-7) and Ian Kinsler (3 HRs) led the way offensively. Jordan Zimmerman picked up two wins while Frank Francisco and Matt Capps combined for five saves to lead the pitching.

Congratulations again to Mike and good luck to everyone in the Online Championship this week.

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 2:13 am

Mike Rothe had one goal in mind when he sat down for his Online Championship draft – go after offense early and often.

That approach paid big dividends last week.

Curtis Granderson (.333-4-6), Brandon Inge (.400-3-6), Prince Fielder (.304-2-7) and Ian Kinsler (3 HRs) led the way offensively as Rothe’s Wiffle Ball Legends team led the way in the Online Championship with 5,022 points.. Jordan Zimmerman picked up two wins while Frank Francisco and Matt Capps combined for five saves to lead the pitching.

“When it comes to draft strategies, I always go hard on offense,” Rothe said. Nine of my first 10 picks were spent on offense, with the only exception being Gallardo in the seventh. Then i came back with Johnson in the 11th and built my pitching staff from there.

“I've never played in the main event, but I've been very successful using this strategy in satellites and so far this year in the online. I've always been able to get No. 1- and No. 2-type starters later in drafts.”

The 40-year-old Rothe is married with three daughters and lives in a small town in Illinois 25 miles away from St. Louis. He works for the postal service as a rural letter carrier.

Rothe has a long history of playing fantasy baseball but only recently has he begun trying out serpentine drafts and thus far, he’s having a great time with that format.

“Nobody does this better than the NFBC,” he said. “I really appreciate the way you guys run these leagues.

“I've also been a long time player of the CDM games and have been pretty successful at cashing over there on a regular basis in baseball, football, and basketball. My biggest claim to fame was winning $10,750 playing Index Ball which was a game run by CDM for the Fantasy Baseball Index magazine in 2004 using a 5x5 format with sabermetric categories. It only lasted one year.