Brennan Brown Is Week 17 Online Championship Winner

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:33 am

Congratulations to Brennan Brown whose team led the way in the Online Championship last week with 5,027 points.

Aaron Hill (.360-2-9), Justin Upton (.364-2-5-2), Andrew McCutchen (.333-3-6-0-8) and Elvis Andrus (.421, 5 runs) led the way offensively. Tim Lincecum and Josh Beckett combined for four wins and 38 Ks while Andrew Bailey and Leo Nunez combined for five saves to lead the pitching staff.

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

Glenneration X · Post by **Glenneration X** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 3:49 pm

Originally posted by Tom Kessenich:

Congratulations to Brennan Brown whose team led the way in the Online Championship last week with 5,027 points.

Aaron Hill (.360-2-9), Justin Upton (.364-2-5-2), Andrew McCutchen (.333-3-6-0-8) and Elvis Andrus (.421, 5 runs) led the way offensively. Tim Lincecum and Josh Beckett combined for four wins and 38 Ks while Andrew Bailey and Leo Nunez combined for five saves to lead the pitching staff.

Congratulations again to Brennan and good luck to everyone in the Online Championship this week. Congrats Brennan....I think my online team has 5027 points, if you combine my scores of the past two weeks.....great job.

Glenn

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 2:22 am

Brennan Brown admits he and his father Carl were a bit apprehensive when they signed up for the NFBC Online Championship. Brennan has been playing since 1990 but this type of national contest was something else entirely.

But if last week is any indication, the Browns are fitting in quite well.

Last week saw Brennan and his father top the Online Championship field as their team led the way with 5,027 points. Aaron Hill (.360-2-9), Justin Upton (.364-2-5-2), Andrew McCutchen (.333-3-6-0-8) and Elvis Andrus (.421, 5 runs) led the way offensively. Tim Lincecum and Josh Beckett combined for four wins and 38 Ks while Andrew Bailey and Leo Nunez combined for five saves to lead the pitching staff.

“We were pretty intimidated coming in - big names, FAAB, online draft day,” Brennan said. “We did a fair amount of research coming in - three of our league mates have what we considered winning histories in the NFBC. We noticed trends of winning teams having solid C and MI from 2008. And we did some reading and podcasting on strategies to make it in NFBC. The consensus we came to was: Everyone here is very good, you are going to have to make (and succeed in) some smart, risky moves to win.

“So on draft day we went with the best middle infielder available at the sixth pick - Rollins. Second round we waited for our risk to come back - snagging the hated ARod. We had promised each other we would take Lincecum or Johan if they made it back in the third - so we took the freak (Lincecum). To us, this meant bumping up starting pitchers two, three and fourt to ensure we make use of our ace by having a dominating starting staff. We got hot (after that), securing great value in Beckett, KRod, Torii Hunter, Cano, Werth, and Josh Johnson in Rounds 6-11.”

Brown’s offense got off to a slow start early in the season as did Lincecum and Beckett. But some strong FAAB moves helped pave the way for recovery.

“The second aquisistion of Andrew McCutcheon was the one that has paid off,” Brown said. “McCutcheon, in addition to a semi-return of Rollins, and some save opportunities for Nunez/Bailey have catapulted us to the top of our leagues standings through July.

“The boys continued to chug last week. We got power from everywhere, highlighted by McCutch's three-home run game. Jimmy Rollins supplied the speed with his six stolen bases. Pitching-wise, Bailey and Nunez both had multi-save weeks. Oh, and Lincecum and Becket combined their two-start weeks for a total two earned runs in 31 innings, with 38 strikeouts and 4 walks. It won't be happening agsin for a while I'm afraid, but it was fun while it lasted.”

The 34-year-old Brown is married with a two-year-old child. He is an engineer in Vermont. He and his 54-year-old father have been playing fantasy baseball together since 2003. They are co-commissioners of their local auction keeper league. And they are thoroughly enjoying their introduction to the NFBC.

“We have really enjoyed the opportunity for the weekly FAAB sessions, the lack of dump trade drama, and the well organized competition,” Brennan said. “We hope to continue the run and re-invest in the live NFBC session in Las Vegas next spring.”

brownwey · Post by **brownwey** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 5:11 am

Unbelievable, I'm like the back up singer to Diana Ross on the Supremes!

Oh how great Brennan Brown is, and oh. . . . his dad helped. . . . .

Fact is we went into this together, spent hours planning the draft, analyzed last years champs and how they built their team. We really have different skill sets that work well together. Problem is, in our other leagues we cannot make trades with each other because we know what the other is trying to accomplish. . . . .

I'm OK with my son getting the congrats, because it is worth being able to do something together with him that we both enjoy. With him 4 hours to the north of me, our online chats about FAAB, starting line-ups are an excuse for us to communicate, to stay in touch.

Our online league is great and we are ready to jump into the Vegas league next year. We could do NYC as it is closer to where we live, but Vegas seems to be a bit more fun to us!!

As I am sure every other weekly winner will tell you, winning a week means nothing, it is where you stand at the end that really matters. Our league has several champs and high finishers in it, and we are very conscious of that of that - 2 months ago we were in 8th, two months from now we could be back there.

Good luck to you all and I look forward to meeting some of you in Vegas next March!

The other Brown

Carl

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 5:18 am

Carl, I didn't mean to slight you and I apologize for that. You're definitely a team and you both did very well this past week. I hope you accept my apology for any perceived slight and I hope you and Brennan enjoy a strong finish to the season.

brownwey · Post by **brownwey** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 5:34 am

Tom - it is cool, I'm not upset at all. I appreciate your follow-up though.

Just another funny item that Bren will bring up at Thanksgiving.

Carl

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 7:28 am

I think it's great that not only are you a father and son team but you're a father and son team that's been playing fantasy sports together for several years. I think that's very cool.