The Z Files: NFBC Postseason Hold'em Contest

Our friends at the National Fantasy Baseball Championship run of the more challenging playoff tournaments and it doesn't start until the Divisional Series commence on Saturday, so there is still time to get some skin in the postseason game.

The entry fee is $150 with a $20,000 grand prize. Participants are allowed up to a dozen entries. The top 20 overall teams finish in the money. the prize pool is based on 400 entries, though the NFBC will expand to 550 if there is interest. Prizes will be adjusted proportionately.

The rules can be found HERE. What follows is a synopsis and positional rankings.

An active roster has 16 players, composed of the following positions:

• 1 Catcher
• 1 First Baseman
• 1 Second Baseman
• 1 Third Baseman
• 1 Shortstop
• 4 Outfielders
• 1 Utility
• 6 Starting Pitchers

Scoring is:

Hitting

• 1 Run
• 1 Single
• 2 Double
• 3 Triple
• 4 Home Run
• 1 RBI
• 1 SB
• 1 BB
• 1 HBP
• -.25 Out

Pitching

• 1 Inning pitched
• 1 Strikeout
• 4 Win
• 4 Save
• -1 Earned Run

Rosters are reset at the end of the League Divisional Series and League Championship Series. The same 16 positions comprise the roster for each of the three rounds, but you're able to refresh the players... with a twist.

The points are subject to multipliers, based on the number of consecutive series they're on your active roster.

Multipliers

Everyone gets 1x in the Divisional Series.

Those carried over to the Championship Series garner 2x. Those continuing all the way to the World Series collect 3x.

Players added to your roster for the Divisional Series get 1x, but if they make it to the World Series, they're bumped to 2x.

Players added for the World Series get 1x, even if they were on the Divisional Series then dropped for the Championship Series.

The Multipliers combined with the following roster requirements render this extremely challenging, and a whole lot of fun.

Lineup Requirements

• Divisional Series: Maximum of three players per playoff team, minimum of one player per playoff team
• Championship Series: Maximum of six players per remaining team, minimum of two players from each remaining team
• World Series: Maximum of 10 players per remaining team, minimum of six players per remaining team

This setup favors riding two teams all the way to the World Series, maximizing the multipliers. Keep in mind there will be a lot of participants with multiple entries, each likely covering a different combination of World Series participants. Don't be intimidated. Sure, they may have a better chance of landing on the clubs in the final round, but you're only competing with that particular roster. Chances are, all of their other entries are dead money.

Those with multiple entries have a better chance to be alive if a lower ranked team makes it all the way through. It's up to you to decide if you want to go chalk and in theory compete with more teams at the end, or go a contrarian route, hope for upsets then compete with fewer rosters for the big money. If you believe there will be upsets, and assemble your roster accordingly, Yahtzee!

What follows are positional rankings, based on the aforementioned scoring. The rankings are straight; they don't include adjustments for speculating on the length of each series or chances of advancing. That is left to you and the teams you decide to back for advancement.

Please note the scoring system renders quirky results. With SB, runs and RBI only worth one point each, and high contact being rewarded via fewer outs, the order is non-intuitive. Most of the perceived starters are indeed ranked near the top, but players like Luis Arraez are unusually high, since they aren't penalized by fewer counting stats. Also, the PTS column in overall for batters is akin to wRC+. That is, an average player is assigned 100, so 200 means twice as good as average, etc.

Good luck! I hope to see you on the Leaderboard.

Overall Hitters

Catcher

First Base

Second Base

Third base

Shortstop

Outfield

UT Only

Pitchers