Experts Leagues Winner's Circle, 2024

"Winning" has been part of our goals here at BaseballHQ.com ever since the website started. Everything we do here is designed to help our subscribers be successful; be it in a “legacy” home keeper league, a re-draft overall contest with thousands of competitors, or anything in between. But our staffers are in this, too—so when our team does well in industry competitions ... well, we like to show it off and pop the company cork alongside each individual's accomplishment. 

And in 2024, we had some pretty good action again. Here are the top finishes from BaseballHQ.com staffers brought home this year in national and expert competitions:

2024 Overall Contest Places 

We've had former staffers who went on to win national competitions, but 2024 was the first year that a current BHQ staff member finished first overall. That honor goes to writer Mark Gannon, who topped the field of 1800 (!) entries in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship's Gladiator contest. That format is a 23-man roster draft-and-hold—no bench, no lineup replacements, no in-season moves—in a 15-team setup with standard 5x5 scoring. Congrats to Mark from all of us on this significant accomplishment!

But there were others. In the industry RazzSlam contest—a best ball format coordinated by our friends at RazzBall and run under NFBC's Cutline rules—staffers Alain de Leonardis finished in third place overall, and Patrick Davitt right behind him in fifth place. RazzSlam is organized into 12-team leagues, with 360 total teams, and squads get “eliminated” as the season goes on. And in The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational—420 total teams divided into 15-team 5x5 roto leagues—BHQ had three representatives in the top 20. Congrats to Jake Crumpler (11th), Ed DeCaria (15th) and Kris Olson (20th). 

Now to the individual league places:

2024 First Place finishes

• LABR NL (Doug Dennis)
• FSGA Champions League (Brent Hershey/Ray Murphy)
• FPAZ Speakers Draft and Hold (Brent Hershey/Ray Murphy)
• The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational (DeCaria, Olson, Ryan Bloomfield, Corbin Young) 
• RazzSlam (de Leonardis, Davitt)

2024 Second Place finishes

• Tout Wars 15-team Mixed Draft (Brian Entrekin)
• The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational (Crumpler)
• RazzSlam (Young)

​2024 Third Place finishes

• Tout Wars AL (Chris Blessing)
• Tout Wars NL (Phil Hertz)
• LABR AL (Andy Andres)
• Ottoneu Podcasters League (Blessing)
• Ottoneu Experts League (Andres)
• The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational (Entrekin, Ryan Williams, Greg Jewett)

We know our subscribers have a story to tell, too! Share your own successes with us in the comments area below. 

Congratulations to all of our winners, staff and subscribers alike. For BaseballHQ.com's complete and impressive finishes in experts competitions over the years (2024 will be updated soon!), visit our Titles and Awards page.

And of course, always follow The Three Cardinal Rules for Winners. If you cherish this hobby, you will live by them or die by them:

1. Revel in your success; fame is fleeting.
2. Exercise excruciating humility.
3. 100% of winnings must be spent on significant others. 

It's never too early to start your own journey to the winner's circle a year from now. If you're not a subscriber, see what a subscription to BaseballHQ.com includes in our Why HQ? page. We're also days away from opening up pre-orders for our 2025 books, the 2025 Baseball Forecaster and 2025 Minor League Baseball Analyst. Next year starts now!

 

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