2009 Ultimate Baseball Manager Grand Prize Winner

The Grand Prize winner received a Fantasy Baseball Camp!

Champions Interview
The biggest managerial move I made was having depth. I had several key players miss time to DL such as Beltran/Votto/Upton/A.Ramirez/Soto. However having key bats such as Howard/H.Ramirez/F.Lopez carried the load. Also adding youngsters like Seth Smith and Colby Rasmus helped when I had key OF'ers on the DL. I traded A.Ramirez for Manny Ramirez to help with my OF since Beltran missed so much time and filled the 3B void with a trade for P.Feliz and a FA pick up of M.Derosa. My SP was lead all season my Wolf and two youngsters C.Kershaw and R.Wells. My bullpen was a rotation of FA pick ups and F.Cordero was the closer. My pen was the best in the league and rarely gave up any runs.

This is my 2nd time winning the NL title as I won in 2004! The biggest reason I am able to do this is because I play in one of the most competitive leagues in BBM with 9 other great managers. The Inspirer League has been around well before BBM went to a Keeper format but since the league went to a Keeper style 7 or 8 years ago it has gotten extremely competitve. As for strategy I try to keep a core group of solid bats and try to build my SP through the draft. I look for solid arms that can give me quality starts and let the bullpen do the rest. I often have one of the lowest ERA's in the league but not because I spend alot on SP, I just try to manage it well. Try to get into stat pools when the time is right and throw guys live when the match up is right. I always go through a pile of RP's as I want my pen to be lights out, but it has become difficult to find any value in the FA pool in our league.

The league is always top notch so the competition is fierce. I got off to a shaky start in April and early May and my Dad (The Whitetails) were in first for some time. Once I got things going I was in first most of the way after that but the Whitetails and several other teams were never to far behind until Sept. The playoffs were tuff as I just got by round one winning a close game 7 and then beating my Dad in the World Series!

The only thing unusual was all the injuries to key players as noted above but somehow I still got lucky enough to pull through it. Most of my trades were flops, I traded Either for Beltran before the season and A.Ramirez for Manny in the season and neither of them helped to much. I had great pitching and Howard and H.Ramirez carried the offense most of the way. Once I got all my guys in the lineup together things got rolling and I always had Votto coming of the bench since my lineup turned over so much. I am also in solid position for next year so I will hope to repeat as Inspirer League Champ in 2010!!!

I have played BBM since the mid 90's and learned the game from my dad. He used to play in the Prodigy days and I used to help him find FA's on the waiver wire. I continue to play because of the competition in our league and the gamesmenship of the long-time managers in our league such as my dad, Gordon, BigAl , Guru. We have lost a few vets over the years and have filled in with a few new guys and they have rounded out our league nicely. I expect another Grand Champion to come from our league in the future. What gives me the most satisfaction is knowing that whether is was luck or skill some how I managed to beat 9 other great managers!!!! (Even though somehow I have done this 7/8 years since we went Keeper.) The Young Guns are a true BBM dynasty!

Also I think BBM is one of the best fantasy games on the market!

So do we! Congratulations Mike! Please join the BBM staff in congratulating our 2009 Grand Prize Champion for his outstanding achievement!