The 2024 fantasy baseball season is entering its final month so here’s the round-up of the state of play across the Fantasy Baseball UK leagues as teams compete to be crowned champions when the Major League Baseball regular season ends on 29 September.
This year there are five different fantasy league types as we have continued to increase the options each season since FBUK relaunched in 2020. As well as gradually bringing back all the formats from the original version of FBUK, by popular demand this year we are running Head-to-Head leagues for the first time since FBUK went live back in 2004. Having the widest choice of league formats we have ever offered seems a great way to celebrate Fantasy Baseball UK’s 20th Anniversary season.
Scroll down for the full round-up!
All the divisional and overall standings from the various leagues can be viewed in the Standings section of the website. It also includes an area for archived season standings since FBUK relaunched in 2020.
Fantasy League Standings (top): 29 August
In all formats except the $5m Game and Head-to-Head, fantasy teams are grouped into roughly regional divisions that are also combined to give overall standings. As the $5m Game is a smaller group of teams, they are all in one division. Here is the overall Top 10 in each league at the time of writing.
| Ps. | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heathens | 10694 |
| 2 | The Rescue Party | 10579 |
| 3 | Year of the Cub | 10555 |
| 4 | Clavering Indians | 10219 |
| 5 | Davy Dodgers | 10201 |
| 6 | Hartlepool A’s | 10196 |
| 7 | Detroit Technos UK | 10191 |
| 8 | Shane Warnes Flipper | 10085 |
| 9 | Dorset Yankees | 10050 |
| 10 | Secret Agents | 10049 |
In the FBUK League, it looks like it might be a three-horse race between West division rivals Heathens (David Herrington) and The Rescue Party (Gareth Jones) as well as Year of the Cub (Joshua Lucas) from the South West division. Those three are separated by fewer than 150 points at the time of writing, with the fourth-placed team over 300 points behind.
Hanwell Massive — the early leaders in the first couple of months — have since faded in the overall standings, although they are third in the Central regional division. The Rescue Party and Year of the Cub have been around the top positions since then while Heathens have gradually risen up the standings to the summit. Last year’s FBUK League Champions, Urban Jays, are mid-table this time around.
Across the board, managers seem more mindful of the season limit of 1400 innings pitched than in previous years. At the end of August, only one team has reached the limit meaning they will not score any more pitching points for the remainder of the campaign.
Besides the West division, where the battle between Heathens and The Rescue Party is also the competition for the overall FBUK League championship, there are several close races for division titles. In the North East, only 23 points separate division leader Clavering Indians (Dean Robinson) and last year’s pennant winner, Hartlepool A’s (Liam Tweddle).
Back-to-back North division winner in 2022 and 2023, It’s Shohei Time (Simon Middleton) is bidding for a third consecutive title and is currently 108 points ahead of YINRFC55 (Iain Carmichael).
The 2023 East division winner TheUmpireStrikesOut (Dave Perrin) leads by 111 points at the time of writing, with the next three teams separated by only 70 points.
The 2022 champion of the North West, Detroit Technos UK (David Crabtree) is leading the division this season, currently 106 points ahead of Shane Warnes Flipper (Jonathan Glover).
In the Central, last year’s division winner, beat gould&lengl (John Steele) trails Davy Dodgers (Michael Davy) by 207 points.
| Ps. | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hits and Giggles | 8893 |
| 2 | Team Moran | 8650 |
| 3 | Gallo’s Humour | 8642 |
| 4 | Atlantic Crossing | 8570 |
| 5 | Bazza’s Bareheads | 8537 |
| 6 | CG G-Men | 8514 |
| 7 | Jevinder’s Giants 1 | 8499 |
| 8 | Karl’s First-Class Team | 8478 |
| 9 | The Batting Bats | 8474 |
| 10 | No Trade Clause | 8364 |
In FBUK LTD, where the number of player trades and acquisitions is limited, Hits and Giggles (Dave Perrin) has been in first place virtually all season in the South division and overall standings. The team is currently enjoying a 243-point lead in the overall championship. In the North division, Team Moran (Alan Moran) currently holds a slim 80-point advantage over Atlantic Crossing (Keith Jeffery) and is second overall. In the Central division, Gallo’s Humour (Gareth Jones) is 128 points clear of CF G-Men (Andy Quinton) with Jevinder’s Giants (Jonathan Evans) close behind that in third.
| Ps. | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | tiggerrrrr | 10814 |
| 2 | Secret Agents Too | 10366 |
| 3 | BILKO | 10348 |
| 4 | Secret Agents | 10320 |
| 5 | Disposable Heroes | 10148 |
| 6 | Ready Eddie Go | 9762 |
| 7 | Acuna Matata | 9672 |
| 8 | Bleacher Creatures | 9648 |
| 9 | Moonshot Cardinals | 9596 |
| 10 | Tacoma Rainfrogs | 9569 |
| Ps. | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jose Abreu Bombers | 8328 |
| 2 | Freeway Express | 7566 |
| 3 | The Turtle Said | 7557 |
| 4 | tiggerrrrr $5m | 7048 |
| 5 | Cray River Crawfish | 7021 |
| 6 | Ready Eddie Go $5m | 6859 |
| 7 | Sultans of Swat | 5656 |
| 8 | Westleigh Wombats | 4074 |
| 9 | Montybum | 3234 |
In the salary cap leagues — where managers build a roster within a budget for player salaries — last year’s champions in FBUK Classic and the $5m Game respectively, Tiggerrrrr (Matt Farley) and Jose Abreu Bombers (René Becker), look set to repeat in 2024 as they both have large leads in those competitions.
René’s other team, Secret Agents, has a large lead in the Channel Conference, one of the two divisions in FBUK Classic.
National League
| Rank | Team | W-L |
|---|---|---|
| Group A | ||
| 1 | CF Giants | 17-3 |
| 4 | Yes Ndidi | 11-9 |
| 5 | NoItchyRow | 9-11 |
| 8 | Monty Boomers | 3-17 |
| Group B | ||
| 2 | Mark63’s Magnificent Team | 14-6 |
| 3 | Ted&Yaz&Manny&Me | 13-7 |
| 6 | BayJays | 7-13 |
| 7 | Sonoran Desert Experience | 6-14 |
In the inaugural season of the FBUK Head-to-Head competition there are two separate leagues running, both of which are nearing the end of the regular season before playoffs begin in mid-September.
In the National League, the two group winners and the next two top ranked teams (ranked 1-4) progress to the championship playoffs beginning 16 September to decide 1st to 4th place. There is one spot left to decide between Yes Ndidi (John Borthwick) and NoItchyRow (Steve King). The former beat the latter in last week’s matchup to open up a two-win lead in the standings with three matchups in the regular season remaining including the current one at the time of writing. The remaining four teams will go into consolation playoffs to decide 5th to 8th place.
Atlantic League
| Rank | Team | W-L |
|---|---|---|
| Group A | ||
| 1 | Han Soto | 16-4 |
| 3 | Acuña maTatis | 16-4 |
| 5 | Secret Agents Too | 12-8 |
| 7 | Steelees Stunners | 8-12 |
| 10 | Men Behaving Adley | 5-15 |
| Group B | ||
| 2 | Teddy’s Wellies | 12-8 |
| 4 | Silver State 51s | 12-8 |
| 6 | Wasteland Eskimos | 8-12 |
| 8 | Steven’s Fabulous Team | 6-14 |
| 9 | Ruth’s Bambinos | 5-15 |
In the Atlantic League, the two group winners and the next four top ranked teams (ranked 1-6) progress to the championship playoffs beginning 9 September, with the two group winners securing a bye in the first playoff round. As in the National League, the remaining four teams in the standings go into consolation playoffs.
There is one spot left up for grabs in the championship playoffs, to go to either Wasteland Eskimos (Glen Marsland), Steelees Stunners (John Steele) or possibly Steven’s Fabulous Team (Steven Dunne) with an outside chance.
The race to finish group winners is as close as it can be with teams currently tied in first and second in both groups in the Atlantic League. Group A has been a tight battle between Dan Perrin and Dave Perrin for most of the season (Han Soto and Acuña maTatis respectively). Group B has been led by Teddy’s Wellies (Edward Hall) for the majority of the season but in the second half Silver State 51s (Tim Stride) went 7-1 to erase the gap heading into the penultimate week of the regular season.
The closer
We will be back in around a month’s time with a full round-up at the end of the season. In the meantime, the forums on the FBUK website are open and you can also follow Fantasy Baseball UK on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.
Thanks for playing, and good luck for the remainder of the season!
Fantasy Baseball UK