As the Major League Baseball All-Star Game approaches on 15 July, Fantasy Baseball UK is reaching the halfway point of the fantasy baseball season. This year, FBUK is as its largest in terms of participation numbers since it relaunched in 2020. In total, 134 managers took up their assigned league spots after registering and a total of around 220 teams are entered across the league formats.
All five of last year’s formats returned for 2025, which continues to be the widest choice of league formats FBUK has ever offered. Due to the increase in participation, the FBUK League expanded to add a tenth regional division and FBUK LTD, the limited trade game, added a fourth division.
As well the loyal regular players, it is nice to see some newcomers join and some managers who have returned to FBUK after a few seasons away. As you will read in the article below, some of those new faces are doing well in their respective leagues.
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. Keep your eyes on the FBUK website for more update articles from now until after the conclusion of the fantasy baseball season on 28 September.
Scroll down for the full round-up!
Reminder of Games Played and Innings Pitched limits
As noted on the Rules and Info page, please remember in all league formats except Head-to-Head there are season position limits on your roster: each line-up position (batters) has a maximum of 162 games (GP) for which it is eligible to score points over the course of the season; your team’s pitching staff is limited to a total of 1400 innings pitched (IP) across all starters and relievers over the season. If a position reaches its limit before the season ends, it will no longer score points for your team going forward.
For the FBUK League (standard game) and FBUK LTD (limited trade), in Yahoo at the bottom of the roster page it indicates how much of each limit has been used so far. For the two salary cap games — FBUK Classic and $6m Game — in Fantrax that is indicated on the ‘Min/Max’ tab of your Team Roster area. The Standings pages on the FBUK website include a column displaying each team’s IP total for reference.
Those limits do not apply in the Head-to-Head leagues where instead there is a limit of five player acquisitions a team can make during each weekly matchup.
Fantasy League Standings (top): 29 June
In all formats except the $6m Game and Head-to-Head, fantasy teams are grouped into roughly regional divisions that are also combined to give overall standings. As the $6m 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 | But Vladdy I Love Him | 7256 |
| 2 | The Stable | 6782 |
| 3 | British Redbirds | 6622 |
| 4 | Cupar Red Sox | 6448 |
| 5 | All Betts Are Off | 6446 |
| 6 | Ready Eddie Go | 6433 |
| 7 | No Itchy Row | 6389 |
| 8 | JoGarza Mavericks | 6355 |
| 9 | Beat Gould&Lengl | 6354 |
| 10 | BayJays | 6347 |
With last year’s FBUK League Champion, Heathens (David Herrington) not participating this season, there will definitely be a different champion crowned in 2025. Debutant team But Vladdy I Love Him (Alfie Parsons) made a blistering start to the FBUK League campaign, opening up a lead of over 1300 points more than the second placed team in the combined standings at the end of May. However, in doing so, the team had used over 1000 of its total 1400 innings pitched (IP) available for the season in just the first two months. Whether a bold strategy or perhaps only belatedly realising the IP limit, pitching appears to have been scaled back significantly during June, resulting in the gap between first and second reducing by over half to around 500 points at the time of writing.
Another newcomer, The Stable (Nick Fruin) rose from mid-table at the end of April to second place but, again, used around three quarters of the total IP limit by about the halfway point of the season. The teams in the chasing pack are at around 700-800 IP, giving them around 400 more IP left to play with in attempting to close the gap on first place in the second half of the season.
But Vladdy I Love Him and The Stable are in the same regional division so are also occupying the top two spots in the South East division with the third place team, They Might Be Bryants (Ed Jefferies) 500 points behind.
Looking at other managers either debuting or returning after some time away, Charlie’s Walkers (Charlie Selwood) has a lead of 356 points in the South West in their debut season in FBUK. The South division is led by Spirit of Comerica (Tim Found), a manager returning to FBUK for the first time since our relaunch on the Yahoo platform in 2020. They have around a 70-point lead over Yeah No Completely (Aaron Eriskin), a manager playing a second season in the post-2019 era, having also played in the prior format of FBUK.
Another manager making a return to FBUK after last playing in the old format in 2019 is Brent Bentley, whose team Cupar Red Sox enjoys a 111-point lead in the North division. Brent’s reappearance has somewhat shaken things up as it means three-peat division champion from 2022 to 2024, It’s Shohei Time (Simon Middleton) is currently pursuing from second place.
Due to an increase in the number of participating managers in the FBUK League, the Central division was expanded to two separate divisions for the 2025 season. In the Central East, Ready Eddie Go (John Borthwick) leads No Itchy Row (Steve King) by 75 points.
The current leader of the Central West is Beat Gould&Lengl (John Steele), who was the 2023 champion of the Central division and runner-up in 2024. Closely behind are All Betts Are Off (Stephen Murray) — 33 points back in second place — followed by Eagle Fang (Mark Doody), who was the runner-up to Beat Gould&Lengl in the Central division in 2023 and took third place last season.
Close divisional races are occurring in the North East and North West divisions. In FBUK North East, 88 points separates the top three in descending order: BayJays (Kenny Chapman), Rothesay Reds (Robert Jackson) and Hartlepool Waves (Liam Tweddle). Liam won the division in 2023 and was runner-up in 2024 (as the Hartlepool A’s).
In FBUK North East, just 41 points separates first to third: Jake and Halfpint Rock (Keith Jeffery), Kentucky Chickens (Paul Dearnley) and Shane Warnes Flipper (Jonathan Glover) respectively. Lurking in fourth place is the back-to-back division champion in 2023 and 2024, Weebles (Jonathan Tugwood). Although 141 points back from the leader at the time of writing, Weebles overturned a larger deficit in the final week or so of last season to successfully defend their title.
In the remaining two divisions of the FBUK League, the teams in pole position have sizeable leads at this stage of the season. The East is led by 261 points by JoGarza Mavericks (Matt Bone), who finished third in the division last season. British Redbirds (Malcolm Gittoes) tops the West division by 444 points.
| Ps. | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flying Fish 2 | 5696 |
| 2 | Masters of Merriment | 5617 |
| 3 | Jose Abreu’s Bombers | 5597 |
| 4 | Welly BJs | 5486 |
| 5 | 2 Limited | 5454 |
| 6 | Coldfield Cardinals | 5432 |
| 7 | Michael’s Fireballs | 5408 |
| 8 | A-Frican Elephant | 5397 |
| 9 | Octopus Mets Ltd | 5344 |
| 10 | Bat Breakers Ltd | 5334 |
In FBUK LTD, where the number of player trades and acquisitions is limited, Flying Fish 2 (Martin Fisher) and Masters of Merriment (Blythe Robertson) are competing for both the North division title and the overall championship. Masters of Merriment previously won the North division title in 2021 and 2023. There are a clutch of teams from the South division making up the rest of the top five in the combined standings, with Jose Abreu’s Bombers (René Becker) leading the charge.
Due to an increase in the number of teams participating in FBUK LTD, the Central division was replaced with East and West divisions for 2025. The 2023 FBUK LTD Champion, Coldfield Cardinals (Tony Fellows) has a narrow lead over A-Frican Elephant (Wayne Mason) in the West division. Michael’s Fireballs (Michael Hatch) tops the East division.
| Ps. | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Secret Agents Too | 6750 |
| 2 | Milkybar24 | 6423 |
| 3 | tiggerrrrr | 6396 |
| 4 | Disposable Heroes | 6210 |
| 5 | Ready Eddie Go | 5994 |
| 6 | Secret Agents | 5956 |
| 7 | Boys of Summer | 5817 |
| 8 | Bleacher Creatures | 5783 |
| 9 | BILKO | 5635 |
| 10 | Tacoma Rainfrogs | 5607 |
| Ps. | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jose Abreu Bombers | 5138 |
| 2 | Cray River Crawfish | 4734 |
| 3 | Ready Eddie Go $5m | 4578 |
| 4 | Freeway Express | 4555 |
| 5 | The Turtle Said | 4425 |
| 6 | Norfolk Enchants | 4038 |
| 7 | Jeff1903 | 3971 |
| 8 | Sultans of Swat | 3798 |
In the salary cap leagues — where managers build a roster within a budget for player salaries, run on the Fantrax platform — René Becker is eyeing a double championship. His teams have healthy leads in FBUK Classic and the limited budget $6m Game — Secret Agents Too and Jose Abreu Bombers, respectively. In FBUK Classic, the back-to-back champion in 2023 and 2024, Tigerrrrr (Matt Farley) is among the pursuing pack, as is last year’s fifth-place Disposable Heroes (Glen Marsland) and Milkybar24 (Brent Bentley), making a debut in this post-2019 relaunched version of the salary cap league.
Just over a third of the 21 teams in this season’s FBUK Classic are either new to this iteration of the salary cap league or returning after a year or so away.
National League
| Rank | Team | W-L |
|---|---|---|
| Group A | ||
| 1 | CF Giants | 11-2 |
| 3 | H’Pool Huskies | 10-3 |
| 4 | Yes Ndidi | 8-5 |
| 7 | The Waves | 5-8 |
| 9 | BayJays | 3-10 |
| Group B | ||
| 2 | Ted&Yaz&Manny&Me | 10-3 |
| 5 | Sonoran Desert Experience | 7-6 |
| 6 | TROOPERscrat !!athletics!! | 6-7 |
| 8 | Mark63’s Magnificent Team | 4-9 |
| 10 | Sea Dogs | 1-12 |
In the second season of the FBUK Head-to-Head (H2H) competition there are again two separate leagues running and each will have a champion crowned. The H2H league features weekly matchups between fantasy teams. At the end of each week, the higher-scoring team in each matchup earns the win in the standings.
In both the National League and the Atlantic League, the two group winners and the next four top ranked teams (ranked 1-6) progress to the championship playoffs beginning 8 September, with the two group winners securing a bye in the first playoff round. The championship playoffs will decide 1st to 6th place. The remaining four teams in the regular season standings will go into consolation playoffs to decide 7th to 10th place.
In the National League, last year’s group winners are currently leading their groups again: in Group A, CF Giants (Andy Quinton), the runner-up in the 2024 championship final; in Group B, Ted&Yaz&Manny&Me (Derek Cole), who finished in third place overall last year. The reigning champion, Mark63’s Magnificent Team (Mark Finbow), is currently outside the top six rankings but there is plenty of the season left to go. Of the four new teams that joined the National League this season, H’Pool Huskies (Christopher Lennon) is in the better position so far, just one game back in second place in Group A (ranked third overall).
Atlantic League
| Rank | Team | W-L |
|---|---|---|
| Group A | ||
| 1 | London Queens | 9-4 |
| 3 | Secret Agents Too | 8-5 |
| 4 | Han Soto | 8-5 |
| 9 | Ruth’s Bambinos | 4-9 |
| 10 | Acuña maTatis | 3-10 |
| Group B | ||
| 2 | The Roki Cokeys | 9-4 |
| 5 | Wasteland Eskimos | 7-6 |
| 6 | AZ Doublebacks | 6-7 |
| 7 | Silver State 51s | 6-7 |
| 8 | Teddy’s Wellies | 5-8 |
The Atlantic League groups are being led by two newcomers to this year’s H2H league, London Queens (Em Dean) and The Roki Cokeys (Paul Dearnley). Following close behind at one game back in the standings are two of last season’s semi-finalists, Secret Agents Too (René Becker) and Han Soto (Dan Perrin).
The 2024 championship finalists, Acuña maTatis (Dave Perrin) and Silver State 51s (Tim Stride) sit outside the top six rankings. The standings are pretty close and it looks like there will be several teams jostling for the championship playoff places during the second half of the season. It is also entirely possible for a team to go on a great run. Last year, Silver State 51s carried the momentum of a 9-1 record in the second half into the playoffs, rising from middle of the pack to one of the top two seeds, then eventual champion.
Touch base
We will back with further updates from now until after the conclusion of the fantasy baseball season on 28 September. In the meantime, the forums on the FBUK website are open and you can also follow Fantasy Baseball UK on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Threads.
Thanks for playing, and good luck for the rest of the season!
Fantasy Baseball UK
