We now pick up with the latter half of the league, alphabetically speaking.
Juse and the Argonauts (8-4)
In the Draft...
The road back to respectability actually began at last year's draft for the Argonauts, when Juse snagged the surprising Cedric Benson in the 6th round. Keeping Benson and Jay Cutler (8th) didn't necessarily lead to the Argos' success this year, as neither of those two have been outstanding, but it did give Juse some flexibility in the early rounds that led to some solid picks. Taking Steven Jackson with the second overall pick was a no-brainer, but without Benson in the stable, Juse might have been tempted to use his Marques Colston (2nd), Steve Smith (3rd) or Percy Harvin (4th) pick on some shabby RB2 or even a quarterback instead of accruing valuable depth at wideout. And those picks, in turn, freed him up to gamble yet again on his undying man-crush, Darren McFadden (7th). I don't know what Darren McFadden ever did to make him self so beloved by Juse, but this year he may have actually earned that devotion, at least when he's been healthy.
In the Market...
...Juse pounced where I did not, and got himself the year's most electrifying quarterback and possessor of the biggest fantasy day of the year, Michael Vick ($0 - ugh, really? for free? fuck me). Other than that, none of Juse's free agent pick-ups have been particularly notable, but Vick has been plenty notable for a whole team's worth of acquisitions.
Recently...
...the Argos have been on a hot streak, losing only one game since Week 6. That lone defeat came in Week 11, where they actually posted a pretty strong total but lost in a close one to I'm Fucking In, 111 - 106. Cedric Benson's 20 bench points would have been useful in this one, with Steven Jackson and Darren McFadden combining for a mere seven points. Despite the rushing weakness, however, Juse managed to top a century thanks to excellent outings from Mike Vick (21) and Marques Colston (25), who had his best day of the year. The league also fined James Harrison (11) that week for scoring too many IDP points.
Week 12 brought a return to winning for the Argos, though their score was actually lower than in the loss the week before. Once again, Vick was outstanding (29). The rest of the team was very unspectacular, with only Colston (12) even getting into double figures, but with enough random contributions (9 each from Jason Witten, Donte Whitner and Matt Bryant) the Argonauts were able to eke out a 100 - 96 victory over Kurt Beran, a game that may have consigned Chuck to the Consolation Bracket.
This week's match-up with Cow Fister, who are also 8-4, could potentially sew up a first-round bye for Juse, and he's already off to a great start with Vick having posted 30 points in the Thursday night game.
Moving Forward...
At 8-4, Juse is a lock for the playoffs, but he'll need his running backs, who've scored 21 total points between them over the past two weeks, to get back on track if he plans on doing any damage. Of course, Vick is a huge X factor, and it wouldn't be surprising to see him single-handedly carry this team to a title (much like he did in the HotCocks first title run many years ago). At the same time, the playoffs are a single-elimination tournament, and one down game from Vick could mean curtains for the Argonauts.
As far as next year goes, I can't see much reason (despite their recent struggles) for Juse not to stick with his running back tandem of Steven Jackson (1st) and Darren McFadden (7th). If he lucks out again with a high enough draft pick to re-take Jackson or some other elite RB without keeping him, the likeliest options would seem to be one of that trio of highly-drafted receivers, Colston (2nd), Smith (3rd), or Harvin (4th).
In the Draft...
...Chuck entered this year with the cornerstones of his team already in place in the form of Frank Gore (1st round keeper) and Roddy White (4th round keeper). Both of those guys have lived up to their billing, but the rest of Chuck's early draftees have been busts in one way or another. Ryan Mathews (2nd), this year's hot rookie draft pick, has never topped 12 points and has missed a bunch of time due to injuries. Tony Romo (3rd) was having a fine season, but then his gash was split wide open in Week 7 and we haven't seen him since. Vincent Jackson (5th) has played about five minutes this season and hasn't scored a single fantasy point. And Jason Witten (6th) has been a shadow of his former self in the Cowboys' disappointing season. So how has this team managed six wins? Well, one big reason has been Chuck's surprising 7th-round selection, LaDainian Tomlinson, who has delivered borderline RB1 numbers for much of the season.
In the Market...
A second big reason for the Phonarchs having any success has been McNutt's early-season acquisition of Brandon Lloyd ($1 - God, all of the season's big pick-ups have been so cheap!). While most of us saw Lloyd's Week 1 13-point outburst and thought "Well, I've watched Brandon Lloyd for years, and he's a piece of shit, so I'm sure that won't happen again," Chuck thought "Well, I've watched Brandon Lloyd for years, and he's a piece of shit, so I'm sure that won't happen again, but it's probably worth spending a buck and dropping Kenny Britt to find out." Another big pick-up for Chuck (though he probably didn't anticipate it being so important at the time) was acquiring David Garrard ($2) in early October. Since Romo went down, Garrard has been pressed into starting service and has been a more than able replacement, averaging 22 points per game in his last four outings.
Recently...
After Week 8, I wrote some playoff projections that included Kurt Beran going on a winning streak to close out the season, flying into and through the playoffs to make the Biffle Bowl. Well, that hasn't quite happened. In fact, right after I wrote that, they scored all of 35 points in Week 9. Whoops!
At least in Week 11 the Phonarchs proved me right, albeit more due to a lousy opponent - they beat the Lower Loudoun Tribe 83 - 54 - than to any particular excellence on their own part. Lloyd (14) was their high scorer in that game, which is not a very high score for a high scorer, but with 10s from Garrard, Tomlinson, White, Mike Thomas, and Julius Peppers, they got more than enough to scalp the Tribe.
Week 12 saw a better score but a worse result as the Phonarchs fell to the Argonauts, 100 - 96. Once again, Lloyd (21) led the team in scoring, with David Garrard (16) and Todd Heap (15) making solid contributions. But the big story in this one was the loss of Frank Gore (5) for the rest of the season with a fractured hip. In losing Gore and this game, any hopes of a championship for Chuck were likely shut down like the Phonarch shutting down Beta Iota.
Moving Forward...
Chuck's playoff hopes are not dead yet, but he'll need a win in Week 13, a loss by me with a point total at least seven points lower than his, and a loss by Andre or a win that doesn't surpass his score by 10 points. That's a lot of conditions. And with Gore out and Tomlinson ceding more and more carries to Shonn Greene every week, how far could Chuck go in the playoffs anyway?
The good news regarding Gore is that he'll apparently be healed and ready to play well in advance of next year, but the bad news for Chuck is that he won't be able to keep him thanks to the new keeper rules. Roddy White will still be keepable, but as a 1st round value probably won't be worth it unless Chuck falls to the latter part of the first round. Does Tomlinson (7th) have enough left in the tank to justify keeping? Will Vincent Jackson (5th) actually play next year? Does Chuck gamble that next year becomes the year we were all expecting from Ryan Mathews (2nd) this year? Much is unclear in the future of the Crania.
In the Draft...
Heading into this season, it was hard to imagine anyone putting together a wide receiver corps that was better than the one Bardey already had under contract. With Andre Johnson (1st) and Brandon Marshall (3rd) as keepers, presumably all Bardey needed was some decent backs and a reasonable quarterback to establish a winning team. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. Underwhelmed by the RB availability in the second round, Bardey opted to go for a home run at quarterback with Tom Brady. That meant not getting a tailback until the fourth round, and four of the next five picks were spent trying to find someone who would emerge as a dependable starter. Neither Jonathan Stewart (4th), C.J. Spiller (5th), Ricky Williams (7th), or Marion Barber (8th) ever became that guy. And with Marshall failing to live up to his pre-season ranking, things started to look kind of bleak for the Tribe.
In the Market...
...many of Bardey's waiver wire efforts were spent in trying to fill that gaping hole at running back. Remember, he was willing to spend $61 on Brandon Jackson, and couldn't have foreseen Chalski out-bidding him by $39. The players he did end up with were Marshawn Lynch ($10) and Chris Ivory ($17), both of whom had some usefulness but never emerged as game-changers. Bardey finally found the back he was looking for a few weeks ago in Ahmad Bradshaw, but he had to trade away Dwayne Bowe to get him, and Bowe has since emerged as an unstoppable fantasy force. Bradshaw, meanwhile, has had his worst stretch of the season. Oh, Bardey.
Recently...
As was mentioned in the Kurt Beran summary, Week 11 was not a strong one for the Lower Loudounians. New addition Bradshaw provided a paltry point and a half, but that tripled the score of his backfield mate Marshawn Lynch. Brady (15) and James Jones (11) were the bright spots, but with Johnson and Marshall combining for seven, Bardey needed them to be police-spotlight-bright, and instead they were more like keychain-flashlight-bright. More lumens, Dois!
Week 12 did, indeed, see increased luminosity from the Tribesmen, mostly in the form of the Pats' Thanksgiving connection of Brady (33) to Deion Branch (27). Their scoring outburst combined with Bardey's ownership of them in two leagues, prompted him to text me that it was the "best fantasy day of [his] life." This guy should try winning a championship some time.
Moving Forward...
"Some time" will not be this year, however, as the 5-7 Tribe find themselves on the outside of the playoffs looking in. They do, however, have the chance to play spoiler to Alligator Fuckhouse's Eastern Conference championship hopes, and are off to a good start thanks to Andre Johnson's 17-point outing on Thursday night.
For 2011, it's starting to look like Bardey's best keeper option is now on the Fuckhouse roster, but the man Bardey got in return, Ahmad Bradshaw, could certainly be a valuable keep in the 6th round. Tom Brady in the 2nd feels like a bit of a stretch, but it might be the best other option available here unless Bardey wants to roll the dice on C.J. Spiller (5th). Nothing he has done this season has suggested that he's headed for a brilliant career, but the off-season fantasy hype machine can often convince us that greatness is just a few more touches away.
In the Draft...
Actually, this should start "Before the Draft..." because Billy was already wheeling and dealing before the Monday Night Football theme blared from your laptops and the drafting commenced. With a stellar quarterback under contract late (Aaron Rodgers, 9th) and an all-time great receiver in the second (Randy Moss), Billy needed running backs. He got his chance when Dekker, who had lucked into the first pick of the draft and already had two RBs kept (Ray Rice and Jamaal Charles), offered him the best rusher available in exchange for Moss. Billy pounced. Though the trade would not be consummated until a few days later, Billy began the draft knowing that he had a top runner on the way in Maurice Jones-Drew, but was down a WR1. Confident in his ability to find quality receivers later, Billy used his own first-round pick on DeAngelo Williams, building what looked to be an outstanding RB tandem. In choosing his receivers, Hollywood alternated between high-ceiling breakout options (Mike Sims-Walker in the 3rd; Laurent Robinson in the 10th) and old reliable veterans (Donald Driver in the 4th; Santana Moss in the 6th). It all sounds like a formula for success. I bet Billy even felt good about his team for a little while. I wonder when he remembered that he's Billy and that he's destined to always suck at fantasy. When he scored 62 points in Week 1? When Sims-Walker had two 0-fers in his first four games? When he was 2-4 after six weeks? When Williams, who had already been turning in a lousy season, went down after Week 7? Or did he secretly, deep down in his soul, always know it was never going to work out?
In the Market...
Although Dekker's team has ultimately been more successful, it should be noted that the trade has worked out to be hugely lop-sided in Billy's favor. He gave up a receiver who has spent time on three different reality rosters this season and has scored a total of four points since Week 7 and got an elite running back in return. Not a bad deal. Besides that, though, not a lot of big-time moves for the Monkeys. Their biggest expenditure on the season was Tony Gonzalez ($32), who has been extremely mediocre. Oh and remember that brief stretch where Roy Williams looked like an awesome receiver for the first time in years? Billy got a piece of that (for $0, no less) before Williams came back down to earth.
Recently...
Week 11 is as good as it's gotten for the Monkeys this season, with their highest point total of the season and a win over the Cholish Chachfaces, 115 - 87. Billy's big three all came to play, with Aaron Rodgers notching 34 points, Maurice Jones-Drew scoring 25, and Santana Moss chipping in 18 (I know, Santana does not really deserve to be considered a part of any "big three," but he's basically Billy's de facto WR1 this season. This was Monkey football at its best, but even here we can see the types of holes that have led to a 4-8 record, like Justin Forsett's 4-point contribution or Roy Williams' 2-point day.
Week 12 was back to business as usual, that being the business of losing, 95 - 84, to the same Your Stepdad team that gave him MJD in the first place. Jones-Drew himself had a decent day (13 points), and Aaron Rodgers was once again spectacular (30), but it's hard to overcome your RB2 scoring no points and your three receivers combining for 12 points.
Moving Forward...
Since he was freshly drafted by Dekker this season, Jones-Drew is available to Billy next year in the first and will likely be better than anyone available. Other than that, the best option may be the other piece of that trade, Sidney Rice, who spent most of this season on the bench but, as a last-round draft pick, will represent a value keeper next year even if the Minnesota passing game is still a mess.
Well, guys, I had hoped to get all of these done by the Sunday games, but it's now 8 on Saturday, I'm headed to dinner and a birthday party, and I don't like to wake up too early on Sunday. So we'll see. Vatican Dragons and Your Stepdad, I promise you'll get write-ups, they just might not come out til next week.
1 comment:
I'm excited to see the picture Sovic posts with his writeup on Your Stepdad.
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