Transactions Analysis: The Mic Drop

Yes lads it's time.  After 18 years, 50,000 transactions, and 400 Ryan Cum Dempster jokes, the Young Boys' Wankdorf league has called it quits.  Which means there's only one last bit of housekeeping - a final TA!

At the risk of being sappy, Teddy and I started writing these on a whim in the 3rd season in the league's "recent messages" column, and at some point, one of us had the hair-brained idea to start a "site" with the columns, rather than using the message board.  We've since then populated this site with horse racing previews, World Cup analysis, and dissertations on the Heisman Trophy, but to us, this site has first and foremost been a repository for the TAs.  So let's give it the proper send off.  (El Angelo)

Some historical context might prove useful. The first real TA published on the blog--which, as Ang notes, happened something like 3-4 years into the TA era--contained the following entry:

Nigerian Gentlemen

Signed: Oliver Pérez (NYM - SP), Kenny Lofton (Tex - OF), Moisés Alou (NYM - OF), Jim Edmonds (StL - OF), Jon Lester (Bos - SP), Aubrey Huff (Bal - 3B,OF)

Waived:  Lester, Joel Piñeiro (Bos - SP,RP)

Hmm. So the Sese Sekos added (at least temporarily) two good, if flawed, young arms, presumably in an attempt to compete down the road. They then turned around and added FOUR past-their-prime outfielders, in what looks like a win-now strategy. Obviously, it's a touch early to completely abandon this season (unless you're Angelo, in which case you're already preparing your draft list for 2009), but the mixed signals are odd. (Teddy)

Well, they waived Cancer Boy Lester, so there's really just adding one arm, and that's the volatile Oliver! Perez. I've seen dumber ideas. Like....signing 3 guys who are well fit for a HACKING MASS squad and Jim Edmonds' corpse. Vomit. (Angelo)

...

All of the following is true: Moises Alou is now the general manager of the Dominican Winter League. Aubrey Huff is getting in Twitter fights with Seth McClung. Kenny Lofton is the CEO of Filmpool, Inc., which just produced an MMA movie starring the guy from Starship Troopers. Jim Edmonds has appeared on the Real Housewives of Orange County. None of Twitter, Filmpool Inc, or the Real Housewives existed when the original post was made.

So, yeah. We're talking a borderline actual geologic era here. (Teddy)

#20.  Val (1 season, 0 wins, 0 cashes, 1 DAFL)

Val's only season got off to a rip-roaring start when his first two draft picks were Nomar Garciaparra and Bret Boone, hot off the latter's Brady Anderson 1991 impersonation.  Can't fathom why Val lost.  (El Angelo)

The Nomar pick was understandable because Val's father's name is Onitnelav (he's Moldovan). (Teddy)

#18T. Vihal (1 season, 0 wins, 0 cashes, 0 DAFL)
#18T. Other Scot (ibid)

I remember absolutely nothing about either of these guys other than that they participated remotely in the first draft at Andy's apartment, and I was dealing with them online.  I think they were Elders' friends?  Either way, they were so unmemorable they go below our other one-and-done owner. (El Angelo)

I want to tread lightly here because we're old enough that one or both of these guys could plausibly be dead by now. Thoughts and prayers(?). (Teddy)

#17.  Bartolacci (1 season, 0 wins, 0 cashes, 0 DAFL)

Two words for everyone who was in the league the first year: Shane Reynolds. (El Angelo)

Dave's team ultimately met the same fate as his Twitter account: abandoned for a decade and then hacked by the Russians. (Teddy)

#16.  M*ke (2 seasons, 0 wins, 0 cashes, 0 DAFL, 1 Quit)

The guy who refused to give his team an actual name, and quit because we twice vetoed a trade where he dealt away all of his good players for - and this is serious - an injured Francisco Liriano, an uninjured Armando Benitez, Freddie Sanchez, JD Drew, and something called Gary Glover.  I remember exchanging about 400 emails around this trade brouhaha, including one where Will rejected the trade from China, and another where Sahil told someone to go get their shinebox.  (El Angelo)

My email reflects that shortly thereafter, Gary Glover was dropped for Luis Vizcaino. Then he got busted for child sexual assault. Things may have turned around, though, because his song "Rock and Roll Part 2" is featured in the new Joker movie.

#15.  Sahil (18 seasons, 0 wins, 0 cashes, 4 DAFL)

There is something truly glorious about Ironhead's 18-year run of futility, to the point where we're ranking him below people who were in the league for less than a full presidential administration.  I'll give the man this: he had the best team names, and I appreciated his desire to stick with the ee cummings typeface convention.  My personal favorites were "i am esix snead" and "bonderman's grundle," though I have no idea what generated the latter name.  (El Angelo)

A commonly voiced criticism of statistical analysis holds that numbers can be used to prove almost anything. There is merit to that criticism. For example, coming into this year Sahil's average place of finish over his time in the league was 8.9. That statistic implies that in last year's 8-team league, Sahil should have finished 0.9 places behind the last-place finisher. This, of course, did not happen. He instead finished 8th and last, thereby slightly *improving* his historical average place of finish to 8.8.

"bonderman's grundle" slaps, though. (Teddy)

#T13.  Matty (3 seasons, 0 wins, 0 cashes, 0 DAFL)
#T13.  Ben (3 seasons, 0 wins, 0 cashes, 0 DAFL)

Matt was an initial owner who bowed out after 3 years (and also my fairly useless brother).  Ben came into about a decade after it started, and also only lasted 3 years.  Both guys were of relatively good cheer, always willing to talk trade, and spectacular at busting Andy's balls.  The last skill is not one to under-appreciate, as we learned with, oh I don't know who...let's just call him, *ike.   (El Angelo)

This one caused some controversy in the GRBG's headquarters (currently located beneath the steam table at the Gowanus Whole Foods), as I vociferously argued that Ben's Mose Schrute beard should put him over the top. (Teddy)

#12.  Darrin (4 seasons solo, 0 wins, 0 cashes, 0 DAFL)

I can't remember if Darrin was in from Year 1 or Year 2, but he also was always willing to talk trade and drink beer.  He's more memorable for bringing in a co-owner who, unlike many of the other names on this list, actually knew what he was doing, and made the league tough for stiffs like me.  Solid on his own; tough when he was a co-owner.  (El Angelo)

The increasing competency of the league over time remains a vexation. Get dumber, people. (Teddy)

#11.  Jon (17 seasons, 0 wins, 1 cash, 2 DAFL)

In three separate years, Jon and I executed draft-day trades where I traded down and still got the player I wanted plus something extra.  Mind you, in none of those years did either of us finish in the money.  I think Jon's best season was about a decade ago when he won the Deathship league.  (El Angelo)

I'll always remember Jon for trading me Troy Tulowitski eleven days prior to Tulo's first major knee injury. I still have a printed-out copy of the espnzone.lycos.com story announcing the injury on the floor of my bird's cage. The bird died in 2012, so I doubt it minds. (Teddy)

#10.  Corey (14 seasons, 0 wins, 1 cash, 2 DAFL)

Pips Jon because he finished in 2nd once, while Jon never topped 3rd.  Really, the best part about this league calling it quits was getting rid of any emails with wormcheesemousebird.  (El Angelo)

You know, we're almost done with this finale post and we haven't really done anything yet to pass along our accumulated wisdom to the next generation of people who will undoubtedly use the Blogger platform to chronicle their fantasy teams. Let's correct that by dropping three nuggets of wisdom:

1. The word "Neshek" is funny; use it relentlessly.
2. Never get aboard an aircraft piloted by a New York Yankee
3. Once your league owners start having kids, MAINTAIN AN UP-TO-DATE SPREADSHEET OF THOSE KIDS' NAMES. I cannot emphasize this last point too strongly. (Teddy)

#9.  Andy (18 seasons, 0 wins 2 cashes, 2 DAFL)

As an initial point, I want to say that Andy was a superb commish for nearly two decades.  This wasn't the most contentious league, but several of us, myself included, are pains in the ass, and Sahil is Sahil.  I mean, this league was started by a bunch of law school students, and then voluntarily added multiple Duke alums and a guy working for George W. Bush.  Prickishness was a given.  But Andy's patience and fairness were a testament to his character.

In terms of being an owner...well, Andy's most consequential move was dealing a prospect named Mike Trout and a future first rounder to Scot in July 2011 as part of an ill-fated pennant drive.  Andy finished in 8th - and by points, closer to last than 5th - and Scot used Trout plus the pick (which became Zack Greinke) to win 4 of the next 5 titles.  Woof.  (El Angelo)

Seconded. This was a hell of a lot of effort for no reward other than dealing with a rotating cast of snarkmonsters. I've been meaning to tell Andy that for a long time, but I'm still waiting for him to sober up from that poker game in 2002 where he locked himself in the bathroom. (Teddy)

#8.  Angelo (17 seasons, 0.5 wins, 4.5 cashes, 4 DAFL)

With the passage of time, I completely forgot about my mid-late 2000s version of The Process, where I basically sat out two years with the idea of accumulating draft picks, only to blow them on baseball's versions of Jahlil Okafor.  My results in this league were essentially a sine curve: in the money the first two years, jack shit after the benefits of a good initial draft wore off, a little bump of success about 8 years in, followed by more jack shit, then an out-of-nowhere win with co-owner Wilfredo.  Viva Stable Geniuses!  (El Angelo)

The relentless avoidance of mediocricy was impressive. Although, in retrospect, it's fair to question the wisdom of tanking for draft picks in a league in which the 144 top players may not reach the draft. Thanks also for blowing what I know to be multiple days of your one and only life on this extremely odd thing we created. (Teddy)  

#7.  Will (17 seasons, 0.5 wins, 3.5 cashes, 2 DAFL)

My partner goes above me because (a) he rode the hell out of our team in September last year to get us the W, and (b) he sucked less frequently than me.  The genesis of our 2018 team was forged at Tucker's wedding, when Will and I - for reasons unclear - described the TA column to a dozen extremely confused, drunk, and sunburned WASPs.  My other favorite contribution Will made to the league was repeatedly making trade demands and threatening to put you on the No Fly List if you didn't accept.  I like to think that Sahil still gets a full cavity search every time he's at BWI.  (El Angelo)

Will's other claim to fame was proving completely impervious to predictions made in the column. This included predictions by Ang and I, as well as polls of the league as a whole. Although it makes sense that our own deplorable would prove unmeasurable by polls. (Teddy)  

#6.  Jake (12 seasons, 1 win, 5 cashes, 0 DAFL)

Never forget: in the league's first year, 9 owners finished behind 2 guys who spent 5 weeks on the road with no internet access, and another guy with a debilitating medical issue.  Man, we really should have convinced Val to stay in the league.  (El Angelo)

I learned I had climbed from 8th to 3d over those five weeks by using a public internet kiosk in the food court of the Stardust. Almost none of those nouns still exist. (Teddy)

#5.  Teddy (18 seasons, 1 win, 6 cashes, 0 DAFL)

I actually thought my co-author had more cashes than this - he never really punted in a given year, and usually drafted well in the middle rounds.  A review of the old standings revealed that he had four seasons where he accumulated 91 - 96.5 points, and won in none of those years.  It wasn't until I took a year off that the competition lightened enough for him to be able to hoist the trophy.  (El Angelo)

My strength was making getting the best out of the roster I drafted--in other words, as a fantasy coach. But like so many other coaches who also aspire to GM, I leave a legacy as a genuinely questionable drafter. I should have just thrown on autodraft every year and then figured out my platoons from there. (Teddy)


#4.  Andrew/Darrindrew (14 seasons, 2 wins, 7 cashes, 0 DAFL)

The top 4 owners were truly in an echelon above the rest - after the inaugural season, there wasn't a year where at least one of them didn't finish in the money, they took two of the three money slots in 12 of those 17 years, and swept the money 4 times.  Andrew was one of our steadiest owners - he won in what I think was his first year playing in 2007 (with Darrin back then), and was constantly in the money or a threat to cash.  On a personal level, I sadly have never met Andrew, and I think his connection to the league was Darrin, who came in through Jake.  If you're ever in New York, Mr. Cain, beers on me.  (El Angelo)

Agreed; all I have to add is that the data really broke down in some earlier years, so we don't really have know for sure where Darrin ended and Andrew began. Fourteen years earns magnanimity. (Teddy) 

#3.  Alex (17 seasons, 4 wins, 8 cashes, 0 DAFL)

A win for each time he drafted Huston Street too early.  (El Angelo)

Either his Simpsons icon hasn't been updated for a while or it is pulling some kind of reverse Portrait of Dorian Grey on him. (Teddy)

#2.  Tucker (18 seasons, 4 wins, 8 cashes, 0 DAFL)

Not only was he perpetually in contention, Tucker yearly had the most predictable yet unique roster construction of anyone in the league: top-notch hitters, a 1-2 man bench, and cycle through a zillion pitchers while riding hot hands.  I didn't do the math, but I would bet that Tucker cut over 600 relief pitchers over the his stewardship.  And it largely worked!  It's almost like he was a precursor to modern baseball pitching usage.  (El Angelo)

Yeah, he's the one who turned the Astros on to spin rate. But I'll remember him best as the runaway winner of the "Loudest Audible Scoffs Over a Draft Conference Call" awards from 2008-2015. Those were first-ballot performances. (Teddy) 

#1.  Scot (14 seasons, 5 wins, 10 cashes, 1 DAFL)

In the money 71% of the time, the most wins, and a last place finish tossed in just to throw us off the scent.  (He promptly wasted the first pick on Hanley Ramirez!)  There's really no debate who was the dominant owner in the league; it's almost enough to let us ignore the fact he's a Texas Rangers fan.  My compliments to the ultimate champ.  (El Angelo)

He came across so reasonably over email, too. Even so, I like to assume that he spent all our money on needle drugs and puppy catapults. Makes it easier, somehow. (Teddy)

*  *  *

Finally, for posterity, here are the final statistical standings. Te Occidere Possunt Sed Te Edere Non Possunt Nefas Es.

	AVG FINISH	Cashes	Cash %	Wins	Win %
Scot	4	9	0.64	5	0.36
Alex	4.1	9	0.53	4	0.24
Tucker	4.2	9	0.5	4	0.22
Jake	5.3	5	0.42	1	0.08
Chad	5.5	6	0.33	1	0.06
Darrandrew***	5.7	6	0.35	2	0.12
Angelo	6.7	4.5	0.26	0.5**	0.03
Will	7.2	2.5	0.18	0.5**	0.03
Matty G.	7.2	0	-	0	-
Corey*	7.3	1	0.07	0	-
Andy	7.4	2	0.11	0	-
Ben	7.6	0	-	0	-
Jon	8.3	1	0.06	0	-
Sahil	8.8	0	-	0	-
Barto	9	0	-	0	-
Vihal	9	0	-	0	-
Other Scot	9	0	-	0	-
Mike*	9	0	-	0	-
Val	12	0	-	0	-
	* Corey split '07 with Mike; finish assigned to Mike
** Co-owners in year of victory
	† ***Coupled as an entry because of past joint ownership

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Les Curieux Evenements: A Slightly Sheepish Season Summary

So, um, how was your summer?

Contrary to published reports, we here at the GRBG did not succumb to The Plague. We did, however, have our hands full with new babies and reclusive copper heiresses, to the point where the blog sort of withered on the vine.

We're not sure what that means for our output going forward. But we are sure that we're going to redeem this season as best we can with an omnibus season wrap-up post. We'll start with our usual accountability check on the league's predictions, and finish off with the updated all-time league standings. (Teddy)

I had wanted to do something like this at the end of the season, so kudos to my esteemed co-author for taking the lead here.  In any event, 7800 soiled diapers, 90 depositions, and a dozen inexplicable Taylor Teagarden hits later, here we are.  Let's try to get some year-end commentary together.  (El Angleo)

12: The Moon Colonists (League Prediction: 10th)

We never got a chance to TA the early May trade in which the Colonists traded Matt Kemp, Roy Halladay, Adrian Gonzalez, Matt Grasso, and Mario Manningham to Quoth the Jennings in return for a 1, Ike Davis, Colby Rasmus, Ryan Madson, and the draft rights to five-month-old Garrett Hamm-Garciaparra. At the time many were worried that the trade would ruin the league. Those people turned out to be right, not for the expected reason that the trade put the Jennings over the top.
No, the trade was cataclysmic because it gave Angelo FOUR picks in next year’s first round. If we manage a livedraft next year, the combination of four Angelo #1s plus half a case of Mickey’s grenades should lead to hilarity. In light of that, further analysis of this team is mostly beside the point. (Teddy)

Kudos to those who had predicted me for DAFL and to Teddy for noting in our season-opening post that my squad had a good chance to tank this year because of its odd structure.  What's most notable about my season, other than the uber-trade, is just how putrid my draft was; only Addison Reed can be counted as a remotely useful player that I took.  By contrast, the waiver wire yielded Austin Jackson, Chase Headley, R.A. Dickey, and Kris Medlen.  So maybe those picks next year should be dealt for waiver priority.  (El Angelo)

11. 1st mouse late bird (League Prediction: 3d)

Well, not so much on that prediction. The Cockamouses looked like legit board candidates at the start of the year. But the worst 10 weeks of Albert Pujols’s career torpedoed them before they could even get started, and led to a tear-down trade intended to get the franchise back some of what it had given up in next year’s draft. All of the various trades were defensible based on where the team found itself at the time, although the unfortunate net effect is that they are going to have to reboot using a non-lottery first rounder next year. Luck plays a role here. (Teddy)

Teddy's noted this before but slow starts just annihilate you in rotisserie leagues, because come June, you'll be so far out of it that you have no clue what to do to improve.  The Healer's options to get better as the season went on were limited by the lack of a #1 for next year to use as a chip, but even if he dealt that for 8 useful players, it may not have been enough.  Right idea, some bad luck at the end of the day.  (El Angelo)

10. Spreading Santorum (League Prediction: 12)

 It's not easy to finish in 10th when you own the first Triple Crown winner in 45 years. Or, wait, maybe it is easy as long as you only get 8 pitching points. This was not the year to have drafted Jonathan Sanchez. (Teddy)

In addition to Miggy, this offense also had a bunch of guys who had really good years on offense -- Mark Trumbo, Michael Bourn, Elvis Andrus, and even an out of nowhere comeback for Toriiiiiiii.  But this really turned out to be one of the worst pitching staffs in memory.  When Johan St. Johan went down, Jason Vargas became their stopper.  That's wrong on multiple levels.  (El Angelo)

9. Jeters Never Prosper (League Prediction: 1st(!))

Whoops! Led by a uterly flabbergasting season from Derek Jeter, the shaky preseason IF actually held its own this year. Instead, the great god of Pitcher Variance up and bit them in the ass this year—Josh Johnson and Dan Haren were each among the 15 worst BABIPs in the league among SPs. There’s just not all that much you can do about that. The team rebounded a bit towards the end of the season, even as they traded away their only effective pitcher in Jered Weaver.  Of course, rebounding from 11th to 9th arguably just made things worse. (Teddy)

This roster was laden with guys who a lot of people thought would have huge breakthrough years -- Jesus Montero, Matt Moore, Dexter Fowler, and Yu Darvish.  While Darvish was fine, the others never really elevated their level to the greatness that was hoped for, offsetting a somewhat shocking year -- well, part year -- from Melky Cabrera and Jeter.  This actually strikes me as a team that's going to have a scary keeper list and a good pick to boot next year.  (El Angelo)

8. Quoth the Jennings (League Prediction: 9th)

As team cousin Ken Jennings would quoth in the form of a question, WTF?  So, Roy Halladay and Adrian Gonzalez suck now, I guess? (BTW, what was the Vegas line on Gonzalez getting traded in both fantasy and reality this year?)  I have to say, there but for the grace of Pedro go I, because I would have targeted a lot of the same players back in May if I’d had the chance (did try, unsuccessfully, to poach a few of them in August). The team unwound its position pretty well under the circumstances, but they were selling into a bear market. (Teddy)

The best news for this team is that they didn't burn a year of Bryce Harper's eligibility by keeping him on the prospect list the entire season.  Beyond that cold comfort, few fantasy teams have ever had as large a gap between name recognition and performance.  Wright and Heyward obviously had great years, but other guys regressed incomprehensibly -- namely, Kemp and Gonzalez -- or were quietly underperforming alll year (Starlin Castro, McCann).  Or you could simply say that this team gave nearly 1000 at-bats to Mets, so of course they sucked.  (El Angelo)

7. Le Dupont Torkies (League Prediction: 11th)

Maybe the first genuinely boring season in Torkies history, which can probably be chalked up to the owner's midseason acquisition of another future J. Crew Kids-model baby. The team bumped up against the limits of its closer-centric roster--they could have given up 50 saves and only lost 1 point in the standings. But the real problems were on offense, where they couldn't do anything but run.

BTW, our preview for this team was a hilarious mix of prescient analysis (we nailed the forthcoming offensive problems) and shame-spiraling stupidity (we managed to shit on Gio Gonzalez and Johnny Cueto in the space of a single sentence). Why do we do these accountability posts again? (Teddy)

Since I don't have a ton to add, let's look at those pre-season predictions.  We've taken everyone's predictions and scored them by delta -- i.e., if you picked Chad to finish 4th, you get 2 points for being off by 2 slots.  Amazingly, of the 8 ballots submitted, 6 were in the band of 44 - 48 points, meaning three quarters of the voters were off by basically 3 1/2 to 4 slots per team.  The first outlier was Jon, who had a delta of 39 and correctly picked Scot to win it all (and another finish correctly down the ballot).  The other?  Sir Teddy himself, at a garrish 52 points, which is amazing because it includes two dead-on predictions, albeit of teams we've already covered.  (El Angelo)

6. Wu Tang Financial (League Prediction: 8th)

The first of two eminently respectable finishes for the Elders boys this year. This was the first year since 2008 that both of them finished in the first division (and it's only the second time ever). If WTF can find some table-setter types in the draft next year, they could be frisky. (Teddy)

If the September Tim Lincecum actually is who shows up for the entire year next year, these guys are starting off with a helluva rotation.  A nice season for this team that needs a couple of bats and some luck at the closer slot to make a run at it next year.  (El Angelo)

5. The Spam Avengers (League Prediction: 2d)

A good-looking preseason roster was torpedoed by injuries to Mariano Rivera (a big reason why the team finished DAFL in saves) and Jacoby Ellsbury (whose loss opened up a hole in the OF that they never quite filled. Honestly, looking at their end of season roster, it still seems like they should have done better than a distant 5th. (Teddy)

Their season was caused in party by one of the effects of our keeper structure, as it completely robbed them of any depth.  A deeper team could overcome losing Joey Votto and Ellsbury for over 120 games combined, but that depth was simply hard to come by when they only kept 4 hitters and picked in the 12-slot two straight years.  I also think that this owner saw the writing on the wall early on -- that Scot was going to be hard to catch -- and decided not to make a run at a bronze medal by giving up future assets.  The result was a non-threatening 5th.  (El Angelo)

4. Suicide By Jaguar (League Prediction: 6th)

Ouch, babe. This was the closest 3rd/4th place finish since 2003, when Angelo edged Jon off the board by 2.5 points As you can see here, the team fell off a cliff in August and never made it all of the way back. Still, though, this went a long way toward restoring the reputation of a franchise that has seen some shit.

What I'm saying, I guess, is that Andy is the Pittsburgh Pirates. You're welcome? (Teddy)

It's tough to say that one guy killed your season, but Evan Longoria missing half the season was probably the difference between 3rd and 4th place.  That said, I do want to give the manager a ton of credit for playing the shit out of the season.  This team used SIXTY-ONE different players this year, including contributions by guys named Tyler Moore, Justin Ruggiano and Jeff Locke.  Possibly my favorite of them all was somehow getting 11 innings from Wade LeBlanc with 8 K's to go with a sub-2.00 ERA.  Then again, you could have simply rotated starters that faced the Mets, Cubs and Astros all year and probably finished in the top half of pitching.  (El Angelo)

3.  Paging Dr. Rumack (League Prediction: T4th)

This team had two things going for it. One, it was one of those teams that was pretty good in everything, which let it clunk up past the teams below, all of which had at least one major hole. Two, Buster Posey. They also managed to hit the board without making any win-now trades, so their powder is dry for next year. Can't ask for much more than that. (Teddy)

This team managed to finish fifth in saves with their closers being Alfredo Aceves, Ernesto Frieri, Brett Myers, Santiago Casilla, and something named Jared Burton. If you were looking for an argument against spending high picks on relief pitching, you've found it.

2. Westish Harpooners (League Prediction: T4th)

Given that I got only 47 mostly-shitty games out of Troy Tulowitzki, I'm not entirely sure how this happened.  I will say that I got two things really right: taking a risk on the health of Joe Mauer, and circling, underlining, and highlighting Allen Craig on my draft sheet because of his oddball 2B eligibility. That's a 17th-round pick that will go down in song. (Teddy).

Also taken in the 17th round this year: Jake Peavy, who pitched like he was a '08 Padre again.  The fact that you competed this year while 4 of your first six picks on Jon Lester, Colby Lewis, Mike Minor, and Drew Stubbs is inspiring to us cellar-dwellers.  (El Angelo)

1. Big Damn Heroes (League Prediction: 7th)  

Really just significantly better than everybody else for the entire year. And not really in keeper jail next year either. So, yeah. Pretty good. (Teddy)  

I'm not sure we have ever seen, or will ever see, an outfield/DH quartet as strong as 2012 versions of Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, Curtis Granderson and Edwin Encarnacion.  The 4 combined for 431 runs, 146 homers, 395 RBIs, and 92 steals.  This was on top of having a guy who should finish in the top 5 in MVP voting (Beltre) and Adam Dunn's resurgent season.  Just a mind-boggling offense.  Congrats to a dominating season.  (El Angelo)

So with all that said, here are the updated all-time standings:

	AVG FINISH	CHANGE	AVG PTS	Cashes	Cash %	Wins	Win %
Tucker	3.5	-	82.5	6	0.545	4	0.364
Scot	4.3	+1	80.9	6	0.750	2	0.250
Alex	4.4	-1	78.2	4	0.400	3	0.300
Jake	5.1	-1	72.7	5	0.455	1	0.091
Chad	5.6	-	72.7	4	0.364	0	0.000
Darrandrew†	6.3	+1	67.3	3	0.300	1	0.100
Angelo	6.8	-1	59.0	3	0.273	0	0.000
Corey*	7.0	-	61.3	1	0.125	0	0.000
Matty G.	7.2	+1	63.4	0	0.000	0	0.000
Will	7.3	-1	61.7	1	0.100	0	0.000
Jon	8.3	+1	52.3	0	0.000	0	0.000
Andy	8.4	+1	55.8	0	0.000	0	0.000
Sahil	8.5	-2	52.4	0	0.000	0	0.000
Barto	9.0	-	48.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Vihal	9.0	-	48.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Other Scot	9.0	-	48.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Mike*	9.0	-	47.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Val	12.0	-	27.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Legend:	† Coupled as an entry because of past joint ownership
	* Corey split '07 with Mike; finish assigned to Mike

Les Jeux Sont Faites (The Games Are Done)

And so the 9th edition of the Wankdorf League comes to a thrilling conclusion, with team TSA's courageous gamble on an armada of second-tier final-day SP's paying off handsomely with their second title, and the Commish reverse-leapfrogging a couple of teams to secure the second-most ping pong balls in the '11 draft. In order to help cushion the blow of the season's end, we here at the GRBG will have a series of posts this week dissecting the league, handing out awards, and doling out accountability for some of the predictions we all made six months ago.

We begin with the updated all-time standings, which we first knocked together after last season in a post inexplicably titled after a line from a Francois Villon poem. Because we are sticklers for tradition, we figured we couldn't do much better than stealing from Jean-Paul Sartre this time around. Allons a classement generale!

	AVG FINISH	AVG PTS	Cashes	Cash %	Wins	Win %
Tucker (9)	2.4	89.1	6	0.666	4	0.444
Scot (6)	3.5	83.8	5	0.833	1	0.167
Alex (8)	4.8	76.3	3	0.375	2	0.250
Jake (9)	4.9	74.8	4	0.444	1	0.111
Teddy (9)	5.8	71.9	3	0.333	0	0.000
Darrandrew† (8)	6.1	67.8	2	0.250	1	0.111
Angelo (9)	6.8	58.9	2	0.222	0	0.000
Corey* (6)	7.2	60.7	1	0.167	0	0.000
Matty G. (3)	7.2	58.2	0	0.000	0	0.000
Will (8)	7.4	62.1	1	0.111	0	0.000
Sahil (9)	8.4	51.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Jon (8)	8.5	51.2	0	0.000	0	0.000
Andy (9)	8.9	52.9	0	0.000	0	0.000
Dave (1)	9.0	48.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Vihar (1)	9.0	48.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Other Scot (1)	9.0	48.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Mike* (3)	9.0	47.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Val (1)	12.0	27.5	0	0.000	0	0.000

† Coupled as an entry because of past joint ownership.
* Split '07 season; finish assigned to Mike.

Some items of note:

- While things have tightened up or widened out in a number of places, there were only two place changes in the overall standings from last season to this. First, Alex's win pushed him juuuuust out ahead of Jake for third place all time. Second, further down the table, sahil has edged ahead of Jon.


- Our Fair Leader's 11th-place finish means that his overall average ordinal finish has slid to within 0.1 places of previously untouchable league doormat M*ke. A finish of 10th or worse next year would sink the commish below M*ke, which might be incentive enough to run hard to the finish line next year.

- It is now mathematically possible for Scot to catch Tucker for the overall #1 slot after next season, though it would require a pretty big spread.

- From the Stuck in the Middle With You file, Teddy's last-day swoon ensured that he and Sahil are still the only active league members never to have either won or finished last in the league. Teddy also tightened his grip on the Best Never to Win a Major label, which is ironic given his repeated abuse of Phil Mickelson in the past.

- While we're on the subject, Teddy's 93.5 points are the most ever recorded by a team finishing outside the top 2. We're sure that will be a comfort to him.

- Least impacted guy this season? Andrew, whose overall ordinal ranking stayed still at 6.1, and whose average point total moved by all of 0.4.

- We have nothing interesting to say about Angelo, Corey, or Will here. We're sure they'd agree.

Back later in the week with awards, a look at the Deathship, and the always uncomfortable accountability post.

2009 Draft Highlights/Lowlights

With the 2010 draft a mere three days away, we thought it was worth taking a look back at last year's draft to prove that everyone in the league, at one point or another, is a moron. Last year's draft began as an epic clusterfuck, thanks to one of our favorite owners' inability to accurately compute Pacific Standard Time and do simple math. In other news, that team's owner is now counsel for the Federal Reserve.

But once the draft started, first by a conference call sponsored by a former Cabinet member and then by about 9000 emails, all sorts of fun ensued. Turning on the Wayback Machine, we briefly note 10 of the highlights.

1. Six middle infielders went in the first three rounds, and all were disasters: two broke (Jose Reyes, Rafael Furcal), and four imploded (Jimmy Rollins, Kelly Johnson, Rickie Weeks, JJ Hardy). Shockingly, every team that used a top-36 pick on a middle infielder finished out of the money.

2. Teddy's comment here about first round picks Carl Crawford (and Shane Victorino): "they both suck." Crawford went on to carry Corey (who Teddy predicted to finish in last) to the runner-up slot.

3. Tucker, the defending champion, absolutely whiffing on his first two picks with geriatrics David Ortiz and Vlad Guerrero. This was somewhat offset by absolutely nailing his next three picks (Carlos Pena, Ryan Zimmerman, Matt Garza).

4. Our beloved commissioner methodically compiling 4 second round picks...and then using them all on starting pitchers. Worse, one of them was Justin Duchsherer, who appears to have moved in with Dr. James Andrews.

5. About an hour and a half into the draft, despite it being the fourth round and having no alcohol in his system, our beloved commissioner takes his sixth pitcher in the draft (versus zero hitters) by yelling "I'll take Jason Motte!" Everyone erupts into loud noises; 1/3 pissed that Andy took him first, 1/3 laughing at the inanity of the pick, and 1/3 wondering who the fuck was Jason Motte. Answer: someone not any good.

6. To finish up razzing our commissioner, his first hitter was taken in the 8th round...Penn alum, Mark DeRosa. Who he waived 5 weeks later.

7. This email sequence from the top of the 6th round between Angelo and Will:

Angelo: Kevin Slowey.
Will: Damn you Grasso! Chris Carpenter.

By August, Kevin Slowey's arm was in 3 pieces, while Carpenter was well on his way to a top-3 Cy Young finish.

8. The final draft choice of the eventual second-place finisher? "Pass ( Seriously)"

9. Opening Day starters of note: Alfonso Soriano (.303 OBP), Mike Aviles (21 OPS+), Edwin Encarnacion (85 GP), Alex Gordon (49 GP).

10. The last pick of the draft? Mark Buerhle, who only went on to throw a perfect game.

So stay tuned for Saturday's action, where we're guaranteed to make a mockery of our alleged baseball wisdom, once again.

2009 Wankdorf Draft Retrospective

The old saw is that you can't judge a draft until 2-4 years after the fact. This is true in professional sports leagues, because you need the time to see how players develop, mesh with their teammates, and whether or not they bring a gun to the arena. For example, it's only been the last year or so that we can definitively say that if we redid the 2006 NBA Draft, Brandon Roy would go first (#6 originally), picks 2-4 would be, in some order, LaMarcus Aldridge (#2), Rudy Gay (#8) and Rajon Rondo (#21) and Adam Morrison (#3) would be undrafted. At the time, many of the picks seemed logical and defensible, but in hindsight, should Patrick O'Bryant really have been the #9 pick?

This is not true in fantasy baseball, however, because the players you draft contribute immediately. This is a boon to us at the GRBG because it allows us to do draft retrospectives a season later. So let's take a look at the 2009 draft and replay the first round. In doing so, we'll bear in mind a few things:

(1) How well the players did last year;
(2) What the teams needed going into 2009;
(3) A player's future projected productivity; and
(4) An owner's peculiar quirks, which we pretty much know at this point for everyone except Andrew, who didn't have a first round pick.

1. Mission Accomplished (Angelo): Albert Pujols, 1B, St. Louis.

Was the best player in baseball coming into 2009, was the best player in baseball last year, and projects to be the best player going forward. Nothing to change here.

Hindsight pick: Pujols.

2. wormcheese mousebird (Ironhead): Jose Reyes, SS, New York (NL).

As we noted last year, there was nothing debatable about this pick. However, Reyes was healthy for about a month last year, and he's still on the Mets, whose team doctors couldn't properly preside over a death panel. While we're tempted to say that this team should have picked Reyes anyway because they were unlikely to be competitive in 2009 with a healthy Jose, we do note that the AL MVP was available in last year's draft, plays a position where there's a scarcity issue, and projects to be a stud until 2017. It may not have won them the league last year, but it would have been an asset to have then and now.

Hindsight pick: Joe Mauer, C, Minnesota.

3. Flaccid Funiculi (Will): Miguel Cabrera, 1B, Detroit.
4. Recalcitrant Cobblers (Jake): Prince Fielder, 1B, Milwaukee.

Going forward, these players are pretty much a coin flip--they're fat 1B's that hit a lot of homers, get on base a lot, and don't steal many bases. But counting last year's stats, Will should have gone with Prince and left Jake to take Miggy C. What would have happened if the picks were swapped? We did the math. Jake would have lost 4.5 points in HRs that Will would have received, Jake would have lost 2 points in RBI that would have gone to Will, while Will would have lost 1.5 points in steals while Jake would have picked up 2 points. Throw in the collateral changes that would have been made to Tucker's, Angelo's and Corey's scores, and here would have been the final standings in 2009:

1st: Tucker............................102.5 points
2nd: Corey............................93 points
T3rd: Angelo, Will, Jake......85.5 points

Hindsight pick (#3) Fielder.
Hindsight pick (#4): Cabrera.

5. The Spam Avengers (Alex): Jimmy Rollins, SS, Philadelphia.

We can say with certainty that after his putrid '09, Rollins would not have gone #5. (Don't worry, it's not the worst first round pick.) So let's look at this team's squad going into '09. It was pretty set in the outfield (Ichiro!, Markakis, Justin Upon, McLouth), so it's unlikely they go OF here. They already had a shortstop that wasn't horrible (Stephen Drew), so Reyes as a long-term pick doesn't make a lot of sense here. And we can't see Alex going pitching with a top 5 pick. However, the first baseman slot is still open, and there's a former MVP who mans the position and hits quite well that's available and would fit in well here. Two Twins in the top 5 it is.

Hindsight pick: Justin Morneau, 1B, Minnesota.

6. Unenviable Position (Teddy): Alfonso Soriano, OF, Chicago (NL).

With an empty shortstop spot and a team that wasn't likely to compete in '09 under any circumstances, we think it's pretty safe to assume that Teddy jumps on Reyes here, even just to pocket him for next year.

Hindsight pick: Reyes.

7. Wu Tang Financial (Jon): Josh Beckett, SP, Boston.

We liked this pick last year, but have to wonder whether a team that already had Greinke, Vazquez and Kazmir really should be taking another starter at this point when its position players are lacking. Given the insane year that Carl Crawford had in 2009 and the fact that this team didn't have a very strong outfield, we like Crawford as the new pick here.

Hindsight pick: Carl Crawford, OF, Tampa Bay.

8. Aroids Anonymous (Corey): Crawford.

The man he targeted (and the key pick of last year's draft) off the board, this pick becomes tough to read. The two players that would have been available (Rollins & Soriano) are not good picks here. Adam Lind is sensible given the owner's love for Toronto Blue Jays, but even he would admit that Lind at #8 is laughable. Instead, we'll play a little musical chairs, and have Corey move keeper Kevin Yoook to first base to make room for the team's new stud at the hot corner, Ryan Zimmerman.

Hindsight pick: Ryan Zimmerman, 3B, Washington.

9. Mission Accomplished: Shane Victorino, OF, Phiadelphia.

Although the team didn't "need" a starter, with the benefit of hindsight, Chris Carpenter would have been the pick here (he ended up going in the sixth round--yikes). That would have given the team a staff of Felix--Verlander--Lester--Carpenter--Cain, which at a minimum, would have meant a lot of good trade chits.

Hindsight pick: Chris Carpenter, SP, St. Louis.

10. Evil League of Evil (Scot): Rafael Furcal, SS, Los Angeles.

We can say with 100% certainty this would have been a different pick. Instead of reaching for a shortstop, one of two position holes this team had, we feel they would have gone for the other hole (catcher) and taken everyone's favorite new Red Sock, Victor Martinez.

Hindsight pick: Victor Martinez, C, Boston/Cleveland.

11. Recalcitrant Cobbler: Morneau.

With Morneau gone, we feel confident that this team would have gone starting pitcher over trying to shoehorn in an outfielder like Lind or Jayson Werth. While there's a strong argument to be made on behalf of Clayton Kershaw as the long-term play, the fact that this team was competitive in 2009 means that Beckett would have been the likely play.

Hindsight pick: Beckett.

12. Le Dupont Torkies (Tucker): David Ortiz, Corpse, Boston.

Another pick we're certain would have been different, the question is what direction they would have taken. Tucker kept enough pitching that Kershaw, John Lackey and the closers would not have been taken. There's an argument to be made for Chone Figgins to lock up the 3B slot and a lot of steals, but we're going instead with someone Tucker picked a round and a half later: Carlos Pena, the slugging infielder.

Hindsight pick: Carlos Pena, 1B, Tampa Bay.

Conclusion

In the end, we keep 1 pick with their original team...the #1 pick overall. However, we note that with the benefit of hindsight, 8 of the 12 players taken in the first round would have gone there anyway. Not a horrible batting average for the league; we may take the opportunity later this month to see how the 2008 draft should have gone too.

Taking Requests (or "Ou sont les Neifis d'antan?")

(That's right, a French subtitle. We here at the GRBG are nothing if not cosmopolitan polygots.)

It has come to our attention that, as is so often the case come the cold rains of autumn, some of our readership are casting their minds back to those halcyon days when the league was young. Specifically, these readers want to get a sense of how the league owners stack up all-time, over the life of the league.

Ordinarily we would just ignore those readers, as we take pride in generating maximum levels of annoyance. Here, though, the public may be on to something. And when someone somewhere is on to something, we here at the GRBG make a chart. So put this marzipan in your pie plate, bingo:

	AVG FINISH	AVG PTS	Cashes	Cash %	Wins	Win %
Tucker (8)	2.1	91.7	6	0.750	4	0.500
Scot (5)	3.8	81.7	4	0.800	1	0.200
Jake (8)	4.6	76.6	4	0.500	1	0.125
Alex (7)	5.3	73.3	2	0.286	1	0.143
Teddy (8)	6.1	69.3	2	0.250	0	0.000
Darrandrew† (7)	6.1	68.2	2	0.286	1	0.143
Angelo (8)	6.4	60.4	2	0.250	0	0.000
Corey* (5-ish)	6.7	63.3	1	0.200	0	0.000
Matty G. (3)	7.2	58.2	0	0.000	0	0.000
Will (7)	7.9	58.9	1	0.143	0	0.000
Jon (7)	8.0	55.6	0	0.000	0	0.000
Sahil (8)	8.4	51.1	0	0.000	0	0.000
Andy (8)	8.6	53.6	0	0.000	0	0.000
Dave (1)	9.0	48.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Vihar (1)	9.0	48.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Other Scot (1)	9.0	48.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Mike* (3)	9.0	47.5	0	0.000	0	0.000
Val (1)	12.0	27.5	0	0.000	0	0.000

† Coupled as an entry because of past joint ownership.
* Split '07 season; finish assigned to Mike.
(Note--more boring methodological stuff at the end of the post)

Obviously there's a lot to digest here. Let's start with the obvious questions: who's been the best and who's been the worst?

On the happy side, there's a pretty clear #1, with Tucker leading in every category except Cash %, where he's edged out by the consistency of Scot, the clear league #2. Five different guys have won the league title, which is actually a sneaky big level of parity given Tucker's long shadow.

On the less happy side, there isn't anything like as clear of a consensus (thankfully). Just going by the numbers, Val has set a floor that cannot be lowered. But is it really fair to hang the goat horns on a guy who was only in the league one year?

Well then maybe M*ke is our man, with his across-the-board worst numbers for multi-year owners. But again, he was only here for 2.5 of the 8 seasons.

Maybe the solution is to do this in tiers. Mike is probably the overall anti-champ. But let's be brave and look at the bottom of the veteran barrel. There are three main contenders: governor lowercase and the Brothers Eldersamozof, each with a unique claim to the throne. Eldersamozov the Lesser has the worst average ordinal finish, gl has the worst average point total, and Eldersamozov the Elder has the worst "best" performance, having finished no better than 5th in any season. We should also note that six different guys have finished last, so it's not as though there's really a habitual punching bag here. Accordingly, we are thrilled to declare it a tie and move on.

What about your humble authors, you might ask? Well, we've both ended up in the middle, though via different routes. As you'll see below in the records section, El Angelo has had a stunning variety of oddball seasons. Teddy, by contrast, has largely been boring--just about all you could hang on him is the dreaded label of "Best Never To Win A Major". Still, there's something oddly fun about the idea of two abject mediocrities offering advice to both ends of the league bell curve.

For your further delectation, here are a few random nuggets from the detailed data we used to create the chart.

Best Single-Season Point Total: 106 (Le Dupont Torkies, 2004)
Worst Single-Season Point Total: 19 (El Angelo, 2007 . . . and 2008)

Most Points By Non-Winner: 98 (Darrandrew, 2008)
Fewest Points By Winner: 84 (Alex, 2003)

Most Points By Non-Casher: 86.5 (El Angelo, 2009)
Fewest Points By Casher: 79.5 (El Angelo, 2003)

Average point totals for each ordinal rank:

1st: 96.1
2d: 90.5
3d: 87.4
4th: 80.4
5th: 73.5
6th: 67.6
7th: 63.6
8th: 58.0
9th: 53.0
10th: 44.2
11th: 38.4
12th: 27.7

-----------------------------------
OK, we suppose that we ought to explain what all those numbers mean. The number in parentheses next to the owner name represents the number of seasons the owner has participated in. AVG FINISH is derived by adding up the owners ordinal rank for each season, and dividing the total by the seasons participated in. Because the ordinal numbers can sometimes disguise how close (or not) two teams are, we've also thrown in AVG PTS to show the historic average point totals as well. The rest is hopefully self-explanatory.

For the '02 season, we assigned places 1-6 and 12, and put everyone else at T-9. Since we don't have point totals for that year, we used the average ordinal rank point totals above. Selah.

Worst First Round Picks in Wankdorf History

With the draft being a mere 48 hours away, let's take a ride down memory lane for a few minutes and review the wayward ways of our past. With a league that started in 2002, we're now coming up on our 7th draft, which means there have been six opportunities for players to shoot themselves in the foot by fouling up valuable first round picks. What have been the worst of the first rounders? Let's take a look-see:

2002: With all due respect to Mike Piazza, Sammy Sosa and Mark Mulder, who at least were useful for a short period of time after this draft, the hands down winner has to be Roberto Alomar. As members of the Original Seven may recall, this year we did "simultaneous drafting", where everyone names a player at once that they wanted. FOUR people wanted Alomar. I need not remind everyone that he joined the Mets that year and proceeded to make Carlos Baerga look saintly.

Bonus bad pick: Val took Bret Boone in the second round. Two minutes after drafting Nomar Garciaparra. If you were trying to find the antithesis of Whitaker-Trammell, you did it.

2003: This will forever be known as the Mo Vaughn Draft. I don't need to belabor the details.

2004: My efforts to find a draft results sheet have resulted in nothing; however, I distinctly remember Ironhead taking Vincente Padilla in the first round, two picks before Jake and I took Ben Sheets and David Ortiz, respectively. I think Padilla was cut before Mother's Day.

2005: For reasons that we're still trying to decipher, our beloved commish decided to lead off his draft day by taking Jason Giambi, who had already had a staph infection and showed up to spring training looking deflated. God, I miss the good ol' days of rampant HGH abuse.

2006: Our former leaguemate Michael decided to use his 4th pick on Jason Schmidt and an HMO with Oxford Medical. This wasn't epic bad, but went a long was to explaining why his team never rose above 6th place.

Bonus bad pick: Jon took Placido Polanco to lead off the second round. That was dumb.

2007: It's only one year out, but I think it's safe to say the fact that B.J. Ryan pitched exactly 4 1/3 innings forM**e last year makes him the worst player on this list. Which is saying something: the bottom of last year's draft included Hideki Matsui's cranky legs, Troy Glaus' strained groin and the immortal Dick Harden. Still, at least those teams didn't lose their owners.

The scary part? We could draft 9 guys in the first round this year who would be worse than any of these picks and all of the picks would be defensible at the time. So buckle down for the crapfest known as the '08 draft kids, it's gonna be rough.

What does it take to win?

For today's discussion, let's have a history lesson and take a quick trip down memory lane and the way-back machine and ask the question: what does it take to win the Wankdorf League? Can we glean anything from past results? Let's start with a look at the summary final standings for the last 4 years. Sadly, stats are unavailable from the 2002 season, aka, the only time that Chad & I both finished in the money. I'm sure Jake agrees with us that this is an atrocity.

2006

1.	Le Dupont Torkies						91.5
2.	Evil Empire						90
3.	Sack Flashers						88.5
4.	The Spam Avengers						82
5.	Mike						71
6.	Mr. Eko						62.5
7.	Gowanus Coxswains						60.5
8.	Vandelay Industries						57.5
9.	The Flapjacks						55.5
10.	rabid scientologists						52
11.	The Sex Offenders						46

12. Long-Term Disability 23


2005

1.	Discovery Channel	98.5
2.	The Duck Snorts	96.5
3.	Le Dupont Torkies	89
4.	The Spam Avengers	85
5.	King Hippo	72.5
6.	Winter of Discontent	72
7.	Jake in Progress	67.5
8.	i am esix snead	52
9.	Beach Bums	40.5
10.	The Burning	39
11.	Mike	37.5
12.	Evil Empire	30

2004

1.	Le Dupont Torkies	106
2.	The Spam Avengers	88.5
3.	Summer of Jake	88
4.	ghost of mark eaton	78
5.	Varitek is a pussy!	63.5
6.	Vandelay Industries	55.5
6.	Roses In May	55.5
8.	Kevin Brown's Hand	54.5
9.	Congenital Harpies	52
10.	Wu Tang Financial	49.5
11.	Evil Empire	47
12.	The Freedom Haters	42

2003

1.	The Spam Avengers	84
2.	Bad Andy	81.5
3.	Atoms For Peace	79.5
4.	Toilet Phace	79
5.	Wu Tang Financial	77
6.	Anabolic Surprise!	69.5
7.	The 73 Pintos	67.5
7.	Vandelay Industries	67.5
9.	dead midget storage	60.5
10.	Takeo	46.5
11.	Glee Club Studs	38.5
12.	Gibson Reincarnates	29

Where does this leave us, besides nostalgic? Well, let's take a few cursory observations from the summary statistics:

(1) The names may change, but the e.e. cummings style still remains the same. Seeing Ironhead's team names with some classic old ones (dead midget storage?) is just fantastmic all around. In fact, some of our owners, both active and retired, deserve rounds of applause for their well-done squad names, with personal faves being the Glee Club Studs, i am esix snead, and the always great Wu Tang Financial. It almost makes me want to ask Mike what the hell is wrong with him.

(2) Did Corey know what he was doing at any time in this league? Speaking of ghosts of owners, the WATN series will begin post-Memorial Day. If someone has found the dungeon in where Dave lies, you are my hero.

(3) 2003 appears to be the "fluke" season, in that Alex needed a mere 84 points to win, the fact that I actually finished in the money, and the difference between 3rd and 9th was under 20 points. (Hell, the difference between 3rd and 5th was under 3 points.) All the other years, including 2002, required a 90+ point effort to take the top spot.

(4) On that subject, let's note that the 3rd best finish was Teddy's runner-up showing in '05, where his squad just lost to newcomer Scot by about 0.05 ERA. Yowks.

(5) Similarly, it takes an 85+ point effort to hit the board, the fluky 2003 season aside. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like this was the case in '02 as well.)

Which season do we appear to be echoing in '07? Well, we have an uber-sucky team that happens to be mine, which we see every year but 2004 (where our beloved Commish's 42 took the cellar). While Tucker had a huge edge about 3 weeks ago, that's start to dissipate slightly, much like we've seen in prior years (in 2003, I had about 106 points on Memorial Day). And there appear to be 5 times in prime contention with no fewer than 5 other squads in position to make a belated run at it in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters. So the best analog? Probably....last year.

Next post we'll go beyond the cursory review and see what a category-by-category breakdown shows us about the winners. I'd like to see I could use regression analysis, standard deviations, and ball bearings, but I'm a fricking litigator.