Category: All Posts

Did You Miss Me?

Much apologies for not showing up until after the first NFL Sunday of the year. We’ll have Wires and LeagueStories galore once the season gets into full swing, but at the request of a certain Alabama-based League member, I’m back in action.

Things are going well for me so far, barring a Brandon McManus 30-burger I’ll have my first win of the season despite two goose eggs. Anyway, let’s take a look at the grid up top:

Last year I posted something similar (which you can scroll down to, maybe do a little side-by-side action if you want to see how this season went). I wrote about a few interesting matchup records, so now I’ll let you know how they panned out…

Max 7-2 vs. Jack: This was the most lopsided all-time record at the start of last year, but we all know how my season went last year. I picked up wins in both meetings and started to even things out (7-4).
Kris 4-0 vs. Max: Basically, Kris was Tom Brady and Max was the Cowboys (sorry Beans). However, these two split their 2021 games and so the shutout ended (5-1). More on these two later…
Abie & Brendan are 4-4: Beans Corp didn’t have the best year, dropping two games to Abie. The CEO hopes to even things out in 2022-23 with his only friend D’Andre Swift (6-4).
Jack & Brent are 2-2: Even though Brent took home the belt and the top scoring title, the regular season was mine (3-2).
Abie & Kris are 2-2: These guys also played each other only once in Week 10. Looking back at The Wire, Abie picked up The Cowboys Defense for $1 and got 22 points out of it and a 13 point win over the Norse Horse (2-3).
Vigs & Ryan are 2-2: This was the only match-up record to stay tied, as the two games were split between these two boys from opposite sides of the Congers train tracks (3-3).
Vigs & Max are 3-3: Another situation where only one game was played between these two in 2021, with the edge going to the Bama Butts, who were helped out by Jamal Agnew (remember him?) pitching in around 14 points in a 24 point win (3-4).
Max & Brent are 2-2: Brent picked up a commanding 40 point win over Max last year, and it seems that he’ll do just about the same this week, so make it 2-4 (2-3).

Whew. That was fun/interesting, right? Now here are some new storylines to look out for in 2022:

Andrew 6-1 vs. Brent: Brent won their only match-up of ’21 by 1.42, I guess that’s why Vigs makes Brent call him “My Commish”. Cheeky.
Jack 6-2 vs. Kris: Lopsided match-up so far, can Kris even the score?
Max 6-2 vs. Abie: Lopsided match-up so far, can Abie even the score?
Kris 6-3 vs. Andrew: Lopsided match-up so far, can Andrew even the score?
Kris & Brent are 4-4: This is a tie-break that Kris NEEDS to win to establish himself as a big player in The League and hopefully get back in to the playoff race.
Andrew & Ryan are 3-3: Another tie to look out for, Ryan’s unconventional style goes against all the rules of the Commish and might have him rattled? We’ll see Week 5.
Jack & Andrew are 3-3: After tonight, you can ignore this one but I had it down from before so there ya go.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:

So as I mentioned at the beginning, Max asked me to write up a little something about all the times he’s scored 125+ points and still lost. I don’t really want to make a cool graphic because it’d be kind of hard to do with lines and bars and I don’t want to put in the effort right now, so here’s the data table:

OK so I wrote the rest of this article but then it was taking forever to autosave so I tried to refresh and it lost all my shit. Basically Max lost twice a year when scoring 125+, but for the most part he was not the second-highest scorer losing to the top scorer like he thought. Most of these wins were pretty bad, but the 2019 Week 15 playoff loss to Lebron probably stung a little more after coming off a bye week. We’ll add another one for Week 1 2022.

There’s one other League member that can complain about this more though:

Wow. Five times just last year and four losses with 150+ points. You don’t see Kris whining about it though, dude keeps his hand in his pocket just waiting to take that belt. Last year’s semi-finals was a true clash of titans that ended in a devastating way for the Norseman. Then the very next week he had to face my ultimately meaningless barrage of points that in another timeline would have won me a championship. Here’s to hoping we both find our way to the playoffs and Brent doesn’t.

The rest of the League had this happen to them a little less frequently:

Beans: 7 (tied w Max)
Brent & Andrew: 6 each
Me: 5
Tom, Ryan & Abie: 2 each

Well, that’s about it, again… Football is back baby, I’m gonna go watch the Emmys and Rick and Morty. Bye!

1st Round Predictions Picks 5-1

IT’S TIME!!! Ladies and Gentleman, we are back for 1st round prediction picks 5-1. We are as close as it gets to the draft. All I think about is panic, screaming, and excitement that the draft is going to have. Will any of that happen during picks 5-1? Let’s find out.

Pick 5 (4th n’ Schlong)

300+ touches as a ROOKIE?!?! Sign Bradley up. No more Big Ben noodle arm to dump off passes. However, a rookie QB or Mitchy Turby throwing the rock SCREAMS 300+ touches. This is the type of pick that would make a certain former TheLeague member jump up and down with joy.

PICK 4 (Beans Corp)

Rumor has is Beans has been practicing his griddy. The reason why is because he’s planning to draft the best WR in Football, Mr. JJ. Brendan will be running in circles screaming profanities when he makes this selection. JJ is getting so much love that he may even go #1 this year :O

PICK 3 (Notorious BIT….CH)

Wait what? Money Mac going #3? Yes! I’ve done 4 mock drafts with our Commish and in one of the drafts he took Evan McPherson. This means there’s a 25% chance he goes this direction.

Okay you got me. I was kidding. Vigs misses out on two other studs but lands this PPR machine. One of a few NFL players who is vocal about how much he loves his fantasy owners. Can’t go wrong here.

PICK 2 (Norse Horse)

The man who went 1st overall in back to back years is finally dethroned. WOW. We all know what CMC can do when he is ON the field, but that has been rare recently. CMC destroyed Lebron, Beans, and Max’s (via trade) fantasy hopes the last two year. Will he finally stay healthy to bring Kris back to the fantasy Championship? Only time can tell. CMC has the highest ceiling out of all fantasy players, but where’s the floor?

PICK 1 (The Notorious B.H.G.)

No surprise here. The back to back champ takes the best player off the board. Couldn’t be happier to take Jonathan Taylor with the #1 pick. Just ask Jack how much he loves this former Wisconsin Badger and he will go nuts *pun intended*. As I mentioned before CMC has the highest ceiling out of all players, but 23 year old Jonathan Taylor, who is entering his prime, is not far behind.

Alright folks that wraps up first round predictions. A lot can happen in two days and it’s possible all the picks swap. Bring all your cheat sheets and study material Saturday you’ll need it.

1st Round Prediction Rounds 10 – 6

If you look into the magic ball you might be able to see my new team name 😉

WOW we finally made it. We are officially closing in on the greatest day of the year… draft day. What’s even crazier is that this is my first post EVER on mustbesunday.com (Trademarked? who knows anymore). It only feels right that I provide my fellow league members and more importantly OUR FANS a sneak peak at the first round draft choices. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the predictions.

PICK 10 (The Martians)

We all know Ryan LOVES Wide Receivers. The zero RB king will show us his love for Wide Receivers again by selecting Davante Adams back to back years.

PICK 9 (HOCKEYPRO 69)

Abie Abie Abie the man who 34 min ago, from the time I’m writing this, said I was going to come in last place. Will it be true, who knows, but I have the magic ball now so I can only predict the future. Similar to The Martians, Abie will run it back with King Henry. Abie will be crying with joy when the rushing GOAT falls to him.

PICK 8 (Bama Butts)

Is Max the hardest fantasy player to predict? Yes. No one ever knows which direction Max will go and neither do I. I believe Max plays it safe here and takes Dalvin Cook at 8. We all know how much Max loves Viking running backs (Reminder he stole Mattison from Vigs last year).

PICK 7 (Thomas 2.0)

I know I know I know this is the 3rd time I predicted a member of TheLeague to take a player they had last year. That’s just how the world works. Jack gets his guy. One of several players last year to lead Jack to the best record going into playoffs. Ja’Marr is a beast and Jack knows it. Good pick.

PICK 6 (Buffalo Bonez)

*Thomas sees this picture and immediately gets excited* That’s exactly what Thomas will be doing when the best player in football last year falls to him. It’s very easy to say Kupp falls earlier in the draft, but there are other names that people find more valuable. Kupp is going to be a beast and Thomas is going to hope Kupp repeats what he did last year.

That’s a wrap for picks 10-6.

In fantasy anything is possible. When your Google searching “Best Players in Fantasy 2022” that article on page 20 that gives a wild prediction is going to change your mind for the whole year. This can be completely wrong OR it can be 100% accurate. We’ll have that answer in 6 days. I’m excited for the draft and hav been prepping like a mad man. Hope you have been also. PICKS 5-1 coming soon. – Reigning Back to Back Champ of TheLeague

Cute NFL Standings Tracker Uses Little Mini Helmets — Hackaday

If you’re a die-hard sports fan, there’s nothing you love more than staying abreast of developments in the league, from top to bottom. [Kiu] had a family member that was big into NFL, so set about building them a remarkably cool ladder tracker. The tracker displays the NFL league table with a ten-minute delay, thanks […]

Cute NFL Standings Tracker Uses Little Mini Helmets — Hackaday

This Draft is Going to be Weird

It’s August 9th so naturally I’ve done 15,000 mock drafts. I am seeing the board extremely clearly. 20/20 vision. I know what kicker you’re going to take. I know why you like that certain player and I know why you shouldn’t. I know who is going to start the quarterback rush. I know who is going early on Amon-Ra St. Brown. I know who is going to be diagnosed with Will Fuller Syndrome first. To quote Lil Wayne, “I can see the end in the beginning.”

You ever see Men in Black 3? I think it’s good. I saw it once. I don’t remember the specifics but there’s some character who can see into the future. I don’t know if he’s an alien or a Man in Black or what’s good with him but he can see the future, so he knows the Mets are going to win it all in ’69. Or something like that. Again, I saw it once and I live such a rockstar lifestyle I can’t remember too good. Anyway, assuming my memory of that character is correct I’m like that guy.

A couple days ago I was walking to the subway on my commute home from work and popped into one of those $5.00 psychic reading shops. I met with one of the psychics and she called me a colleague. We also shared a laugh over everyone we foresaw drafting Courtland Sutton far too early.

I don’t want to spoil anything for everyone else, so I’ll just issue a warning so everyone knows going into it – this draft is going to be weird. It seems like the board hasn’t changed a tremendously large amount in the last few years. Especially between 2020 and 2021. All the usual running backs, Devante, Kelce, etc. Straight forward. Easy. No more. Folks, we are in a new era of fantasy football.

Just look at the rankings! I hope you folks have been doing your homework. Have you seen all these wide receivers in the top 15? Cam Akers at 22? Nick Chubb at 33?!? It’s a whole new world!

Now, I’m pretty confident most of the boys are all in on running backs in the first round. 3-4 are fully committed to running backs in the second round two. There is going to be some high-quality receivers hanging around in round three.

There are huge question marks surrounding players ranked between 25-50. Barkley. Zeke. Dobbins. Terry. Gibson. Hollywood. DK. Truly, I think every single pick in rounds 3-5 are going to elicit “wooooaaaahhhhhh” and half the people will mean it was a good pick and half will mean it in a negative way. This is truly bonkers. I don’t think you realize how crazy this is going to be. The boys are finna have the zoomies. Max is going to take Mike Williams in the fourth round and I’m going to start floating. Ryan is going to draft JuJu in the fifth round and we are all going to start shuffling like that Jimmy Neutron episode when they can’t stop dancing. Is that a fake memory? Might be. Abie is going to take Brandin Cooks and Andrew is going to laugh at him but panic on the inside because he lowkey wanted Cooks for a good value. It’s going to be mayhem.

We are 18 days away. Let’s get weird.

LeagueStory x GroupMe: Points on a Bell Curve

I have no idea why I’m straining to remember these terms and shit from high school/college stats right now. Is it because I’m bored? Am I trying to make up for hardly paying attention to this past week of football? Do I need some time to get The Wire together and I’m stalling? Probably all of the above, but you gotta admit this shit looks pretty cool. Who said we’d never use it in the real world?

Just a few things to notice: As I mentioned in the GroupMe, this year was the highest scoring since 2018. This is further shown in the highest average score at the top of the image, but this regular season also had the second lowest standard deviation of the past four years. That means (according to Google) that the scores stayed a bit closer to the mean score than in other years. Sound to me like The League is getting more competitive… You’ll also notice on the charts the trendlines with the R-squared included right on there. Basically, if you don’t remember or weren’t taught this, R-squared is a measure of predictability. In other words, an R-squared of 1 means that 100% of the population’s variances were predictable based on the inputs or the formula that the data follows. Obviously this is fantasy football, so no formula can really predict the outcome each week, no matter how hard ESPN’s AI or algorithms may try. Anyway, based on the results it seems that this season was the second-least predictable, with the least predictable season also being 2018. A highly competitive League where you never know what will happen? Now that sounds pretty perfect to me 😉

The Wire: Endgame

So last time I covered three weeks in one post, now I’m doing two. Maybe next week I’ll do just one. Who knows? The regular season may be it for this MBS mainstay, as I have important playoff things to worry about. We’ll see, but there will definitely be some more retrospective graphs and charts as we wrap things up and I explore the source of my last LeagueStory post: Flourish. Seems like they’ve got what it takes to give dumb guys like me who can’t code the ability to make nice-looking animated data visualization. Isn’t technology wonderful? Anyway, let’s take a look at the past 2 weeks before it’s Sunday again:

From a cursory look at the trusty chart for Week 13, it looks like this is the highest percentage of players dropped due to being on IR or BYE so far. There were also a few players added who were on BYE , including our most expensive McBackup for the second week this year. Our healthy and fearless Commissioner dropped a quarter of his entire FAAB budget for Chuba Chubs, beating out Tommy by a single buck and Kris and Max by A Few Dollars More (shoutout Clint Eastwood I guess). As I mentioned, the Panthers were on a bye week, which means my analyses of dollars spent to points became even more useless than it already was. On the other side of this transaction was Mike Gesicki, who in the span of one week found himself dropped from Thomas and Friends, then picked up by the REAL Thomas (and Friends), and finally dropped again for Foster “Australian for Beer” Moreau, the man who replaced the injured Waller-by (that’s TWO Australia jokes in one sentence, omfg). It’s safe to say that if Mike G got passed around like that this past week, he’d almost certainly have COVID by now.

So the closest game of Week 13 was Ryan vs. Brad, a slim 3.82 points made the difference. Looking back, the chart seems to show that it didn’t have to be this close. Every Wire move made by Brad helped him out by a little bit, and every move Ryan made resulted in negative net points. It just wasn’t enough to make the difference where it mattered. Something similar happened with the match-up between Brent and Thomas (8 points). There wasn’t one move made by Thomas that would have given him the dub, but if he kept Mike G then he would have lost by 3.9 instead of 8. Pretty funny how the losers of both of these close games played each other in an even CLOSER game the next week.

One game that actually had real Wire consequences in Week 13 was Kris vs. Beans. Both teams are trying to save face after some seriously stinky performances for the bulk of the regular season. I think that deep dive I did into Kris’ long-term performance and close win against Ryan in Week 9 (go back and check it out;)) really whipped the reins against the hide of the Norse Horse, because he’s been running like a madman as of late and actually finished with the third most points in the regular season. This ascension has been complemented by two Week 13 moves that undisputedly gave him the win over the Founder of our humble website. First was bidding on Tevin Coleman in auction (first FAAB spent on a Jet this season!) and getting a 9 point return on a $2 investment. Second was somehow knowing that Sony Michel would return to a form not seen since Week 16 of *2018* (100+ yards and a TD). Those 20 points plus Tevin’s 9 truly made the difference, as Kris ended up winning by 24.42. As we know, Beans is focused on next season, so it’s all good.

Aside from Kris’ return on Tevin, the best auction move was made by me by grabbing the Colts Defense for $10 and 16 points. Aside from the superficial $25 loss Andrew took on Chuba, the worst move was Abie dropping $21 on Matt Breida who only scored 1.3 points. Woof. Moving on…

Week 14, it’s like the leap day of football. It’ll be interesting to see how they handle regular season stats from here on out and comparing them to previous 13-week regular seasons. For the second week in a row, the most expensive auction player for the week was on a BYE, this time in the form of me dropping $13 on Kenny Gains. I’d like to think I was looking to future match-ups, which I think the podcast did mention as a guess for why I did that. Next up was Ryan, who spent $9 on Tevin Coleman (one for each point he scored the previous week heheh). What was wrong with Ty Johnson though? Apparently nothing, because he ended up scoring 7.7 after being dropped from Marzy’s Martians. Max really did have decent amount of opportunities to win against his out-of-this-world opponent and just didn’t take them. The cherry on top was when Max picked up Jermar Jefferson after Jamaal Williams went down (not such a bad trade after all I guess) and Jefferson cracked a nice stinky g00se egg all over Max’s Bama Butt. At least this pick-up of KJ Osborn made it a little less embarrassing for the guy that talks about sports for a living.

Lastly, I just want to talk a little about the insanely close game between Thomas and Brad. It was decided by 0.46 points, the second smallest margin in LeagueStory and it was the two rookies, we truly love to see it. I think everyone was heartbroken that Brad ended up on the losing end of that match-up, even Thomas himself. I’m pretty sure he could have lost and still made playoffs, but I’m not gonna check because this column is getting pretty close to rambling (y’all are thinking “close? it’s been all rambling for the past two years!” it’s okay). Why couldn’t Jaylen Guyton get one more reception, even for 0 yards??? We’ll have to ask him when he comes onto the pod. Why couldn’t Beans bid a few more dollars on the Packers D to sabotage Thomas and help out his buddy at the bottom? Why didn’t Brad pick up Money Mac who scored 11 as opposed to Daniel Carlson’s 2? I could go on, but I won’t. Let the old boy get some rest and start working on those jokes.

So there we go! Thank you as always for reading, it’s really appreciated and I always have a fun time writing about you guys and the players you all decide to go with each week. Since this might be the last edition of The Wire for the season (I’ll still be keeping stats and decide to write something if anything significant happens), I’m thinking about creating a feedback survey to see what you guys like and don’t like about the column and how I can improve. Be brutal, I need it. There will be some kind of incentive too, maybe $5 or something for your time. Can’t wait for the playoffs, see y’all there, Go League!

The only team with no FAAB spent on them this whole season, of course, was the Jaguars

Cuck of the Week – Week 14

Goooood morning league, welcome back to your favorite weekly program, legends of the hidden cuck. This week had a few subtle cuckings as well as one major cuck. Let’s start off by having a proper send off for our friends HOCKEYPRO 69 (Abie) & Bama Butts (Max), please play “I will remember you” by Sarah McLachlan while you read this statement. Thankyou both for the memories this year. Max — Thankyou for absolutely fucking my team with that Evans/Ridley trade, I will always remember your soft, caring touch while you cucked me. Abie — King Henry going down has you out of the playoffs but you’re still a champ in my mind, until next year.

This weeks cuck is Thomas and Friends (Andrew). After a stellar performance from his team, The Norse Horse (Kris) CAME IN LIKE A CUCKING BALLLLLLL and decimated his hopes of getting that first round bye. Maybe vigs should have spent more time managing his team and less time grinding on any female that looked his way at Santacon. Who are you, Urban Meyer? Kris’ team had a meeting Sunday morning and agreed to collectively cuck vigs. Regardless, he is in the playoffs but has to overcome The Martians (Ryan). Let’s all have a safe and fun yoffs.

As always we are sponsored by BetterHelp, before you drive full speed into a tree in an attempt to mangle your body beyond repair — like Jake Gyllenhaal in that boxing movie — call a therapist and explain why you feel like such a loser. Go League, Veni Vidi Vici.

Many Cucks, Bonez

P.s. @BetterHelp Pay Me

LeagueStory x LeagueTalk: Part ??

Above is a comparison of the current tenants of 149 Sullivan Street in two different years, posted today in order to celebrate my return to the famous apartment following my brief time on the COVID reserve list. I’m just now listening to the pod (and I know I’m quite late again on The Wire) and I forgot about how dominant of a season my man #DaCommish had back in 2019. Looking at the numbers it seems like through 13 weeks, I’ve had higher totals scores and win margins in the current year, but Vigs didn’t pick up his second loss until the last week of the regular season. This makes my 2 game losing streak stand out like an ugly sore thumb, but then again I didn’t lose by almost 80 points. Interestingly our total points were much closer through 12 weeks (I still had a slight edge), but as you can see we had very different performances in Week 13, so that made the true difference up to this point. Will I follow my roommate to the glory of the championship? We’ll find out in time. Thanks for caring!