WNQ Week 9: The Homestretch...and Impeachment?

Should Jon stay in the league? Read below for an important league announcement.

Some of you may have heard the stories from the unfortunately-outcomed Michigan Nebraska game last weekend. While I’ve got a great story to tell about copious vomiting (Carissa and Nabeel), getting lost in Nebraska (Dane) and visiting the drunk tank (Sean and Lori, my fiancée), it’s a story best heard in person. Also, I’ve run out of time to write it all, as usual. So I’m going to stick with, you know, fantasy football, because that should, theoretically, he what this is all about.

The focus this week is on playoffs. We’ve officially got five more games until the end of the season, and things are beginning to look very good for certain teams, and very dire for others.

Week 8 Winners and Losers:

Winner: The Top 4

Last week was a good week for who I’m (currently) calling the Big Four: Drew, Travis, Ryan Davis, and myself. Now, it’s tough for me to use this term, because it’s really more of a Big Two and a Little Two; Travis and Drew have not only the two best records but also the highest point totals of any team. Davis and I are playing ugly but making it work, though we’re not so insurmountable that it’s unlikely that another team will pass us in the final standings. But with each of us winning last week, there is a steady widening of the gap between the haves and have nots.

Winner: Peter

That’s a statement you probably won’t hear again. Peter, the most maligned member of our league, who hasn’t made the playoffs since our inaugural, 8-team playoff season, with the second lowest percentage of all teams active before this year (40.2%, barely edging Kim’s 39.5%), and owner of two proud 10th place finishes and two 8th place finishes (his best finish: Season 1, 7th place), is suddenly relevant. His Week 8 win over everyone’s least favorite fantasy football player was the kind of statement win Peter needs moving forward to potentially make a playoff run. And he’s currently in 6th place! Peter hasn’t been in 6th place at anytime after the halfway-point of the season since Season 1. I know it’s premature to say Peter might just make a run, as karma has a way of smiting him, but things are certainly looking up for Mr. Unfortunate.

Loser: Jon Godin

I’m emailing a link of this post out to Godin this week because I’m fairly positive there is no way he’s logged into the league in three weeks. Let’s look at the evidence:

In Week 7, Godin failed to play an active RB and WR, despite having two active RBs and three active WRs on his roster. The outcome? 53 points in a blowout loss to Peter.

In Week 8, Godin failed to play an active RB, a FLEX, and a defense. He didn’t even bother picking up a D/ST to play, but did have two RBs on his bench that could have been used. The outcome? 49 points in a bad but not terrible loss to Ryan Bad.

Jon is on a 6 game losing streak, and may have just simply been ignoring his team without our knowing it for weeks now.

Jon has NEVER bid on a player in the Free Agent Auction. Don’t be confused by his $86 free agent auction budget remaining. He suffered $14 in penalties from not paying for 14 days after the deadline.

I find this disgraceful, for multiple reasons. I will start out by saying that I do not begrudge someone an occasional open slot. There are a variety of reasons that someone might not start a player, whether it be bad free agent auction luck (ala Jewish Malificent during Defensegate last year), active vomiting and hangover (Donel), or occasional absent-mindedness, which has hit us all once or twice. Repeated, flagrant lack of interest in your team, however, is unacceptable.

There are bigger issues at play, however. When Kyle got frustrated with Computer Buffalo Dung, he took it like a man, acknowledged it for what it was, and paid his fines like a man. Many players, including myself, are actively distressed when fate works against them and they are unable to start an active player. Jon has shown neither of these things…and likely does not even know a problem is occurring.

I texted Jon last week and told him to manage his fantasy football team. He gave a vague response. I’m not sure if we will see him again.

This brings us to a crossroads of sort. What is the best option? Jon, you shall recall, is currently in his probationary period, as is Ryan Davis. There is no chance Jon, in his current standing, will ever grace the league again. Is it possible he turns it around and makes himself into a respectable member of the league? Perhaps. He doesn’t have a bad team, and certainly has players some of us would kill for. What if he made some trades, was attentive to his team, active in our community, and made the playoffs? He might still be able to make a case of himself. This is unlikely, but possible.

Without a personal plea from the Godin himself, I think the more likely outcome is his being voted out of the league. Would it be more fair to call and emergency meeting and have it happen now? Should we vote at this moment to keep or lose Jon Godin? Should we disband his roster and have a lottery for collecting his players? Or should we just put all of his players on the bench? There’s also the option of bringing in another manager to help with his team. We’ve discussed both Tudor and Justin in the past, though who knows what their availability is. We also have the option of Dane, who apparently, unbeknownst to us, has been playing FF for years in smaller leagues. We do have a lot of options.

As I said before, I am going to email this post out to everyone so there is a chance Godin will see it and give him a chance to defend himself. I’m also going to put an informal poll (or two) on the front page, and I hope you will all vote over the weekend so I can get an idea of what people are thinking.

Loser: Kyle

Kyle, I love ya, but your team would have lost to Jon’s team of inactives this weak, which is no good.

The Playoff Picture

FF is notoriously unpredictable, but there have been trends in our league that have never been violated. For example, there has never been a team with seven wins who has NOT made the playoffs. In the same regard, there has never been a team with 5 wins who has made the playoffs. So the magic number all teams are looking for, wins-wise, is seven. At six wins, teams have a 60% chance of making the playoffs if we include all seasons; if we remove the 8 team playoff, 14 team league of season 1, that improves slightly to 61.5%. It is still unclear whether a 12-team league will give us more middling teams at 6 wins or more 12-1 monsters and 2-11 losers, so it’s hard to carry trends over into this season, but it should be a safe bet that 7 wins = playoffs.

Drew is already at 7 wins and is a safe bet for the playoffs. Travis is also essentially in, with two, count ‘em two games against Jon still to come.

There are then four other teams who have the chance to control their own destiny. With five games to play, my team is no guarantee for two more wins but I have the great fortune of playing Donel, Ryan Bad, and Kyle, both who are currently in the doldrums. Davis has an even more fortunate draw, with Donel, Jon, Ryan Bad and Scott on his ticket, as well as Peter’s average team. While neither of us are guarantees (we’re low scoring teams on a mission!), we’re both good if not great bets for the playoffs.

Jason and Peter are a bit more dicey. Jewish Malificent is facing four losing teams but those include Kim’s occasionally dangerous lineup, as well as his arch nemesis Bad Karma Peter. The Jason vs. Peter matchup will be a must win for Peter, as he also has to worry about Ryan/A and myself on his schedule.

Let’s make the presumption that neither Scott nor Godin will make the playoffs. Godin would need to, you know, play fantasy football in order to actually be competitive. Scott, at 2-5-1 really only needs four wins to make it into the playoffs as the T in his column gives him the ultimate tiebreaker. However, does anyone think Scott can win four of five games when his opponents include Travis, Drew, Ryan/A, and J. Malificent? Scott will be lucky to get away with two wins, and is likely out of the running.

That leaves Kim, Donel, Ryan/B, and Kyle on the outside looking in. Kim, with her tie, has the best chance to sneak into a final spot and could potentially get in with a 6-6-1 record. Assuming she will lose to Drew in her final game of the season, she needs to win 3 of 4 tough games against Peter, Donel, Kyle, and Jason. Not insurmountable, but iffy.

Donel’s 719 PF gives him the next best tiebreaker, essentially guaranteeing himself tiebreakers versus nearly every team not owned by Drew or Travis. He, however, needs to face both 5-3 teams in the league…though he also gets the consensus bottom 2, giving him a coin flip chance for a 6 win season.

Ryan/B may end up being undone by his schedule. Assuming he beats Jason this week (which is a poor assumption), he’d then need to beat two of the following four: myself, Travis, Peter, and Ryan/A. This seems unlikely, and I’m calling Ryan Good out of the running. Ditto for Kyle, who is playing five teams with a better record than him, including 4 of the top 5 teams.

As the season progresses, I’ll try to focus in on the key matchups with playoff implications. For now, I think the top 6 teams have a great chance to be the final ones standing, but time will tell…

Records

Here's a bonus for anyone who reads this on the site...not available via email!

Two records were set last week.

First, Rob Gronkowski's 26 points is in a tie for the second highest TE score of all time. For reference, Gronkowski now possesses 6 scores within the top 10.

Second, Peter got 19 points out of Lawrence Tynes (K), good for fourth place on the K list.

Fines:

Juan: $10 ($6 this week for three inactives)