GW13 Fantasy Football

We tend to name our teams after our top players, and most teams choose a name at the start of the season and stick with it the rest of the way, no matter what happens through the season. (Some players even stick with the same name for multiple seasons...) Some player names are so good that we can't help but use them despite a late pick meaning less likely relevance, or even a mid-season drop. In some cases we may even draft that late round flier not for fantasy potential but for naming potential. This season came on the heels of the 2024 Paris summer Olympics. Now that the league is in its 12th season, we've had a few Olympics come and go, especially if you count the winter ones (which come too late in the football season to be noticed at draft time, so no we don't count those). Last Olympics, we considered the theme, but steered away because it's hard to come up with names. (Instead I think we landed on another timely event that year, the pandemic). The lessons of 4 y...

We're one week away from the playoffs already! Half the league is still in the hunt too, with 4 teams officially clinching their spots (and the top two teams officially clinching their byes, one deservedly so). Let's take a look at the teams who still need to earn their spot in the last week and just how they might accomplish that: Pukaing Up Seine Water: I don't want to jinx myself and say playoffs are in the bag here for this team, but in order to lose their playoff spot, they would have to lose this week, then two of these three scenarios would have to happen: Ja'Marr SteepleChase wins and also beats Pukaing by 45+ points, Wushu Waddle wins and also beats Pukaing by 100+ points, and pretty much the same for The 49ers Gold Medal Miners Ja'Marr SteepleChase: The 6th spot is SteepleChase's spot to lose. Here's how they could. If they lose this week and either Wushu Waddle or The 49ers Gold Medal Miners wins, they're just out. If neither of those teams wi...

I haven't talked as much this year about week to week performance. By this point in the season, I often feel I'm just repeating myself, and anyway I like playing with analytics a lot. The upside to this approach is that I hopefully haven't exhausted anyone with weekly talks yet. Last week I took a bye week, but between that week and this, there were some interesting head to heads worth diving into. I won't go over every match, but there was plenty among just the close ones for everyone to be vested in. Week 10 Recap: Half the league was biting their nails this week, with three matches decided by 2.5 or fewer points. In probably the least widely impactful close game of the week (though still with plenty of implications), Dak's Track Attack secured their second win of the season by 0.65 points over Wushu Waddle. At 4-7 after a win this week, that loss did basically put Wushu Waddle out of the playoff running, where they would be one of two 5-6 contenders instead. Wit...

Over the season, injuries happen. Some players just disappoint, and others become stars out of nowhere. Some players are able to capture that lightning in a bottle, while others make some really bad moves, though that's typically only apparent in hindsight. Last year, a couple of waiver wire heroes really boosted their teams, especially a pair of Rams picked up in the early season. Some of these gems turned into keepers this year, which makes sense, since the waiver wire often has some of the most potential for values out of the late rounds, or even undrafted. Maybe some of the good pickups from this year's list will stay on the team for years to come as a keeper. To start, I'm curious to look at how active team managers have been in our league, and wonder whether more activity has actually given a leg up this season. How many moves has each team made so far (and their current standings): Pukaing Up Siene Water: 32 (6th) Ja'Marr SteepleChase: 23 (8th) Lamarathon Runners...

We're just past the halfway point of the season, and standings are continuing to solidify as we head toward playoffs. No team is officially out of the playoffs yet (and Yahoo may not fully agree till things are well past any point reasonable people would agree), but if we count a negative record as out of playoffs and a positive record as in, we're getting really close to determinations for some teams. One team, Dak's Track Attack would need to win out to get an even record and a chance at playoffs, but even then, being the only team still in the 700s for points this season, they'd also have a huge hill to climb when breaking ties for that last spot. Another team, Lamarathon Runners would now need to lose out to miss playoffs this season, and if they lose out, they would almost definitely miss since they are only 30 points above 6th PF and would probably not gain many points losing all those games. Even if they do lose out, with the 3rd highest point total (a position t...

This week I had a set of stats in mind, but it's Thursday and I still haven't quite finished the scripts to pull all the data I need. Instead, to mark the halfway point of the regular season, I'll step away from the analytics and just provide some raw commentary on each team's performance over the first half of the season. To make it at least a little special for the halfway point, maybe I can add some predictions as well. We're going reverse order of current standings here, so the predictions work better. Dak's Track Attack: This season has been tough for Dak's Track Attack. To be honest, most of the starters on this team don't seem to be true starters, with players like Austin Ekeler (what an injury year and a trade can do) and Khalil Shakir typically being mostly bench depth. Regardless of those plays, which have been made out of necessity, this team's players have dropped the ball all around, with multiple low single digit games each from Amari C...