Commish Notes-- Reposted Here

[Zap 0]

I figured a decent fuhner would have something to say before the season reveals the truth about our chosen hands. So the following is just a ramble about this league. I wish I had the motivation to reincarnate the Prozac Weekly for all of us, but oh well.

 

For several reasons, I love the format of this league. Years ago when the mange board was a respectable place to engage in fantasy discussion, the topic of "luck vs. skill" was particularly interesting to me. I've always looked at it like many professional poker players: Poker is 100% skill and 100% luck, so is this gig. However, it seemed to me that the game should be designed to reduce luck as much as possible. So, I did some research on the topic and arrived at Goidpankal.

 

First of all, it had to be a redraft. Nothing tests your draft and projections for the season at hand like a redraft. The big money open competitions are all redrafts. Keeping a handful of players from year to year certainly involves skill and foresight, but let's face it, the real benefit of that approach is simply keeping a league together. Starting from scratch and redrafting levels the playing field for all, and thereby to some small extent, reduces luck.

 

Second, I had to kick out kickers. There's been several irrefutable studies that crunched the historical stats and proved that no position brings more luck to a fantasy team than kickers. They're very high scoring but generally chosen last. Why? Too much luck involved for risking high picks, and too much similarity in the outcome. Nothing is more frustrating than soundly outscoring your opponent at QB, RB, WR etc., and having his bye week kicker make five FGs, your drafted one not even line up a kick, and you lose by a point or two. Bah. No kickers allowed around here.

 

Those same studies showed that team D/STs were the second most difficult to project, and like kickers were almost impossible to figure on a week to week basis. So, no team Ds allowed, learn the other side of the line of scrimmage, and let's use IDPs. The problem with redrafts and IDPs is most leagues only start a few to keep the draft reasonable. That's a problem because free agency is then full of very solid defenders and there's no reason to draft IDPs until very late. Kind of like kickers. So, we start 8, their value goes up, we draft them early and often, and there's little left in free agency.

 

Speaking of the draft, we took about four hours. As frustrating as it seemed, I've been reading some other draft stories, and I'd like to compliment you all. We, as a group, did better than most. 25 rounds is just a whopper, and organizing 12 people online is no small task either. So thanks again.

 

Speaking of free agency, you may have noticed there is very little out there. That too is by design. I believe aggressive team management should be rewarded, but I don't think it should be easy. Your draft should be key to your success, and having 10 open bench positions depletes free agency, emphasizes preseason opinions and roster strategy-- hopefully again reducing luck a little.

 

Again, by design, there is turnover in this league-- fresh meat. I'm in another geek league here. It's made up of long-time members at FFToday. We know each other's personal business, and are basically a bunch of online comrades having a good time. It's good for a few laughs, and we draft way too early for my liking. We keep the same guys together by design, for the comraderie. However, I happen to have an active respect for divergent opinions. I know many of the noobs on the main board and those at FBG who respond to my annual recruiting solicitations are probably alot sharper FF minds than the old-timers in the other league. So, Goidpankal offers an opportunity for the noobs to get their feet wet in one of FFToday's carefully designed geek leagues. My recruiting advertisement is written to weed out those who may regularly inhabit the help forum, and thus far no owner has disappointed me by being too green.

 

Speaking of comraderie, we had a bad experience with an idiot last season. Gentlemen, this league is free. The last thing I want to do is open email or read the message board and get a bunch of buttnuggetry and assholery. Smack talk, trash talk-- whatever you call it-- is all fine and good and very much expected, but let's keep it light and keep it fun. 16 weeks is a long time to endure a caustic ###### like we endured last season. Thanks in advance.

 

What we have here is an excellent bragging rights league. If you see the reduced luck in the format, then perhaps, this is as good a bragging rights league as you can find. I like to think so. But all my efforts do not change the axiom: 100% skill AND 100% luck. So please, if you must be a jerk, can you do it somewhere where people are paying money to be abused? It ain't worth it for free. Also, I do not want these comments to stop you from enjoying spirited banter. I just hope you understand how to keep it all in good fun.

 

If all this talk about luck goes against the grain of your belief in your own expertise, what can I tell you? This is my 19th season in the last 20 years. I've seen it all. Rarely have I seen a team with the perceived best draft hold on and win it all. Using this league's experience over the past two years is a fine example. I won the inaugural season, but I honestly felt I was toast going into the final game. RLLD's team was flat out stomping it's way through the second half of the season in this league. My team was held together with prayers and tape. I practically conceded to him before the game! Well, the fantasy gods smiled at me for all my efforts organizing this league, and the Prozac Attack prevailed. Pure luck. I get it. Last year, I really liked my chances, but in week 15 Tom Brady played the most inexplicably stupid game of his career, and Doc J beat me by less than 2 pts in the closing minutes of the Miami Pats game (as Brady played catch with the Miami defense). He was equally humble about his good fortune, and went on, thankfully, to beat the league creep in the final (a game I too would have won handily). Oh well, as rare as repeating is in competitive leagues, I damn near got LUCKY.

 

So, best of luck to you all. Have a great season. I'm a bigger fan of the NFL than I am of fantasy football, but this sure does enhance the experience. And afterall, to quote Phil Hellmuth, "If luck wasn't involved, I would never lose."

[Diesel07 0]

WOW! That must of took you all day to write. I read about 95% of it.

 

This is why i love this legue. You have to know your stuff and no luck will ruin the outcome of a game. Id hate for all my hard work and drafting go to crap by losing a game due to my opponents kicker making 2-5 50+ yarders.

 

This is my main league eventhough its free

 

I remember that game alst year when Brady threw 3 INTs to the Miami players I was rooting aginst you just becasue i didnt want you to win it 2 years in a row .

 

The fantasy gods rained down on my team in the last half of the year. As some of you may recall i think my 2nd, 4th, and 5th round picks managed to suck. 2 of them got injured and had to sit out the whole year (Charles Rogers & Stephan Davis) and the other just flat out sucked (Chambers). Zap needed string adn tape to hold his team together....well let me tell you, i need more than that. I needed gorilla glue and duct tape to make .500. I went on a 6 game wining streak (barley missed the playoffs). I LIVED on the WW week to week Zap, i tihnk you said you never saw that many WW pickups ever lol...it was something like 90 i think

 

I've never seen the best team win it all either , so im not sure my team will win it all this year (knock on wood), but well see...