I for one dont trust the media anymore, except the extremely unbiased Fox News, so I have to vent this Saturday afternoon and give my State of the Union on Duff You Scorpion Pants. Last Pounding season I stormed into the leauge with agressiveness, active participation and a playoff birth that resulted in a respectable 3rd place finish even while participating in the trade of the year with my brother-in-law. Yes, it was my downfall and the championship could have been mine, but that is neither here nor there.
Before this season, I felt I had gained the respect of the Fantasy Gods and the great Potentate and I would be a part of the good ol' boy network. With my tantalizing tells in the Cougar Den last year, I was promised an AP vote this season, but was not rewarded a vote and my column was stripped from my limp wrist...uh I mean liger talons. My reccomendations on the phantom home field advatange point have been ignored and never put to a vote My team name has been discredited and voted against and my team has been discounted has unorthodox. I've learned in the past few months, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Pounding elite, then some in the media consider a pounder unqualified for that reason alone. I am somewhat of a Maverick willing to challenge the authority of the Fantasy Gods and the great Potentate and unwilling to go along with the status quo.
Whether there was some shady dealing going on with Whitey and the great Potentate before the draft did not shake my confidence in the draft. The media is discounting one of the most consistent fantasy quarterbacks of our era not to mention his outstanding real record. Does eleven seasons not count for something? Does anyone in the media ever consider the facts and the history of a man? This is an unusual year in which everything in the status quo will be challenged. Rookie RB's traditionally dont do very well starting out the gate and the reason is because there is traditionally an incumbent starter. This year, there are no incumbent starters in Detroit, Chicago, Carolina, Oakland and Houston. It is a different era and I am an "agent of change." Talent + Situation + Opportunity = Fantasy Value (production) This year unlike last year running backs were falling all over the place to season ending injuries. It was imperative to have depth. This year the injuries are occuring on defense and at WR. I dont need the elitist media telling me how to manage my '08 campaign, I dont need to take a downgrade at WR to upgrade RB. I dont need to do anything that you in the media expect as being status quo.
Don't ever count a Maverick out.
"How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal, and you have to be willing to work for it."..."Don't give up, don't ever give up."
-Jim Valvano
I for one can't view stuff on Fantasy at work, so if we could utilize the blog more for caddy remarks, witty banter, and recaps, etc I would be most greatful.
Keep in mind that if we DO start a keeper league, the draft lottery will become extinct. Just sayin...
We're trying a new polling system.
I think we've discussed this enough to make a decision.
Just as a note - If either Option #1 or Option #2 is the winner, we'll be moving the waiver processing period back 24 hours to reward people who pay attention - those who don't rely on the articles ESPN publishes telling you exactly who to pick up. Obviously, if Option #3 wins, there is no waiver period, so it won't matter.
So the next thing we should deal with is how exactly waivers will work next season. There are really only 2 options that ESPN allows, and we may want to switch this year.
Option 1:
Same as last year. Each week, the waiver order resets to the inverse of the current league standings. So the worst team in the league has the first waiver pick.
Reason For:
It helps the teams in last place get first dibs on the players on waivers, hopefully evening out the league.
Reason Against:
It de-values the waiver process by allowing each team to pick up as many players as they want without any real consequence for the next week, leading teams to pick up players they don't really need. In last year's case, Whitey had the best record in the league, but when players started getting injured, he was in no position to pick up anyone of value from waivers. Of course, that wasn't the only thing that led to his eventual demise.
Option 2:
Week 1, the waiver order is the inverse of the draft order (whoever drafted 12 would have the first waiver position, and so on). From there, when you pick up someone off of waivers, you move to the end. The only way to move up is for someone else to pick someone up off waivers, then that person becomes the 12 spot. So the waiver order does not reset each week.
Reason For:
It allows everyone at the very least a chance to get a nice waiver wire position, instead of penalizing the teams who do well. It makes people value their waiver wire pick-ups a little more because you know you'll be at the end for next week so you might not choose just to pick up someone you don't need one week in hopes of having a better chance at a player you may actually need the following week.
Reason Against:
Teams that have the worst record in the league aren't necessarily going to be in the best position to pick up players they need. Of course, this could lead to more trading, which would be interesting.
Enough talk. Vote.
And if it asks, the password is "vote".
As the NBA Finals tips off, I can't help but wonder...should we keep the Offensive Player spot in 2008? I also can't help but wonder why the Larry O'Brien trophy always has to be stamped so hideously large in the middle of the court.
So anyways, there were 2 major roster adjustments last year - the addition of the OP and the removal of a flex position (RB/WR). Instead, we had 2 RBs and 2 WRs. The only other roster talk I heard was the possibility of removing the Defensive Player position. That was mainly the week following a 6-sack game by Osi.
The way I see it, we should either keep it the same as last year or go back to our previous lineup.
2006:
QB, 2 RB, Flex (RB/WR), 2 WR, TE, DP, D/ST, K
2007:
QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, OP, TE, DP, D/ST, K
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Opening Argument
I actually haven't made my mind up yet. I think I'm leaning towards reverting back to a more traditional setup where the RBs play a bigger role, but I'm open to being convinced otherwise.
If you have another roster setup that you wanna suggest, feel free to post it in the Comments section.
After 75% of the league displayed a mass showing of Fantasy Indifference, I have decided to move on to the next debate. Clearly, this wasn't as "hot-button" as I once thought.
Go. Vote. Move on.
This will work the same as it did last year - I will throw out a topic of debate, we'll discuss in the Comments section, and when I feel all the arguments have been made, I will post a poll that everyone will vote in.
I thought I'd start the debate with one of the most divisive (pun intended) issues our league dealt with last year: Divisions.
There are 3 legitimate schools of thought when it comes to dividing up the league:
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1. One Large Division
This was popularized in the Pounding 06 season, and really takes divisions out of the equation altogether. Playoff seeding is based solely on overall record and tiebreakers.
2. Two Divisions
This was last year's setup that set the London Gentlemen up against the men of Blackbeard's Delight. Last year, the league's top 6 seeds were the 6 who made the playoffs, narrowly avoiding controversy.
3. Four Divisions
This is a proposed divisional setup that has been gaining momentum ever since rivalries were introduced during the 2007 season. The top seed in each division would get an automatic playoff berth, along with 2 wild cards (the teams with the next 2 highest records, taking tiebreakers into account). This is pretty much how the MLB does it.
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Opening Argument
My vote, as it was last year, is to institute the 4 Division system, mainly because it will piss Fuquay off.
With a 13-week regular season and the rivalry system in place, each team plays all 11 other teams once, and then 2 of those teams a second time. This plays perfectly into a 4-Division league. The 2 other teams in your division are, by default, your rivals. And, consequently, those rivalries actually become more important than other games - should division leaders be tied at the end of the season, the division record would be the first tiebreaker.
And imagine if we changed the second Rivalry Week to the final week of the season. The Pounding '08 hype machine would go crazy with playoff implications.
Let the debate begin...
Welcome to the new (and improved) Pounding Blog. I've been bored out of my mind in the world of sports lately (I can't even bring myself to watch an entire Lakers/Spurs game) that I decided it was high time we began the next great debate. We have some major decision-making to do, and we should get down to business.
Here is a summary of the topics we'll be debating:
Members
I've already gotten one application requesting to join the Pounders, and I know we have some disgruntled owners that would like to make some ownership changes.
The Pot
Should we increase the pot? If so, by how much?
Divisions
There were major rumblings this year about changing the division setup to 4. Some want to rid the league of all divisions whatsoever.
Rosters
Last year, we added the OP spot, where smart owners put a 2nd QB (see: Herrington's draft). We need to vote on whether to keep or remove that, as well as other roster changes.
Authors & Articles
We had about 5 people writing articles for the league last year. While it was intended to increase user participation, it actually had the opposite effect. The Sultan's calculations have informed me that user participation declined by 30% from 06 to 07. We'll vote to see if we should return to the Preview/Recap only system.
Scoring System
I was called out this year for decreasing the interception penalty from -2 to -1 points, so we can vote on that and other scoring changes.
Trade Review Process
This was the first year we saw multiple trades pushed through by none other than myself. We need to decide what an acceptable trade review period should be, and if we should allow trades getting pushed through again.
Waiver Wire Order
Jeff White will explain/complain, but there is apparently a much better way to decide the waiver wire order. It forces you to take a more calculated approach to working the wire each week.
Keeper League
Should we institute a keeper system this year? Just throwing the idea out there.
Tiebreakers
Some people had issues with how the tiebreakers worked.
That's not the exact order we'll go in, but I would say that's a pretty good list that should take us a fair amount of time.
I think that's all I got right now. We'll begin shortly. And if you don't remember how to post onto this site, or don't have access, let me know.
- Potentate Wade