Week 16
1/1/10
Every industry has experts; those sages that dispense wisdom
and truth from atop the mountain. In philosophy these learned men
wear long, flowing robes and an equally lengthy beard is required.
In fantasy football, a backwards ball cap, clipboard of notes, and
half empty bottle of Coors Light is more likely. But are these guys
truly experts? Do they know any better than the rest of us schmucks?
Each week Analyzing the Experts will take aim at one or more of
these so-called oracles and find out…
The final week of the 2009 fantasy season is a chance to not only
earn a championship, but also take stock of the season. What went
right? How many things went wrong? Two teams in every league are
playing their most important game of the season this week. Meanwhile,
everyone else is drowning their sorrows at the local sports bar
while blaming horrible luck, one bad trade, or that first round
bust for their misfortune. We’ll be doing similar things here
today. First off, we need to crown our King of the Experts. Then
we will hand out some end-of-the-season awards. And finally we will
preview the changes that are coming for next year.
Our final user-submitted team of the season is Paperlions, owned
by David in Denver. I found out earlier this morning that he just
won his second fantasy title this week, largely based on his decisions
to start the San Francisco defense and Jonathan Stewart’s
opportune performance. Congratulations to David and I am making
the totally unfounded claim right now that this series contributed
heavily to his great success. Write something nice about me in
your acceptance speech.
- QB: Palmer, Rivers, Schaub
- RB: Charles, Harrison, MJD, Stewart, P. Thomas
- WR: Driver, L. Evans, V. Jackson, Meacham, Welker
- TE: Boss, Gonzalez, Watson
- K: Gostkowski, Graham
- Def: 49ers, Texans
This is definitely a team worthy of playing for the championship.
Some great waiver wire pickups solidified an already interesting
line up. I’m not in love with his receivers, but there are
a lot of potential points hidden in there each week. David ranked
his own team and scored an 82. As we have seen on so many occasions
this year, that would have been good enough to beat both of our
professional Experts. Hang your heads in shame guys…
Analyzing the Experts Title Game
| Pick Color Codes |
|
| Correct |
|
| Missed by: 1 |
|
| Missed by: 2 |
|
| Missed by: 3 |
|
|
| |
P
a
l
m
e
r |
R
i
v
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r
s |
S
c
h
a
u
b |
C
h
a
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l
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s |
H
a
r
r
i
s
o
n |
M
J
D
|
S
t
e
w
a
r
t |
P.
T
h
o
m
a
s |
D
r
i
v
e
r |
L.
E
v
a
n
s |
V.
J
a
c
k
s
o
n |
M
e
a
c
h
e
m |
W
e
l
k
e
r |
B
o
s
s |
G
o
n
z
a
l
e
z |
W
a
t
s
o
n |
G
o
s
t
k
o
w
s
k
i
|
G
r
a
h
a
m |
4
9
e
r
s |
T
e
x
a
n
s |
TPts |
| Correct |
3 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
| FF
Sharks |
3 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
76 |
| Fox |
3 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
80 |
|
This was fairly close, but I wish someone had stepped up with a
great outing. Instead we got average to poor rankings. However,
the final score still gives Fox Sports the win, meaning he is now
King of the Experts. Congratulations to Roger Rotter at Fox. Ironically,
I roasted him pretty harshly a couple years back. Maybe he took
my criticism to heart and put some extra effort into is work. Regardless,
he was decent at every position excluding running back. MJD’s
poor performance surprised pretty much everyone, while Charles and
Harrison continued looking like legitimate NFL running backs on
a couple of horrible teams. FF Sharks had a nice run, but not much
went right this week. Betting against the 49ers, while it only cost
him a couple points in our contest, would have cost fantasy owners
a win in many cases.
Season In Review
King of the Experts: Fox Sports
Fox was very quietly a top team from beginning to end. They ended
the regular season second in total points and consistently put
up better than average numbers. They were our highest scoring
Expert in three out of thirteen weeks and did enough to stay ahead
of everyone come playoff time. Fox Sports is definitely a consensus-type
ranking site. Owners will get solid advice, but it won’t
be outside the box. That isn’t necessary a bad thing as,
more often than not, those crazy picks ended up burning our contestants.
Final Regular Season Standings
| ATE Standings
- East |
| EAST |
Record |
Pts |
| * Rotoworld |
8-5 |
1062 |
| * Fox |
7-3-3 |
1064 |
| e FF Cafe |
5-5-3 |
1058 |
| e ESPN |
5-5-3 |
1053 |
| e AOL |
3-7-3 |
1044 |
| e KFFL |
2-9-2 |
1024 |
| ****** |
3-10 |
953 |
|
|
| ATE Standings
- West |
| WEST |
Record |
Pts |
| * CBS |
9-2-2 |
1060 |
| * Football Guys |
8-4-1 |
1056 |
| * FF Toolbox |
7-3-3 |
1080 |
| * FF Sharks |
6-5-2 |
1044 |
| e FF Today |
6-5-2 |
1041 |
| e Yahoo! |
4-8-1 |
1056 |
| e NFL |
4-6-3 |
1055 |
|
|
* – Clinched a playoff
spot
e - Eliminated from playoff contention.
Awards
Most Consistent Award: CBS Sports
CBS was rock solid this year. Their worst weekly finish was tenth
and that was the only time they ended up in our bottom third.
Most Courageous Award: FF Today,
FF Sharks
Both of these Experts excelled at picking some surprising players
to do well and having it occasionally work out. In a world where
most ranking lists look pretty much the same, these guys definitely
went their own way. Some other Experts tried their hand at earning
this award, but in order to do that, not only do you have to make
outside the box picks, they also have to end up being great more
often than idiotically stupid. It is a very fine line.
Luckiest Award: KFFL
This is ironic since they really didn’t seem to have much
luck this year. However, the fact that they managed to win two
games and tie another couple attests to the abundance of luck
they received. If ever a team should have ended up winless, KFFL
was it.
Worst Luck Award: FF Toolbox
After clearly leading the pack in total points throughout the
regular season, they stumbled in the playoffs, throwing away thirteen
week’s worth of work and success. With a little luck, they
could have easily won it all.
First Annual “Cry Baby” Memorial
Pay Site Award: Pay sites, whether good or bad, all have
one trait in common – **********. Without exception, they
balk at being held up to objective criticism or examination. That
being said, if any pay sites want to participate next year, please
let me know. I’m
sure they will be fighting to get in my door…Our winner
this season is The Team That Cannot Be Named, although
if you look back through this season you can find one Expert mysteriously
going away.
Going Forward
Overall, this season was a smashing success. While I was incapable
of setting up a schedule where every team played each other due
to my laziness and idiocy, most everything else went right. I
received a handful of suggestions and will be examining them for
inclusion in next season’s version of Analyzing the Experts.
More sarcasm – check (although I didn’t realize I
was slacking in that area). Better Experts – I’ll
do my best but I have to take what is out there. Everyone who
has thoughts on improving the series please
continue sending them in. I read ‘em all but can’t
promise to implement everything.
Two very noticeable changes for next season will be:
Enhanced Scoring: Over the course
of the season the significance of the weekly scoring got lost
a bit. Some Experts were writing me with questions like, “I’m
only behind by 20 points this season. You can’t say I’m
a complete failure at football and life because of that.”
However, over those ten weeks, that difference meant the Expert
was two picks worse each and every week – a huge number.
So, we’ll make some adjustments to better highlight the
surprising successes and numerous failures of our contestants.
Owner Scoring: Team owners will
be asked to submit their rankings as well as their line ups. I
didn’t originally do this because I was unsure if readers
would be willing to take the time to rank their own teams. I was
pleasantly surprised at how many did it without me even asking.
And considering the success they had versus our stable of Experts,
I hope to finally determine how helpful Experts really are.
So, comments, suggestions, rants – send them all to me
in the off-season. It is now time to relax, watch some playoff
football, and get back into some NHL action. It’s been fun.
Congratulations once again to Fox Sports
and all our other playoff teams. A big thank you to FF Today for
putting up with my crap and an even bigger thanks to you, the
reader, for your suggestions, team submissions, and occasional
hate mail. To all those Experts I offended with my occasionally
sarcastic spin on the truth – suck it up cry babies… |
