FF 2015 Thoughts

I really debated as to whether I should take up this blog again.  I mean, having a kid is kind of a game-changer, but after looking back at last season, I couldn't help but fondly reminisce about the good memories made by all the drama, mishaps, making-fun-of, etc.  I'll be honest, that was probably my favorite blog entry to write all season.  And reading it again made me literally lulz.

Of course, taking all the credit for these blog posts is short-sighted, self-centered, and inaccurate.  All the team managers provide the material, whether it be Eric's waiver-wire follies, Jeff's unhealthy obsession with a QB whose name rhymes with Shady, Justina's impeccably-timed-and-perfectly-chosen GIFs, Luke's (sometimes lack of) analytics and charts, or Andrew's immediate and much-welcomed integration into our league's smack talkery - it's all golden to me.

I also took some quick metrics at how last year's blog went, for those of you who may be interested:

• With my attempt at bringing in extra revenue, I've made a whopping $3.72 off advertizzzles.  That's actually more than I thought I would get.
• The blog got 6,347 page views from August 2014-July 2015.  That's up from 5,767 during August 2013-July 2014 and 5,055 during August 2012-July 2013.  An upwards trend.
• The most viewed post was my analysis of the Joique Bell-Kelvin Benjamin trade with a modest 93 page views.  Which, by the way, is no where near Justina's masterful piece on Points Against - the all-time champ of posts with 1,321 total page views.  For reference, the next most-visited post is my Mock Draft 2012 piece, which only has 863 total page views.  Justina wins at blog writing.  But back to the Joique Bell-KB piece - my theory on why it got the most page views was because I tweeted it out and tagged both Bell and Benjamin in my tweet, so maybe they got freaked out that they might get traded and actually visited my blog.  One can hope.

So in spite of the meager earnings and lack of popularity in terms of comparative page views, likely due to the entries having little relevance to the rest of the world wide web, I opted to take a page out of Charles Barkley's book and totally ignore these analytics.  So, in going with my gut, I decided to pick up the burden of blogging again in 2015.  At least for now.

I will not make any guarantees regarding consistency or quality, but I will do what I can, given the circumstances.  It might mean nixing the predictions (which help you all remember to set your rosters anyway) or stripping the content of any valuable Fantasy Football commentary (which was mainly uninformed and misguided banter).  But nevertheless - my first post!

Let's start by updating our wiener's list:

Regular season champions:
Luke - 3
Jeff - 2
Aaron - 1
David Lin - 1
Gabs - 1
Jen - 1
Khoa - 1
Mike - 1

Playoff champions:
David Lin - 3
Luke - 3
Eric - 1
Gabs - 1
Justina - 1
Mike - 1
Khoa - 1

"Medalists" (finished in top 3 either in regular season or playoffs)
David Lin - 11
Luke - 9
Eric - 6
Gabs - 5
Jeff - 5
Tim - 5
Khoa - 5
Justina - 4
Aaron - 3
Laura - 3
Mike - 3
Jen - 2
Lan - 2
Abraham - 1
David Li - 1
Duke - 1

Italics indicates the owner is no longer in our league.
Highlighed names indicate the owner earned this in 2014.

As you can see, David Lin is now tied with Luke for playoff championships, and all of our sophomore (and 3rd year - I see you D.Li) teams are now medalists, so a round of congratulations is due.

Looking forward, each new Fantasy Football season brings a clean slate for all, and this one is no different.  We've retained most of the core components (people, scoring, draft format, FAAB), but two main factors have changed: commissioner and the stakes.

Regarding commissioner, we can rest assured knowing we won't have to deal with any more of this:

Let us never forget.

But regarding the stakes, if a person wins the regular season and the playoff championship, he or she could potentially get a 750% ROI.  That's big time.  I read somewhere that if you put some money into some mutual fund and let it sit for 20 years, it would DEFINITELY turn into, like, a million dollars PLUS.  So suffice it to say that Adeline's college fund starts HERE and NOW.

Honestly, though, I'm hoping the added stakes element brings another level of excitement to it all.  Not surprisingly, I've already seen glimpses of it:

While for others, I'm not sure what they are feeling:

But let's be honest, who is the real loser this season?

No, seriously - who is it??  I guess we'll have to find out.

I'll try to live tweet this auction draft.  It helps me remember all the silly things people do come draft day.  There's more than pride on the line this year.

Happy drafting!