Dear Opponents,
Today marks the end of season nine of The Gang Plays Fantasy Football, as Kristina cruises to her sixth championship with a 134.54-101.16 victory over Mrs. Hannah Borneman. Congratulations Kristina! And congratulations to our runner-up Hannah, who had an inspiring season but fell just a bit short at the end.
At various points in the season I’ve found myself with time to write up a little league update, but each time I thought better of it. “Kevin or Kristina are probably going to win again, so why bother?” is where my mind would invariably go. The time I saved is probably my most meaningful W of the season, and for that I am thankful.
Today is a dark day. To keep myself from sulking at the absurdity of Kristina’s dominance in this league, I spent some time this afternoon updating our league statistics database and thought I would cap the season with a “League Superlatives” piece to reflect on the year as we approach 2024.
Regular Season MVP
It’s hard to name anyone other than two-time Champion Kevin Hayashi for this award. Third in overall points for, best record in the league by two games, and some skillful in-season management. Another strong regular season gives Kevin an all-time TGPFF record of 79-41 (.658 win %) – 10 games better than anyone else since this league was created. Bravo!
Comeback Player of the Year
Our Comeback Player of the Year is none other than our runner-up Hannah. Last year she went 5-9 and was last in points for; quite a turnaround this year. If not for some poorly timed injuries you could have broken the curse, but either way, tremendous season for sure.
Best Draft
This probably isn’t surprising based on his record, but any way you slice it I’d say Kevin had the best draft. The players he drafted scored 2805 total points – 205 more than any other team. His first two picks were lackluster (Saquon Barkley and Davante Adams) but Keenan Allen (Drafted WR17 / finished WR5), T.J. Hockenson (drafted TE4 / finished TE1), Rachaad White (drafted RB24 / finished RB3), and Adam Thielen (drafted WR53 / finished WR16) buoyed him all season.
Worst Draft
There were a few stinkers for sure, but one stood out as especially bad, almost entirely due to injuries. Brad earns the worst draft of the year from sheer bad luck. Nick Chubb (1st round) and J.K. Dobbins (6th round) chipped in about 35 fantasy points collectively for Brad’s team before their respective knees exploded. Round 2-4 were good (Amon Ra St Brown / Joe Mixon / Deebo Samuel), but losing two of his top three RBs created too big a hole to climb out of given that you didn’t hit on any late round picks besides besides Jordan Addison.
Biggest Draft Day Steal
This goes to Dan who drafted Raheem Mostert at 10.8, 41st RB overall. He finished the season as RB2 on the season over 1,000 yards and 21 (!!!) touchdowns.
Honorable mentions:
· Kimi – drafted De’Von Achane at 11.4; RB27 on the season despite missing several games
· Kimi – drafted Alvin Kamara at 6.9; 26th RB drafted, finished as RB7
· Ivan – drafted DeAndre Swift at 8.5; 33rd RB drafted, finished as RB14
Biggest Draft Bust
Not including injuries to players like Justin Jefferson, Nick Chubb, and Mark Andrews, I’m going with Kristina’s pick at 2.11, Rhamondre Stevenson. Over 12 games he averages 13 carries, 52 yards/gm and had 4 TDs. He was the 9th RB taken and finished at RB31.
Dishonorable Mentions:
· Dameon Pierce (Evan - drafted 4.3, RB16 – finished as RB54)
· Austin Ekeler (Kimi – drafted 1.4, RB2 – finished at RB23)
· Cooper Kupp (Dan – drafted 2.8, WR10 – finished at WR40)
Waiver Wizard
The Waiver Wizard is awarded to the player who picked up the best undrafted player from Waivers. This year the honor goes to Kimi, who picked up Puka Nacua ahead of week 2; he put up 243.8 points from week 2 onward, good for WR7 in that time span.
Honorable mentions go to Kristina for Kyren Williams (RB10 week 2 onwards), Dan for Sam LaPorta (TE3 on the season), and Richie for Jerome Ford (RB11 from week 3 onwards - but slightly diminished by the fact that he spent half the time on the bench and cost your entire FAAB budget).
Best Worst Team
Seems like every year one of you have solid underlying numbers but it just doesn’t translate to wins. This year I’d say most of us who didn’t make the playoffs didn’t really deserve to make it. With that said, I’m giving this year’s honor to Drew.
He squeaked into the playoffs by virtue of having more points than Josh, but he finished 3rd in total points for and, as importantly, 2nd in fewest points against. He doesn’t have a losing head-to-head record against anyone in the league and could’ve easily won 8-10 games. Two of his losses were earned despite scoring 128+ in both games and he lost a close one to Mia by less than half a point in week 4.
Worst Best Team
It probably won’t surprise any of you that our champion, Kristina Gallant, wins this award in a runaway. Her team is last in total points for and 3rd in fewest points against, which obviously indicates some degree of good luck. But in looking through the data this season I found some doozies:
· On the season Kristina has a losing head-to-head record against every team in the league this season except Brad (8-6) and Dan (7-7);
· Kristina’s weekly record against all teams is 58-96 (.377 win %) – good for last in the league by a fairly wide margin
o For reference, the other playoff contenders had the 5 highest weekly head-to-head records in the league:
§ Kevin: 88-66 (.571 win % - T-3 in the league)
§ Kimi: 96-58 (.623 win % - 2nd in the league)
§ Hannah: 76-78 (.494 win % - 5th in the league)
§ Dan: 101-53 (.656 win % - 1st in the league)
§ Drew: 88-66 (.623 win % - T-3 in the league)
· The average weekly score in this league is 117.66 points. Kristina scored more than 117.66 points three times and her opponents scored less than that 10 times, including in nine of the final 12 weeks in which her opponents averaged 96.6 points/game.
· Kristina played the worst performing team of the week three times. Naturally, only Kevin played the worst performing team more (four times); meaning the Gallashi household played the weekly taco in 50% of all regular season games.
o One important distinguishing stat: Kevin averaged 136.86 points/game against the tacos; Kristina averaged 105.02.
o No one else played the worst performing team more than twice and 1/3 of the league (Drew, Kimi, Richie, Dan) never had the honor.
They say data is beautiful.. I guess it depends on who you ask. Either way, Kristina caught a break or two but is the undisputed six-time champion. Suck it, losers! Maybe she’ll use the money to treat us losers to drinkin’ good in the neighborhood at Applebees? Haha just kidding! Unless..
Anyway, thanks everyone for another competitive season! I hope you have an awesome New Years and 2024. See you in August for our next donation to the Gallashis.
Love,
Your Commissioners