The Anatomy of a Baseball Draft, Part I

The UPL is a 3-sport league, but UPL Baseball was the first, and (at least in my mind), the most prestigious title. As such, given my preference for hyperbole, this post will dissect the most important draft in the history of the UPL.

Walking into the draft, my strategy was simple. Look for young, established talent - don't overpay for prospects. I figure that I can win now, and still prep myself for the future. The major cut-off point is the age of 30. Also, I decided that I wanted to go with almost-guaranteed keepers for the first 10 rounds. So, no old guys until late, which is sort of contrary to my reputation in this league. The guys that I wanted? Best young hitter - David Wright. Best young starter - Tim Lincecum. Best young closer - Joakim Soria. The problem that I had is that I did virtually no prep work for this draft. So, throughout the draft, I was searching online for ages. Basically, I'd draft based off of the pre-rankings, and work age into the equation on the fly. This makes for a little more stressful draft (and I wasn't as chatty on the phone or in the draft room as usual).

The draft starts off pretty much as expected, though there's a little blip when C-Lauff goes w/ Pujols over Hanley Ramirez (which drew a comment from the peanut gallery). But in fairness, you never know how old those Carribean players are. I probably had Pujols and Wright tied for first, with the slight edge to Wright given his position and age. I had decided that Ramirez wasn't as good a bet as either of those guys, and I've generally thought that Reyes was overhyped. I did think about Miggy Cabrera for a second, but realized that he wasn't going to qualifying at 3B after this season.

1.	Albert Pujols	IamJabrone
2.	Hanley Ramírez	Black Sox
3.	José Reyes	Hats for Bats
4.	David Wright	O.N. Thugs
5.	Grady Sizemore	Muddy Mush H...
6.	Miguel Cabrera	Cheeseheads

Where things get strange (a little, anyway) is with the next few picks:

7.	Ian Kinsler	TheJimmyDixL...
8.	Ryan Howard	'90 Reds
9.	Ryan Braun	IStillSuckCu...
10.	Chase Utley	Westy's Slug...
11.	Josh Hamilton	Phatsnapper
12.	Jimmy Rollins	Benver Droncos

I was surprised to see Kinsler go at #7, particularly since I'm a Chase Utley guy. But you can make a case that Kinsler at 27 is a better bet than Utley at 30. I mean, you'd be wrong, but still. What I was intrigued about was Utley going at #10. I mean, I agreed w/ the pick, but the pre-rank had Utley at 22, which meant that he was in my range in the 2nd round (which I would've been all over, in all likelihood). So, I was a little disappointed... but not for long...

But I was a little more surprised to see Greg go with Ryan Howard. I've never been a huge Ryan Howard fan, but what scares me about the guy in a keeper league is his sheer size. Maybe it's because I've got Mo Vaughn stuck in my mind, but guys that big just seem to fall off the cliff more quickly. I don't know. I hope that I'm wrong... actually nix that. I hope that I'm right.

In any case, moving on to the 2nd round:

1.	B.J. Upton	Benver Droncos
2.	Mark Teixeira	Phatsnapper
3.	Lance Berkman	Westy's Slug...
4.	Dustin Pedroia	IStillSuckCu...
5.	Carlos Beltrán	'90 Reds
6.	Evan Longoria	TheJimmyDixL...
7.	Alfonso Soriano	Cheeseheads
8.	Johan Santana	Muddy Mush H...
9.	Tim Lincecum	O.N. Thugs
10.	Álex Rodríguez	Hats for Bats
11.	Carlos Quentin	Black Sox
12.	Cole Hamels	IamJabrone

The 2nd round start off pretty normal, though Westy go a little unlucky w/ Berkman as his autodraft (33 years old). OD sticks w/ his Red Sox Gambit. And once again, I'm a little surprised at Greg's pick - this time Carlos Beltran (32 years old). I had assumed that Greg was going to go a little younger with the top of the draft. But Beltran's solid. I'm not as sold on Soriano, though if he's batting 4 or 5, then his RBI numbers go up quite a bit.

Where the draft gets interesting for me is with my pick of Tim Lincecum. Originally, I thought that I'd have a tough choice between Chase Utley (who has been an O.N. Thugs cornerstone for years) and Lincecum. But Westy fixed that problem for me. At this point, I feel pretty good. I got the young hitter that I wanted. And now, I get the young pitcher that I wanted. I had Lincecum rated ahead of Santana and Hamels, so I was pretty excited. Now, all I needed to do was to hope that Joakim Soria fell to me later in the draft, and I'd have the three young guys that I wanted to target.

And the answer to the question of where A-Rod was going to fall to is answered right after my pick. I had thought that A-Rod (pre-rank of 39) was going to be around with my pick in the 3rd (28th overall), so I figured that I'd have a tough choice there. But, once again, potential tough decisions are avoided. On to the 3rd round...

1.	CC Sabathia	IamJabrone
2.	Prince Fielder	Black Sox
3.	Brandon Phillips	Hats for Bats
4.	Nick Markakis	O.N. Thugs
5.	Carlos Lee	Muddy Mush H...
6.	Carl Crawford	Cheeseheads
7.	Cliff Lee	TheJimmyDixL...
8.	Manny Ramírez	'90 Reds
9.	Jason Bay	IStillSuckCu...
10.	Matt Holliday	Westy's Slug...
11.	Matt Kemp	Phatsnapper
12.	Justin Morneau	Benver Droncos

C-Lauff makes things interesting by going pitcher-pitcher in the 2nd and 3rd, with Hamels and CC. I was hoping that Prince Fielder was going to fall to me at #28, but that wasn't to be. And my next best hope was Brandon Phillips, since 2B was a relatively scarce position. But again, that wasn't to be. So, I'm left with a choice. First, do I also go pitcher-pitcher? I entertain the idea of going Peavy, and then trying to go Webb or Liriano in the 4th. But I think better of it, and go offense, instead. Based on the board, 1B/OF is the general idea. Do I go very old (Manny), relatively old (Matt Holliday) or young (Markakis/Kemp). In years past, Holliday would've been the choice, but given his move to Oakland this year, I decided to pass. I go with Markakis over Kemp, since Markakis is one of those .400/.500 players that I tend to love.

Cliff Lee at #31 overall was strange. At this point, I wasn't exactly sure what CJ was going with, other than sticking with familiar players. But if you're going to to pitcher, conventional wisdom says Webb, Peavy, or Halladay are stronger bets. And Liriano's the prospect to look at there... The rest of the round was pretty standard, so on to the 4th.

1.	Vladimir Guerrero	Benver Droncos
2.	Félix Hernández	Phatsnapper
3.	Brandon Webb	Westy's Slug...
4.	Kevin Youkilis	IStillSuckCu...
5.	Aramis Ramírez	'90 Reds
6.	Alexei Ramírez	TheJimmyDixL...
7.	David Ortiz	Cheeseheads
8.	Ichiro Suzuki	Muddy Mush H...
9.	Jake Peavy	O.N. Thugs
10.	Roy Halladay	Hats for Bats
11.	Jonathan Papelbon	Black Sox
12.	Jacoby Ellsbury	IamJabrone

There's a little reach early in the round, when Rupert goes with King Felix at #38 overall. The pre-rank had him going off at #86, though I think that our format drives his value up, into the 60's. I'm pretty sure that Felix would have lasted through Rupert's pick in the 5th round (#59 overall) or 6th round (#62 overall). You can't really bash the pick - the kid's young and has great stuff. But I think that there's been a 2.5 round premium paid for him, and that's the sort of thing that I was trying to avoid. Similar story with CJ and Alexi Ramirez at #42 overall. The pre-rank had him going off at #53, so CJ probably has to move in the 4th round, if he's targeting Alexi. Unfortunately, the pre-rank had him a little overrated. Again, I like Ramirez, but looking at where the auto-draft had him slotted, I already told myself that I wasn't going to get him.

My plan is do draft pitcher, with Peavy and Webb as the frontrunners. Westy takes Webb, so once again, my decision is easy. At this point, I'm on the horn w/ OD. We're hoping that either Papelbon (pre-rank #50) or Ellsbury (pre-rank #51) fall to us in the 5th round. Sadly, neither of those two make it past the 4th round.

1.	Francisco Liriano	IamJabrone
2.	Chad Billingsley	Black Sox
3.	Adrián González	Hats for Bats
4.	Russell Martin	O.N. Thugs
5.	Brian Roberts	Muddy Mush H...
6.	Curtis Granderson	Cheeseheads
7.	Brian McCann	TheJimmyDixL...
8.	Dan Haren	'90 Reds
9.	Daisuke Matsuzaka	IStillSuckCu...
10.	Nate McLouth	Westy's Slug...
11.	Joe Mauer	Phatsnapper
12.	Álex Ríos	Benver Droncos

The 5th round opens up with another slight stretch - Liriano at #49 overall (pre-rank #70). Of course, there's probably no chance that he lasts until C-Lauff's pick in the 6th, #72 overall. So, again, if you want your guy, you have to take him there. I think that it's a a 1 round premium, which is only a misdemeanor. And almost exactly the same thing happens w/ Billingsley at #41 (pre-rank #73). Although, I'd personally rank Billingsley slightly ahead of Liriano, given the slight age advantage (and who knows how old Liriano actually is).

My pick comes up, and I think that offense looks more attractive at this spot (though Dan Haren isn't out of wack as a pick here). The choices are either C (all of the 3M top tier is available) or OF (Granderson or Rios). Normally, the call is Adam Dunn (pre-rank #66), but I think that I can stretch one more round (my pick is #69) and wait for him, given all the stretching that people are doing. I end up going with Russell Martin, who's a year older than McCann, and doesn't have the McCann's power (or Mauer's pure hitting). But Martin reminds me of I-Rod, who's one of my all-time favorite players, and I decide that I can be happy rooting for him for a few years. The rest of the round moves pretty much normally, although for the 2nd time in 5 rounds, Westy's autodraft screws him, which the peanut gallery (more specifically, me) jokes about. On to the 6th...

1.	Shane Victorino	Benver Droncos
2.	Yovani Gallardo	Phatsnapper
3.	John Lackey	Westy's Slug...
4.	Josh Beckett	IStillSuckCu...
5.	Víctor Martínez	'90 Reds
6.	James Shields	TheJimmyDixL...
7.	Geovany Soto	Cheeseheads
8.	Corey Hart	Muddy Mush H...
9.	Adam Dunn	O.N. Thugs
10.	Garrett Atkins	Hats for Bats
11.	Chris Iannetta	Black Sox
12.	Dan Uggla	IamJabrone

Some interesting choices at the start of the 6th. Rupert again overpays for youth, going w/ Gallardo at #62 overall (pre-rank #112). I'm pretty sure that Gallardo is available for Rupert in the 8th. Lackey goes to Westy (like he does every year), and Beckett goes to OD (like he, and every other Red Sox player does every year). Then comes Greg... who uses the entire time, and comes up with Victor Martinez. I had assumed that he was debating Shields (who's a regular on the '90 Reds) or Soto (the last of most people's top tier catchers). Apparently he was debating Dunn. Happily, Greg leaves Dunn alone, and I'm able to grab him in the 6th, after Soto and Corey Hart go off the board in front of me. I've always thought that Corey Hart was overrated, so that makes me doubly happy. What's interesting is that the chain of events leaves Stephen reaching with his pick of Iannetta at #71 overall (pre-rank #138), because of the relative shoratge at catcher. In my mind, you have to either get one of the top 4 guys, or just wait to see what's left in the 14th round (depending on what you believe about this Matt Wieters guys), and not panic, so I thought that Ianetta was a panic pick, although the Coors Field factor is strong.

At this point, I'm liking my team. My oldest guy is Dunn, at 29. But getting him in the 6th is a steal for this league. Wright, Markakis, and Martin are young and accomplished. Ditto for Lincecum and Peavy. At this point, the draft is going about as well as it could for me.

In any case, we'll keep talking about round 7-12 next time...

-Chairman (aka O.N. Thugs)

Age Discrimination

As CJ alluded to in the previous post, baseball is coming right around the corner. Given that this is the original UPL sport, this is probably just a bit bigger than the basketball draft that we just had last fall. So we need to think a bit about how we're going to draft.

So where does this analysis start?

It probably has to start with the amount of young talent out there. A quick skim down the top of the Yahoo! pre-ranks, shows a number of young players (under 27) who are already elite: Hanley Ramirez, David Wright, Jose Reyes, Evan Longoria, Prince Fielder, etc. And this is in the presence of a number of stars who are a bit older (28-32), but don't seem to be slowing down any time soon: Pujols, Carlos Beltran, Ryan Howard, etc. Where things get interesting is with the stars who are 33+. A-Rod comes to mind.

Why these age cut-offs? Well, in baseball, the historical trend has been for players to improve until they get to age 27, to plateau until about 33, and then to decline after 33 (and potentially fall off the cliff). However, in recent years (perhaps due to advances in training and/or chemistry), we're seeing more players extend their plateau, and perhaps even improve as they age.

Pitchers are a bit of a different story, particularly when you consider the style of pitcher. But you see something similar, though I think that the young stage is more of a roller-coaster (and lasts until 30 or so), the plateau goes past 33 (to maybe 36), and the decline tends to be a much steeper descent than for hitters. A lot of this comes from the rate of arm injuries that young pitchers encounter, and the relative stability that develops through that learning process.

So, naturally, you worry about starting young. But how young? Where's that sweet spot? Part of that depends on what your goals are. Obviously, if you want to win now, you don't worry about age as much. If your plan is to develop and dominate by year 4, how perfect do you have to draft, if you're going to load up on rookies?

I'm not giving away any secrets here until after the draft. All I know is that my strategy of drafting the 1995 Topps All-Star Team probably isn't a viable strategy. I'm going to have to change with the times, and understand that this is a new day. And to prove that I'm serious, I'm dusting off my old baseball cards and figuring out who was on the 1996 Topps All-Star Team.

-Chairman (aka O.N. Thugs)

Keeper Baseball - Talking Strategy

Starting a conversation about draft strategy in a keeper league feels like a doomed endeavor, but I'll take a shot at it. As the UPL Baseball league makes this transition, I was wondering if I could get some feedback abt drafting strategies, and how they may have changed.

General Dynamics

(Note: literally 5 minutes after I posted this, I realized that just talked myself into picking up Raja Bell, in favor of Nick Collison).

One very interesting question that arises with a keeper league is, "What do I do if one of my keepers (or future keepers) gets hurt?" Obviously, with expanded rosters, it's possible to hang on to one injured player, if the rest of your team is healthy. But once the injury bug starts to hit, roster management becomes an art form... or least a highwire act.

Westy currently has a bit of a dilemma. Currently, he's in 2nd place, as we head into the all-star break. But really, he's in first, if you consider the fact that the guy currently in 1st has played way too many games, and will fall quite a bit. If things play out as expected, he's going to be in the top 3, at the very worst, and has a fair shot to win the league. That is, until his 1st round pick and franchise cornerstone Al Jefferson went out with an ACL injury.

Rank		Team	Points	Pts Change	Waiver	Moves
1.		European Sellout	80.5	0	8	5
2.		Westy's Ballers	78.5	-1	1	8
3.		Sparty Rules	76	1	9	1
4.		Dribbling Balls	70.5	0.5	7	2
5.		Floor burns	58.5	-0.5	2	2
6.		chowtime	57.5	0	6	7
7.		O.N. Thugs	57	-1	5	11
8.		IamJabrone	56	1	11	20
9.		Eddy's Crusty Towels	48.5	-2.5	3	3
10.		Love Timberwolves	44.5	0	4	-
11.		Phatsnapper	32.5	2.5	10	1

So what are the options? Stay pat, use free agency, or make a trade. Here's the current roster, with season averages.

Player	GP	FG%	FT%	3PTM	PTS	OREB	REB	AST	ST	BLK	A/T
D.J. Augustin	41	0.409	0.912	1.6	12.5	0.3	1.9	4	0.5	0	2.012
Andre Iguodala	50	0.473	0.745	0.9	17.8	1.1	6.1	5.3	1.7	0.4	1.921
Paul Pierce	53	0.45	0.851	1.5	19.5	0.8	5.8	3.8	1.1	0.3	1.356
Luol Deng	41	0.452	0.807	0.1	14.5	1.7	6.1	2	1.2	0.6	1.379
Kevin Garnett	50	0.525	0.836	0	16.5	1.4	9	2.7	1.2	1.3	1.607
Caron Butler	47	0.451	0.86	1	20.4	1.9	6.4	4.4	1.6	0.2	1.331
Luis Scola	52	0.526	0.733	0	12.2	2.2	8	1.2	0.8	0.1	0.928
Nene Hilario	51	0.612	0.73	0	14.7	2.5	8.2	1.5	1.3	1.4	0.755
Devin Harris	47	0.441	0.819	0.9	21.8	0.5	3.2	6.5	1.6	0.2	2.284
Shane Battier	30	0.383	0.864	1.3	6.4	0.9	4.9	2.2	0.6	0.8	2.6
Chris Duhon	51	0.424	0.864	1.7	12.5	0.7	3.6	8	1	0.1	2.833
Al Jefferson	50	0.497	0.738	0	23.1	3.4	11	1.6	0.8	1.7	0.859
Travis Outlaw	49	0.445	0.697	1.2	12.2	0.9	4	1.1	0.6	0.7	0.912
Mike Miller	42	0.472	0.697	1.1	9.1	0.8	5.6	3.7	0.4	0.3	2.229

You don't give up 23 points, 11 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks a game w/out losing something. Who's the current replacement? Looking at numbers over the last month, the top choice for Westy is probably Travis Outlaw, who goes 15 points, 4.8 boards, and 0.9 block a game. Other options in free agency include Raja Bell, who goes has been 16.5 points and 4.4 boards, and 3.1 assists in the last month and Antonio McDyess, who goes 7 points and 9.3 boards a game. The problem is if you go free agency, you have to drop someone. Well, that isn't really a big problem for Westy, since he's got Shane Battier's sorry ass on his team. But you can see my point. If you had a team full of good players and prospects, you'd have a serious decision to make.

Bearing in mind that there are roughly 30 games left in the season for each player, if you just stick w/ Outlaw, then you lose roughly 240 points, 185 rebounds, and 25 blocks. If you go with Raja, you lose 195 points, 200 rebounds, and 50 blocks (but pick up 45 assists). If you go with McDyess, you lose 480 points, 50 rebounds, 40 blocks. If you keep playing Shane Battier, then it's even uglier... So, can you afford to just work the waiver wire or do nothing? Maybe.

Currently, if you look at the impact of those losses, you see there there is definitely an impact on fantasy scoring. The points would result in a shift of up to 5 fantasy points. The rebounds could result in a shift of 4 fantasy points, and the blocks could impact up to 3 points. Granted, those are worst case scenarios, but staying pat could realistically lead to a shift of 6 to 8 fantasy points, which puts Sparty and OD as the front runners. And let's just say that there's a traditionally strong team hovering in the middle of the pack that's about to get really hot. So if you stay pat, it's not looking too good.

So can you trade? Maybe. But who to move? That depends on who your keepers are. You have to figure that the potential keepers on this roster are Big Al, AI (2.0), KG, Caron, Truth, Augustin, Deng, Devin Harris, and Nene. Other players of value are Duhon and Outlaw. Can you get anything done with Duhon and Outlaw? I don't know if I see much better than what's available in free agency. Maybe you can get someone who's desperate for assists, but if you move Duhon, and only replace it with 4 assists per game, you're looking at losing 120 assists, as well, which is a potential 3 fantasy point loss, which has to be considered. Maybe you package one of your potential keepers with Outlaw (probably Nene or Deng, if I was guessing), but I'm not sure what you get back...

Basically, this is a really tough decision. Perhaps, Westy summed it up best in one of his fantasy posts:

"I am in big trouble."

I think that I agree. I think that biggest problem is the lack of quality in the 12-14 slots, which doesn't really allow for much flexibility.

I'm in a very similar situation with Carlos Boozer (who will end up missing 40 or so games). I think that the best way to weather this sort of storm, is to make sure that you have the depth to make a move. Which means that you have to either draft perfect, or be good/lucky in free agency. I've been able to be good/lucky a number of times, particularly with Brook Lopez, Rodney Stuckey, and now Nick Collison and Tyrus Thomas. Lopez has turned into a reliable 14 and 9 sort of guy who blocks shots, and scores efficiently, and is going to be one of my keepers. Rodney Stuckey (a likely keeper) was looking really good, and has been a fixture in the starting lineup in Detroit. Nick Collison (not a keeper) has been a reasonable stopgap. And Tyrus Thomas is on a tear, and may have finally figured out how to play in this league (and may actually end up being a keeper). So I definitely was good/lucky.

Where this was beneficial is that it gave me the depth to make a move. I was able to flip Rodney Stuckey (who was a likely keeper) and Richard Jefferson (one of my solid vets, and a borderline keeper) for David West (a definite keeper), who shored up my rebounding.

Of course, the question on my end is whether or not I actually weathered the storm.

-Chairman (aka O.N. Thugs)

Legacy

So, we've just witnessed one of the more spectacular UPL achievements this year. C-Lauff managed to come awfully close to the Roland Slam, with a 2nd place finish in basketball, and W's in both baseball and football. Of course, the Jabrones are currently in the cellar in basketball, so the threat of the Jabrone Slam (holding 3 consecutive titles, but not in the same calendar year, though the name isn't set in stone - whoever gets there first gets to name it) is slim .

You can probably argue that this is the 2nd best year in the UPL, ever. The gold standard in the UPL is still the O.N. Thugs' magical run in 2003. But C-Lauff in 2008 probably ranks just ahead of the 2007 O.N. Thugs, who won baseball and basketball, and finished 2nd in football. However, the baseball title was marred by a tie with the '90 Reds who caught up on the last day of the season.

The UPL is a little too young to really look at full year performances (plus we don't have enough owners to play all 3 sports for it to be meaningful). However, it is interesting to look at the most dominant teams in the history of the UPL.

Two teams come to mind quickly: The O.N. Thugs' 2004 Baseball and 2007 Basketball.

The '07 Basketball team was scary, scoring 89.5 points (out of a possible 100). They won 4 of the 10 categories, and finished 2nd in 4 other categories. The season was pretty much conceded by the end of January. When you have the 2nd place team wondering when baseball season was starting, with 2 months left in the season, you know that it was a thumping. The season started with a draft day trade w/ C-Lauff, where we swapped positions in the 1st and 2nd rounds. I got Kobe and Amare for CP3 and Tim Duncan. Kobe was awesome. Amare had a huge comeback season after knee surgery. CP3 was hurt for a lot of the season. Deron Williams was drafted a little earlier than expected (in the 6th round), which paid off, though D-Will was traded during the middle of the season. Marcus Camby and Carlos Boozer were fantasy stalwarts, as well.

The O.N. Thugs' 2004 baseball team was probably just as good. They scored 146 (out of a possible 168 points - there were 14 teams in the league that year!). They won an amazing 7 out of 12 categories, and finished 2nd in 2 others. The most interesting question was whether or not the Thugs would cover the spread (of I believe, 25 points), which, sadly, they did not (the 2nd place team finished with 128, 18 points back). This team was built with starting pitching, generally a no-no in fantasy baseball. But the pitchers were Pedro, Unit, and Schilling, back when they all were still lights out pitchers, as they combined to win 53, lose only 29, strike out 720 (!!!), have an ERA around 3, and a WHIP around 1.05. This also was the season that cemented the O.N. Thugs' infatuation with Mark Teixeira and Adam Dunn, who were in their 2nd and 3rd full seasons in the majors, and combined for an average of 103 R, 42 HR, 107 RBI, with a .380 OBP and .565 SLG. Pretty good numbers for 10th and 11th round picks.

It's one thing to be dominant. It's another to change the nature of the league.

Westy's 2004 Basketball team was very good, finishing ahead of the pack by almost 2200 points (a little more than 10% above the 2nd place team). KG finished with over 4000 points (with career highs of 24.2 points, 13.9 boards, and 2.2 blocks a game). In fact, this was a team that changed the course of the UPL. For the 3rd consecutive season, basketball had gotten boring, with the teams so far ahead that the last month was pointless. Starting in 2005, we changed the format over to the current 10-category roto style, which has been a much more interesting format, with changes in the standings happening on the last day of the season.

It's hard to really call a football team dominant, given the nature of fantasy football. But, we've had some interesting seasons there, as well. The 2007 JimmyDix squad lost the first 2 games of the season, and then rolled the rest of the way, going 13-1 the rest of the way, with only a tight loss in week 11. The average margin of victory in the last 11 games of the regular season was 47.32 points, even including the loss. No real nail-biters there. The 2003 O.N. Thugs were only 10-4 in the regular season, but scored 264 points more than the nearest competitor, and rolled through the playoffs. And the 2005 I Giocatori team went 11-3 in the regular season, and went through the playoffs as the #1 seed, winning in miraculous fashion in the finals over C-Lauff, who was Washington Redskinned (not very PC, if you ask me).

As we move forward, football will remain a crapshoot. However, with the change to dynasty formats in basketball and baseball, we may see teams be dominant over the course of a longer time span. Of course, given that the O.N. Thugs are currently in 17th place in basketball, this may not be a good thing for us. But then again, who knows?

-Chairman (aka O.N. Thugs)