“The Cat Preys on the Club Again!” (Wk 9)

Week 8 MVP Award Winner –
The Cat (30 Points)

The Cat has stunned the club by winning his third MVP Award of the season.  With only 8 weeks played so far, The Cat owns 3 of the MVP Awards, which is an incredible feat.  It looks like The Cat has become a serious threat to tying or breaking Slick Chick’s 2010 all-time record of winning 5 MVP Awards in a season.  MVP Awards are so difficult to win because you have to have a higher score than 17 other club members for the week.  The Cat won the Week 8 MVP Award by scoring 30 Points.  He was able to reach this Point total in part by getting both Games of the Week correct with Carolina and Arizona.  He also picked New Orleans for the Sunday night game.  The Cat became MVP in spite of making a very bad pick of Oakland with Triple Jeopardy.  Had he not made that pick, he would have ended with 32 Points and be in 2nd Place instead of 4th Place.  Because he won 2 MVP Awards this month, The Cat has been named the October Player of the Month.  The Week 8 MVP Award Runner-Up goes to The Rickster, who scored 29 Points and continues to make great picks week after week.  The Rickster has been dominant as of late and now finds himself a mere 6 Points out of entering the Top Five.  In fact, The Rickster is now just 9 Points out of 2nd Place.  In looking at the Top Five, #1 player Stinkerbell continues to sit on her perch at the top.  Although she holds a double digit lead, her position at the top is starting to become a bit more precarious.  There are currently four players all within 15-18 Points of catching up to her.  Stinkerbell has now logged 7 Weeks at #1 and I think some veteran club members are starting to feel frustrated at seeing a rookie player be so dominant for half a season.  But she’s picked well and earned it, so she deserves respect for her accomplishments thus far.  #2 player Double-Double matched Stinkerbell’s 22 Point score last week and barely held onto his spot.  #3 player Rad Dad continues to pick conservatively and scored 23 Points.  The next eight players in the standings all had stronger weeks than the top three players, which goes to show that picking conservatively may not always pay off in holding onto the top spots.  The Cat sits at #4 and Captain Insano is #5.  Captain Insano wisely avoided selecting TJ as he had picked Oakland in the lone Regular Game.

In Head to Head Weekly, we had a couple of interesting showdowns.  The matches between Stinkerbell vs. Fearless Tuna and Captain Jack Sparrow vs. The Cat both came down to the Sunday night game.  When New Orleans prevailed, Fearless Tuna and The Cat came out winners.  An interesting aspect to the match between Sparrow and Cat was that the winner of that match was also going to be our MVP for the week.  And Captain Jack Sparrow really could have used the win in Head to Head, as he remains our only winless player at 0-6-1 with three games left.  That’s a really surprising record in view of the fact that Captain Jack Sparrow was our 2007 Super Bowl Head to Head Champion.  He is definitely due for a win sometime soon, perhaps even this week (with apologies to crosstown rival Rex Kwan Do).  Our division leaders are currently Rad Dad (4-1-2), Stinkerbell (4-2-1), freespirit and The Rickster (both 5-2), and Captain Insano and Nighthawk (both 5-2).  Over in Pro Bowl Team Weekly, Wild Animals survived a scare but managed to beat bottom feeders The Mega Powers by a score of 81-78.  The Black Pearl once again lost a very close match as has been the ship’s pattern, this time being sunk by McTriple Play 68-65.  And thanks to a last second, huge gamble switch to the Bills by one member of Transformers, Daddy & His Boys picked up a victory over them by a single Point 68-67.