Week 8 MVP Award Winner –
MJD Hogg (29 Points)
“Yee Haw!” was heard echoing through the club as MJD Hogg escaped the Hazzard County Jail with 29 Points to win the Week 8 MVP Award. MJD Hogg’s accomplishments already this season have been incredible. After less than one-half of a season, he has already claimed 2 MVP Awards, 3 Weeks at #1, and the September Player of the Month Award. With his latest huge week, MJD Hogg has climbed back into a 9th Place tie with his brother Hoosier Daddy, as they both have 170 Points through eight weeks of play. MJD’s huge week was boosted by being 1 of only 2 players in the club to correctly pick both Games of the Week with Phil & Wash (with the other being Young Tuna). And while half of the club (9 players) took -2 Points by picking Miami with TJ, MJD Hogg was one of the few who picked Arizona in that game. The Week 8 MVP Award Runner-Up was Nighthawk, who only scored 1 Point less with 28 Points. Nighthawk continues to be a major impact player this season. Despite joining the club late as a favor to help everyone out, his picks are consistently good and he keeps rising up the standings. He has already risen 7 spots despite that disadvantage. And with just over one-half of a season left, he could easily rise 7+ more spots. Nighthawk was 1 of only 3 players last week to sweep the Point Spread Games with Cle, Det & Den (with the others being Bob Swerski & Drummer Boy). At this point, I wanted to mention a couple of standout statistics. The first is Captain Insano‘s excellent use (and non-use) of Triple Jeopardy. As you’ll recall, a couple seasons ago he lost the club title solely for the reason that he lost so many Points to bad Triple Jeopardy picks. Then last season, he won the category of Best Triple Jeopardy Ratio with 5 out of 6 or 83% correct. This season, he is taking it up another notch, as he is currently 4-0 at picking TJ, which is the best in the league. And he wisely declined TJ last week when the Dolphins let so many people down. The second standout statistic which has caught my attention is My Wife Loves Jimmy G‘s amazing 8-0 record of picking the 6 Point / SNF games. He has picked all of them correct for the entire season so far. That’s quite an accomplishment and let’s see if he can tie or break the Hall of Fame record for Most 6 Point / SNF Games in a Season, which currently stands at 14 (* done on a shorter season). A quick look at the Top Five reveals that Drummer Boy held onto the top spot for a fifth straight week while at the same time being named the October Player of the Month Award winner. The Top Five consists of #1 Drummer Boy (5 Weeks at #1), #2 Stinkerbell (7 Points back), #3 Captain Insano (11 Points back), #4 My Wife Loves Jimmy G (12 Points back), and #5 Double-Double (13 Points back). It does seem like the Top Five have kind of established themselves as the elite players this season and they aren’t ready to welcome any of the rest of us into their private party at the top. It’s going to take a fairly strong performance by someone further down to break into their current spots and evict them out. We will see if Bob Swerski, Captain Jack Sparrow, or Mr. T can step up and make a move in the coming weeks.