Sunday Games 10/28

Well I didn’t watch one second of the Sunday night game since the World Series was on.  Get ready for the parade on Wednesday, Giants fans!  While I did go to one World Series game back in 2010 (which was incredible in person), I didn’t get to go this time.  But it sure was fun to watch it!  Getting to football, after the dust settled from all the Sunday games, including the Sunday night game, 7 players scored 20+ Points– Hoosier Daddy, Mr. T, Captain Jack Sparrow, MJD Hogg, Bane, The Beav & Fuegoburns.  Meanwhile, 10 players all had 10 Points or less.  The highest score so far is 23 Points, which was posted by Hoosier Daddy.  Taking a quick look at the math, it looks like Hoosier Daddy is going to find himself in 3rd Place when this week is finished.  Papa Tuna will claim his 6th Week at #1 and maintain his current lead, but he better watch out because the Daddy is coming for his spot.  4 Players got the Triple Crown of Mia-Indy-NE– Hoosier Daddy, Captain Jack Sparrow, Bob Swerski & The Beav.  At the same time, 8 players went home in frustration, as they would have clamied the 7 Point Triple Crown if Ten had beaten Indy.  That is probably the most frustrating thing that can happen to club members, picking a brilliant Triple Crown with an upset correct, but then missing it because of one of the other games.  6 players got both Games of the Week correct with Det & Atl– Mr. T, MJD Hogg, Bane, C Master V, Fuegoburns & Rad Dad.  Speaking of Mr. T, he defeated Nighthawk to reach 7-0.  More tomorrow.

Thursday Night Game 10/25

While most club members were watching the big Game 2 win by the SF Giants in the World Series, there was also a Thursday night game going on.  And what do you know, The Autopicker missed yet another game when Tampa Bay defeated Minnesota.  Only one club member saw this coming and was wise enough to switch his pick–  Hoosier Daddy.  With that brilliant switch by Hoosier Daddy, he gained 2 Points on the rest of the club and has moved up into 4th Place (unofficially since it is mid-week).  He now has 153 Points and is tied with Iceman.  Hoosier Daddy sits only 12 Points from 1st Place, which he could easily make up in a single week.  We will see what happens, but that was a great pick by the 2009 Club Champion.

“Staubach Has a Near-Perfect Week!” (Wk 8)

Week 7 MVP Award Winner–
Staubach (37 Points)

Rookie club member Staubach stepped up and delivered one of the greatest weeks in Football Club history last week as he posted near-perfect picks, missing only one game (NE @ NYJ) and the Over/Under on the Monday night game.  After correctly picking Indy with TJ and scoring a bonus 2 Points, Staubach ended with 37/38 Points for the week to win the Week 7 MVP Award.  Staubach also shot up to a season-high 16th Place, now standing a mere 7 Points out of entering the Top Ten.  Keep in mind that Staubach started the season 2 weeks late.  When a player joins after the season has already started, he is required to start 1 Point below the player in Last Place.  After his powerful display last week, there is no doubt that Staubach would be a title contender if he had started on time with Week 1.  Even so, there is over half a season left and anything can happen.  But for now, Staubach has to be pleased with having the highest score of the year so far with his 37 Point spectacular week.  The other big news this week was the continued stellar play over the past couple weeks by 2009 Club Champion Hoosier Daddy.  Three years ago when he won the title, Hoosier Daddy averaged 22.176 Points per week.  This season, he is averaging 21.571 Points per week so far.  So he is nearly on target with his title-winning season.  And now, Hoosier Daddy stands only 14 Points out of 1st Place.  The big issue within the Top Five this season has to be the fierce level of competition.  1st Place continues to be traded around between different players each week, and players are falling out of and entering the Top Five each week.  Nobody has really stood out and run away with the club, which is what has happened in some seasons.  Last week, only one player in the Top Twelve scored less than 20 Points, so everybody right now is playing at a really high level.  1st Place went back to Papa Tuna, who posted a strong 32 Points and only missed 2 games all week.  While that might sound like an outstanding week, two other players in the Top Five matched it– Hoosier Daddy & new No. 2 player Captain Insano.  Speaking of Captain Insano, he is someone to watch out for.  He has not yet reached 1st Place this season, but has been on the verge of it many times already.  Will next week be the week in which he takes over the top spot of the club?  It very well could be, because next week we have an extremely difficult picks sheet.  There are no obvious winners anywhere, so it should shake up the upper echelons of the club even more.  We also need to give special mention this week to club member TK-421, who put in a really strong week last week with 34 Points to win the Week 7 MVP Award Runner-Up.  34 Points was good enough to get TK the 2nd highest score of the year.  Well done.  And as I look down the Current Standings, players that are looking very impressive include Drummer Boy (29 Points last week), The Beav (staying strong in the Top Ten), The Rickster (early season struggles but playing very strong lately), Fuegoburns (had a 31 Point week that boosted him into the Top Twenty), and Mockytop (reached the 100 Point mark and is playing great for a rookie).  Keep up the excellent work, everyone.

Moving over to Head to Head Weekly, the story continues to be our two undefeated players.  The whole club was once again watching Mr. T’s match-up, wondering if he would continue his march to perfection or be derailed by his opponent 2000 Club Champion The Cat.  Mr. T came through once again and soundly beat The Cat 25-11 to reach 6-0.  Mr. T now only needs to win 4 more matches to establish himself as the greatest Head to Head regular season player of all time.  This week he faces a very tough opponent as he plays against 2008 Club Champion Nighthawk.  Granted, Nighthawk has had a difficult first half of the season and has had a tough time getting back into the swing of picking after working hard as a volunteer in New York for a couple of years and only recently returning home.  But he can have a break-out week at any moment now.  Mr. T just hopes that the big break-out doesn’t happen during this upcoming week as Mr. T hopes to reach 7-0 and continue his run.  Swimming under the radar is another undefeated player, Catfish.  While Catfish is not trying to have a perfect season, since he has 2 ties, he is trying to have an undefeated season, which would still be a remarkable accomplishment that has never been done before.  Catfish now stands at 4-0-2 with 4 games to play.  Will Catfish make history by continuing to be undefeated?  A lot of his hopes will hinge on his match this week against friendly rival Captain Jack Sparrow.  It should be an interesting match to say the least.  With 4 games to play, the current division leaders are Papa Tuna (4-1-1), Mr. T (6-0), Catfish (4-0-2), and Dixie Slick & Captain Insano (both 4-2).  Keep in mind that this season, only the top two players in each division will receive a bye week in the Super Bowl Tournament.  So now is the time to get yourself in the right position by trying to win at least 3 of your next 4 matches.  Over in Pro Bowl Weekly, we continue to see complete domination by two teams– Daddy & His Boys and Mighty Megalodons.  Both teams won their matches, reached 5-1, and now hold a 2-game lead over the next closest teams.  At the same time, both teams had the two highest team scores of the week.  That’s why we call them both powerhouses.  The Black Pearl picked up their 2nd straight victory last week by sinking Beasts of the Bay 63-57.  They are looking much better now at 3-3 than they did 2 weeks ago when they were 1-3.  As The Black Pearl sailed home from Hawaii last week, the ship was no doubt firing off its cannons in celebration.

“freespirit Wins MVP and Moves Into 1st Place!” (Wk 7)

Week 6 MVP Award Winner–
freespirit (24 Points)

Week 6 did not go well for most club members.  There were a large number of upsets that many people did not see coming or successfully predict.  As a result, the entire club was shaken up and the Current Standings turned upside down with players rising and falling unexpectedly.  Nowhere was this more true than the Top Five.  While it seemed like Iceman and Papa Tuna had a strong grip on the #1 position of the club and perhaps like they might be battling it out all season for the club title… how quickly things have changed.  By correctly picking 5 major upsets (Ten over Pit, Den over SD, NYG over SF, GB over Hou & Det over Phil), freespirit overtook the top two players, won the Week 6 MVP Award with 24 Points, and became the new #1 player in the club.  Of course, the NYG and Det upsets did not help her, since other favored teams in the Double Stakes and Triple Crown also lost, but the damage was done.  So with that, we welcome our fourth #1 player of the 2012 season.  Now we will see how freespirit will fare with the spotlight directly on her shoulders and everybody aiming to overtake her.  Can she become the club’s second female player in the last three years to win the club title?  Or will the pressure get to her and will she end up being tripped up by bad picks?  Only time will tell, but for now, freespirit gets to enjoy her time at the top of the standings.  The interesting thing about the shakeup at the top is that literally anybody from the Top Five could jump all the way to #1 in a single week with an MVP caliber showing.  Looking further down the standings, everyone down to 11th Place is less than 20 Points away from being in 1st.  And with over half a season of picks left, the race for the club title is far from over.  Both Papa Tuna (13 Points) and Iceman (10 Points) picked very badly last week and have lost their momentum.  But Captain Insano (#4 / 17 Points), Catfish (#5 / 17 Points), and Hoosier Daddy (#6 / 22 Points) all had strong weeks considering that it was a low scoring week with lots of upsets.  These players all need to be watched out for as they are proving to be very dangerous.  Hoosier Daddy especially has rebounded well and is picking at an extremely high level, making up for some early season struggles.  I also like what I’m seeing from Double-Double, Bane, Caveman, Staubach & TK-421.  They had strong weeks and are looking to build on that momentum with an excellent showing this week.

Over in Head to Head we had one of the most stunning results of the season.  If you’ll recall, going into last week, Mr. T was 4-0 and looking to continue his march to perfection, which has never before been accomplished in the club.  The closest anyone has ever come was two years ago when Hoosier Daddy also started out 4-0, before he lost the next match to Speak Now Tuna to end up 4-1 at the halfway mark.  Hoosier then went on to win his final five matches to end up 9-1.  The interesting thing is that the only match he lost that season was a week in which he posted 26 Points, which should have been good enough to beat anybody.  However, Speak Now Tuna won the MVP Award that week, so there was no way that Hoosier could have beat him.  Fast forward to this season and Mr. T was also sitting at 4-0, wondering if he could reach the halfway mark and be a perfect 5-0.  To put it simply, Mr. T had a terrible week last week, scoring only 9 Points.  So when it was all said and done, Mr. T probably gave up and figured his run at perfection was over.  But it wasn’t to be.  Mr. T was squaring off against long-time rival C Master V.  And C Master V also turned out to have a terrible week, scoring only 8 Points.  Thus, Mr. T was able to squeak out a defensive victory by the narrowest of margins 9-8 and remain undefeated, becoming the first player in a decade or so to reach 5-0.  And now Mr. T is halfway there after sweeping all the games in his division.  Can he win five more consecutive matches and reach the ultimate record of perfection in Head to Head?  Time will tell, but we can’t help but cheer him on.  This week starts up Head to Head play outside of players’ own divisions.  To begin, I have set up a number of fun “grudge” matches which should provide for some good battles.  Moving on to Pro Bowl Team Weekly, what an epic showdown we had this past week between two of the greatest teams that the club has ever seen– Daddy & His Boys and Wild Animals.  Both teams went into this showdown with matching 3-1 records, which were tied for the best records in the league.  So something had to give.  And something did in a big way.  Daddy & His Boys scored a landslide victory by caging Wild Animals 54-37.  And Mighty Megalodons continue to impress as they defeated struggling Beasts of the Bay to reach 4-1.  It is somewhat shocking to see them atop the league, tied with Daddy & His Boys for the best record.  It seems like they might have their jaws set on winning the Pro Bowl Team title this season.