Floored Kickoff 2024! Rules, Keeper Trading, Draft Date Picking

Erin Amanda Nordhielm was born on Tuesday. Dean, Jessie and Erin are doing very well. Josh is up next with his baby, Lilah, due next month.

End of Season Power Ranks
TOTAL			HITTING			PITCHING				Manager	Team
1	Michael	3.64	1	Cory	3.38	1	Brian/Josh	1.83		Cory	Hebrew Nationals
2	Cory	3.93	2	Dean	3.75	2	Dave	2.67		Arthur	PURE DOMINATION
3	Brian/Josh	4.14	3	Michael	3.75	3	Michael	3.50		Dave	I Hate Fantasy
4	Dave	5.00	4	Matt	4.25	4	Cory	4.67		Brian/Josh	Smoak That Ish
5	Dean	5.00	5	Paul	5.25	5	Arthur	5.17		Paul	AT Tax Man
6	Paul	5.29	6	Arthur	5.50	6	Paul	5.33		Dean	First Future father
7	Arthur	5.36	7	Brian/Josh	5.88	7	Dean	6.67		Matt	615 for the win
8	Matt	5.50	8	Dave	6.75	8	Matt	7.17		Max	Expand the Graph
9	Keith	7.86	9	Keith	7.63	9	Keith	8.17		Keith	Bourbon Street Blues
10	Max	8.36	10	Max	8.38	10	Max	8.33		Michael	The Flooded Farm

Brian and Josh weaseled their way in. Despite Max’s best efforts to thwart their path, Brian and Josh have made it out of the minutia of the playoff race and are squarely in the middle of a championship hunt. Arthur was in prime position and put up a valiant effort to be in the position he was with all the injuries he suffered down the stretch but his team was no match for Cory last week. It’s on to the Bourbon Street Championship (BSC) for Dean, Paul, Arthur, Matt, Keith, and Max for the rights to first choice in draft slot.

A reminder how the BSC works: it is quite simply a two week power ranks tournament. Put your best team forward for the next 14 days and whoever comes out with the best power rank, they will get the number one draft slot pick. Remember, similar to the NBA draft lottery, we only play for the top two slots, and then we use the reverse of the Yahoo standings for draft slot, so the furthest that Max (who ended the year in 10th place) can fall is 3. Remember, you MUST hit the 30 Innings Pitched Minimum EACH WEEK to be eligible (I’m looking at you, Matt, who missed 30 IP last week). I’ll be emailing periodic standings updates and I can do other statistical checks on request, let me know if you want me to run a check on where you stand. Next week we’ll break down the first week of the BSC; but until then, let’s talk about the Championship round.

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There are many paths to a playoff berth. Did you draft an awesome team? Did you get by on an easy schedule? Did you nail the free agent pickups throughout the year? Did you make an awesome trade? All of these have been the paths of playoff teams past, but this year we had a little bit of all of those to get us where we are.

Michael – The Flooded Farm FTW

What started off as a catchy team name idea for his floorless, flooded house and 4 animals has turned into the most dominant team Michael has had in Floored posting his highest ever winning percentage and the 2^nd highest league winning percentage ever (second only to Dave’s 0.641 in 2009). Michael mostly got here from his pre-draft and last year’s keeper trades where he acquired a near fantasy ace in Noah Syndergaard and last year’s Manny Machado trade and drafting very well. He drafted a number of players that far outperformed their draft day price such as Andrew Benintendi, Christian Yelich, Andrelton Simmons, Jose Martinez, and Sean Doolittle (pre-injury). Michael still has 12 players from his draft day roster or players he acquired through trade from his draft day roster, this includes his top 11 round picks. This means Michael stayed fairly healthy, a big key to his success. Michael has a very balanced team, finishing the year top 3 in the league in both hitting and pitching. His team peaked in week 12 and has been on a steady regression since that time. He is far from invincible but has had a consistently formiddable team all year.

Cory – Hebrew Nationals

Cory is making a return to the playoffs after winning the league two years ago. Cory also nailed breakout players in the draft such as Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and Alex Bregman. The midseason re-acquisition of Matt Carpenter after Cory had dropped him was the icing on the cake though, Carpenter has carried Cory for much of the second half. Cory drafted one of the two breakout relief pitchers on the year as Edwin Diaz went from a 5^th round pick to leading MLB in saves by a wide margin. Cory isn’t a tinkerer, not one to make many trades or play the weekly matchup extensively. He has gotten by on a solid draft and week to week management. Hebrew Nationsals has another well rounded team and a manager with a league champion pedigree. Oh and he won that golf club championship a few weeks ago, so his year is already made.

Dave – I Hate Fantasy

Dave has had one of the bumpier roads for being one of the solidified playoff teams. There were no runaway Strength of Schedule winners this year, but he and Cory tied with a 7.00 Power Rank SoS this year. For reference, Keith had a 7.8 Power Rank this year as the 9^th place team and Matt had a 5.5 Power Rank as the 8^th place team (quite the delta between those two). In summary, Cory and Dave have had it pretty good. Dave was fairly unlucky with the top half of his draft. Clayton Kershaw lost most of the season to injury and Robinson Cano was suspended for PEDs. One misplay was trading away Edwin Encarnacion in the first month of the year after a bad start. Dave has played the free agent wire like a boss by getting in fairly early on Miguel Andujar, Aaron Hicks and David Peralta and drafted one of the best breakout pitchers in Aaron Nola. He doesn’t have the talent on paper that Cory and Michael do, only putting up a power rank of 5.0 on the year and having a number of peaks and valleys to get there. He will need a hot week from his team to make a run at the trophy if he wants to put his name on it for the *4^th*time.

Brian and Josh – Smoak that Ish

Brian and Josh, who will receive the honor of their full names for at least a week, 2017 champions, had to fight tooth and nail for the final spot into the playoffs. It wasn’t that they played an overly difficult schedule (a 5.0 power rank), it was just that their team couldn’t put together consistent production on a week to week basis. The cog of their team is pitching. Max Scherzer, Jacob DeGrom, and Relief Pitcher fantasy MVP of the year, Blake Treinen, have carried this team as much as they can all year. The challenge has been the offense. 1^st round pick Kris Bryant has had an injured and underperforming year an 4^th round pick Jose Abreu was never meant to carry an offense, but rather baseline it…and then he got hurt too. Corey Seager, their 3^rd year keeper going down in April also did them no favors. They were also unlucky in that almost none of their draft picks ‘hit’…but Josh may blame Brian for that one. 1^st year keeper Jose Ramirez from the 11^th round and their pitching is the reason this team is here today. They too will need to catch a little lightning in a bottle to make a 2-week run to another championship. May the odds ever be in your favor.

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Our league is a weekly fantasy league, anything can happen over the next two weeks. On paper, Cory and Michael are on a beeline to the championship matchup, but I know better than to call anyone a favorite. Whether you’re fighting for a championship or a high end first round pick next year, it’s go time.