Week 21: The Final Countdown…for the season and a baby

Michael and Dean played together on a flag football team this summer. Michael was the QB and Dean the number 1 receiver, however with their playoff life on the line, Dean dropped two catchable balls for first downs that would have iced the clock and then their team lost on a hail mary. It was brutal. In not brutal news, Dean and his baby momma Jessie are in labor right now ready to have their first child. Please be sure to send him your good wishes.

Dean and I were unable to get our research project done today, so we’ll hold off on those results until an offseason blog. There should be some good takeaways for each of us from it.

Instead, let’s look at some league history. Here is the how every single Floored Champion has fared that year: what was their winning percentage throughout the year, what was their power rank (with data since 2011), and then for comparison, what was this data for the first place finishing team in the regular season, and if applicable, the person who finished highest in the power ranks without either coming in first in the end of year standings or playoffs.

I’ve color coded the applicable data as I felt best. My first takeaway was that we’ve only had two team ever finish first in the regular season AND the playoffs, BJ last year and Dave in 2009. That does not bode well for Michael this year. The next takeaway is that having a bad power rank doesn’t preclude you from winning the league…as mad or sad as this makes me. This confirms one of the themes of this blog, anything can happen in a given week. Do you tink Dave was walking into his week 1 matchup in the playoffs in 2013 with confidence? He was literally below average in the league with a power rank of 5.286, and he won the damn thing. I’m sure this will not stop our new 4^th place team, Arthur, from shouting from the roof tops if he were to pull off the upset next week or win the title…nor should he be stoppped, that’d be fun for him. You do you…preferably not by yelling at us though.

Moving on, there were only three matchups that meant anything last week (sorry Max and Matt matchup, you guys fought hard though) and they all had major implications for the playoffs.

Arthur trounced Paul for the biggest statement win of the year, but lets be clear, this was far more about Paul having no fight left to give than Arthur going off. Not wanting to take toooo much away from Arthur, he had a huge pitching week putting up a 2.08 ERA over 60 innings with 67 Ks. This one knocked Paul from the contenders and vaulted Arthur into 4^th place becaaaaaause…

Cory beat Brian and Josh. BJ’s offense really blew it in this one. Cory didn’t do much to take the crown but he did just enough to edge the beej (see what I did there?). Cory had an impressive 47 Ks over 32 innings, picking up 4 wins along the way. The ratio categories (ERA and WHIP) were very close, but Cory picking up both did major damage to BJ’s playoff hopes.

Last and very least, Dean somewhat mailed this one in despite beating Dave. Dean needed to go for broke, stream pitchers, try to put up a 10 plus spot to have a chance…it didn’t happen, I mean there was a baby coming and fantasy football drafts to be held. Dave was focused on setting up his roster for the playoffs and the opportunity was there for Dean, he just didn’t have enough fire power to bring it home.

One week left, Arthur plays Cory and BJ plays Max. Arthur’s lead is a nearly insurmountable 4.5 games. All you have to do is get in though, and then the rest will be history.