2019: The Playoffs Begin

It’s been a light year for blog photos, despite this commissioner’s begging for input from the league. So we kick off the playoffs with our number one seed’s…number one seed…see what I did there? George took in the company family picnic recently by playing with a big puppy. It was adorable.

Year End Power Ranks
TOTAL			HITTING			PITCHING
1	Michael	3.93	1	Dean	3.25	1	Michael	3.67
2	Max	4.21	2	Max	3.38	2	Brian/Josh	4.00
3	Dean	4.36	3	Dave	3.50	3	Paul	4.17
4	Dave	4.43	4	Michael	4.13	4	Arthur	4.50
5	Paul	4.50	5	Paul	4.75	5	Max	5.33
6	Brian/Josh	5.79	6	Cory	6.63	6	Cory	5.50
7	Arthur	6.07	7	Keith	6.75	7	Dave	5.67
8	Cory	6.14	8	Brian/Josh	7.13	8	Dean	5.83
9	Matt	7.00	9	Matt	7.13	9	Matt	6.83
10	Keith	7.50	10	Arthur	7.25	10	Keith	8.50

Michael ends the year atop the power ranks. If this were a rotisserie style league it would be all over. The big note here is Max moved ahead of Dean and Dave to claim second place in the Power Ranks. Max held off Paul who put a charge into the weekend to maintain Max’s playoff spot. Max finally streamed a few pitchers over the weekend which enabled him to beat Matt by juuuuuust enough. Brian and Josh and Arthur weren’t quite able to put enough together to make a push to the playoffs.

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And then there were four. It’s been a different road to the playoffs for each of these teams. As is tradition, they will each get their due with the commish making his prediction.

King George Let’s Go. Michael.

Since metaphorically jumping back into playing week to week matchups to become ‘king’ after taking a few weeks off to assimilate talent and not really care about week to week results, Michael has gone 4-17. Michael hasn’t had his hottest two weeks of the year but it was quite a ride from weeks 10 to 20. Michael enters the playoffs as the top seed and probably the most talented team…but not by much. He was unable to pull away in the power ranks once he reached number one in those ranks in week 18. Michael has lost Chris Sale and Fernando Tatis to injury for the year and some hot performers that carried him through the strong stretch have trailed off. He squares off against loveable loser Max, who is sure to be the crowd favorite the next two weeks.

Fuck Jon Gray. Dean.

After what was a fun team name gimmick a month ago, Dean is still rocking this nonsense. Oh well. Dean has been struggling with injuries from the jump. Having been without Giancarlo Stanton for much of the year and unable to get Blake Snell and Joey Gallo healthy, Dean has been coasting even longer than Michael waiting for his team to get healthy. Dean had a very dominant first 11 weeks to the year but has been very much in the middle tier since then. He still has a very good team but it has been more inconsistent than you’d expect for a number two seeded team. He certainly has the team talent to win the title and his weekly management capability is second to none. Dean takes on Dave in week 1.

I Hate Fantasy. Dave.

Dave is hungry for a return to the champion’s circle. After winning 3 times in 5 years between 2009 and 2013, he has not tasted victory since. Dave has been consistently in the top tier of the power ranks the entire year, never lower than 4^th…not coincidentally where he sits entering the playoffs, on a bit of a slide since week 17. He survived a very difficult schedule and has drawn Dean for his opening round matchup. This matchup pits two of Floored’s best game managers up against one another. It will surely be a chess match of a week. Those not in the playoffs should take notes of their day to day moves.

Polygraph Anyone? Max.

It was a big year for Max: starting a new business, having Ronald Acuna has a 10^th round keeper, and now he can add making the playoffs to it! Max is in the playoffs for the second time in his Floored career, last making it in 2012 when he won the power rankings. He was bounced in the first round that year. Max has the number 2 offense in Floored and it carries him week to week. Keepers Acuna and Eddie Rosario gave him a big head start to the year and then Yordan Alvarez has been fire the entire second half. Max still hasn’t caught onto the 2019 rules for pitching and how to maximize his week to week opportunities, but ya know, no time like the present. He will be a slight underdog but winning it all is certainly within reach.

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Prediction Time

Only one time in Floored history has a team that won both the regular season Yahoo Standings and the Year End Power Ranks also won the title, that was team BJ in 2017. To make this prediction, I like to look at the hottest team entering the playoffs. Here is how the Power Ranks line up over the last two months:

Last Two Months Power Ranks
TOTAL			HITTING			PITCHING
1	Michael	3.57	1	Max	3.63	1	Paul	3.17
2	Paul	4.00	2	Michael	3.88	2	Michael	3.17
3	Max	4.07	3	Dean	4.13	3	Brian/Josh	4.00
4	Dean	4.64	4	Paul	4.63	4	Max	4.67
5	Brian/Josh	4.79	5	Dave	4.75	5	Dean	5.33
6	Dave	5.36	6	Brian/Josh	5.38	6	Arthur	5.50
7	Cory	6.07	7	Cory	6.00	7	Dave	6.17
8	Arthur	7.14	8	Keith	6.38	8	Cory	6.17
9	Matt	7.36	9	Matt	7.25	9	Matt	7.50
10	Keith	7.36	10	Arthur	8.38	10	Keith	8.67

Michael, despite two uninspiring weeks and history not being on his side, still has a significant edge on the field over the last two months. This combined with his year end data make him the commissioner’s prediction to win it all. Though, Max is certain to be the rooting favorite.

Let’s. Go.