Week 23: Championship Bracket Shakeup and a Battle to Not Lose the BSC

 

Arthur and his family recently visited Italy, taking in sights such as the Coliseum.  This image could be a symbol for half the league that crumbled to the finish this fantasy season. But not Arthur's team, it fought to the #1 seed this year.

• Dave held on for dear life to his number one Power Ranks spot, claiming the 2026 Power Ranks Championship
• Michael's second half surge stalled out, in this data visualization at least, as his team just doesn't steal enough bases to contend in a 14 category wide analysis.
• Arthur, who ended up our #1 seed, fell to 5th in the Power Ranks. His team is back on the upswing, though, as Max Fried is back on an MLB mound, Aaron Judge is taking batting practice, and his other big injuries this summer are back as well (Oneill Cruz, Elly de la Cruz, Konnor Griffin, James Wood, Kevin McGonigle). More on Arthur's final week soon.
• Kevin's team slides in on less than an upswing, as his team has not had enough time to recover from most of its ailments.
• Dean's ride ended this week despite his #3 Power Rank. The margins were thin this year and he ended up on the wrong side of the playoff cutline.

• Hide your eyes, Robert, I had to show this one for Dean. Dean ends up our number two schedule lucky casualty, significantly driven by this last week where he literally put up an elite 8.37 EWW but only scored 2 standings points. Dean ended up 7.5 games back of 4th place and his schedule luck cost him -8.1 games.
• Michael's 10.94 is the 4th highest EWW score of the year. He finished the season in a flourish.

Enough looking backwards, we're playing for a championship.

Arthur and Kevin will face off in the 1v4 matchup. These two teams' seasons have largely mirrored each other, though they handled things very differently. They were 1-2 in the league from week 6 to week 12, both driven by incredible draft (and pre-season trading) selections that led to a number of breakouts. Arthur's regression was largely driven by injuries (see the names above), and with his big early lead he largely sat on his hands while his plate appearances and innings pitched slowed. His Power Rank slowly came back to the pack and he held on long enough to hold his playoff spot and even earn the number 1 seed with some faltering late season opponents. Now more healthy than he's been in months, does his team have two good weeks in him to claim his second league title? Kevin has ended his second Floored season much differently than his first. Kevin's hitting and pitching are well-balanced but inconsistent. Since his big injuries in late July, he was able to put it all together for one week, but largely has not rekindled his flames from the first 2/3 of the year.

The other championship bracket matchup finds old foes Dave and Michael squaring off with each team heading in very different directions. Dave peaked in week 17 or week 21, depending on how you look at the Power Ranks chart. By week 22, his playoff odds had risen to 99% and Dave Hates Fantasy began to coast...but with the change in gears, it then got injured with Kurtz, Buxton. and Willson Contreras going down. He has not had time to recover, but did his best last night by cutting a number of players to get ready for the two week sprint. Will these moves be enough to overcome a poorly timed swoon? Michael's swoon came in April as his giant draft capital advantage was wiped out by the second week with 6 top-150 player injuries. Many of them never really recovered but fortunately Michael held onto Alex Bregman and traded for Rafael Devers who have powered Michael to a late summer surge. This is the 7th time Dave and Michael have faced off in a championship bracket knockout game with the pair tied 3-3, all time.

We have not forgotten about you, Bourbon Street Champions. Reminder for what this is, the six teams not in the championship bracket will play in a Power Ranks or Rotisserie style tournament. The top two teams after the second week earn the top two draft slot picks. 

The new wrinkle this year is our anti-tanking provision. The rule states: The loser of the BSC forfeits their third round pick to the BSC champion with the offsetting pick being in the 30th round…if the loser of the BSC holds more than $20 of draft capital than the average values for the league. 

So, who has more than $20 of draft capital for 2027?

Robert and Paul, they were the trade deadline sellers and they are the ones at risk here if they have a rough next two weeks. A third round pick is a big deal, this will be fun to see how it plays out.