It's Like Deja Vu All Over Again

First of all, welcome to the first actual 'news' posting here on the 'new' Hughes News site. We were here on blogger many years ago and I bailed for much the same reason I have jumped back here from WordPress... changes in the writing tools. But enough of that, let's look at the league, shall we?

Week 9 saw the Barenholtz Division teams all stumble, the Kuhlmann Division teams all shine and the Lombardi guys split the difference. Jump to the just concluded Week 10...the Barenholtz Division teams all stumble, the Kuhlmann Division teams all shine and the Lombardi guys split the difference.

Yes, it was a weird deja vu feeling. The only difference was the difference split in the Lombardi. It was the Flyers and Heroes' turning it around to win. And 'turning it around' is the key phrase in the case of the Flyers. Their 171-79 win over the Rbacks was significant in several ways. First, and most

important to James, is that it moved them back into first in the division. It also was the third highest point total in league history. Only the Holes in Week 12 last year (181 points vs the Rbacks) and the Strawmenn in Week 3 this year (176 points vs the Bliz) have ever had more points in a game.

The 92 point margin of victory ties the Strawmenn who beat the S'Rats 152-60 in Week 6 of the 2009 season.

Lost in the Barenholtz two week onslaught is the fact that the Strawmenn are riding an eight-game winning streak after stumbling out to an 0-2 start. Padilla's guys also have the top-scoring club and while they haven't clinched a playoff spot officially it would take a huge turn of events to keep them out.

It's waaay to soon for this but it's still fun…if the playoffs began today: the #1 seed would go to the Smenn, the #2 to the Giants. The Flyers would be in the #3 slot, the Sticks at #4. The 6-4 Pirates would get the nod over the 6-4 Blizzard for the fifth spot based on their head-to-head win. The always ...ahem.. 'interesting' sixth and final playoff spot would be awarded to the Settlers as they would edge the Bliz by a single point, 1084 to 1083. But before anyone shits a sideways couch remember that there are three weeks of division games yet to be played. They start now!

League Items... Please bookmark this page. And I have a 'Follow by Email' button over on the sidebar. Do that and you should automatically receive an email when I post here...the trade deadline is on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week (the 26th) at 7 pm Central time. The last waiver claim you can make would be on the final Sunday of the regular season. You'll need to have your team ready for the playoffs if you qualify because, as always, there are no transactions allowed once the regular season ends.

And speaking of transactions... there is a proposal on the table to allow the trading of draft picks a year beyond the current 'one year in the future'. In other words, we would allow trades involving 2021 AND 2022 picks during the 2020 season. And so on. I can't (yet) think of a reason to object to it, so I will put it up as a poll. I'll do it now because off-season polls rarely get looked at by many owners. But at the same time, I reserve the right to reject this if I come across issues it might cause with the running of the draft value system. In other words: If it complicates my job much, fuggedaboutit.

And that, in turn, leads me to my last items... trade ramifications are on you, the owners involved. Please think through any trades in terms of picks you own or don't own and how that will affect your keepers. Keep in mind that if you trade for a guy who would have, say, fifth-round value as a keeper for next season but you don't own a fifth-round pick that player would be slotted in the fourth round and you'd lose one year of potential ownership.

A change to allowing 'two-year future pick' trades would potentially complicate that process. Trade for a fifth-round value guy and you better be sure you have (or can get) a first-round slot for two seasons down the road or you'll miss out on a year of that player.

And lastly, remember that there is a roster size limit which caps the number of players you will have when the draft is over. You could trade for twelve extra picks but once you have 16 players your draft is done.

Send any and all questions my way and good luck in the last three weeks of the season. I have a feeling it's going to get sort of crazy by the time we finish week 13!

We've Moved!!

Like the 1984 Colts, The Hughes News has picked up and moved on. Unlike the Colts it's not being done by a drunk asshole in the middle of the night. Without boring anyone with the specifics I'll just say that WordPress, our home for these many online years, has made changes in their writing tools that have been giving me fits since this summer.

I've asked for help but none of the suggestions have me any closer to being happy over there. Add to that the fact that I already have several sports memorabilia-related blogs here on the Blogger platform and changing seemed to make sense. This link will get you to the WordPress site. It's not going away any time soon. I need it to remain so that we can refer to old posts as I do from time to time in pointing out (mostly to Rick) that I did actually post that rule/decision three years ago. For the remainder of this season, I will keep this post pinned to the top here. At some point I will just have a link to the WordPress site over in the sidebar to the right. I've tried importing those old posts from WordPress over here without any luck. I will keep trying.

Meanwhile, please change your bookmarks to this site. I will try to remember to include links in any emails I send referencing this news blog. Thanks for your patience!

Ahoy Matey

Don’t look now but the Kuhlmann Division is kicking ass and taking names. The Strawmenn are on a seven game winning wave and sit atop the crowd by a game. They lead the league in points yet are behind the Sticks in the Power Ranks. Not sure how that happens.
The fact that the Smenn and Sticks are up top isn’t all that surprising. They came into the year as solid clubs. And neither is the Bliz’s standing as an over .500 team. They are second in the league in scoring. But having the most points scored against you will get you a 5-4 record no matter how strong you are. They are a safe bet for a Wild Card spot (at least) at this point and as the #1 scoring team will be a smart pick for a long playoff run.
What was sort of harder to see coming has been the surge of the Pirates who are 5-4 and definitely in the playoff hunt. Sure, in 2018 Schofield The Younger won only one game in paying his rookie dues but his team was the second-highest ‘points against’ victim (only four PA behind the Bliz!) and could have had a better record. With a full complement of Division games left the Pirates have their fate in their own hands. Being 5-4 beats ‘walking the 10 loss plank’, right Jack?
Stuff… Christian McCaffrey continues to carry the Settlers through the murky confines of the Lombardi Division. He’s a one-man wrecking crew… Speaking of the Lombardi: want to hear something crazy? The Bombers are 2-7 and still are within two games of the division lead. With five games left they ain’t out of it!!…. haven’t mentioned the Barenholtz yet but the Giants still hold that tenuous half-game lead as all four of those clubs took a loss this past week. How Lombardi-like of them…
I’m not one to brag but dammit, I’m gonna brag… I’ve never made the playoffs in my dynasty league. It’s been a long hard road with the shitty team of ragamuffins I took over five seasons ago but I’m 10-0 and have the division clinched. Hey, despite a couple of really horrendous deals I’ve made in the last couple of seasons I’m the first team to start a year with ten straight wins. Making progress in a 16 team dynasty league is about as close to bear wrestling as I ever want to be!
League Admin Stuff… I just noticed that the Flyers had a transaction (add/drop) in the early a.m. on the 18th before add/drops were open. (Thanks, Dan, for pointing that out, sorry I just saw your post). That was on me. I’ve performed a few transactions for other owners (mostly lineups but waiver requests as well) when required due to them being out-of-pocket or having login/access issues. This time I failed to note that we were out of the waiver window. The player claimed (Trubisky) made a start (a loss) and is gone from the team. That, plus the fact that it was my screw-up means I’m not sure there is anything required at this point. I could dock the Flyers some waiver cash, but he didn’t do anything other than text me a request to make a move on his behalf.
Until a few years ago the MFL system required a commish to actively ‘log out’ as commissioner and log back in as a team owner to perform any action as that owner. Now I just need to pick the team from a drop-down and make any move and as ‘commish’, it goes right through even if the move is outside the calendar. And without a team of my own I am always logged in as commish.
Again, I apologize and I’ll try to do better in the future. And, yes, I’m still more than happy to help any owner having issues.