To Infinity...and Beyond

Looking Back... 2020 was..umm..unique. That's certainly an understatement. But we (and the NFL) managed to muddle through it. It looked dicey there in the early going but here we are with a champion and an off-season to think about what's next.

I made some rules adjustments going into the year and made a few changes on the fly. Thanks for being flexible and understanding. I damn sure hope 2020 was a one off.

Looking Forward... It's funny. We went for years (YEARS!) without a change in rules and regulations. We were a dinosaur league, scoring touchdowns and kicker points well past the point when nearly every other league was using yards, dedicated tight ends, PPR, half PPR, defenses/special teams and IDPs. OK, we don't use some of those still, but you get my point. However once we moved into the modern world of fantasy football we've kept progressing. I've come to embrace change to keep the league fresh and challenging. Not every idea is a good one. Many of you remember when we had 'farm teams'...NFL teams that we 'owned' which formed a player pool we could draw from when we needed a replacement. It was ummm...interesting. 

Then we went to performance scoring, keepers in Phase One, Draft Values, the Dalvin Cook Rule and other crazy stuff. We are still evolving and more changes are in the works. Here are a few things I've been working on and where I stand on them at the moment.

Taxi Squad: I'd played around with the idea of a Taxi Squad, a place to 'stash' a player (or players), normally rookies and/or second-year guys. I fostered a team this year that used this feature. I found it interesting until it dawned on me that it's kind of pointless when all you really need to do is adjust your roster size if you want space for a prospect. The TS would add more stuff for me to monitor (even though MFL has provisions for one) and who needs another layer of rules and regulations?

But having said that, I think there may be a way to make drafting rookies less of an exercise in dart throwing at immediate returns. More on this below.

 Verdict: Idea Nixed!

Playoff Qualifiers: I'm fairly certain we will add another team to the mix next year. We'll go seven teams deep with the added team being the highest scoring non-qualifyer. This isn't new and those of you who have been around awhile (which is most of you) know that I've been a proponent of this for years. FF has such a luck factor and nearly every single season a good, high output team sits it out due to scheduling that they can't control. 

Yes, I know. This year it was my team but as I said, you all know how long this has been a priority of mine. The Flyer situation has nothing to do with moving this once again to the front burner. Look back through this year's emails and newsletters and you'll find I was saying this even when my team was an upper seed.

I don't want to make the points seed the #6 and have just one 'traditional' wildcard qualifier. I think the four division format means we need the 4 division winners and two w/l wildcards. But there's no reason we can't add another one. Here's how I see this working: Four division winners get slots 1-4 with seeding based on the usual regulations. Two more teams qualify as usual based on record with the standard tie-breaks used (see below). The seventh team is the PPG qualifier. 

Now here is where it gets interesting. The three non-division winners are seeded 5 thru 7 based on PPG. Here's why... in a seven team playoff only the #1 seed gets a bye. That's sort of revolutionary but we haven't always had byes and we've had plenty of teams that got byes that really were not deserving. Seeding the 5-7 based on PPG also sets up the #2 seed against the #7 which should be the weakest of the wildcards. You could consider it a 'bone' thrown to the #2 seed. 

I'm still playing around with this in my mind as I take my dog for walks so don't pitch a fit just yet. There are other ways to seed the wildcards (including a more traditional approach). The Draft Order section will touch on a few things that MFL offers us in ways to rank teams. One of those might work for sorting out the seeds as well. This is probably as good a time as any to point out that had we not gone back to only w/l qualifiers, we would have had a different champ. Rick would not have made the playoffs. Do with that as you wish.  Verdict: 99% a done deal with final details TBD.

Roster limits including IR slots: This sort of falls under the 'Let's see what the situation looks like in the summer/fall' category along with Waiver Money, claim limits, etc. If we are at a more 'normal' point where COVID isn't that big a possible factor I think we will go back to a more standard limit although the old 15 player roster thing might get tweaked a bit. 16/17 might work. We've done both of those before. Same with the six IR spots we allowed in 2020. Look for it to be two at most. Verdict: It Depends

Tiebreaks: Referring here to standings and seeding tiebreaks, not game results. I tweaked these last summer and made PPG more of a factor. I'm going to look at this again. If you had the misfortune to check our tiebreak regulations this year you saw how complicated it can get. I'd like to streamline it some with continued emphasis on points scored.  Verdict: Minor thing to make my life easier so, yeah.

Draft Order: Oh boy, here we go! Here's what I know... we will modify how the draft order is set beginning this fall.

Here's what I don't know (for certain)... how will we establish the order? Will we split the draft so that the non-playoff teams all get a first round slot before the playoff teams? How will be determine that order? Record? PPG? Power Rank? Potential Points (the max you could have scored with your best lineup)? All-Play standings (your record if you played all 11 other teams every week)? MFL's Victory Points (awarded for wins, ties, losses plus ranked scoring tiers)? Or some combo of the above. Or all of the above?

And will we just assign slots based on one or a combo of those or use a 'weighted' draft lottery with 'virtual ping pong balls' assigned for whatever categories we use? Should we base a category on the full 13 week season or cut it off at 10 to minimize the temptation to tank? Do we do a serpentine draft the whole way through based on the above or just through a few rounds and then go to a randomized order? So many questions! 

OK...Here's what I'm thinking....

Separate the non-playoff teams and apply the following (I'm referring to lottery 'ping pong balls' as 'tix' just to make it easy)...

On a sliding scale of 10-8-6-4-2-1 (or something similar) we  assign tix to the teams in reverse order for each of the following...

• W/L with our standard tiebreaks applied
  
• Potential PPG
• All-Play Record

We could include the system's power Rank Ratings as well. BTW these categories (and more!) can be found on one page of our league home... Reports-->Standings-->Power Rank. Add up the tix 'earned' and use this Draft Pick Lottery site to run the lottery. It costs just $2 to have the site email the results directly or we could do a Zoom session or video as documentation. 

I made up some numbers and put this spreadsheet together just for fun.

So I'd put in the teams and using the 'custom' option at the lottery site I'd assign 26 tix to Team C, 26 to Team E, 18 to Team F, and so on. Hit the button and the lottery order for those teams gets emailed. We could do the same exact thing for the playoff teams. Maybe dock the Hughes Bowl champ 25% of their tix. Or maybe not. Or just assign their slots based on record or some other of the categories. 

Still to be determined is how the second and subsequent rounds go. MFL itself has the capacity to randomize any or all rounds. Lots to think about indeed. Verdict: It'll get done in one form or fashion.

Keepers/Draft Values:  I've received a few suggestions for changes in the way we keep players from year to year. OK, so some of these 'suggestions' are actually complaints, but whatever. I've made an adjustment or two in the last year. Now no player can be held in a round beyond Round 10. Maybe more tweaking is needed but to be honest I really like the system. I like the continuity of carrying 'core' players from year to year. Truth be told we'd be a dynasty league if I didn't think most of you would bail. I'm too old to recruit these days.

I believe that what you get out of the draft is generally equal to the work that you put into it. Teams are made through drafting well in the middle rounds, keeping up with free agents, and just paying attention in general. If you go into the draft just relying on the ADP list that MFL provides on the draft room page you're gonna be disappointed. That list averages results from drafts covering every system imaginable. It has little relevance to ours.

One specific 'complaint' pointed my way was that it doesn't pay to draft a rookie in the first or second round. The likelihood of him contributing in his first year is debatable and then you're going to lose him due to the rules anyway. To which I say "OK, then don't draft a rookie in the first two rounds." With the keeper rules forcing top players into the market every year and restricting teams to one player at any position there should always be talent available. Grab those rookies in the middle rounds. 

But having said that I am always open to suggestions. Some issues will take some very persuasive arguments to get me to buy into. The keeper system, I admit, is something I'm pretty proud of. It's worked the way I envisioned it to this point. But I've moved away from stuff I loved in the past and will do so again I'm sure. 

The last poll I put up for a vote concerned allowing two keepers from the same position. The results, which were 9-3 against, sort of surprised me.  I like the one player per position limit for the simple reason it helps churn talent back into the draft. But I wouldn't have pitched a fit if it had gone the other way. Let's see how drafting is affected over the next year or two and we can revisit this.

Another suggestion, one that sort of piggybacked the Taxi Squad idea, was to put in place an additional keeper slot for retaining a rookie. That's got merit. I'd like to hear ideas on doing that without necessarily adding a Taxi Squad. Maybe allowing one rookie to be kept in a specific slot after his rookie year no matter where he was drafted. Then again I can see that becoming problematic in cases of rookies that really make an immediate impact. Not sure there's a perfect solution. I'm all ears for your thoughts. Verdict: Nothing likely to change unless I add the rookie thing but that won't effect the 2021 season keepers. 

The Dalvin Cook Rule: I'm going to just quote what I said in a previous post...

I'm thinking of tweaking the Dalvin Cook Rule for next season. The last qualifier reads like this: "He was active for five or fewer games during the Hughes League regular season" I may make that read "...the  Hughes League season, including playoffs." That would mean NFL weeks 1 thru 16. And I will definitely adjust the wording to reflect my original intent as to the number of games. It was supposed to be 'fewer than five games'.

I am also going to add a provision that restricts qualifying players to being Round One keepers. as currently written players can be slotted into the round they were drafted/kept in in the year they qualify.  Verdict: Probably a done deal. 

I think that covers most of the things that keep me up nights. And then some. LOL As always, your thoughts and constructive criticisms are more than welcome.

This is Joey a.k.a 'Joey Chestnut' cause he chows down like he's in an eating contest. He's been with us a few weeks and is getting to be cool with life at Hughes Central.

 

Hard to see just how big he is in those. But here he is on the biggest bed PetSmart sells.

That's it from here. I've finished the Draft Value page and will mail it out once I've re-checked the numbers. I am working on the spreadsheets that are found in the 'Links' section of the league site...All Time W/L, Playoff results through the years and so on. Once those are done I'll update the site and then take a break.

Last Reminder: The Post Season NFL Playoff tournament will commence once the playoff teams are confirmed in the NFL. I'll remind you then to select your players. Please sign up if you haven't done so. It's an easy way to get some extra waiver cash for 2021 and remember that we likely won't be at the crazy $500 per team allotment next season.

Happy New Year to all, stay safe!

-Commish

 

They Might Be Giants...Again!

 

While it's true the Giants sort of squeaked into the playoffs this year, what's equally true is that they warmed up at exactly the right time and grabbed their fourth EHFL with an impressive 134-101 win over the #1 seeded Nationals.

Rick's crew jumped to an early lead with Tom Brady's Friday performance and built a commanding lead from there. Devonte Adams had a huge game for Rick on Sunday night and padded the lead to the point that even Stefon Digg's Monday Night Football efforts never got the Nats close. 

Brady was named Hughes Bowl MVP in a close vote over Adams. His 33 points were the warning shot over the Nats' bow that the Giants were going to be in this one for keeps.

The Giants become the third team in Hughes League history to successfully defend a championship. This is, as noted, their fourth title. They are also the first #6 seed since we started on Myfantasyleague.com to win a Hughes Bowl. 

I will have another post published later this week which will detail the changes being contemplated for 2021. It's a long post but I hope you will read and react to it. Since 1980 my goal has always been to make the Hughes League entertaining and challenging. I want this to be the league you would keep if you had to play in only one. To that end I think it's important that we keep evolving. I hope you agree.

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Housekeeping... I will be sending emails/messages to teams that have more than 19 players on their roster. If you are in that situation I'd really appreciate you taking a few moments to make the cuts needed to get back to 19 (including IR guys). I hate making roster decisions for owners myself. If you get emails with IR/roster moves you'll know that's whats behind it.

Once that's done I will start work on calculating Draft Values for this coming 2021 season's draft. 

Again, hat's off to Rick for the huge win. And thanks to each of you for making the Hughes League so successful! Have a safe and healthy 2021!

Hughes Bowl 40 Preview... War In The Barenholtz!

The #6 seeded Giants have warmed up at the right time and will now try to become the third team in league history to successfully defend their crown against their division mates, the top seeded Nationals this weekend. The two semi-final contests lacked some the drama of the Wild Card games but they were entertaining at times.

The Nats built a big lead on the Legends and their 138 points marked their best total of the season. The Legends took a big chunk out of the cushion on Monday night thanks to Gio Bernard and Deontae Johnson but losing Tyler Boyd early in the game to a concussion sealed their fate. 

The Giants overcame the Heroes slim lead with 8 points from rookie RB Edwards-Helaire of the Chiefs in Sunday's late afternoon game and earned their second straight trip to the Hughes Bowl. Helaire was hurt late in the contest. Had he gone down earlier we might be looking at a different HB 40 match-up. In losing the Heroes broke a small two season string of consecutive HB wins by #2 seeds. 

The Nationals will try to become the fifth top seed in the MFL era to win the title. The Giants will be hoping to become the first #6 seed to do so, as well as just the third back-to-back champ. Here is a graphic showing the teams that have appeared in consecutive Hughes Bowls. HB wins are printed in red.

Scrolling through the records we come across some interesting stuff...these same two teams met in the 2004 Hughes Bowl which ended in a 79-79 tie! The Nats won the trophy based on their tie-break player (Tony Gonzalez). It was the first Hughes Bowl tie in our history.... that game was also (surprisingly to me, at least) the Nats last HB game... the Nats last appeared in the post-season in 2016 when they were a wildcard...

...The two teams have met a total of four times previously in the playoffs. The Nats have won twice, a Semi match up in '99 and the previously mentioned 2004 championship game...the Giants defeated the Nats in a 2001 Wild Card game and the 2007 Semi Finals... 

...neither franchise is a stranger to the playoffs...the Nats are making their 24th post-season appearance and boast a 23-17 record through this past weekend. They are 6-4 in 10 Hughes Bowls and six titles is best in league history...

...the Giants are making their 19th playoff appearance and are now over .500 at 17-15 with this years two wins. They are 3-4 in seven previous Hughes Bowls. 

And here's a look at how these two teams got to the Hughes Bowl...

With the #1 seed that scored 138 points this week facing a club coming off five consecutive wins we should expect a great game. Best of luck to both Dan and Rick, two great owners. 

League Stuff...

Nothing new on the league changes 'front'. I am continuing to solicit ideas and opinions and I hope to have something put together soon...I sent out invites to the NFL post-season contest. It's an easy set-it-and-forget-it type thing with waiver money again as the top prizes. I tweaked the format to lift the restrictions on how many players you can pick from each NFL club. Not sure if that makes it easier or harder. If you haven't signed up I urge you to do so. The rosters will get filled in the day the NFL playoffs are set.

I'll be giving one more reminder to everyone to get your rosters down to 19 players INCLUDING IR guys. I'm not going to nag folks because that gets tiring. I'm just going to make the cuts myself if I need to. All teams should be down to the limit by next Wednesday. Thanks for taking care of this. I will send out the first draft values spreadsheet right after the first of the year.

And finally....Happy Holidays! Thanks for making this such a great league.

 

Giants, Legends Cruise Into SemiFinals.

And so here we are down to four teams playing for glory.

No clever yet snarky photo this week. But enjoy this basket of kittens:

 

This past weekend lacked the drama of the last two weeks of the regular season but the results are no less interesting. Both the 3 and 4 seeds went down. That has only happened once since we've been on the MFL site (more on this below).

Both the Giants and Legends took control of their games early and never were seriously threatened. The Giants benefited from a season-high 30 points from Jonathan Taylor. He had 22 the week before against the Texans and face them again this week so that's something to look for in Rick's match up with the Heroes. Devonte Adams remains hot, too (thanks for Aaron Rogers) and those two could be enough to put them on equal footing with the league's hottest team.

On the other side of the bracket the Legends didn't have their best week of the year but got enough to win by eleven over the Bliz. Paz no doubt expected more than 8 from Aaron Jones. He'd have hit his 17 point per start average the game would have been a nail-biter. 

And a little birdie whispered in my ear that had the Strawmenn, who were oh-so-close to making the playoffs, would have put up about 130ish points this past weekend. To quote a very wise old commish..."Fantasy Football can be a cruel mistress."

Looking ahead we have the top seeds back in action as the Nats take on the Legends and the Heroes look to derail the Giants' hopes of a repeat. The #1 and #2 seeds would naturally be favored but this is fantasy football.  Who the hell knows?

With the higher seeds going down in wildcard week I got to thinking about how this has played out in the past. As mentioned above only once since 2003 have the #3 and #4 seeds both been knocked out in the wild card round. In ten of those past seventeen seasons both those seeds won. Overall the #3 seed is 15-2 and the #4 is 11-6. 

A Look At WC Week Results:

Also of note is the seeding of all the champs from those years. Names are in the chart above and numbers summarized here....

No #4 or #6 has won it all in the MFL era. The Giants are looking to change one of those.

Thoughts on the league going forward:

Last week I touched on the fact that next year will look different but I honestly haven't gone very far down the road as to what the changes will be. But trust me, there will be a couple. 

I know I want to revamp the draft, in particular how teams get slotted in Round 1. I know that the non-playoff teams will get loaded into the front half of the first round but how that's accomplished, how the playoff teams get slotted, and what happens in subsequent rounds is still up in the air. I have ideas and others have been thrown at me. But nothing is set right now. As with all things here I'd like to keep it as uncomplicated as possible while being fair to all. 

Playoff qualifiers will likely be changed as well. You can almost count on the top scoring, non-W/L qualifier being included, either as the #6 or, in a revolutionary change, the #7. I've got a few other tricks up my sleeve as well.

I will be running the NFL playoff contest again this year. I just need to make sure that the site is still in business or I'll find another one. I seem to recall that MFL hosts the same sort of thing. Of course it all hinges on the NFL staying about the COVID waterline. That's to be determined.

Best of luck to the guys involved in the semi-finals. Should be fun.

Regular Season Recap...and some thoughts

So much to say, so little time 

Lots of stuff on the plate this week. Before I flog myself publicly (and demonstrate why everyone else's ideas are stupid) we need to examine the upcoming Wild Card matchups. And talk about the ridiculous Week 13 that got us here. 

If you've been following along (and why wouldn't you have been?) then you know that we went into the final week of the regular season with most playoff slots filled but having a logjam for the last two. The Kuhlmann Division was up for grabs and the second Wildcard spot was destined to come down to the last game of the week.

Everyone involved in this mess, the Flyers, Giants, Blizzard, and Strawmenn, needed a win obviously. Not only that, but the Bliz needed to outscore the Smenn by 64, a tall but not impossible order. Doing that would give them the division, their only way in due to tiebreaks.

Through Sunday the Bliz had shaved their deficit to 10 behind Padilla's crew which had laid an egg at the worst possible time with 75 points and a loss. But Paz was going to have to wait for Amari Cooper to play on Tuesday to pull it off. Ironically, Cooper's projected points amounted to exactly 10. We'll get back to that drawn-out drama in a bit.

The Flyers, meanwhile, had taken care of business with a big lead and all-but-official win over the Holes. They needed to have the Giants lose to the Nats for a chance to squeeze into the #6 seed. And going into Monday's two NFL games, the Nats were leading. Not by a ton, but leading. And the players remaining to play for those two clubs seemed to favor Dan. Those Nats players included Benny Snell of the Steelers. Things were pretty rosy in Flyerland.

Then, in the second quarter of the Steelers-Washington game, this happened:

First and goal, Steelers at the Washington five...Snell runs it, stopped at the one, darn. 2nd down...Big Ben throws to Snell, short, incomplete. Flag on Washington, first and goal, again. So...Snell to the right, stuffed. Shit. Second and Goal...Snell to the right, stuffed. Gawdamnitanway! Third and goal, Ben tries a pass to some guard, Short. Fourth and goal...Snell up the middle, yup, stuffed. Oh for fuck sake.

At that point, I gave up and went out on the deck for a beer. Rick's Giants pulled ahead in the Bills-49ers game. The Nats made it interesting but the result was clear. Giants in, Flyers (who had had a shot if there had been a 3-way tie at 7-6) were toast. On to Tuesday and the Bliizad's attempt for the near-miraculous. 

As noted it was all or nothing for both teams by now. Neither the Bliz nor Smenn could get the wildcard. The division title was the only path to the playoffs. And standing alone on that path was Bliz/Cowboy receiver, Amari Cooper.

I watched the beginning of the game, tracked a bit longer on the phone app, and then watched a movie. Andy Dalton was playing very Andy Dalton-ish. And Cooper was picking up a point here and there but it wasn't very impressive. He had four at the half with a couple of catches for 20 yards and a ten-yard end-around. That was after not getting so much as a sniff in the first quarter. He had another catch in the third quarter that got him to five.

He was quiet until the Cowboys got close to the endzone with four minutes on the clock. Seemed like now-or-never when Dalton threw one high from the two on fourth down. Cooper went up, grabbed it, and came down in bounds with six points for America's Saddest Team, seven points for the Paz and a division title for the Bliz. Look how close he was to being OB on this catch.

Crazy 'bad beat' for the Strawmenn. Then again there is a team that outscored the #1 team and beat the #2 seed twice and spent multiple weeks sitting in the #2 Seed slot and is now sitting this dance out. Fantasy football can be brutal.

Games to come, starting Thursday!

We have two wildcard matchups, the Legends take on the Blizzard and the Holes face the Giants. I'm out of the prediction business but if you want some insight check out the scoring for the second half of the season:

So, you tell me. I haven't the time to do much research other than quick glances at my records but I can tell you that of the six playoff teams, only the Giants are back from last year's postseason. They are also the last team to win a Hughes Bowl as a wildcard (2012)...the Sticks broke a three year run by not being the Kuhlmann champ...the last time the Heroes won the Lombardi was 2003(!), congrats Ben!...

League Stuff and Coming Attractions

If you are playing on you need to remember that we require a tie-break player from here on out Without one your tiebreak score is zero. 

Other things to know... 

I was going to bring up the mess I made of the playoff projections last weekend. but that's pointless now. I really need to do a full Excel Permutations before I publish anything. Post-It-Note-based thoughts don't cut it. It was a mess and I apologize again. I am critical of the commissioners in some of the other leagues I'm in for not being communicative. Maybe there's a lesson there for me.

You will be locked out of transactions (actually just claims) once your team is done for the year. 

If you are over 19 players (including IR guys) you'll need to make moves to get to the limit. If you don't do it I'll do it for you. I'd start at kicker and next, I'll move your highest scorer to my roster. 😇

Any players picked up via waivers by playoff teams will not be eligible to be keepers and any player cut for them can't be a keeper either.

Finally, this is your yearly reminder that the brackets are not reseeded after each round. What you see is what you'll get. For a short time last night, the bracket had the Holes and Bliz seeded incorrectly. This was due to an error in how the seeding priorities were ordered. I went in and fixed it manually. 

Changes in the wind...

I can say without much hesitation that we will make a few changes for next season. I touched on many of them briefly in previous posts and emails. The draft is #1 on my list, followed closely by playoff qualifiers. Keepers, encouraging trades, a Taxi Squad, and roster limits will also be up for discussion along with any ideas that get thrown my way.

I'm going to reach out to a few folks who have had input in the past. If you'd like to put in your two cents just let me know and I'll send you anything that goes out to the informal 'committee' in the coming weeks.

I had intended to open up some of these topics in this post but the thing is too long as it is and I'm ready to put it online. Good luck to the guys playing this week. It's Rams-Pats on Thursday night so if you have Brady or Gronk ...errr... any of the bums Belichick is rolling out there these days, you better get to work on your lineup.

Week 12 Recap Redux

 

I GOT THIS!  Nope, I sure as shit didn't

Monday Morning Update

In the playoff projections below I failed to account for the possibility of a three-way 7-6 tie among the Strawmenn, Giants, and Flyers if the Bliz won the Kuhlmann Division. As I type this there is the real possibility that could occur. If it does we go to the tie breaks for WildCards for three teams. Since the teams are all from different divisions we can go past the first step which eliminates a team if two of the three are in the same division. Next is head-to-head among the three, Nobody swept the other two, all are 1-1 in our games against each other. Next tiebreak is Net Points in all games. The Flyers have more than the Strawmenn (who are done for the week) and are far enough ahead of the Giants (200 pts, give or take) to assume they'd win that tiebreak. 

I will admit to rushing through the projections last week. The games extended into Wednesday but I shouldn't have let that cause problems. My apologies. 

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First, an important note...I hadn't realized that there was no Thursday game this week so I am pushing the trade deadline to 5 p.m. Saturday. 

Also remember that playoff teams will be allowed to use the waiver system during the playoffs. The calendar is different though. There will only be the blind bids which process on Wednesday night. There will be no first come, first served sessions as we have now. As I've stated previously I will make any adjustments I think are needed to get us through this season. I appreciate your understanding.  Keep in mind that any player claimed in the postseason WILL NOT be eligible to be kept for 2021. Nor will any player cut to make room for them. In other words I'll be determining draft values for next year based on the rosters after Week 13 ends minus any player cut after that. Non-playoff teams and teams eliminated during the playoffs will be locked out of transactions with the following exception. If you have players on IR I will move them to your regular roster if there is room or ask you if you want to cut them or someone else to make room. No team will have more than 19 players total on their list of players eligible as keepers. You could have less based on the above. 

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Friday morning edit... this past week has shown how precarious the whole NFL season is in terms of finishing. I've been mulling over options as to what to do if it all grinds to a halt. I reserve the right to adjust this but I think the bottom line would be declaring a champ based on the highest seeded team standing after the last completed NFL week. It's clean, easy to determine, and, I think, fair. Let's just hope it doesn't come to that. I like doing the commemorative Hughes News, Hughes Bowl edition! Now, back to the usual foolishness...
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I re-read my latest blog post and realized that I had been either wrong or unclear on a few possible playoff outcomes. I think the following is correct. EDIT...Legends could be #1 seed so I have adjusted the text below in purple. You are welcome to double-check my math. I'll review everything before I post the seedings once Week 13 is over. As we've seen that could be problematic. In that regard, I think the NFL has been lucky as they've navigated this minefield of a season. Wouldn't surprise me if a mine went off. We will deal with that if and when it happens. OK, on to the projections.......

Lombardi:
Heroes and Legends are playing to determine the division winner. Heroes would be the #2 seed with a win. Legends have a win over Nats and would get #1 with a win and a Nats loss. Either way the loser of this game gets the #5 seed as a wildcard. Heroes would take the division in case of a tie. Flyers were eliminated with the Giants' win.

Kuhlmann:
Strawmenn are a game up on the Bliz. Obviously, they get the division with a win. If the Biz win the Division the Strawmenn would get the #6 seed as a wildcard.
For that to happen the Bliz must win and outscore the Strawmenn by 74 64 points (plus a Smenn loss). The 74 64 points sounds unreachable but consider this...in Weeks 3 through 9 as well was this past week, the league high score was at least 75 points better than the low score. And in some cases 75 points better than a couple of scores. So it's possible.
The Sticks needed to win out and have the other two lose two. That's gone, Sticks are out of playoff contention.

Barenholtz:
Nationals have the #1 seed with a win or if they end up losing and the Heroes win the Lombardi. They would be #2 seed if they lose and Legends win the Lombardi.
The Giants have the inside track to the #6 seed. To lose it they'd have to lose AND see the Bliz win the Kuhlmann based on the scenario above. They lost to the Strawmenn so they'd lose out for the WC spot.
The Pirates are out of contention.

Hamman:
Holes have the division won. They would be the #4 seed if both they and the Strawmenn win and have 8 wins. They lost to the Strawmenn. If the Bliz win the Kuhlmann the Holes would get the #3 seed win or lose due to having beaten the Bliz this year.
Rbacks and Bombers are eliminated.

I think I've covered all possibilities except for games ending in a tie. Let's hope for my sake that doesn't happen. 

And thanks to Dan for tipping me wise on the Legends-Nats seed possibility. I had the 'W' going to the wrong team on my chart. That's not the first time I've thought of "James' team" and looked at the Flyers' roster, schedule, etc. Eventually, I'll remember that I'm the Flyers again. 

Week 12 recap...It's Almost Over!

It's been a hell of a week!
First there was a trade that went sideways (see below) and then there was the whole Lamar Jackson/RGIII thing that went down on Monday. The only thing worse than having league issues that need to be addressed is having them come up and my team being involved. Life was easier when I was just the commish, believe me.

I'm not going to get into the Pirates lineup problems again. If you somehow missed the details just check the emails that went out on Monday morning. Next year we will (hopefully) be in a more 'normal' world and these sorts of things won't be an issue.

Navigating the role of commissioner while also running a team has always been a bit dicey. It's much easier now than it was back when people left their lineups on my answering machine of dictated them to my wife. With the adoption of systems like MFL I can pretty much let things work on their own. As long as I remember to log in and stay in 'owner mode' on the website things are fine. My one concession is that I always try to be the first guy to enter waiver bids each week. I do this to avoid any "Hey, Commish, how'd you get my guy by $3?" issues. Other than sometimes adjusting the order of my bid upon players (which I did after the trade for a QB I made last week), I like to have my bids in Monday night and leave them there. Doesn't always work out, but that's the goal.

BTW...you can see the history of any team's lineup submission attempts by going to Reports:Franchises:Starting Lineups and clicking Lineup Details any teams lineup, next to the date/time. It'll tell you when any owner submitted his lineup, or changed it and why any attempt failed.


The Week That Was:
Now, let's look at where we are as we enter the last week of the regular season. The Heroes and Legends continue to roll as the hottest teams in the league. The Heroes punished the Holes who nonetheless are already Hamman champs. The Legends, led by the Mahomes-Hill tandem, dealt a crushing blow to any hopes the Flyers had of being a playoff team. The Heroes-Legends upcoming match-up will determine the Lombardi with the loser getting the #5 seed.

The Strawmenn took control of the Kuhlmann Division when they handed the Nats their second straight loss. But the Nats have wins over both teams fighting for 9 wins in the Lombardi so they have the top seed locked up. I'm sure Dan would like to go into the bye with a win and feeling better about his club.

The big fight was actually among the clubs looking for the final wild card slot. The Flyers and Bliz lost and things got really interesting. Portland held a 4 point lead over the Giants going into this crazy Wednesday afternoon Ravens-Steelers mess. We all know about the RGIII business. No need to re-hash that. The Giants had Griffith's lead receiver (by default), Marquise Brown. For 45 minutes Griffith put up just enough points to edge away from Brown and therefore so the Pirates did the same against the Giants. The RGII pulled a hammy and gave way to Trace McSorley. The Ravens defense had kept that club in the game. With three minutes to go and McSorley looking desperate, he heaved one to, yes, Marquise Brown and that 70-yard score put the Giants in the playoffs and killed the souls of Flyer and Bliz fans everywhere. COVID cost the Ravens Lamar Jackson and cost me and Paz a chance at the playoffs. 😒  EDIT: The Bliz still have a shot at winning the division, a long shot but it's there. See below.


If The Playoffs Started Today:
I didn't do my deep dive into permutations because the week's games extended into Wednesday and I am preparing this as the clock winds down. Scratch that last paragraph, I was expecting a Pirates' win. That's what I get for projecting.

1) Nats 9-3 Have won division. Would have #1 seed vs Heroes, #2 vs Legends if tied at 9-4
2) Heroes 8-4 Must win vs Lincoln to win division, will be #5 with loss.
3) Smann 7-5 Clinch division with Wk 13 win. 1-1 vs Bliz and tiebreak would be points scored, beat Holes for tiebreak for seeding.
4) Holes 7-5 Have clinched division.
5) Legend 8-4 Clinched at least WC slot, win division and #2 seed with win over Heroes.
6) Giants 7-5 They get the #6 slot with a win. They could miss the playoffs if the Strawmenn end up getting bumped for the division by the Bliz. They have the tie-break over the Bliz and Flyers but lost to Smenn. See next paragraph...

The Bliz could tie the Strawmenn for the Division. They are 1-1 head-up on the season and it would go to Points Scored in All Games. The Strawmenn have a 74 point advantage. If the Bliz were to pull that off and the Strawmenn ended up in a tie with the Giants for the WC slot, the Smenn have the hammer with a win over Rick. I'm gonna double-check all this so don't call Vegas just yet anyone.

Additional Notes...there are numerous possibilities for three way ties for the last WC slot. There could be a four-way tie with the Sticks, Bliz, Giants and Flyers at 6-7. In that case we first compare the two Kuhlmann Division teams and they split to two games so we go overall points scored. The Bliz currently lead by 34. However, no matter which team wins that tiebreak and advances to a three team break the Giants get the spot because they would still be 2-0 in games among the three teams as they have beaten the Flyers and both Kuhlmann clubs. So, the Sticks are not in contention for a WC slot, win or lose in Wk 13. Never mind that shit, here comes Mongo!

League Tidbits...Tyreek Hill had himself a fair week for Lincoln. Actually he set a record for points by a receiver in a game with 50. Just down the page is a table with the Top Ten scores by receivers in League history... Speaking of the Legends, James is to be commended for doing as well as he's done considering he's had injuries to two of his top three picks. Joe Mixon and George Kittle have played five full games apiece and are not looking to come back soon...Dalvin Cook Update: Barkley and McCaffrey officially qualify. They can be kept by the Holes and Bliz respectively as #1s...I'm going to make a few tweaks to that DC Rule for next year. I'm thinking of including our post-season in the minimum games played and possibly making that minimum "less than five" rather than "five or less". I may even drop the requirement that the player was officially IR'd. Open to suggestions, as always.

You can find numbers like this under the appropriately named Numbers tab on the league homepage. Use the Player tab there. The settings button at the top right of the module will let you filter by position, etc. In case you were wondering...the record for points by a starter is 53 by Drew Brees for the Bombers in Week 8 of 2015. Hill's 50 points puts him at eighth on the list of players at any position for one week.
 

For once it wasn't me!
Were you following the trade drama last Wednesday? I made a trade with David (Montgomery for Cousins) while sitting at the UH hoops opener. Once he accepted it, I approved it. Figured that was that. Nope. I got home and went to remove my waiver claims for a QB and saw David Montgomery's name at the top of the available players list. Obviously, that was wrong. The trade was listed in the transactions, Cousins appeared on my roster and no cut had been made by the R'backs. I contacted Dave and told him I'd add Montgomery back with a waiver push and get him his claim cost back. He told me that Cousins was still in his starting lineup!

Sure enough, Cousins had been cloned. He was on both rosters! That was waaay wrong. I contacted MFL and within a couple of hours their people had figured out that at the exact same moment that I had clicked 'approve' for the trade, Dave was clicking to deactivate OBJ. The system choked and the players involved went sideways. MFL told me that they'd never seen that happen before.

I was able to delete the transaction record, finagle the rosters back to their original configurations, and re-do the trade. It was clean and maintains the players' transaction history correctly. That makes life easier when I'm assigning Keeper Values. Other than when the system kept 'losing' my waiver cash adjustments a few years ago, this is the first real system glitch I've encountered since we've been on MFL going back to 2003.