Week Three..and a Cap Tip

Before we talk about the third week of our 42nd season I need to acknowledge those who have kicked in with their $15 (and sometimes more!). I never like to deal with money when it comes to the Hughes League but, OTOH, I'm not enamored with tossing my hard-earned retirement dough out the window. Ideally I'd break even on the deal. I could also do away with the trophy and swag I like to send out from time to time but I think it's fun to do more than update the website and argue with McCallum which is how I spend about 90% of my EHFL-related time.

So again, my deepest thanks to those who have ponied up for 2021. You guys have me about covered now. You're the best.

Speaking of swag...I have stuff under my desk that I will be sending out (at least to the OOT guys once I get my hands on the proper packaging). You Houston guys will get yours at the end-of-the-year get-together. Note to Hogan...I have stuff in a bag with your name on it that I've been holding for so long I forget whats actually in it. One thing I KNOW it's not...a championship trophy! 😆

On to football talk...

Fantasy Football, as we know, is based on preparation, and luck! You have to have more good luck tan bad to win consistently over the course of the year. Case in point...the Flyers-Legends game this past week. I pulled D'Andre Swift out of my lineup just prior to the deadline on Sunday, a move that lost he his 23 points and broke one of my most fervently held beliefs...don't second guess yourself. My normal MO is to set a lineup early in the week and just check for injuries on Sunday. Swift was Questionable but he had the same designation the week before and played his ass off. 

OTOH James had three players carted off the field, two before they could even put up a point and one who only had three! That's about as bad a dose of luck as you can have. If just one of those three had waited until later to go down the result is probably different. Final score 103-96 in favor of the gutless guy. 

The featured game of the week was the Blizzard-Sticks clash. Even with McCaffrey going down early the Bliz were able to hold off Keith's crew by five. And true to form they were the two highest scoring teams for the week, which is super annoying when you are on the short end of the score but would have beaten anyone else in the league. None of the other games were particularly close which is a recurring theme this year. I hope that changes.

I'd be a bit fidgety if i was on 0-3 club now but really it far too early for anyone to throw in a towel on 2021. Especially with the possible 7th playoff spot out there for the taking...In other news I've added a few things to the site All My Leagues, over on the right hand column, will only show up for guys with more than one MFL team. The Monday Night module will return soon. The code is being cleaned up as we speak.

And Finally...

May I present the newest member of the extended Hughes League family. Ellis Rose was born last Tuesday night, a bit early, and a touch undersized, but healthy and happy and absolutely beautiful. Brooks and Ashley are thrilled (as are all the grandparents I assure you).

 

BTW...that last pic was taken after Ellis heard the score of the Flyers-Legends game!

She joins our first grandchild, Leo Jacob (aka The Price of Evanston), who was born to our daughter Lisa and her partner Daniela on July 28 in Illinois. Leo is shy and has asked to not have his photos posted on the 'net but rest assured that he's quite a handsome little dude. One that hasn't missed too many meals I'd say.

Going from Zero to Two amazing grand-kids in about seven weeks is quite a ride. 

Week Two...Not Sure What To Make Of It

Here we are two weeks into the 2021 Hughes season, that's a seventh of the way to the playoffs and things are beginning to take shape.

Not particularly how I envisioned the year to start but I guess that's what makes all this interesting. Take for example the Kuhlmann Division. Those four teams happen to be the top four scoring teams of the young season. If I was up for some research I'd love to find out the last time something like that happened. 

The 132.0 PPG put up by the Blizzard is pretty impressive. No team has approached that mark for a full season. The 2018 Holes averaged 125.3 points and that is our all time high mark. 

And don't sleep on the Sticks. They have put up exactly 124 points in each of their first two games. That gives them a 124.0 PPG (who said math was hard?) which in any other year would have been the lede for this blog post.

And what do you know...the Blizzard and Sticks face off this week! Easily the Game of the Year so far. The other game in that division, the Strawmenn and Pirates should be a shootout as well. Speaking of Portland...Aaron Jones' four touchdowns/40 points on Monday night brought them from three back of the Giants to a 25 point win. 

The way the Flyers started off on Sunday I was expecting a massive beat-down at the hands of the Nationals. But my guys rallied late to pull away. Looks like the many Lamar Jackson naysayers might be wrong. 

Random Stuff, Mostly League Site Related.... I've been tinkering around the edges of the league site. Found a few things that were not working as expected and fixed most of those. I moved a few modules to places they made more sense. The Fantasy Matchup box is now below the calendar. It looks pretty lame but it's an easy way to get to the starting lineups. And it also has a link to the Fantasy Game Previews. I don't write that nonsense, it's machine generated but the 'featured' game is usually on the mark. For example this week it has the Sticks-Blizzard featured. 

I've mentioned elsewhere that the Overview module has a ton of numbers for you. You will find it at the top of the 'Numbers' section and you click it to open. 'Today's Calendar Event' is near the top of the right hand column on the front page. I put it there as a way to remind you of waiver deadlines and Thursday lineup deadlines.

Any and all feedback on our league site is appreciated. If you find something that doesn't work as expected please let me know ASAP.

Good luck to all this week. the next time we meet here I will be a TWO time grandpa as Brooks' wife  Ashley is about to present us with Ellis Rose Andrews. Two grandkids within six weeks is a nice way to salvage the hot mess that is 2021!

Week One Recap and Other Nonsense

All together now....your team is neither as good or as bad as it looked in Week One. I've said that after every Week One since the beginning of time (or at least since 1980). This week I decided to look back a bit and see how true it is. Now this is most certainly an imperfect way to research this but I checked back over the last five seasons. Turns out that teams that eventually made the playoffs were 21-8-1 in their Week One games. Make of that what you will.

Our league had a rather uneventful week. None of our games were particularly close. No huge Monday Night Football drama. The Flyers were (I think) the only team to come from behind for a win that night. But they were down 18 with their two best scorers on tap so it wasn't a huge surprise when they went up on the Heroes by the half. The big story of the week was probably the inept offense shown by the Packers. That'll change.

Several clubs had 100 points (or close to it) on their bench. Most were three-QB clubs but Lincoln had 93 with just 17 coming from a backup QB. That should be an encouraging note for James after a loss.

Webpage stuff... Some tips I should mention re: league site modules. Several of them allow for owner customization to one degree or another. The scrolling ticker can be slowed down, sped up and have the contents changed. Just click the 'cogwheel' on the upper right corner of the module.

The main scoreboard can also be made to display more data.. Three of the options default to 'on', the others can be turned on if you prefer. Use the 'Settings' link on the upper left of the scoreboard. In my experience the settings don't carry over from one session to the next. Which makes no sense but whatcha gonna do?

In a similar vein..If you look at the roster page (Reports->Franchise->Roster) the page defaults to showing your roster and one other team (I see Lincoln and that may be the same for everyone since they are designated as team #001 as far as the league machinery is concerned. Clicking the names on the left will swap out the 'other' team'. 

But you may or may not have seen the buttons just above the displayed rosters. Clicking 'Trades' will get you a trade proposal display. Clicking 'All Rosters' will get you exactly that, the traditional view of all teams on one page. 

Bonus Content: This thread on the MFL Commish forum speaks to how conditional blind bids are processed (note the post uses the term 'auction' but that is essentially what blind bid waivers are, mid-week player auctions). It does a good job of explaining how it's possible for you to bid the highest amount on a player and still fail to get him (or anyone) during a bid waiver session. Some good advice there if you choose to read through it. You do not need to be registered on the forum to read the thread.

http://forums.myfantasyleague.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=38700

Finally... If you haven't checked the Ed Hughes page on the website you should go there and scroll to the bottom. I picked up a rather remarkable picture of Coach Hughes working in his new job as a trailer fabricator in North Houston not long after he was bounced out of his Oilers head coaching job in early 1972.

Phone Apps And Other Magic

First of all, thanks to those of you who tested access to our site on your phone and reported back to me.  David was able to get things squared away. I tinkered with the mobile league site script but that may just be a coincidence. Another owner owner reports issues but since everyone else seems to be fine with accessing the site I suspect the script may just not work well universally. I'll continue to look deeper into the issues.

Meanwhile I realized that I hadn't recently mentioned the available mobile apps that allow you to manage your team on phones and tablets. A few have fallen by the wayside over the past few years but two have continued to be available and another one has appeared recently.

All three of these apps are free (ad supported) and all perform the same basic functions for an MFL owner...lineup selection, trade proposals, scores and standings, etc. I've used both of the first two listed here at various times over the years. There was a time when the Wifi at Texans games was pretty unreliable and these apps seemed to work better there than trying to access the site (or any site on a browser). That changed when the Super Bowl came to Houston and the NFL forced them to come up with a better WiFi system. Now that I now longer have Texans tickets the whole thing is moot. The site works great for me in mobile 'mode' so I'll rely on that when using my phone but I understand that not everyone has the same experience so here are the alternatives...Myfantasyleague apps you can download to your phone for free. These below are in the Apple App Store (search 'my fantasy league') and I'm sure one or more will be in the Android Store as well.

MFL Platinum

This is (I think) the oldest and most popular of the apps, at least in the Apple App Store.

MFL Mobile 2020*

This one is a little more difficult to navigate and not as intuitive as Platinum but it does everything you'd need an app to do as far as team management. It also has the most customization options. A few choices (player news) send you to a page on our league site so if you have difficulty accessing our league with a browser on your phone you may have the same issues with a few features of this one. 

Over the last few years this is the app I've used the most. That may not be the case anymore. As i said I prefer to use the mobile menu with our actual site and a new app (seen below) has impressed me.

*=The name is still listed as '2020' although the app is fine for use this season.

MFL Lite

This one is new to me. I came across it today for the first time. I like the interface and it seems to do everything you'd need an app to do. Like the others it allows you to manage multiple MFL teams by switching leagues. It has a few advantages over the others. It has a nice side-by-side view of game lineups. I like how it lists your team's weekly scores. All-in-all it pretty well done. 

It shows the latest NFL news stories from Rotowire on the front page but filtering with the 'My News' toggle results in a blank page. I'll keep checking that since it may not be a bug, it may just mean that RotoWire doesn't have any recent news on my players.

Unlike the other two this doesn't seem to give me access to Commissioner's tools but that wouldn't be a drawback for anyone else (or me actually...I rarely need to switch to commish mode once we are up and running for the season). 

It has the highest rating of the three but that's based on only a few reviews. I'll be interested to see how this one evolves. Looks like the developer is pretty responsive to suggestions.

So there is a look at the three mobile apps I'm aware of that give you the ability to manage your MFL team(s). 

Preseason Thoughts

 

As I was waiting for the clock to tick down to the opening of the free agent window this morning I had a thought about the whole process. It really isn't totally fair to just kick open a door and invite folks into the market when some owners may very well be unable to be in front of a computer at any given moment.

I know we have first come, first served waivers during the regular season but this is a different circumstance. During the year the FCFS session is preceded by a blind bid waiver run that is open to all. If you want the week's hot name you have as much of a shot as the next guy, all you have to do is decide on a bid amount. 

But this morning it was a matter of who had the time and freedom to jump on the site. I'm retired (as are a few others) so we could be there but not everyone has the same luxury.

I think next year I'll do it a little differently. I will have an initial blind bidding period after the draft. It doesn't need to run for more than a day probably but it will give everyone a fair shot at fixing their fuckups filling out their roster slots. The caveat is that these blind bids will count against your waiver funds for the season. We will follow that with a free FCFS period leading up to the first game. Funds spent during that session will be (as they are now) reimbursed. 

The result will be that when you come out of the draft you'll have the opportunity to either bid on the available non-drafted players or wait and just claim guys for free. Take me for example. I wanted Penny of Seattle and would have been willing to bid on him. But I would have had no need to spend funds to fill my kicker slot and could have waited for the 'open' waiver period. All in all I think it's going to be a better, more fair way to do this.

More Stuff... I'm trying to make the $$ adjustments daily as we pick up FAs but if some transaction slips past me and I don't refund your $10 claim fee within a day or so let me know... when I first tried to nab Rashaad Penny today the system through me an error message about an illegal roster and insisted I need a kicker before I could claim anyone. I have the system set to only accept lineups that are legal but I can't find the switch that apparently was thrown that makes full rosters a requirement to make a claim. That is certainly a curveball I wasn't expecting. I'm going to have to look further into that.

I haven't added this back to the rules page but be aware that I will make any changes I think I need to make if the NFL's COVID situation deteriorates. Our 17 & 2 roster regulation for 2021 seems OK for now. Let's hope nothing happens that necessitates a change.

Reprinted for yesterday's email: League costs...I normally ask for $15 a season. That covers my estimated layout for MFL changes, trophy w/shipping, assorted prizes/swag and so forth. Response is always spotty at best and I'm OK with operating at a loss. I get more than my money's worth back in fun. But if you're so inclined my PayPal address is commishbob@gmail.com  Venmo is @Robert-Andrews-91

Thanks to those of you who have kicked in. And thanks to those who reached out when I was sick last week. I'm much, much better now, credit to the monoclonal  antibody treatment I received. I still have a little bit of fatigue and some equilibrium issues but overall I'm good.

Finally... We are less than a week away from the kickoff of our 42nd season. I hope everyone enjoys it. I look forward to kicking your ass in the Hughes Bowl!