RIP Brooks

 

Point Taken

 

Aaaaaand just like that starting lineup scoring jumps from an average team score of 86.3 to 105.3. I can't explain what happened. If I could I'd be working the casinos in Vegas.

No huge insights from me this week, but a few random thoughts.....

1....There are eight teams at 1-1. I always say after Week One that you are neither as good or as bad as it appears. This kind of backs that up.

2....Another few running backs went down this past week. I think going to the one RB mandatory rule was smart. I felt that way when I first considered it and now I'm positive it's the right move. And yes, it takes some getting used to. I have to overcome the urge to automatically stick a second one in my lineup before moving on to receivers. 

3....I had thought one of the phone apps I've used for the league had given up the ghost. Not true. There are two fully capable apps to use with Myfantasyleague. Both are free, neither is an 'official' MFL product. MFL Mobile is my choice but MFL Premium is also alive and kicking. There really are not any significant differences between the two other than layout. As I mentioned weeks ago there is coding in place to make our web page mobile device friendly. But to be honest the apps are a better way to manage your team on the go. The two I mentioned are available in the Apple App Store and I'm guessing also in the Android equivalent. 

4....I gave it a couple of weeks for the draft season to settle down and I emailed the PrimeTime Draft folks. They were very generous with responses to my questions and concerns. It turns out that the panic I went through just before the draft when I found the draft I had so carefully set up hadn't carried over to my laptop was overblown. That draft, and every other one I had played around, with was available to download from their servers. I just hadn't dug into the FAQ deep enough. In my defense the answers were not easy to find even if I had known about where to look in that FAQ. They promised to look at improving that.

And finally, 5... As I sat down to type this the Wednesday waiver results came my way via email. Looks like I have to seriously reconsider how I determine what to bid on FAs. I missed out on each of my two bids by, well, a shitload of waiver cash. Back to the $5 bin for the Flyers.

Can we all wish a Happy 2nd Birthday to the apple of my eye, the divine Miss Ellis Rose?

The Residue of Design?

 

I see this quote attributed to Branch Rickey, John Milton, Larry King, Elmer Fudd and others. Well, whoever said it first never played fantasy football. Because in fantasy football luck is the residue of luck. 

There's no other way to explain winning with two starters getting donuts. I'll take the win and move on but sheesh, c'mon, man. That's squirrelly. 

OTOH my absolute MONSTER baseball team got punked by the 4th seed in the first round of the playoffs. I was 18-3 in the regular season, almost 45 points a week better than #2. Hell, I lost two of those three as the league's second high scorer for the week (lost to #1). Last week I beat my average and again had the second highest scoring but the 4 seed scored 80+ over his. LOL, see ya 'round.

All that aside, let's talk a little Hughes...two teams, the Giants and Sticks had more points on the bench than most teams scored for real...last year the average Week One scoring was a smidge under 108. This past week the average was 84.05. Da hell is going on? That 84ish is lower than ANY 2022 week. 

You have to go back to 2021's Week 9 to find a weekly average comparable to that (it was 83 points with a bunch of NFL byes contributing). We've only been in the 80s four times since we went to a form of PPR and the other three were mid-season weeks with multiple NFL byes. I hope this isn't a trend. Hopefully we will course correct over the next few weeks.

Housekeeping Items:

#1...Waivers are rolling on their regular schedule now. Blind Bids are accepted through 9 p.m. Wednesday night when they will process. Minimum $10 bids in this window. Then on Thursday morning at 7 a.m. First Come, First Served waivers kick in until Noon on Sunday. Claiming a free agent player in that form will cost you $5. Consult the league calendar for your local time.

#2...I saw reports on the MFL commish forum that the live scoring page has been plagued by obtrusive ads. I don't see them thanks to my browser's ad blocking and even when I disable that I don't see ads. I've added some coding that supposedly will block/suppress the ad but I'm not totally sure if it works. Your milage may vary. 

#3...I had some enhancements to that live scoring page in place in years past but they seem to have gone south, possibly related to #2 above. The result was that the headings (team names, etc) were invisible. I've removed the code I had in place and now the old 'plain Jane' page is working almost as expected. :::EDIT::: The new (Tuesday morning)  'fix' for the broken code for the scoring page didn't work for me. I'll continue to jack with it as time allows. Meanwhile the page works, it's just not all that fancy.

#4...I was very focused on the new draft room this year and kind of blew off the league site and therefore some of the 'in-season' modules didn't appear until this weekend. I'm still moving and tweaking so if you are trying to find info you make have to poke around. One or two things under the Gameday, Numbers and Front Office tabs have issues and if I can't figure out why I will get rid of them.

Back when I was maintaining a sports memorabilia blog I happened to mention radio sports broadcaster Stan Lomax in a post. He has a long and very successful career on New York radio. I remember every evening in the 60s when my father got back from work he'd turn on WOR and we'd listen to Lomax' 15 rundown of the world of sports. He had a very distinctive voice and cadence that I can still hear in my head all these years later.

Anyway, not long after that blog entry I got a message from Stan's granddaughter. She's a singer/songwriter and I looked into her music. I liked what I found and have 'followed' her since. Like her grandfather, Heather Ann Lomax has a rich voice. She's country but not 'twangy'. I'm a fan

BTW... I found this clip of 1976 Stan online. He was getting up in years but still did his 45 minute broadcast every evening. 

I did solo grandpa duty yesterday. Ellis Rose and I both survived!

Breakfast...

Dancing to the Wiggles...

She loves her toy guitar!

Post Draft Thoughts

We are off and running for our 44th season. Never figured I would be saying that! 

First I need to thank Mike and Lynne for being gracious and thoughtful hosts. Sorry in advance for your next electric bill! The setup was perfect and the food even perfecter. And a big shoutout to all of you for rolling with the punches which came in the form of a last minute room URL change. More on that below. 

As to the draft itself...a few thoughts...….

On the positive side I thought the draft room was a nice upgrade over MFL's native draft room. Much more attractive. And related to that the color coding of positions made it easy to see who had filled spots, who had taken second qbs, that sort of thing. I also thought it was easy to use for everyone..click, click, click...done. From my point of view it wasn't hard to create the room, jump in to correct the one 'mis-pick' or upload the results last night. 

On the flip side I was disappointed in a few things but those issues can be avoided next time based on last night's experience. When I pay for PrimeTime Draft I get to install the software on two machines. I did that...on my desktop computer and on my laptop. What came as a surprise was that the two installs DIDN'T 'mirror' one another. In other words the draft I set up on my desktop after the draft results were generated DID NOT simply show up on my laptop install. I had no way to access it from Mike's place. I had to quickly create another draft for us to use. It wasn't difficult, the settings are imported from our league site with a few clicks. The issue, as you found out, was that the link I sent out in my emails was no longer valid. I couldn't 'run' that original draft as commish. 

Luckily everyone saw my panicked 5:45 emails or was close to their phone and got word of the change. It  worked fine but the customization and adjustments I had made to the original draft were gone. The helmets I'd uploaded would have taken too long to replicate. More importantly the draft showed as an 18 rounder when I had intended it to be 17 rounds. Things like that. But it worked.

From my end I was not able to see the 'available players' button you all had in the top left. Instead my room had a button that sent me to the commish tools page for starting/stopping/pausing the draft, etc. Next year I'll use a second devise and just log in as an owner on that one.

The Zoom room worked ok. Not perfect but it served it's purpose. I'm not a Zoom user regularly so I wasn't able to easily fix the issue I had with the camera on my laptop or the 'feedback/garbled sound' that was apparent. Having to run it on my phone was fine but it really messed up my ability to see texts or answer calls. Again, better prep on my part will hopefully fix that next time. 

It was also apparent that not everyone reads my emails, or checks the site or this news blog very much. It's, well, kind of frustrating to be honest when the TE position comes as a surprise to someone in Round 9. I know I expect everyone to take time to jack with this dumb league and that's stupid on my part. I promise to keep changes to a minimum from here on out. But please promise to at least 'speedread' the crap I send out. Thanks!

There are two apps in your app store to use with MFL. One is MFL Mobile. I use it and tested it today. Works fine. MFL Lite is the other and I couldn't get it to log me in so it may be fubar. Also...I have the league itself coded for easy mobile access and use. You can try it through your browser and see how you like it. 

One last piece of housekeeping. The rosters are set at 18. Everyone ended the night with 17 players. Waivers (First come, first served) are now open. Since the first pickup you make through the close of the waiver window tomorrow is equivalent to your last draft pick I will add the $5 waiver change back to your waiver cash account. 

Questions, comments, concerns?  I'm here.

-commish

I was never a huge Jimmy Buffett guy but I certainly know he was almost universally beloved. Former Hughes owner Tom McLean was a Parrothead of the first order! And I certainly love this song. RIP

PrimeTime Draft Tutorial

 

Oh, wait! Not that Prime Time draft...

...this one...

We will be using the PrimeTime Draft site this year for the first time. It's an improvement over the MFL draft room, at least visually. As noted in my emails we held a 'practice' draft recently. While there were only three of us involved I think I came away with a better understanding of how this thing works and some of the things that might need to be made clear. 

First of all, the site is pretty intuitive. If you do nothing else click here to get to this YouTube video from the company that gives you a view of the remote site you'll be using. Or view it here:

Once I generate the draft order I will be able to import the league settings into PTD. Then, prior to the draft I will send out the link via email. Click on it and the site will open in your browser. Remember you are not downloading anything...this is not a program your device is running. It's just a site you are opening in your browser just as you did in the MFL draft room in years past. If your device is capable of connecting to the 'net it will work with PTD.

I ran an second practice draft using two different devices so I could see the procedure from the remote view as well as what I'll see as commish. That's where the following screenshots come from.

When you click to the site using the link I send you you will see this... (CLICK EACH GRAPHIC TO VIEW FULL SIZE)

I added the arrows to indicate where you select your team, indicate that you are selecting your players there in PrimeTime (which they refer to as 'this app' and that needs to be set to 'Yes') and whether you want the names announced.

Then you click OK and you will see this...

Click OK to those reminders/Tips and you'll be ready to go. Note that the Available Players button is in the upper left.

When a pick is made you'll see this and hear the announcement if you have the turned on option to hear it. There will be a delay of maybe 8 to 10 seconds for anyone in Remote View (which will be everyone except me as the host). 

When your pick comes up you'll see this dialog box. The players listed will be the highest :::cough::: ranked players available regardless of team or position. You can take any of those or anyone else available. See the next screenshot for that. The clock will always be at 00:00 since we are not using a timer. The clock will appear in the slot of the team on the clock (duh1).

You can find any available player pretty easily by filtering team or position or both. Note that in my mock draft I filtered for KC and tight ends.

While you wait for your pick to register you'll see the 'waiting for confirmation' label in your pick slot. 

As we move along the board will fill up and as you probably noticed the players are color coded by position. 

 That's all there is to it. Once we go a round or so everyone will be pretty comfortable with the site I'm sure. While our draft may run a bit longer this inaugural PTD season I expect it to be a positive experience for the league. I always felt the weak link in the MFL world was the draft room which looks like something from an old Quattro Pro database file circa 1992. 

I'm going to find a communication platform that we can use during the draft and I will HIGHLY recommend that the out-of-town drafters find a way to participate. A smartphone will run Zoom or Google Meet and can sit next to your computer just in case. And hearing the shit the Houston guys talk about you will be an eyeopener! 

This week one of my favorite artists passed away. One you've probably never heard of. Sixto Rodriguez was a remarkable singer/songwriter whose story seems like a work of fiction. 

It's pretty crazy. In a nutshell the Detroit native released some albums in the early 70s which did nothing here in the states but in South Africa he became one of the top artists of the day. Meanwhile he knew nothing of his fame and his fans in SA thought he was dead. Apartheid and the SA government's draconian hold on the media is mostly to blame. Pretty wild when you consider that most of his music was smuggled into SA  and he still became a star on an 'Elvis' level. A music journalist in SA uncovered the truth and Rodriguez rose from working odd jobs and playing local Detroit gigs to real fame. It's  pretty remarkable and it's told in Searching for Sugarman, one of the best documentaries I've ever seen.  Dave Matthews grew up in SA and was a fan. There is a YouTube clip of him telling the story of not believing that nobody had heard of Rodriguez, The documentary is on YouTube. Highly, highly recommended.

RIP Rodriguez.

Here's Ellis this week on her last day as a member of her preschool's Grasshopper Room. When school cranks back up in a week she will be a Firefly!! Such a big girl! And she'll again become Teacher's Pet.

Here she is being silly with her Papa.

And just being her adorable self.

 

A trio of things to go over as we head towards our 44th draft. First...

The Practice Draft

I'm going to run this on Sunday, August 6 at about 8 p.m. CENTRAL time. Here's what I plan on....

I'd like as many owners as possible involved. The more the merrier. If you are participating I'd like you to check in via text or phone sometime between 7:30 and 7:45 so I know who's involved. I will send my number to you prior to the date of the mock draft. At that point (Sunday at 7:45-ish) I will set up the mock draft and send out (via email probably) the link to the draft. 

EDIT.. Have no fear, I will be sending out reminders as to the date and time as we get closer. Probably several..I know how you guys are.

I'll likely set it up for three or four rounds depending on the number of folks involved. It won't take long, Obviously as a practice draft it'll make no difference who you take. 

I may set up a Zoom meeting (or something of that nature) since I'd like to be able to communicate with some (or all) of you as this is moving along. Here's why....

During the draft I hope to test out some of the 'commish tools' so I am familiar with them before the real deal. I'll try to 'stop' the draft, reverse a pick, maybe skip a pick, etc. I might ask someone to try and pick out-of-order to see what happens. That sort of stuff. I'm anxious to know what controls I have over what goes on in the draft room. 

As I said, it shouldn't take long so if you can carve out the 30-45 minutes for the sake of the good ol' Hughes League I'd be very grateful!

Next...

Keeper Count

The poll, which I did say was non-binding, showed that most owners preferred one flex player to two. BUT almost everyone communicated they didn't care either way or that they would be fine with my deciding. 

I'm leaning towards the two flex spots. I've looked pretty closely at RB numbers for the last couple of years. The NFL is simply not a running league anymore. Asking our owners to field two respectable backs means putting teams at a disadvantage. If you have two, great. Heck you can start three if you want to but it's not likely to roll that way.

I heard from a couple of owners that they wanted it to be kept simple. My point is that having more flexibility in lineup selection IS making it easy. Pick your six (qb, rb, 2 wr, te, k) and then your best two available players. 

Unless I hear from someone who really has an issue with the change I think we will go that route.

And finally...

$$$$$

I hate asking for the money but it's a necessary evil. With the cost of the league (up this year AGAIN) and the trophy I figure that $15 per team will cover it. I'll spring for the cost of the new draft room experience this year since it may turn out that it's something we don't move forward with.

Also, a few of you paid a year in advance last season If that's you I won't expect another payment. I will send my PayPal/Venmo/Cash App credentials in a separate email soon. Your prompt attention will be appreciated. Don't make me beg, OK?

Who's That Girl?

RIP Tony Bennett. He was the best.

Are Thinking What I'm Thinking?

I've had some time to look at stats from the past year or two. It's pretty obvious that runningbacks are not what they once were. With a two RB minimum lineup I think there are going to be some really disadvantaged Hughes teams going forward. Especially when those bye weeks roll around. 

I'm thinking that maybe we should drop the RB minimum to one and go with two flex spots. The options are outlined in the tables below. Plan 1 is what I currently have in place for 2023. Plan 2 shows the lineup options with a two flex player setup.

You can vote on the league homepage or send me you thoughts here in the replies or via email. I'm leaning (heavily) towards going with the 2 flex option. I'm anxious to hear your thoughts.

Here's my little angel on her recent California vacation. This is her second time to the West Coast. Her grandfather has NEVER been. LOL