2019 RECAPS: GWBL CHAMPION — Protector Of The League

1ST: Butt Kicker Dot Com (8-5):

Coming in first place with a regular season record of 8-5 and 1,681 points scored (2nd) is your 2019 GWBL Champion – Butt Kicker Dot Com owned by Jon Keetz.

What Went Right:

Keetz’ draft strategy worked to perfection. Our league is definitely a little slanted towards RBs, but given his draft position and the talent available, Keetz went with a “zero-RB” strategy to start the draft. The premise is straightforward – you take the high-end, consistent playmakers at WR early in the draft and then use your middle round picks to take a stab at RBs. Hit on a few of those RBs and you’re in business. His approach couldn’t have worked better. His first two picks were DeAndre Hopkins and Julio Jones and both are top 4 in scoring at the WR position. Both had 90+ catches, 1,100+ yards and 6+ TDs. Most importantly for Keetz, both had over 225 fantasy points through 16 weeks. Only 20 FLEX eligible players have 225+ fantasy points and Keetz first 2 picks both made it into that group.

Speaking of the 225 point-plateau for FLEX eligible players… Keetz has 4 players who have reached that benchmark. Dylan is the only other team with 4 and only two other teams have more than 2 (me/Lamone each have 3). Aside from Jones/Hopkins, Keetz also has Mark Ingram and Josh Jacobs. This is a nice segue to his zero-RB draft strategy – Ingram was a 5th round pick and Josh Jacobs was a 4th round pick. Ingram is currently RB10 in our scoring with 1,250 total yards and 15 TDs. His first year on the Ravens couldn’t have gone better. Meanwhile Jacobs’ first year in the NFL couldn’t have gone better. The Raiders’ rookie is RB12 and has 1,300 total yards and 7 TDs (despite missing 2 games).

Additionally, Keetz’ “wait on a QB” strategy worked extremely well. He got Russel Wilson in the 10th round and he’s QB4 on the season. He’ll top 4,000 passing yards and 30 TDs to go with 300 rushing yards and 3 more TDs.

You read about all of Keetz’ good fortune and to use a polarizing word - “luck” - in the finals, so I don’t need to repeat those here. I will add a few more things that I stumbled upon when looking into his team from a totally biased outsider’s perspective though:

- As with most league winning teams in any sport, he peaked at the right time. His team averaged 114.5 points per week during Weeks 11, 12, 13 and 14. Then in Week 15 and 16 he scored 174 and 150.

- If he had swapped his Week 15 score with any of his scores from Weeks 11-14, he would have lost in the semis.

- Going back further in the regular season - he beat Guy by .9 points on a stat correction in Week 7. If that stat correction never happens, he loses that game, has a 7-6 record, doesn’t get the first round bye and loses in the first round of the playoffs.

- Devonta Freeman is the player who pissed me off the most from a “holy shit what a lucky break” perspective. What a cunt of a fantasy player. He scored 32 points against me in the finals – that was a season high and more than he put up the prior two weeks combined. He only put up 20+ in 3 games all season and put up 9 in Week 15.

- Freeman’s unexpected point total was mainly due to the fact he had 9 catches (season high) for 74 yards (season high) and a receiving TD (his 4th of the season and first since week 6).

- Devonta Freeman is a cunt.

I’ll stop there, I’m starting to get upset again.

What Went Wrong:

AJ Green didn’t play a single snap all season. 6th round pick down the drain. Boo hoo.

Genius Move:

Mark Andrews in the 14th round was a great pick. He’s TE2 with 64 catches for 852 yards and 10 TDs.

Devante Parker was a good FA add for $0 of FAAB on 11/27. He’s WR13 on the year and scored 22 points for Keetz in the finals.

Dumbo Move:

Keetz dropped Jarvis Landry on 10/22 which at the time seemed like a good move. He had gotten off to a slow start and scored fewer than 10 points in 5 of 6 weeks. He was on a bye in Week 7 and was going to play the Pats the following week. Keetz dropped him and Dylan picked him up. From that point on Landry would average 14 points per week and is currently WR17 in our scoring.

Pre-Season Prediction:

“I predict Keetz goes 8-5, makes the playoffs but loses in the finals.”

Correct - even had him making the finals. 5.5 out of 10 for a 55% success rate. Barely hanging on above 50%, maybe I should retire from writing these…and from fantasy football… and from life.

Final Thoughts:

Another successful year for Keetz and he’s now won the league twice in his 8 year tenure. He’s joined Tieg as the only two-time winners and has firmly established himself as the best fantasy owner in the GWBL. Aside from his two titles, he’s also finished in 3rd place three separate times.

There’s really no debating it, he’s made us all look like bums for 8 years now. All in all he’s had a top 3 finish in 5 of 8 years. He’s won 59 regular season games in 8 seasons (7+ per) and has the 2nd best winning percentage in league history (57.28%). If you take out his Gabriel season where he went 2-11, his cumulative win/loss record is 57-33 for a win percentage of 63%.

I said this back in the early days when Tieg won 2 of the first 3 titles – the rest of us need to step it up. The only dynasty I enjoy is the Patriots and I have no desire to see one in this league or any fantasy football league. We brought Tieg back down to earth and hopefully we can do the same to this dynasty. The Huns fell, the Greeks fell, the Romans fell, the British Empire fell… will Keetz’ dynasty come to an end?