GWBL - 2022 Season Recaps - 8th Place

Team:

Aiyuk Talkin to Me? - Frader (5-9), 1924 points (6th of 10)

What Went Right:

Frader started off his draft with a bang and went 2 for 2 at the wrap-around pick. Joe Mixon is RB12 despite missing 2 games and averages 21 points per game. He had a couple of blowup weeks including the ridiculous 62 point effort in Week 9. I’m pretty sure that’s the highest score ever record in this league by any player at any position. Oddly enough Frader lost that matchup, but we’ll get to that later. Stefon Diggs was the other side of this 2 headed monster - currently WR4, Diggs averages 22 points per game.

Likewise, his season got off to a really hot start. He set the tone for my season by beating my team 152-144 in week 1 and followed that up with a 155-112 beatdown of Ken in Week 2. Sadly for him his season peaked against the only two teams that would finish worse than him. He went 3-9 from there on out.

What Went Wrong:

You know the first scene of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special? The one where Charlie Brown is complaining that Christmas depresses him and he doesn’t understand why he feels that way? So Linus says something like “Only you could take a time of year that’s full of hope and joy and turn it into a negative. Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you’re the Charlie Brown-iest.” Well…….of all the unlucky owners in the fantasy world, Frader may be the UNLUCKIEST.

Man oh man, performing an autopsy on this team is tough - it even makes ME mad for Frader. What a bag over the head, table-top, pantsing he got from the fantasy gods this year. We’ll start off with the disparity of points scored vs final standing - Frader finished in 9th place despite scoring the 6th most points. He only scored 5 fewer points than Rob D but had FIVE fewer wins to show for it. “Good grief” as Charlie Brown says.

Frader also finished with the 2nd most points against - 5 more than my team and 90 fewer than Ken. The average points against comes out to abut 145 per week. Good grief.

The individual matchups paint an even uglier picture. Of his 9 losses, 5 of them came when he scored 130 or more and 4 of them came when he scored 140 or more. He lost his Week 9 matchup - the Mixon 62 pointer - by a score of 162-170 (Keetz). I may have dropped all my players and quit on the spot if that happened to me.

I’ll leave with this one - 5 of his opponents put up 170 or more. GOOD GRIEF.

Best Owner Move:

Drafting Dameon Pierce in the 7th round was a great pick. Pierce is RB14 despite a late season slide and averages 16.6 per week. Trading him to Dylan later on was an even better move. Frader gave up Pierce and Jakobi Meyers for Juju, Tony Pollard and Brian Robinson. This happened prior to Week 8 and although Pierce would score 17-22-16 in those next three games, he then scored 5.6 and 5.7 in Weeks 11 and 12. In that same 5 game stretch, Tony Pollard put up 39-bye-29-42-12. Pollard ended his season with scores of 27 and 24. As for the ancillary pieces - Jakobi Meyers has mostly been hurt, so losing him didn’t impact frader. Inbound - JuJu has been uneven but has 3 big games of 27-19-22 in the second half. Brian Robinson provided some good RB depth. All in all Frader easily wins this trade.

Worst Owner Move:

Not much here, but I’ll try. Michael Pittman in the 3rd is kind of a bad pick in hindsight. Matt Ryan had clearly dropped off in terms of arm strength so it wasn’t ideal to invest in his pass catchers. That said Pittman is doing okay - WR22. Hunter Renfrow in the 6th was a terrible pick, but as with Pittman the fantasy community was in on Renfrow this year. I guess everyone underestimated the Davante Adams impact. Can’t really blame Frader for either though.

Preseason Prediction:

I said he’d finish 5th and I may stop keeping track. In my defense Frader had a good team and genuinely deserved to make playoffs. You can’t predict luck and Frader got unlucky.

ESPN said 9th of 10 - another point for ESPN, now 3 for 3.

Final Thoughts:

Not much else to say here, Frader just took it up the butt this year. Soul crushing losses, missed opportunities, points against, injuries. You name it and Frader endured it. Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, this season was the Charlie Brown-iest.