Mastersball

My only team in the FFWC is currently tied for 1^st place.  The odds of me keeping that status after losing Michael Vick and Rob Gronkowski are about as good as seeing Elvis Presley returning to earth commandeering a flying saucer that crashes directly into the Loch Ness monster.  Even before the recent injuries, it was hardly the best team in the league.  That honor belongs to, of course, the namesake of Chad Schroeder, "Cocktails and Dreams."  How does he do it?  The master of roster construction is currently ranked second in total points but has in my estimation the strongest lineup hands down.  Back in September with the 4^th overall pick Chad left the draft table with this lineup:

There are a number of interesting things here.  Almost every pick from rounds 1-9 he hit out of the park with the possible exception of Darren McFadden, but even he performed like an average RB2 when healthy.  Equally interesting is that picks 11-20 have all been non-assets.  In the end, his team has led the way by dominating RB 1-2, WR 1-3, and flex (WR4). Spiller and Martin give him two RB1’s and Chad has three receivers in the top 10, plus Austin in the top 20. 

Chad has shown that there’s plenty of success to be had by ignoring QB’s until the later rounds.  In fact, this is a consistent trend in his drafts.  It seems like year after year, as much as I would prefer sheep in my high stakes leagues, I’m plagued with sharks, and none more common than Chad.  The denominator thread I’ve identified is that he hammers RB’s and WR’s in the first seven rounds, period.  There are occasional exceptions, but those are few.  If an extreme value slips, Chad might grab one tight end or--less likely--one quarterback (but never both) during the first 7 rounds, but it’s always an exception to the rule. 

 This makes a lot of sense.  Scoring for TE’s and QB’s are very volatile from year to year.  The relative ‘stability’ of some of the elite QB’s we saw last year seems to be more fluke than new trend.  The biggest support for this strategy is the opportunity cost of eschewing proven RB’s and WR’s.   The top 20 wide-outs this year were ALL drafted in the first 6 rounds. Of the top 20 tailbacks, only two(C.J. Spiller and Alfred Morris) were selected after the first 7 rounds.  Now listen to this, 5 of the top 10 fantasy quarterbacks were drafted in the 8^th round or later:  (Peyton Manning – 8^th, Robert Griffin 10^th, Andrew Luck 12^th, Carson Palmer 12^th, and Andy Dalton 12^th).  In one NFFC league I drafted Cam Newton, to my own dismay as I also drafted Carson Palmer as my ‘backup’ in the 20^th round.  I had it backwards as Newton has underperformed the rejuvenated Raider and playing Cam over Carson has cost me roughly 2 points on average per week!

Chad is always ahead of the waiver wire curve, often snatching up assets a week before they become a hot commodity.  His exploits with this team include Cecil Shorts, Josh Gordon, Chris Givens, and Isaac Redman.

Looking ahead, we’ll examine other frontrunners and their strategies.