Last Place Wisdom: Despair vs Throwing Your Enemies from a Moving Aircraft
In general, I like to think that I'm a pretty optimistic and positive minded person. I do my best to avoid complaining, to try not to worry about things I have no control over, and try to see the best in people. I admit I can be overly cynical or sarcastic at times, but my overall worldview leans towards the perspective that things will work out for good in the end.
Despite my general inclination however, it's all too easy to fall into despair from time to time. I'm still going to do my best to avoid politics on the blog, so I'm not going to go deeper into what I've been reading/musing about demographic collapse, the inability of solving our problems through political means, or the futility of fighting Cthulhu (who always swims left). On the internet, this is what's known as the "Black Pill", and despite one's best efforts it can be hard to unswallow once it's been digested.
Instead, I'll talk football, where despair has also crept into my life. I haven't been shy from sharing my feelings on BBM, so most of you know how poorly I felt about my team before last week. My 2nd best player had a concussion, my trade deadline acquisition has lost his lead role, and for weeks a at time nothing on my team had gone right. What most of you don't know is just how close I was to torpedoing my season, giving up Gordon and Wentz in a trade that would have shaken up the league more than anything I could see in the past. Having made moves to win now, I didn't know what to do to fix my problem; doubling down on trading away futures didn't seem smart. My season long strategy of prioritizing running backs backfired; no one needs mediocre RBs enough to flip a solid WR for them, leaving a gaping hole on my roster. This whole season was in doubt for me, and despite the positive comments given on BBM, nothing could change my mind on this.
While a big part of me was saying to give up and plan for the future; one of the core ideas I hold about fantasy (and have tried to get across on the blog) is the idea that fantasy is about having fun, and part of that is doing your best to win now. Outside of those situations where you have nothing left to play for, and having fun/winning now/planning for the future all become the same thing; living in the moment is preferable to focusing on tomorrow and dreaming of what might be. I couldn't shake this core belief, and so before the trade deadline I stopped my plans to blow up my team and to role with what I have right now. I wasn't very happy with this decision after the Thanksgiving games, where my starting RBs put up mediocre numbers once again and I left a high scoring TE on my bench, but that quickly changed as my team went on to put up the 2nd best performance in the league this season.
Now who knows if things will work out, maybe this was just a blip and I'll look back with a sense of regret on what might have been if I had traded everything away for the future, but I can honestly say I made the right decision, that it's better to live in the moment and do something positive than to give in to despair. Stay away from the Black Pill folks, regardless of if it's true or not, it's better to live by the values of #HelicopterTwitter; that everything will be alright as long as we throw enough Commies out of helicopters.
Mr. Manager of the Week Award
This is a tough award to give this week, as nothing is really standing out to my mind. The trade deadline happened to be quieter than I was expecting; maybe the extreme parity made the sellers feel they still had a chance to be in it, while the buyers were hesitant to invest too much in a year when the playoffs could turn into a real bloodbath and crap shoot.
That said, I think 2 teams kind of stand out as the ones that deserve to be highlighted right now, and that's John and Mike. Both of these teams have spent a large part of the season outside of the playoffs, but the continuous improvements and smart moves they have made have been paying dividends. Mike spending enough to get Perine was a great move, and he really should have commanded more FAAB given the realities of this point of the season. John made some smart moves as well, picking up Fitzgerald, Zay Jones, and trading back for Ingram that has positioned him well heading into the playoffs.
On the Next Last Place Wisdom
Despite my general inclination however, it's all too easy to fall into despair from time to time. I'm still going to do my best to avoid politics on the blog, so I'm not going to go deeper into what I've been reading/musing about demographic collapse, the inability of solving our problems through political means, or the futility of fighting Cthulhu (who always swims left). On the internet, this is what's known as the "Black Pill", and despite one's best efforts it can be hard to unswallow once it's been digested.
Instead, I'll talk football, where despair has also crept into my life. I haven't been shy from sharing my feelings on BBM, so most of you know how poorly I felt about my team before last week. My 2nd best player had a concussion, my trade deadline acquisition has lost his lead role, and for weeks a at time nothing on my team had gone right. What most of you don't know is just how close I was to torpedoing my season, giving up Gordon and Wentz in a trade that would have shaken up the league more than anything I could see in the past. Having made moves to win now, I didn't know what to do to fix my problem; doubling down on trading away futures didn't seem smart. My season long strategy of prioritizing running backs backfired; no one needs mediocre RBs enough to flip a solid WR for them, leaving a gaping hole on my roster. This whole season was in doubt for me, and despite the positive comments given on BBM, nothing could change my mind on this.
While a big part of me was saying to give up and plan for the future; one of the core ideas I hold about fantasy (and have tried to get across on the blog) is the idea that fantasy is about having fun, and part of that is doing your best to win now. Outside of those situations where you have nothing left to play for, and having fun/winning now/planning for the future all become the same thing; living in the moment is preferable to focusing on tomorrow and dreaming of what might be. I couldn't shake this core belief, and so before the trade deadline I stopped my plans to blow up my team and to role with what I have right now. I wasn't very happy with this decision after the Thanksgiving games, where my starting RBs put up mediocre numbers once again and I left a high scoring TE on my bench, but that quickly changed as my team went on to put up the 2nd best performance in the league this season.
Now who knows if things will work out, maybe this was just a blip and I'll look back with a sense of regret on what might have been if I had traded everything away for the future, but I can honestly say I made the right decision, that it's better to live in the moment and do something positive than to give in to despair. Stay away from the Black Pill folks, regardless of if it's true or not, it's better to live by the values of #HelicopterTwitter; that everything will be alright as long as we throw enough Commies out of helicopters.
Mr. Manager of the Week Award
This is a tough award to give this week, as nothing is really standing out to my mind. The trade deadline happened to be quieter than I was expecting; maybe the extreme parity made the sellers feel they still had a chance to be in it, while the buyers were hesitant to invest too much in a year when the playoffs could turn into a real bloodbath and crap shoot.
That said, I think 2 teams kind of stand out as the ones that deserve to be highlighted right now, and that's John and Mike. Both of these teams have spent a large part of the season outside of the playoffs, but the continuous improvements and smart moves they have made have been paying dividends. Mike spending enough to get Perine was a great move, and he really should have commanded more FAAB given the realities of this point of the season. John made some smart moves as well, picking up Fitzgerald, Zay Jones, and trading back for Ingram that has positioned him well heading into the playoffs.
On the Next Last Place Wisdom
- Playoffs are here! Matchups and predictions for what should be some tough games.
- I break my no-politics rule after Aaron calls me a dirty fascist again on the podcast, and I educate him on how, actually, Pinochet did nothing wrong.
- I go back to the hooks that I started earlier in the season but have kind of been forgotten, namely burgers and sorting your fantasy team out.
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