The Mints division literally went 0-7 in Week 8. Ouch! The three-way tie for the first place bye is still in place, with Tornado Rodgers holding a slight edge over Bizz Dawgs and Yang Bucks based on points scored.
Over in Sundowner, the MadMen remain undefeated at 7-0-1, thanks to a 158-100 waxing of Lunchables on the backs of Aaron Jones, Deshaun Watson and James Conner. INSERT WITTY NAME worked on the lat muscles, using Lat Murray, Jared Goff and Saquon Barkley to take care of business against Tornado Rodgers. Their 125-106 win maintains their 2nd place spot in the division. Not to be out done, the Drunks flexed their muscles with the CMC and Michael Thomas duo combining for 56 fantasy points to keep pace.
Here are the rest of season power rankings, which continue to be very kind to the Drunks:
Week 9 marks the beginning of the home stretch – with just 5 regular season weeks to go, wins are imperative. With 8 teams above .500 or better competing for 6 playoff berths, someone is going to be left unhappy by year’s end.
The Pissahs (3-5) are on a 2 game win streak, keeping playoff hope alive! They look to extend that to 3 in a row against Yard Sale (1-7) this week. They are 10 point favorites in the early week projection, as well.
Huge matchup for the Bizz Dawgs (5-3) as they look to seize control of the Mints division. They are 6 point favorites against the Robstahs (3-5), who need a win to keep pace with the field.
Tornado Rodgers (5-3) couldn’t have timed their matchup against the Dartmouth Drunks (5-3) any better – the Drunks have Michael Thomas on bye. Should Davante Adams return to action for Green Bay, however, it will be a tough path to victory for Tornado Rodgers in Week 9.
INSERT WITTY NAME (6-2) looks to keep pace with the MadMen against Lunchables (3-5), but will have to turn to the waiver wire to find a QB with Jared Goff on bye. Lunchables loses the services of Todd Gurley for the same reason.
The MadMen (7-0-1) are poised to remain undefeated thanks to a matchup against Burke’s squad (0-8), which almost certainly should be the AAF club in M.I.P.P.A. for 2019 – bankrupt and cancelled.
Flying under the radar is the Fortunate Fools (5-3) who have underwhelmed in recent weeks, but also who the power rankings have been favorable towards based on underlying metrics. kicking butker (3-5) will have their hands full as 19 point underdogs in Week 9 as a result.
Yang Bucks (5-3) and IR or In Jail (4-3-1) are in a pivotal spot, with the loser likely seeing quite the uphill battle to qualify for a wild card playoff spot. Yang Bucks are 5 point favorites before the waiver run on Wednesday morning.
All teams will have to do without the services of their favorite members of the Atlanta Falcons, Cincinnati BengaLOLs, Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints as those teams take the week off.
Good luck in Week 9, everybody! Here are the projected final standings as of today:
The Dartmouth Drunks’ spiral was brought to an end thanks to their 112-59 drubbing of IR or In Jail (sorry, Sylvia) on the backs of Austin Ekeler, Michael Thomas, and Patriots D/ST.
They now sit 3 games out of first place in the Sundowner division, and should they make it, they absolutely terrify any team playing in the Wild Card round of our playoffs in Week 14 with that roster.
INSERT WITTY NAME has ripped off 5 straight wins after an 0-2 start, and sit in 2nd place behind the MadMen, who moved to 6-0-1 with a victory of their own in Week 7.
On the Mints side of things, tough losses for Tornado Rodgers and the Bizz Dawgs took place against underdog opponents. This opened the door for Yang Bucks to enter a three-way tie for 1st place and the other bye week with their 86-74 win over kicking butker.
Here are the rest of season power rankings heading into the 2nd half of the season:
There are some pivotal head-to-head battles in Week 8. The Pissahs (2-5) need to build on last week’s victory, as a winning streak is likely required to get back in the race. They take on Yang Bucks (5-2), who need a win of their own to try and seize control of the Mints’ division lead.
Boston Robstahs (2-5) and kicking butker (3-4) face off in a game that likely ends the Robstah’s playoff aspirations with a loss. butker is sneaky in the running for the Mints division title; with similar points scored to each of the three teams tied for first, they’re flying under the radar.
The Fools (4-3) seem to be poised to move to 5-3 thanks to a matchup against Burke’s (0-7) pathetic punted roster – the only thing dying soon would be the Fools’ playoff aspirations with a loss, here.
The MadMen (6-0-1) draw Lunchables (3-4), and are heavily favored (-22) in the early projections for their matchup, which is not something all the other Sundowner competitors want to read here. Too bad!
INSERT WITTY NAME (5-2) and Tornado Rodgers (5-2) have a key battle. A victory for WITTY NAME keeps them alive for the Sundowner bye, while a win by Tornado Rodgers keeps them in the driver’s seat for the Mints bye.
Dartmouth Drunks (4-3) must start Jameis Winston over the recently injured Patrick Mahomes, but thankfully they draw Easton Yard Sale (1-6), another team playing for 2020.
IR or In Jail (3-3-1) looks to right the ship against Bizz Dawgs (5-2) who badly need a win of their own given that three-way tie atop the Mints leaderboard.
The season is just starting to get super compelling at the top of the leaderboard! All owners who have chosen to compete here in 2019 are being rewarded with a real chance at the postseason.
PLEASE pay your league dues. That is all. Good luck in Week 8, everybody!
Can you Diggs it! The highest scoring player in fantasy this week put up 52 points in M.I.P.P.A., however, he was on IR or In Jail’s bench 😥
Just a disastrous move, and one that ultimately led to MadMen and IR or In Jail tying 125-125 on the week.
Tornado Rodgers can thank his newly departed team members David Johnson and Mike Evans for keeping him tied for 1st in the Mints division, as the duo combined for 47 points in his 101-90 win over kicking butker.
One team has 813 fantasy points scored on the season, which is 51 points more than the next closest squad. Unfortunately for that team – Dartmouth Drunks – they’ve also faced the toughest schedule, allowing 755 points to opponents. They now sit at 3-3 and in 8th place. Given how stacked the Drunks roster is, they still lead the Power Rankings:
Week 7 is the official midway point of the regular season! 6 games precede it, and 6 games remain after it. Here are some of the key battles to watch this week:
The 1st place 5-0-1 MadMen face the Fools in a battle that will likely drastically alter the Fools’ playoff aspirations. A win for the Fools places them in the running for a bye, while a loss likely places them solely in wild card contention.
The Drunks look to get back into the win column against IR or In Jail, but will have to do so without the services of CMC and (potentially?) an injured Davante Adams. IR or In Jail would like to wash away the sour taste of the Diggs disaster with an upset win, for sure.
Here are the current playoff odds. Good luck in Week 7!
Merrymount MadMen continues to run hot! The only undefeated team in the league is now 5-0 after defeating Dartmouth Drunks 205-166 in an absurd battle.
MadMen rode the backs of 40+ point performances from Amari Cooper and Aaron Jones, with a 53 point effort from DeShaun Watson to cap it off. They also got 27 points from the Eagles defense, who benefitted from what is being graded at this stage as the 4th-worst performance by a QB since 1989 by Football Outsiders. Sheesh!
The victory gives MadMen a 2 game lead in the Sundowner division.
Bizz Dawgs and The Return of Tornado Rodgers each earned important victories, and now sit tied atop the Mints division in the battle for the other first round bye.
In Week 6, Finley looks to bounce back against Yang Bucks, while IR or In Jail looks to help him out as they are projected to defeat the MadMen. Bizz Dawgs draws 0-5 Easton Yard Sale, while Tornado Rodgers has a key battle with kicking butker, who is projected to win.
Here are the rest of season power rankings as of today:
And here is the current projection for final standings on the season. Good luck in Week 6!
Trade winds have been swirling amongst M.I.P.P.A. owners since we last shared Power Rankings.
Finley’s squad has officially become the prohibitive favorites, acquiring Davante Adams, Christian McCaffrey and Michael Thomas in two separate deals. He’s certainly banking on taking down the title here, having sold his 1st, 2nd, and 4th round pick to pull that off.
Your humble writer sent away a 2nd rounder to acquire Keenan Allen, and a mid-rounder to get Mike Williams as insurance behind him. In a pair of QB swap trades, Easton Yard Sale added Aaron Rodgers, kicking butker acquired Jimmy G-String, Lunchables acquired his holiness Godner Minshew, and Tornado Rodgers added Russell Wilson.
While the football season is only entering its second quarter, we’re already in midseason fantasy form, with several playoff fates already coming down to key head-to-head matchups in Week 5.
Here are the Week 5 Power Rankings:
Two of three squads tied for first place in the Mints division square off this week, with Tornado Rodgers and Yang Bucks going head to head. The third team, Bizz Dawgs, faces 1-3 Lunchables in what appears to be a winning spot. The loser between Yang/Rodgers is going to be at a disadvantage moving forward for that bye week seed.
Big game between 2-2 squads Gorham IR or In Jail and Boston Robstahs in the Sundowner division, as well.
Finley’s absolute wagon of a team looks to tie Caliri for first place in Sundowner, as they too face one another here. Week 5 should be a fun week to watch play out.
As it stands today, here are the final projected standings:
Week 3 has come and gone, and the playoff picture is further solidifying…. the “Champ Champ” is apparently parting out his roster, while Tornado Rodgers and Merrymount Madmen have risen to the top of the table in their respective divisions at 3-0.
They happen to have the “Game of the Week” here in Week 4, as both first place squads face off. There are seven 2-1 squads behind them that will be in much better positions in their respective divisions if their rival falls this weekend.
This is the first week of the season with byes, so SF and NYJ players in your starting lineup? Get ’em out! Not playing this week.
Here are your Week 4 rest of season power rankings:
And finally, your current projected final regular season standings:
As the trade market heats up, it will be interesting to see how things shift in M.I.P.P.A. in 2019. Good luck, everybody.
With 5 squads sitting at 2-0, the early playoff picture is starting to take shape!
Week 2 was loaded with injuries across the NFL, and while we obviously hope those humans heal for the benefit of themselves and their families, our fantasy teams have been impacted greatly.
Drew Brees? Defending champ Justin suffered that blow. Big Ben? Al’s gonna need a new plan in 2019 for sure.
With upcoming matchups, Jon and Shawn have the biggest tilt in Week 3, as both 2-0 teams from the Sundowner division face off here. This sets up nicely for Sylvia to take control at 3-0 if he can defeat Fahey (although the projections are not in his favor).
For our 0-2 squads that are desperate for a win… good luck this week.
Here are your Week 3 Power Rankings!
Despite the 0-2 record, Fahey’s squad looks very strong on this week’s slate.
Rest of season outlook from today:
Worry not, fantasy friends. 11 regular season weeks remain for you to change your fate. That’s good news for those of you at the bottom of the current table – and bad news for those of us already looking to hold on.
Week 1 has come and gone! The shiny new players you drafted? For some of you, they paid off! For others, well… on to Week 2! It’s fair to say everyone is still in the race at this point.
Here are the Week 2 Power Rankings:
Well then! ML is feeling good right? Not so fast, lets look rest of season:
Yeah, I didn’t finish the fast food blog series, deal with it!
Fantasy baseball season started, my laptop crapped out, and I just didn’t care enough to finish it. I had Shake Shack winning it all, by the way.
Now what you’re really here for! The fine folks over at FantasyPros.com have a league analyzer, which projects the expected outcome for the season based on the draft.
Here’s where we stand, as of September 1st – Week 0:
A bounty of add/drops, trades, and of course – unfortunate injuries is bound to change this projected outcome obviously.
Welcome to the 2019 season! Adams – we’re coming for your throne.
Welcome to entry number two in my fast food/fast casual bracket challenge! If you missed the first entry of the series, bang it here to get caught up.
All caught up? Cool – let’s move on.
This entry’s region is the third strongest of the four in my model (Mac & Dick McDonald were weakest). As we move forward, each region actually gets tougher to grade. This is why I developed my four point scale – to pursue a more accurate seeding of all 64 establishments.
Grading Scale Recap
I will be weighing menu offerings, price points, quality of marketing, and quality of food in each matchup. Each category will be given a score 1-5, 5 being the best, 1 being the worst.
I will then “blend” the four categories together using the uber complex method of =average in Excel to get a total score.
By using this slightly more objective approach, I feel I am able to give each restaurant (especially those I haven’t visited) a fair shot to survive and advance!
I scouted one of tonight’s competitors pre-blog – it’s safe to say Chick-Fil-A lives up to the hype. The wife and I definitely leverage location advantage – this particular location is a mere 4.2 miles away from our apartment.
Chick-Fil-A – Framingham, MA
I’m a sucker for some fried chicken. Luckily, from a menu perspective they are fairly diversified. One of the stronger all around seeds in the tournament, this place will be sticking around for further evaluation later on in this series. It’s time to drag another establishment through the mud fairly rate a lesser known competitor for the folks at home.
Upon further review, it appears this is a sandwich shop. Now, maybe I’m just too much of a neophyte in the food review game. Totally fair to suggest.
I think, however, it’s probably a reasonable business decision to maybe not name your place directly after a popular transit hub? With an average of 22.9 Twitter followers per reported storefront location, we clearly have some issues here:
That’s 6,878 / 300, folks. Not a great ratio, for sure. As an aside, I’m absolutely willing to believe Josh about those cookies. I’m just not stopping somewhere JUST for the cookies.
Recognizing that this place is clearly a lunch spot, I actually like the menu for what it is. A solid blend of grilled and cold subs, wraps, and salads is well diversified for the cheap lunch game. And speaking of cheap, it’s definitely good value per dollar to frequent this place.
In the end, Chick-Fil-A is just a tough draw for what is clearly (at best) a mid-major player in the fast food game.
Welcome to Moe’s! Simple, direct, effective marketing by this southwestern food chain – Moe’s scores far better in my book than yesterday’s Chipotle.
I’ve never had a bad experience in my few trips to this place. The biggest hole in their game? It has to simply be the menu. I’m a consistent fella – I really, really don’t like picking and choosing my ingredients at a restaurant that builds my food in front of me.
If there’s any one restaurant Moe’s could’ve chosen to meet up with to start the tournament, it definitely would have been Jimmy John’s.
Imagine bragging that no service like Uber Eats or Postmates wants to deliver your “gourmet” sandwiches to customers:
So no one delivers this crap then, huh? Got it.
You know what the problem with fast food sandwich shops is?
The best sandwiches you order out for typically come from the proverbial hole-in-the-wall place back home. Nostalgic reflection on the sandwich orders of yesteryear is a drug we all chase, after all. Regional bias be damned, I have no recollection of any positive memories involving Jimmy John’s.
I just can’t give them any semblance of a bump into relevance in this tournament as a result.
Culver’s surprised the hell out of me. A native Bostonian, I can say with confidence I’ve never encountered, nor heard of this place before. Some of the places in this bracket have at least achieved a somewhat mythical pop culture status, entering each of our collective brains at one point or another through some form of media.
Not Culver’s! My very first experience with this place was via search engine. And damn it, I was not disappointed – at all.
Welcome to delicious is right! Those cheese curds! I’m VERY intrigued.
We’re on the fast track to an all out battle in the Sweet 16 between Culver’s and Chick-Fil-A, folks. I’ll just leave it there for now.
As far as Boston Market goes… I mean, I’ve heard of it. I’ve driven by one – many times. I’ve even eaten near it. I’ve just never gone inside.
The rotisserrie I like in my life is more of the fantasy baseball variety – not chicken. To be fair to fans of the place, this is definitely more of a family-oriented dinner joint – two things I strongly dislike. (I’ll let you decide which two things out of family, dinner, and joints. Your choice!)
Good options on the menu to choose from, at least.
Ah, Domino’s. Remember that whole our pizza sucks campaign? Yeah, apparently that’s still true – they dropped the pizza from their name and diversified into other food types to try and hide this fact from you by 2019.
I have to admit, the menu is surprisingly rich with options I didn’t think they had. That aside, I still can’t see myself trading money for more Domino’s at any future point in my life. With so many options to choose from (both in this bracket and in general), I feel comfortable with one of my many life mottoes – life’s too short to settle for Domino’s.
A lot more available here than I realized. For that, hat’s off to Domino’s. That’s about all I give them, though.
You know what’s a great sign of a brand that has a really strong fan base? A merchandise line!
Torchy’s Tacos not only looks appetizing upon first glance, but they sell some pretty intriguing looking t-shirts:
I’m a sucker for good merchandise. You don’t produce merchandise if you have zero real fans, just a fact of life.
Since they did enough to move on, Torchy’s Tacos true evaluation will wait for my next trip through the No Sundays bracket.
Let’s address a little film called Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. You see, for better or worse, this dropped during an extremely impressionable time in young Rooney’s life – as a 15 year old, there were easily a lot of jokes I pretended to understand (as one does at that age).
The biggest thing this movie did? It helped grow the legend of White Castle sliders for a generation of millennials – although I’m pretty sure we were still called Gen Y at that point. Anyway, I digress.
Little Caesar’s was featured in a rhyme by Cardi B last year:
I’m fairly confident this YouTuber transcribed this very incorrectly, but whatever.
That’s really the extent of my knowledge on the place, though. Our good friend, reigning champ Fence Post Malone wrote about a recent visit to a Little Caesar’s in the league chat at one point, as well. This all has absolutely nothing to do with their food – because I want nothing to do with their food.
Fast food pizza faces a lot of the same challenges I referenced with sandwich shops above – it’s far easier to get a good pizza from quite literally anywhere. I can’t see myself choosing Little Caesar’s as a meal – ever.
Subway is the king of the crappy assembly line food business model. The thing that gives them a slight bump? They do give you some pre-packaged options to choose from.
You can walk into one and order the Black Forest Ham on wheat and pretty much go on autopilot as a customer. That’s something I do like, here.
Easy to understand menu options at Subway, a tolerable assembly line based food business.
Subway also benefits from really friendly pricing compared to its competitors in the category for me. While its a bit of a weird “race to the bottom” to offer the best poor quality food for an affordable price, it’s a race they are, in fact, winning.
This bracket is littered with fried chicken specialty shops.
Church’s definitely gets hurt in my book by the fact that I’ve got many comparable options graded highly. There’s probably a fatigue factor at play for me, here. It would take a stunningly strong review to get me to consider this place as an option.
Limited research suggests it may also even be a bit cost prohibitive compared to other places in the category.
Another fried chicken shop in the Chick-Fil-A region? Yikes. Tough seeding.
Pizza that shills faux patriotism is probably the worst type of pizza. Not to worry! Even if that feels politically biased to you, I can assure you that this pizza straight up just looks like cardboard, as well:
Is that real pizza that looks fake? If it is, is that somehow worse than being fake pizza for pictures?
I’d bet heavily on one thing to be a real hoot in Arlen, Texas – a burger shop like Cookout!
Hank Hill would absolutely rave about the quality of this place to his old pals Bill and Boomhauer. It just all makes sense. If there’s one thing that pairs well with propane and propane accessories, its a well grilled hamburger.
Place just screams small town America.
Pretty much any burger place was taking down Papa John, here.
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