Can you believe it’s almost Halloween? That just blows my mind. Anyway, let’s jump into what’s new in my world of sports, which will be the focus of this post, though I’m hoping to get some more out that isn’t just current events in sports. We’ll touch briefly on a few topics before diving deeper into football of all kinds.
Some of the biggest sports news from the past couple weeks is that both Billy Beane and Daryl Morey are exiting the sports they rose to prominence working within, at least for now. Beane is joining the Boston Red Sox’ parent company, Fenway Sports Group, which also owns Liverpool. Morey stepped down from his position as GM of the Houston Rockets last week, which elicited some very strong reactions from all sorts of NBA fans. It was perhaps one of the least surprising moves of the last year in the NBA, but still a blow as it sounds like he’ll take some time off before pursuing his next job - regardless of whether or not it is in basketball or not. I may try to contextualize the impact these departures have on analytics later, though everyone knows they’re both giants in that regard.
The Dodgers completed their comeback against the Braves and are currently leading the Rays in game one of the World Series after the Rays held off the Astros’ comeback attempt. I’m cheering for the Rays but expect the Dodgers to win the Fall Classic.
UNC football reached #5 in the rankings last week, only to fall completely flat for the first half at FSU. The FSU defense and special teams seemed totally ready for UNC as they blocked one punt that set up a short touchdown run, got a hand on another (it may have been a FG), and got a pick six on an attempted screen pass to the RB. The second half was all UNC, though and it got interesting towards the end. However, three dropped passes in a row after a curious run play on first down shut down UNC’s final drive. The first drop may have been influenced by a jersey grab - I think those are supposed to be called as defensive holding - but the other two were pretty inexcusable. Tough loss for an ascending program.
College basketball started practicing this week, though they did so without student managers thanks to COVID-19 restrictions. As a former student manager myself, it’s a bummer to hear they can’t be at practice right now. Hopefully each of the managers and the coaches find ways for them to continue being involved.
I’m currently in first place in both of my fantasy Premier League leagues! We’ll see if that keeps up, though it’s certainly better than how Chelsea is doing. Ohhh Kepa. Kepa, Kepa, Kepa. If he’d only been able to avoid that absolutely abominable ten seconds of action, then I feel like everyone would be singing a different tune. Alas, it definitely happened. I won’t rehash that piece, though Kepa is certainly not the only one at fault. He and Zouma don’t seem to communicate well, and I think Zouma was partially responsible for each of the first two goals. The team turned the ball over way too easily, especially after getting ahead 2-0. Werner was obviously excellent, as was Chilwell for the most part. But Lampard has got to find a way to have the team hold leads. I’m certainly not feeling super confident going into this weekend’s matchup with Manchester United, though they’re off to a weird start, too.
Fantasy football is a bit of a different story. I’ve won my last four matchups, but only been above the median twice and the league has a few cellar dwellers, so I’m somehow 9th in a 12 team league at 6-6. The good news is I’m not too far behind a big cluster of teams for points scored and am a little higher in potential points scored, so there’s room to improve. The bye weeks will be tough to navigate, especially because I don’t have a backup QB and will likely have to drop someone, but my receivers are still carrying me. I believe I booked my second side bet win of the year and should have a solid shot at a few more, so I might make my money back regardless.
That said, there have still been some missed opportunities. I’m set at receiver, but both Travis Fulgham and Chase Claypool seem more real than I expected and either they or another one of my receivers could have been moved. Value is value, and both of them would certainly fetch more in a trade than Zack Moss or Damien Harris. I’ve come close to a few trades, but haven’t liked any of them enough to pull the trigger. Another lesson learned in that vein is that it’s probably wise to avoid rookies in the draft, but to pounce on them as soon as it looks like they have a role in the offense. A bonus hypothesis is that it’s relatively useless to have FAAB left over after week 6. Any players with a legit role will have carved it out by now and so you’re just pecking over the leftovers and injury fill ins. I have $112 FAAB left, but it should probably be closer to $62. It should be interesting to follow through the rest of the year.
What I’m Reading:
- 20020: Still reading it and it is still hilarious
- How to Do Nothing: I’m almost done!
- Counting by Randy Au: new Substack blog I’ve come across that has some interesting data related posts
I did pick up a few new books over the weekend, so the reading list continues to grow. The Binti trilogy, collected works from Ursula K. Le Guin’s blog, Kindred by Octavia Butler, Foundation by Asimov, and Canticle of Leibowitz was the full haul. I’ve wanted to read Foundation for a while and would like to get more into Le Guin as I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve read to date. Binti and Kindred both have great reviews and Canticle of Leibowitz seems like a near-classic itself.