Midseason Review: 2019

Now that we’re all one big division, we’ll just take a quick stroll through how 2019 is going during our first eight weeks of the season. And here are the midseason standings as well. [ Draft Reviews: Capcom | Marvel ]

Chunky Monkeys (8-0)
Sometimes you assemble a great team and know you’re headed for success. Sometimes you draft the Patriots DST, aka the greatest DST in fantasy football history. Monkeys are averaging a league second best 144.6 PF — against 109.9 PA, the third lowest in CTDB — and was only tested last week, in a 153.7 - 147.9 duel with Buffy that still left them undefeated. If they can secure a win against second place Custom J next week, that ninth win will have been their best regular season since 2016… Plus with only five more weeks to go, Evan has a shot at pulling off an undefeated regular season. The good news for the rest of CTDB is that Monkeys is one of two teams with zero dollars left for FAAB. So, um, there’s some hope I guess.

Custom J (7-1)
In his rookie season with CTDB, Josh’s Custom J team has obliterated expectations by using the fourth highest PF at 133.9 points — albeit against the lowest PA — to storm out to a wonderful record while leaving his other new owners in the dust. Their lone loss so far was at the hands of fellow new owner Marcus’ Masterminds in WK7, but if Josh can take down cousin Evan in this week’s huge WK9 matchup, Lamar Jackson and Nick Chubb could find themselves heading into the postseason as the top seed. Long live Custom Birds!

Gang Green (6-2)
Running out to their best season in three years, the Greenies are using the Deshaun Watson and Christian McCaffrey duo to steadily take down their opponents, sometimes in thrilling fashion, as a WK1 win was by just +1.3 points. They’ll get a shot at avenging their WK2 loss to Tiiite End Jammers in two weeks, but there also is a pretty big WK10 face-off versus Custom J’s coming up. It’s possible Greg could still take this team to a bye, as they’ve got the edge against the two teams right below them in the standings.

Crunch Bunch (5-3)
After starting off a shaky 2-2 in their rookie year, Eddie’s Crunch Bunch delivered a statement win in WK5, with a 224.2 - 150.1 beatdown of Buffy that is likely the historical high mark for one week. Since then, they’ve even thrown in another gigantic crushing of Phreaks in WK8, putting up 182.9 points and thrashing them by +83.9 points. Outside of a super dud in WK6 against older brother Josh, Crunch Bunch has four wins in their last five games and could be ready for a postseason run behind the running duo of Dalvin Cook and Aaron Jones. Oh yeah, all those epic scores mean these Crunchies are the lead leaders in PF, at 148.1 points each weekend.

City of Angels Masterminds (5-3)
Tied with Crunch Bunch, our last new owner haven’t seen quite the highs of Eddie or Josh, but are nonetheless positioned for a postseason slot. They only average 113.9 PF against 109.3 PA, which means they’ve been a little erratic, with some 90+ games leading to wins but just as often losses. The good news is that inconsistency seems to be behind the Masterminds as they have been over 105+ in the last month and have gone 3-1 since. A possible playoff defining matching versus Crunch Bunch looms in WK9, and then two very tough games at the end of the regular season. Can Aaron Rodgers take City of Angels into the playoffs?

Battle Angel (3-5)
If the season were to end today, Battle Angel would technically be in the playoffs but that might end up begin the case in five weeks. Vu’s team had an outstanding WK3 game, 177.5 - 166.7, versus Phreaks and managed to take down Fat Jubas by +5.1 points in WK6, but note that those two opponents are a combined 1-15 this seasons. With three games against teams with winning records left to go, Battle Angel might be hard pressed to even equal last year’s 5-8 record. If nobody else can step up to help out Russell Wilson, these Angels could be headed right back into the Toilet Bowl.

Tiiite End Jammers (3-5)
We just did our first franchise look at Jammers, and well, it looks like they’re headed for a down season after last season’s barely 0.500+ performance. Losing Antonio Brown to his various fiascos didn’t help and Jammers is averaging a second to last 105.8 PF. With three losses in their last four — with their sole win coming versus the Phreaks — Lei’s team is going to need some luck and some pluck to pick up that last playoff spot. The good news is that Julio Jones is out of his slump and Tyler Lockett has been quite consistent all year. The lack of a run game though limits this team’s upside.

LA Buffy (2-6)
Roger’s team has been about middle of the pack in both PF and PA but they’ve been on the losing end of some tough matchups. There was the -1.9 point loss to Custom J in WK3, the -4.2 loss to Jammers in WK4, and the narrow -5.8 matchup versus undefeated Chunky last weekend. Not to mention the historic high put up by Crunch Bunch versus them in WK5. So yeah, it’s just been a star-crossed year for Roger. If the return of Drew Brees can catapult this team to the postseason, well, okay it won’t. But Roger could have his sights set on winning a Toilet Bowl, which would be a welcome reward for a season gone all sideways. If they can’t get to four wins though, this will be their worst regular season since 2013!

Fat Jubas (1-7)
After notching only five wins last season and four the year before that, we thought drafting 2019 RD1.1 Josh Jacobs could turn this team’s fortunes around. If Jubas can’t pick up three more wins, they are headed toward their worst regular season ever — since 2001, the very start of CTDB. The schedule has done them no favors, as they are facing the second toughest PA in the league, with opponents throwing up 138.6 versus them. Even with a league average PF, that’s just not gonna cut it. While injuries have hit this team hard, the trio of Jacobs, Mike Evans, and Chris Carson seem to be good, but I guess it’s just not meant to be for Jubas this year. See you in the Toilet Bowl (again)!

Philadelphia Phreaks (0-8)
This upcoming matchup in WK9 represents Ping’s best chance to get a win this season. After riding Patrick Mahomes to the playoffs last season — and taking Capcom’s division title — it’s quite possible that Mahomes’ injury could send Phreaks tumbling to a dark crevasse. I mean, darker than now. As the lowest scoring team in CTDB, Phreaks already face an uphill battle as they put up just 100.3 points per week, but having the league’s toughest PA at 141.1 just leaves them no chance to do much of anything. Can they get a single win this year? Just one?!? FYI: Phreaks have had two two-win seasons, in 2003 and 2007. Should they manage to go defeated the whole season, they’ll match 2006 Fobsters, who went a wild 0-13.

Franchise: Tiiite End Jammers

With the first of our ongoing series, we look at all ten CTDB franchises. The last time we did this was over ten years ago so let's start anew and see where our teams have gotten to in the meantime: Franchises 2.0.

#7 Tiiite End Jammers, Lei
It's been hard to stand out in the super powered division that is Marvel, formerly Inscrutable Drama Kings. Multiple Super Bowl appearances, multiple titles, and even a handful of division wins have not been enough to set the Jammers apart as the cream of their division. However, make no mistake about it, Tiiite End Jammers are dangerous when they put it all together, as evidenced by the two shiny rings on Lei’s fingers. “Jammed Up (2008)”

Regular Season [ 118-114-2, 0.509 ]
We’ve said before that a successful Jammer season was usually one in which they tore out of the gates and then smashed their way to a title. Their two most successful start-to-finish seasons were exactly like this, as they went 11-2 and 12-1 in 2003 and 2014 respectively, ending both of those campaigns with Super Bowl victories, Super Bowl III and Super Bowl XIIII. The same thing would have happened in 2016, if not for an upset win in the title game by Fat Jubas.

In the first three seasons of CTDB, Jammers compiled a 26-13 regular season record and looked like a team for the future. However, a 5-8 2004 campaign followed, and then a 3-10 2005, and those two years were the start of the lost decade for Jammers. Between 2004 and 2012, Lei’s team posted a 45-71-1 record with only one season above 0.500 and an incredible five 5-8 records in nine years, including three in a row. It seemed like the Jammer franchise was lost at sea after their early success.

However, a bounce-back 8-5 2013 led into a rampaging 2014 and another Marvel division title — their second — as well as another championship. While it hasn’t all been smooth sailing since then — Jammers went 4-8-1 right after that second title year — there has at least been some stability as Jammers has been 23-16 in the last three seasons.

Overall, Jammers has captured three division titles and taken the regular season wins crown three times, which ties them with second-most along with Buffy and Battle Angels. All that winning and losing may come in erratic ups and downs but Jammers' 0.509 regular season winning percentage is good enough to rank them fourth overall in CTDB, right behind three of their Capcom division mates. Perhaps that lost decade was just due to being in a tough division that often saw the Jammers squeezed against some of the best teams in the league?

Playoffs [ 8-8, 0.500 | 16 games ]
For the most part, if Jammers can get out of the first round of the playoffs, they tend to do pretty well. Overall they've seen ten playoff seasons, which is the median mark for the league. Jammers have suffered four first round exits in seven tries though. However if they can get to the divisional round, they are slightly better at 3-3, albeit with all three of those wins coming when they’ve earned a first round bye. The short answer to Jammers’ postseason recipe is this: get a bye and avoid the first round.

The Jammers rarely get upset, or do the upsetting, and their closest playoff victory was all the way back in 2001, by eight points over Chunky Monkeys. Their next closest win was fifteen years later — +12.20 points in 2016 — over the Monkeys yet again. Overall, the Jammers don’t keep it close that often in the playoffs. They’ve literally only had one other single digit game aside from that 2001 matchup, a six point upset loss in 2013 to Dirty Birds. The Jammers really are all or nothing!

Jammers are 1-1 overall versus Fat Jubas, 1-1 versus Athena Nike, 1-0 versus both Jimmy and Jae, and have never met half the teams in CTDB in the playoffs. Is that weird? They have also never beaten Buffy or Dirty Birds in the playoffs, in two and four tries respectively. However, the Jammers are the undisputed Monkeys killers. Lei’s team has knocked Evan out of the playoffs four times in the playoffs — including back-to-back in our first two CTDB seasons — and have yet to lose a playoff game to Chunky. Do we smell huge rivalry here?

Toilet Bowl [ 2-4, 0.333 | 6 games ]
There’s been four Toilet Bowl appearances for Jammers — three in a row in 2010, 2011, 2012 — and they’ve managed to get to the TB Finals twice. Chunky Monkeys finally beat Jammers in a postseason matchup, winning the 2011 Toilet Bowl by +48.60 points, but even that victory was slightly Pyrrhic as Evan chose Trent Richardson with the first overall pick while Lei took DeMarco Murray. GM Lei seems to have a knack for doing great things with the number two overall pick as the following year he lost in the TB Finals to Gang Green but grabbed Le’Veon Bell in the following draft — while Greg took David Wilson. Here’s hoping we don’t see Jammers in the Toilet Bowl for some time, as they’ve been on a franchise tying streak of three straight seasons in the playoffs. Otherwise if you see Jammers in the TB Finals, it may be best to let them win...

Keepers [ 2008 - 2019 ]
Jammers have had the luxury of two of the longest tenured superstar receivers for their keeper core. It’s been seven years apiece for Demaryius Thomas and Antonio Brown on Tiiite End Jammers. Of course, 2019 could bring a change of scenery here as Thomas was let go as a keeper and Brown is well, facing some issues. Franchise runner Le’Veon Bell is going on his sixth year with Jammers while Tony Romo and DeMarco Murray had both logged five years each. There was also Percy Harvin for four years, plus a couple of keeper slots kept around for Maurice Jones-Drew and Julio Jones over the years. The current core still has Brown, Bell, and Jones, but new blood could be coming as the Jammers’ ex-Steelers are starting to lose their shine with on and off the field problems aplenty.

• Playoff Appearances: 10
• Division Titles: 3
• Most Regular Season Wins: 3
• Super Bowl Appearances: 3
• Championships: 2 (2003, 2014)

• Toilet Bowl Finals: 2
• Toilet Bowl Winner: 0

• Regular Season: 118-114-2, 0.509
• Overall Postseason: 10-12, 0.455 (22 games)
• Playoffs: 8-8, 0.500 (16 games)
• Toilet Bowl: 2-4, 0.333 (6 games)
• Playoff Point Differential: -52.60 points
• TB Point Differential: -62.65 points

The Great Division

It's long been a fact that the Marvel division has been superior to Capcom in every way -- see here for the old division names -- but the question is by how much?

For the regular season splits, Marvel is 626-537-8, taking 0.538 of their games while Capcom is at 537-630-4, which translates to a 0.460 winning percentage.

• Four of the top five all time regular season records belong in Marvel, with Gang Green being the only Capcom franchise that has an overall winning record in eighteen compiled seasons. Sometimes the regular season difference has been pretty stark between our two divisions. For example, there was one year, 2014, when Capcom boasted only one team above 0.500 — Phreaks at 7-6 — and everyone else finished at 5-8 for um, a pretty bleh year.

Also, when adjusted for owner and not sorted by franchise, Marvel owns all five of the top five regular season winning percentages — as Frank’s 35-30 and 0.538 win rate puts him at number two all time during his five seasons in the league. Basically, once Ante Up left CTDB, the division disparity got even bigger.

• With 12.5 Super Bowl titles going to Marvel, compared to Capcom’s 5.5 — it was half a title each for Dirty Birds and Gang Green resulting from their tie in Super Bowl VII — Marvel has most of the rings in CTDB history as well.

• Marvel also holds the edge in teams that paced a regular season in wins. There have been 15.5 Marvel teams with regular season high marks compared to just 3.5 for Capcom -- and three of those Capcom regular season win titles were by Battle Angel.

•  Heck, Marvel even holds the edge in Toilet Bowl Finals appearances — 10 for Marvel, 8 for Capcom — as well as having won five Toilet Bowls to Capcom’s four. (Note: This is possible because the Toilet Bowl is reseeded without regard for division.)

• In addition, with Athena Nike winning the 2018 title, every franchise in Marvel has won a championship, whereas two in Capcom have yet to grab a ring. Philadelphia Phreaks have yet to even make a Super Bowl, putting them on par with our three newest franchises and our old ones, Ante Up and Skool.

• Things even out a bit more for franchises with the most playoff appearances. Chunky Monkeys leads the way with sixteen appearances but Capcom’s Fat Jubas and Philadelphia Phreaks aren’t far behind with thirteen and twelve, respectively.

• As for variety in division title winners, Capcom has the edge there as four of their franchises rank in the top five of “most division titles,” while Marvel is paced by Chunky Monkey’s league-leaguing nine division titles.

So yeah, it's clear Marvel has historically been far greater than Capcom, but now we’re headed into a new era of CTDB, one which will be division-less and feature every team battling with every other team in the standings!

Championships:

• Dirty Birds (3.5)
• Chunky Monkeys (3)
• Fat Jubas (3)
• Buffy (3)
• Tiiite End Jammers (2)
• Gang Green (1.5)
• Battle Angels (1)
• Athena Nike (1)
• Philadelphia Phreaks, Fobsters (0)

Toilet Bowl Winners:

• Chunky Monkeys (2)
• Dirty Birds (2)
• Battle Angel (1)
• Buffy (1)
• Fat Jubas (1)
• Fobsters (1)
• Gang Green (1)
• Tiiite End Jammers, Athena Nike, Philadephia Phreaks (0)