2014 Keepers

2014 Draft Order

1. Athena Nike (2-11)
2. Fobsters (4-9)
3. LA Buffy (4-9)
4. Gang Green (6-7)
5. Dirty Birds (7-6)
6. Philadelphia Phreaks (7-6)
7. Tiiite End Jammers (8-5)
8. Fat Jubas (9-4)
9. Battle Angel (8-5) *Runner Up
10. Chunky Monkeys (10-3) *Champion

Toilet Bowl Win: Fobsters
TB Loss: Athena Nike

Tie-Breakers
Fobsters and LA Buffy (4-9): Tied H2H, Buffy had higher PF
Dirty Birds and Phreaks (7-6): Phreaks beat Birds H2H in WK7

SuperBowl XIII

Chunky Monkeys vs Battle Angel, 93.3 - 79.7
A championship match up defined by peaks and valleys.  There really is no other way to describe what we saw this past weekend in the thirteenth CTDB super bowl with a match up between long time Mt. Carmel friends, Vu's Battle Angels and Evan's Chunky Monkeys.

Similar to their last win, the Monkeys seemingly had etched out a smoothly paved win to their third title. The Dirty Birds found a way to beat the Jammers, who at the time, was one of the hottest teams in the league.  However, the victory came at a high price and the Birds found themselves severely handicapped with Adrian Peterson and Rob Gronkowski out. The number one ranked Monkeys found themselves matched up against a very undermanned Dirty Birds.  As expected, the Monkeys cruised to an easy victory mostly on the back of your 2013 fantasy MVP, Jamaal Charles.

The same could be said for the Super Bowl.  The Jubas were the number one team on the SMG division but somehow found  themselves on the losing end against the Angels. This left the Angels matched up against the goliath Monkeys. Adding insult to injury, Angel's quarterback, Drew Brees had a really tough road match up against Carolina (who the Angels also had on their roster) and the Angels had to scramble to find viable starters for BenJarvus Green Ellis and Brian Hartline -- both were barely startable.

Then came the extreme makeover. Battle Angels tabbed free agent running back Dennis Johnson as his flex player; Johnson was named the Texans starter just three days before the match up. Then Angels promoted Greg Jennings over Hartline, and followed that up by signing Andy Dalton and the Rams defense off the street. The insertion of Johnson and Jennings was just the beginning. Coach Vu then showed the hairiest set of cojones you'll see this side of Mississippi. Despite Brees and Carolina being the second best QB and DEF all year, coach Vu decided to bench both in favor of the Red Rocket, Andy Dalton, and Rams defense. This meant half of the starting roster was new, just in time for the big game.

The last two calls were brilliant. Commissioner Jon called the moves "genius." Dalton went on to throw for 366 yards and 4 TDs, good for 43 points. On the bench, Brees was pedestrian with only 17 points. This is the single best Super Bowl pick up ever. The Rams put up seven sacks and two fumbles good for another 15 points.

Then the Angels peaked. Dalton and the Rams were nearly 75% of the Angels production. No other player scored over 9 points. Despite this mediocrity, the Angels had a strong chance going into Monday Night Football -- coincidentally the last game ever at Candlestick Park -- needing less than 14 points from Vernon Davis.  The same VD who was the third best TE all year. Instead, Coach Vu got a big fat zero from Vernon. Three targets, no catches. Unbelievable.

And that's how it ended for the Angels; needing 14 to win, the Angels got the the bagel.  43 points from the free agent quarterback and zero points from the veteran starting tight end who's been on the Angels keeper list the past two years.

On the flip side, it was another successful rebuilding year for the Monkeys.  After failing to make the playoffs for the first time in team history in 2011, the Monkeys made it to the division championships in 2012 and found themselves in a familiar position this year with a shot at the ring.

The highest scoring team this year averaged nearly 120 points per week and was led by Jamaal Charles, far and away the best non-QB this year.  However, we shouldn't forget that the Monkeys also had the #1 and #2 receivers with Megatron and Josh Gordon (who the Monkeys signed off the street in WK2 after the Angels cut him!). Charles finished the fantasy season with 1,287 rushing yards, 693 receiving yards and 19 combined touchdowns.  That is LT-esque if you ask me.  Through the air, Megatron and Gordon combined for 164 catches for 3,056 yards and and 21 touchdowns.   No other combination was close.

The team overcame season ending injuries to Julio Jones and Randall Cobb, Shane Vereen was basically was on IR all year, and Trent Richardson basically should've been injured.  The rest of the team was supported by quarterback Russell Wilson -- who performed more than admirably -- and a rotating cast of receivers ranging from Torrey Smith, to Harry Douglas, to Michael Floyd. All of them got a couple starts and while none were able to show sustained success, it was more than enough.  In the flex, we saw the emergence of Shane Vereen and Giovani Bernard.  Pundits suspect we'll see one of the two on the keeper list next year.  It's important to note the success of the Monkey's 2013 supplemental draft. Bernard, Vereen and Smith were the first draft picks.  All of them stayed with the team the entire year and all three contributed significantly all year.

Looking ahead, the future is bright for the Monkeys.  The Monkeys survived without three keepers in Julio Jones, Randall Cobb and Trent Richardson.  If things go as expected, a receiver core with Megatron, Julio and newly found superstud Josh Gordon will form the strongest receiving core the Monkeys have featured yet.  Jamaal Charles will likely be the #1 overall pick in drafts next year and the flex we suspect will go to a young rising star in Gio Bernard.  If all goes well, this may be the best keeper roster we've seen from the Monkeys -- even better than the 2007 roster which included Peyton, LT, Larry Johnson and Terrell Owens.

The Monkeys will earn their third ring -- second in four years -- which ties them with Buffy.  This certainly re-establishes the Monkey as the team to beat in CTDB.  All hail the Monkeys!!

Playoffs: Super Bowl Preview

Here we are, our thirteen championship game! These two opponents last met in 2008 during Super Bowl VIII, when Battle Angel snuck out a 113-104 victory. Since then they've both been to the conference championships a few times, with Chunky Monkeys winning a title in 2010. (Fun fact: Monkeys went to five of six Super Bowls between 2005-2010, winning two.) After ceding dominance of the division to Buffy the past two years, Chunky is back in a heavily favored game to go for a third ring, which would tie them with Buffy. As for Battle Angel, if they can pull off the upset here, they'd join Fat Jubas, Dirty Birds, and Gang Green as two time champions. Let’s take a quick look at those match ups.

Chunky Monkeys (10-3) vs Battle Angel (8-5)
QB: Drew Brees versus Russell Wilson. We have it on good authority that Evan tried to move for another QB prior to the playoffs starting, wary of Wilson’s performances. It looks like he won’t have to worry as Wilson has been steady if not always spectacular. As for Brees, Mr. Always Spectacular has bounced back fully from a few under-20 point games. Brees always has the potential for a huge game, something Vu has to be praying for. EDGE: Battle Angel

RB: Is Jamaal Charles worth two other running backs? Yes! While his amazing weekend won’t likely be duplicated, Charles has been spectacular so far and will continue his post-season success.  It looks like Reggie Bush is semi-healthy again but he can’t match Charles’ explosiveness. It looks like Chunky Monkeys is going with rookie Giovani Bernard over Shane Vereen, and it’s hard to say if that’s the proper move. What we do know is that BenJarvus Green-Ellis will be lucky to eclipse double digits, making RB#2 at worst a wash. Historical note: Jamaal Charles led Monkeys to their last championship, in 2010. EDGE: Chunky Monkeys

WR/TE: Vernon Davis caught a devastating bomb last week to continue his solid past month of the season. However, can Brian Hartline and BenJarvus Green-Ellis give this team something more? Andre Johnson will certainly need to give more than 3.8 points for Battle Angel to win. They’re going to face off against Calvin Johnson, Josh Gordon, and Torrey Smith, who pretty much all outclass anything Angel have at their disposal. However, Megatron is coming off a week of the big dropsies, and Gordon and Smith could be semi-neutralized. Or they could blow up in an explosive game clinching powder keg. Chunky Monkeys have a much better receiving crew but Battle Angel could surprise with the right combination. EDGE: Chunky Monkeys

DEF/K: Panthers defense and JUSTIN TUCKER! combined for 36 points last week. They’re not going to match those numbers again but we’d still like to give them the spiritual advantage. Evan will have Bills defense (or Browns or Jaguars, so many DEFs on this team) and Matt Prater lining up but it doesn’t seem like a huge advantage either way. Vu may want to think about subbing Panthers with the newly picked up Rams though, as Carolina faces off versus New Orleans, making it a weird issue of wanting Brees to do well at the cost of Panthers defense. EDGE: Battle Angel, mainly for Tucker

Prediction: Battle Angel has won seven of their last eight while Chunky hasn't lost since WK9. Of course, Battle Angel took revenge on Fat Jubas last weekend and their worst lost of the season was a WK7 blow out by Monkeys. All signs point to Chunky Monkeys capturing their third championship but we’d like to call for an upset. Mainly because the person writing this article lost to Chunky last weekend, and is fearful of what it might mean for the CTDB universe if Evan wins again. Go Battle Angel, go!

Playoffs: Division Championship Recap

We had two wild games this past weekend.  The Monkeys cruised to an expected victory over the hobbled Dirty Birds while the Jubas suffered a season-ending choke-job against the Battle Angels.

Fat Jubas vs Battle Angel (109.7 - 77.3)
For the Spunky Misunderstood Geniuses division, the Jubas entered the match up as the prohibitive favorite.  The Jubas owned the best record in the SMG and had scored the most points averaging over 100 points per week. However, teams knew that the Jubas could be inconsistent.  Prior to this match up, the Jubas had two games where they stunk up the joint scoring 80 points or less.  In fact, the first game was against the Angels in Week 4 where the Jubas lost 72-133.  The week started ominously with the Jubas leading off with two Broncos, Eric Decker and Knowshon Moreno.  Knowshon had averaged over 20 pts per game in the 3 games leading up to this matchup while Decker was just 1 week removed from a ridiculous 4 touchdown game and was averaging over 30 points per game the last two weeks.  Then Thursday night happened. The Broncos threw up a dud against the Chargers on TNF and the two pair was only able to muster up 13 points. The rest of the weekend almost went as poorly.  Cam Newton was fairly pedestrian with 20 points on 270 yards passing and a TD.  Unfortunately, he was the high point man for the Jubas.  The only other touchdowns came from Alson Jeffrey and Vincent Jackson though both were held to under 80 yards. The nightmare was punctuated with a Saints D that produced negative 2 points.

For the Angels, there was little question going into Monday night that they would take the victory. Despite a 0.4 performance from Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis who failed to grab the lead for good on Sunday afternoon, the Angels had Reggie Bush and Justin Tucker on Monday to make up five points. They scored 37 points.  Tucker kicked a ridiculous six FGs to put up 20 points while Reggie scored a quick touchdown in the first drive to end the game up front.  The Angels are on quite the hot streak and have won seven of their last eight games. On to the Super Bowl!

Chunky Monkeys vs Dirty Birds (132.3 - 78.0)
For the Inscrutable Drama Kings divisional matchup, it was the Jamaal Charles show.  Jamaal had one of the best fantasy scoring days in history with five touchdowns.  JC had a relatively strange day as he only had twenty yards rushing -- though he did have one touchdown rushing -- but made up most of his days in the air with 195 receiving yards on eight receptions and a ridiculous four touchdowns.  JC's 55.5 points put him in the top ten fantasy scoring days in the last fifty years. Wow.

On the flipside, the Birds came in as severe underdogs. With Gronk and AP suffering catastrophic injuries the week before, the Birds came in extremely hobbled with very limited weapons.  Luck and LeSean were steady and posted 22 and 13 points respectively.  We did see an explosion of sorts from Kendall Wright who pulled down twelve grabs for 150 yards.  However, the rest of the team was putrid and scored an aggregate of 78 points.  It's worth noting that the Monkeys didn't have anyone score over 20 points besides Jamaal.  Something to keep an eye on....