Thursday, March 29, 2018

The FGR League Auction Results

We are less than a week from the start of the Masters which is more than just a little arousing so let's kick-off what I plan to be a deluge of writing with a healthy dose of authentic frontier fantasy golf gibberish starting with a fun little game for the whole family . . . of drunks you hang-out with at the golf course.   

Every year since 1997 I have run some variation of a fantasy golf league that involves ten to twelve really cool dudes selecting six players for the season. (If you want more details on how the intricacies of it, click here and please excuse the production quality as it was 2012 and I was just a young fantasy golf writer trying to find his way). The original format was a draft and then it detoured into a ill-conceived salary cap game for a year or two and then it was back to a draft before settling into an auction format for the last two years which is where it will probably stay until the day I wake-up and ask "what in the fuck am I doing with my life?" 


This year's auction was held the week before the Valspar Championship for no particular reason other than that's when I finally got my shit together and found a date that worked for everyone. By the way, big props to the person who invented email which now makes it so much easier to find a date for large group gatherings and also facilitates unlimited follow-up communication when no one writes the date in their fucking calendar. I don't know where we'd be without it.  

The Ravens arrived in 1996.
Get your shit together Carney.
We convened at a Greene Turtle (think Applebee's with slightly authentic local decor as opposed to completely fabricated local decor) where I had reserved a private room so we could really dork it up at full volume. Alas, when we arrived I was told that the room was currently being used by the local chapter of the Ravens fan club so we'd have to wait. In other words, "the room is currently occupied by a bunch of losers so you losers will have to sit tight." 

Eventually the Ravens fan club finished doing whatever a Ravens fan club does and we got rolling. The way this works is that we pick a random order and then go through it nominating players to be auctioned. You get a salary cap of $100 and you need to fill the first four spots on your roster with it so, if you spend $80 on your first player, you can't spend more than $18 on your next player as you need at least $1 per open roster spot. For the last two roster spots, we snake draft per the previously determined order because by then almost all of the best players are gone and you reach the point when middle aged man attention deficit disorder kicks-in and everyone starts getting ornery and losing focus (and by "everyone", I primarily mean me). You'll just have to trust me when I tell you that it's about as much fun as you can have on a Wednesday night outside of Baltimore without bringing heroine injections and threats of divorce into the equation.


After that unnecessarily long preamble, here were our results with analysis to follow:

PLAYER
PRICE
PLAYER
PRICE
Thomas, Justin
$80
Noren, Alex
$17
Johnson, Dustin
$70
Schaufelle, Xander
$14
McIlroy, Rory
$66
Hoffman, Charley
$14
Rahm, Jon
$65
List, Luke
$14
Spieth, Jordan
$65
Kuchar, Matt
$13
Fowler, Rickie
$52
Watson, Bubba
$13
Day, Jason
$45
Leishman, Marc
$11
Fleetwood, Tommy
$44
Bello, Rafa
$10
Rose, Justin
$42
Hadwin, Adam
$10
Mickelson, Phil
$35
Reed, Patrick
$10
Berger, Daniel
$30
Pieters, Thomas
$8
Stenson, Henrik
$30
Woods, Tiger
$8
Matsuyama, Hideki
$25
Woodland, Gary
$6
Koepka, Brooks
$24
Grace, Branden
$5
Finau, Tony
$24
Oosthuizen, Louis
$5
Hatton, Tyrrell
$24
Scott, Adam
$5
Harman, Brian
$22
Simpson, Webb
$2
Sergio, Sergio
$21
Perez, Pat
$2
Cantlay, Patrick
$21
Na, Kevin
$2
Casey, Paul
$20
Vegas, Johnny
$1

Remember that this was done over three weeks ago before Rory re-introduced himself to the golf world and before Bubba confirmed his previous re-introduction to the golf world. Obviously Rory at $66 is now looking like a solid value, Paul Casey at $20 is looking like a good value and Bubba at $13 is looking like you just found a big box of Krugerrands in your grandfather's attic . . . you just need to get them out of the house without waking-up that cranky old bastard (It's ok. I'm just kidding and both of my grandfathers are dead anyway).


Enough with the nerd chatter already. We
want a totally irrelevant and gratuitous
yet tasteful picture . . . thank you.
As for my team, I jumped on DJ really early at $70 and then backed him up with Charley Hoffman ($14), Xander Schauffele ($14) and Webb Simpson ($2). In hindsight (which is where I spend much of my time), that was probably a mistake considering I could've paired Jason Day ($45) or Justin Rose ($42) with a guy like Henrik Stenson ($30), Tony Finau ($24) or Paul Casey ($20) for about the same price I paid for DJ. 

On the other hand, I had committed to walking-out of this thing with either DJ, JT or Jon Rahm and I knew I was going to have to pay to get one of them. Not to mention, from an entertainment standpoint it's hard to top DJ when he's in full effect and just obliterating a golf course on the weekend. Now I just need him to make it to a weekend.      

That somewhat half-hearted justification notwithstanding, if I was going to re-draft based on these prices, here are the three combos I would find most appealing:


1. Jason Day ($45), Henrik Stenson ($30), Bubba Watson ($13) and Tiger Woods ($8);


2. Justin Rose ($42), Sergio Garcia ($21), Paul Casey ($20) and Alex Noren ($17);


3. Dustin Johnson ($70), Bubba Watson ($13), Xander Schauffele ($14) and Webb Simpson ($2).


Of course Option 3 is just my team with Bubba instead of Charley Hoffman but hey, I'm not ready to give-up on my preseason preview rankings where I had DJ ranked 3rd, Schauffele - 9th, Hoffman - 16th and Simpson - 26th. Just don't ask me why I went with Simpson over Kevin Kisner who I had ranked 14th preseason because I don't have much of an answer other than my standard defense of "I'm an idiot." 

Email the Fantasy Golf Report at fgr@fantasygolfreport.com

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Fantasy Golf: The Houston Open Preview

It's the week before the Masters and I just spent the better part of my day on eBay shopping for drivers so the Houston Open Preview is coming-in a little light. I was going to use my extensive club shopping experience as the preamble but (excuse me I have to bid . . . ok I'm back) that"s now blown-up into its own FGR stream of consciousness about how a cheap bastard like me buys equipment. 

As for this week's wagering advice, I'm dragging the tried and failed historical performance chart back-out because I still swear the answers are in there somewhere. I've listed the twenty-five players I deem worthy of consideration but this week I'm going to let the DraftKings prices dictate the order. Then below that I'll pick the players who I think (hold-on . . . bidding again) represent the ten best values. If you don't like my picks, then the chart is there for you and, as I may or may not have once said to a friend of mine at a fantasy football draft, "you can do your own fucking research" (but that's what you get when you ask me which kickers are still available).   


Rob Bolton of PGATour.com has a big hard-on for Phil Mickelson this week noting his win here in 2011 followed-up by his T4 in 2012. According to Bolton, "everything about the Tournament Course screams his wheelhouse" which I'm pretty sure would be the first time anyone or anything screamed "HIS WHEELHOUSE!!!" And it hasn't really been his wheelhouse lately with no top tens since 2012 
(I just bought a Callaway Epic Driver!) and a tie for 55th last year. If you're riding the recent Phil hype like Rob, however, go for it. You know it will be thrilling . . . just don't let the shit eating grin fool you into thinking that it's 2006 because Mickelson ain't 35 anymore and this field is loaded with better options.

Speaking of which, you know who really makes this course scream? (This is getting kinda weird). Defending champion Russell Henley who has flat-out owned it since 2014. And right behind him are Rickie Fowler, Daniel Berger and Charles Howell, III. But I'm going with Luke List for three reasons: (1) He finished tied for 3rd here last year; (2) I'm hoping no one else picks him, and (3) I'm in a state of desperation which leads to poor decision making. You have been warned.     

THE HOUSTON OPEN HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE CHART OF HOPE  


DK Price
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
Rickie Fowler
$11,500
T3
T10
71st
6th
DNP
Justin Rose
$11,400
T15
DNP
DNP
DNP
DNP
Jordan Spieth
$11,100
MC
T13
T2
MC
T50
Henrik Stenson
$10,500
MC
2nd
DNP
T54
T2
Phil Mickelson
$10,200
T55
T13
T17
T12
T16
Luke List
$9,600
T3
T27
DNP
DNP
MC
Daniel Berger
$9,400
5th
T5
T25
DNP
DNP
R. Cabrera-Bello
$9,300
MC
4th
DNP
DNP
DNP
Russell Henley
$9,200
1st
T5
4th
T7
T45
Matt Kuchar
$9,100
MC
DNP
70th
2nd
DNP
Tony Finau
$9,000
T34
MC
T42
DNP
DNP
Charles Howell
$8,900
T39
T7
T5
MC
T10
Steve Stricker
$8,800
DNP
MC
DNP
T24
T38
K. Bradley
$8,600
T15
MC
T5
T43
T10
Jason Dufner
$8,300
T12
DNP
DNP
DNP
DNP
Bud Cauley
$8,200
MC
DNP
DNP
DNP
T16
Bill Haas
$7,900
DNP
DNP
MC
T37
T10
Ryan Palmer
$7,900
MC
T38
DNP
T7
MC
J.B. Holmes
$7,300
MC
DNP
1st
T12
DNP
J. Lovemark
$7,300
T71
18th
DNP
MC
DNP
Jhonny Vegas
$7,300
T15
T19
T55
T72
DNP
Chez Reavie
$7,300
MC
T7
T37
DNP
T31
Sean O'Hair
$7,200
T49
T10
DNP
W/D
W/D
Sung Kang
$7,100
2nd
69th
DNP
DNP
DNP
J. Wagner
$6,900
T49
T13
T2
MC
MC

The One and Done Pick: Luke List
This week's southwest theme is
Westworld's smoky Evan Rachel
Wood. I'm hooked (on the show).


The Sleeper Pick: Robert Garrigus


The DraftKings Top Ten Values


Rickie Fowler
$11,500
Henrik Stenson
$10,500
Luke List
$9,600
Rafa Cabrera-Bello
$9,300
Russell Henley
$9,200
Charles Howell, III
$8,900
Johnny Vegas
$7,300
Jamie Lovemark
$7,300
Sean O'Hair
$7,200
Robert Garrigus
$6,600

Email the Fantasy Golf Report at fgr@fantasygolfreport.com