State Of The State

And assorted thoughts.

I haven’t been writing much in this newsletter of late. There just wasn’t that much to write about, but a few things are going on. For one, I have a team in first place, the Jack Kitchen one where I drafted Chris Sale in Round 4, Max Fried in Round 7, Hunter Brown in Round 9, Zach Neto in Round 15 and Jacob Wilson in Round 27.

Jack has managed it well, and I think it has a good chance not only to cash, but to push for the overall if Mookie Betts and Jackson Chourio rake in the second half. Those first two picks are the anchors right now, and we’re a little shaky in saves.

The Main Event team is languishing in ninth. I got Kyle Tucker and Chris Sale with the first two picks, but Round 5 was Tyler GlassJoe and Round 7 Roki Sasaki (one pick away from Hunter Brown, two away from Fried.) Dusty Wagner has made some good pickups with Clayton Kershaw, Lance McCullers, Hayden Birdsong, Willi Castro, Harrison Bader and an assortment of catchers who have pulled their weight, but it hasn’t been enough. The problem is there are no insane values like Jacob Young or Fried on this team.

The other teams are in fourth (Alex Puma) and seventh (Ryan Garofalo). Ryan bitches about this roster almost daily even though I gifted him Fried, Jacob deGrom, Will Smith, Neto and a 28th-round Jose Caballero whom he dropped. (He thinks Gerrit Cole (5/6 turn), Jared Jones (12th), Spencer Strider (9th) and Royce Lewis (10th) give him an out, but I blame him nonetheless.)

Anyway, I’m glad one of the teams is in first, and I still believe the others can cash — there’s nothing catastrophic yet with the early picks, players just need to heat up in the summer months.

. . .

I’m doing my RotoWire Dynasty Draft now. I got totally screwed last year — third overall in points, but didn’t make the playoffs due to some retarded system of head to head record that plays all teams simultaneously, and my players balled out in Weeks 15-17, i.e., I’m pretty sure I would have won it had I qualified.

But because I finished with the third most points, I picked 12th this year, and the rookie draft doesn’t snake. Still, I’m happy through two rounds even though Mike Doria, that cowardly fuck Patriot fan, snaked Jaxson Dart at 1.11 (it’s now a QB-flex league.) I took Emeka Egbuka with the next pick at 1.12 and then Shedeur Sanders at 2.12 so far. Sanders seems mispriced — he has to be the odds on favorite to start for the Browns with Deshaun Watson out, however they massage it. Seriously though, Sanders’ college production speaks for itself, and I expect him to get a shot in a weak field. I was nervous he wouldn’t be there in a 14-team league too, but he was.

I traded Sam Darnold for Aaron Rodgers midseason last year (I have Patrick Mahomes) and I only did it because it was not a superflex in 2024, and Mahomes and Rodgers had the same bye. It was right before Darnold went off for about five weeks, but now that Rodgers has signed, think I’ll be okay even if Sanders is not the starter. Super annoying I only did that trade because I was contending and couldn’t afford a zero, and then I scored the third most points and didn’t make the playoffs anyway. Credit to Jerry Donabedian for fleecing me when there were nutless monkeys in the league turning down offers for freaking Daniel Jones (again, remember it was a one-QB league last year.)

One thing I’ve found with this league is that after the first couple rounds, you should pivot back to veterans — I got Jonnu Smith in the third and Darnold late last year. No reason to chase sixth round rookie receivers over guys with likely roles.

. . .

I watched most of the French Open final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner Sunday which went from this is a little sloppy even though both of these guys are insanely talented to holy shit, this is the greatest tennis match of all time, to this might be the greatest sporting event of all time. What was crazy is that until the final tiebreak when Sinner imploded, the level of play went to a place I hadn’t seen maybe ever, or at least not since peak Jokovic and peak Nadal were slugging it out.

Sinner blew three match points in the fourth set and then coughed up a break, but somehow managed to break a zoning Alcaraz serving for the match up 5-4 in the fifth. The mental toughness to come back from that was like nothing I’d ever seen. Sinner hit like five would-be winners in those final few games that only Alcaraz could get back. The crazy thing is Alcaraz was hitting those impossible gets for winners of his own. The whole thing was bananas. Hate the choke, but love the Sinner, they say.

Seriously though the top five players of all time are Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Alcaraz and Sinner. I don’t think anyone else could even stay on the court with them. Maybe Pete Sampras at Wimbledon, but even then I’m not sure.