Playoffs, Baby!!!

There is a certain poetic justice in my loss to Levi last week.  For one thing, it kept the #1 seed out of my hands.  And it was the ONLY thing keeping the #1 seed out of my hands, since Kubicek managed to hand Adam only his second defeat of the season, thus clearing the way for me to claim my rightful place atop the league, if only . . . .

If only.

Then there's the fact that my biggest trade of the season was sending the dynamic Detroit duo of Matthew Stafford and Marvin Jones over to Levi in exchange for Odell Beckham and Russell Wilson.  That looked like a pretty good trade for me until Week 12, when Wilson ran into the teeth of the mighty Buccaneers defense (who knew?).  And things didn't get better this week, when Wilson and Beckham combined for 16 points, compared to Stafford's 19.9.

I like to think that Levi left an injured Marvin Jones in his lineup just to spite me, to prove that he could beat me with only 8 players.  True, he was probably off drinking beer or something and ignoring his lineup, but I like to THINK he did it to spite me.

Whatever the reason for the outcome, Adam claimed his #1 seed, and I'm stuck with the stupid old #2 seed.  And the rest of the seeds are as follows:

1. Suspended Atomnation
2. Psychotic Ninjas
3. Los Diablos
4. Golden Graham's
5. Team Harbaughs
6. ~ AirMex ~
7. Leviathans
8. Polly Prissy Pants
9. Orion River Horses
10. Merrill's Marauders
11. Screaming Eagles
12. Strike Team

Unlike with the Battlin' Sweethearts League, the ESPN software actually got these seeds correct.  But it doesn't matter, because it's fairly clueless about playoff matchups.  For one thing, it wants to pair up Eagles and Strike Team for a consolation game, and there's nothing I can do to change that.  But trust me when I say that both of those guys have a bye this week.  The result of their 'game' has no impact on anything.

I've rearranged the matchups so that everyone who IS playing a game is matched up against the correct opponent.  At the end of this week, the highest-seeded winner of the playoff teams will play Psychotic Ninjas in the semifinals, and the lowest-seeded winner will play Atomnation.  Similarly, the highest-seeded LOSER of the consolation games will play Strike Team in week 15, and the lowest-seeded LOSER of the consolation games will play Eagles.

And the remaining 4 teams will have a playoff for the top seed, with matchups based on their seeding.  What could be simpler?  However, all of these seed-based week 15 matchups mean that I'll probably have to shuffle things around again after week 14.

Remember, the higher-seeded team is declared the winner in the event of a tie (which is unlikely to happen with the new scoring system, but still).  And also remember that the highest-scoring team wins $15 this week, just like every other week, even if you're on bye.  So set your best lineups, no matter who you play in week 14!