Crossing The YouTube Rubicon

In this week's P.O. Box:

This offseason I’ve invested a significant amount of time and money into growing the Deposit Kingdom Youtube channel.

Things started off slow, but momentum has really picked up in the past few weeks:

One of these days I’ll do a longer post about why I splintered off these produced videos from my main live stream channel (I explained a quick TLDR on Best Ball After Dark with Ryan Hodge this week), but for now I wanted to marvel at what has started to unfold in the comments section:

Dabear7822 ain’t lying. Some of these recent videos—specifically the draft I did with the BBM4 champ, Farid Shaheed—have exited our best ball bubble and landed in a completely different stratosphere of fantasy football fans.

A few examples that let me know I wasn’t in Kansas anymore:

Oh, and then there’s the guy who said I looked like Chad Smith. That might be the most brutal one of all.

Up until this point, I’ve been very fortunate to enjoy a contingent of commenters who are overwhelmingly smart, funny, and supportive, so this will be a new dynamic for me to navigate.

I’m not complaining, though. This comes with the territory when actively trying to grow and reach a wider audience.

Hopefully they will find their way into our lobbies soon enough and hopefully I can find a skincare routine to slow down my inevitable march to a dead ringer for Chad Smith.

🐺 Surprise values unlock a unique build w/ Fantasy Flock. Mason Dodd shares his favorite ways to attack 2024 drafts and then we hop in a Best Ball Mania V draft where we scoop up massive values and end up with an extreme Zero RB build. Check it out on the Deposit Kingdom channel.

🎡Randomizer Draft w/ Sam Sherman. Sam joins for his first battle with the Randomzier wheel. Over the course of 18 rounds, he drafts like a pirate, goes under oath about JSN, trolls Nick Rudman, and dances like Fred Astaire.

🐴 Why the Denver Broncos Terrify Me for Fantasy. A Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde look at my best ball bags on Fantasy Life.

☕️Best Ball Breakfast: ADP Gone Wild! Four more drafts on BBB this week, including ones with Shawn Siegele, Pat Kerrane, and special guest Chess Liam. And if you don’t have four hours to spare, here’s the 0:38 second highlight reel: PREVIOUSLY ON BEST BALL BREAKFAST.

🏆️Fantasy Life roundup. This week in the FL Newsletter: Week 1 preseason usage surprises, Guillotine hype, training camp injury scares, and the cursed Minnesota Vikings. I also hopped on the Fantasy Life morning show with Ian to discuss how to draft from a middle slot.

☣️ Sportsbooks vs. the Players w/ Elihu Feustel. We are joined by Elihu Feustel to discuss his new book, "Beyond the Odds: Efficient Market Theory and Tools of Warfare for the Modern Sports Bettor."

🚢 FFPC Main Event Draft w/ Davis Mattek (Chasing $1M). The Ship Chasing crew draft a wild Main Event team with Davis from the 1.09 where a big RB faller shakes up their entire draft and they roll their first new clip of 2024.

💪The Swolecast Drafts A BBMV Team. The one where Davis claimed he’s the best 18th round drafter on Underdog.

⏰ Preseason Adjustments & Big Eliminator Draft. This week on Off & On The Clock, Pete and Jon recap Warner's wedding and Week 1 of the preseason before drafting a $100 team in the Big Eliminator contest and discussing the unique strategy surrounding the bye weeks in that format.

📈 Preseason Usage w/ Dwain McFarland (ADP Chasing). Dwain from ‪Fantasy Life‬ joins Pat and Gretch to discuss Preseason Week 1 utilization nuggets and the latest risers and fallers on Underdog Fantasy.

🌤️ Book #15 for August (25%): Paradise Sky by Joe R. Lansdale.

I don’t know how I had never heard of this book or author before Eddie recommended it.

It feels like it should be an American classic, yet it’s less than a decade old. Lansadale is an incredible storyteller. His writing almost feels lyrical at times, and yet the plot never slows down:

This folksy Western is the perfect fit for a late-summer read to land the plane on this book club.

✅ Book #14 for August (COMPLETE): Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly
✅ Book #13 for June (COMPLETE): True Grit by Charles Portis
✅Book #12 for July (COMPLETE): Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
✅Book #11 for June (COMPLETE): The Hunter by Tana French
✅Book #10 for June (COMPLETE): River of Doubt by Candice Millard
✅Book #9 for May (COMPLETE): The Art Thief by Michael Finkel
✅Book #8 for May (COMPLETE): Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
✅Book #7 for April (COMPLETE): Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
✅Book #6 for April (COMPLETE): The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson
✅Book #5 for March (COMPLETE): Recursion by Blake Crouch
✅Book #4 for March (COMPLETE): The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
✅Book #3 for Feb. (COMPLETE):Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk by Billy Walters
✅Book #2 for Feb. (COMPLETE): Chain Gang All-Starsby Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
✅Book #1 in Jan. (COMPLETE): Clear Thinking by Shane Parris

No shows this weekend because I’m travelling, but I did want to mention I’ll be hosting an Underdog Cardio Club event in Cambridge, MA next weekend.

Details below. Let me know if you’d like to join for a run/draft/happy hour:

Need more newslettering? Check out the Fantasy Life newsletter I write regularly: