In this week's P.O. Box:
Let Griddy Cook
Stream roundup: The Sprint
Offszn Book Club: Teddy Roosevelt is an animal
On My Radar: Summer concerts
I went on a rant this week during Best Ball Breakfast.
The TLDR is that there is an Underdog Fantasy power user (HITEMMWITHTHEGRIDDY18) who is ruffling a lot of feathers with his unconventional drafting style.
He first made waves by posting his wild exposures so far in Best Ball Mania (that is a lot of American dollars to spend on Chase Claypool) and then continued to rile people up by posting teams with some truly galaxy brain structures (first time I’ve ever seen a 3 Elite QB + 3 RB team).
It’s legitimately refreshing (and entertaining) to finally have a public-facing drafter on Underdog who is willing to swim against the current and do their own thing, but unfortunately this is the internet we’re talking about.
The replies to his posts are littered with nasty comments—people calling him an idiot and shaming him for daring to build a non-GTO team.
It’s the perfect illustration of something that I realized long ago:
People want to be “right” more than they want to win.
The games on Underdog are getting increasingly tougher to beat. The field is exponentially sharper than it was a few years ago. We are down to only a few structural edges that aren’t getting heavily utilized by the field.
And yet these dullards are out here trying to tar and feather one of the only unorthodox drafters on the site so they can feel smart on X dot com?
I would wager that these are the same people who whine and complain about not getting more teams to the best ball finals.
Congratulations, you were able to spot a build with historically poor advance rates! What are you going to do for your next trick?!
It’s truly backwards logic. Do you think the casino would berate a drunk high-roller for hitting on 18 when the dealer shows a 3? Or do you think they are going to ask him if he’d like another Jack and Coke?
I’m begging you to leave Griddy alone. Let the man cook.
He doesn’t need your help; He’s doing just fine.
Wait, what’s that…a Zero RB build from Griddy?!?
I hope you’re happy.
💪 7 priority targets for drafts (2024's dominant strategy). The biggest edge in 2024 fantasy football drafts has been around for years, but it's never been cheaper than it is now. In this video, we walk through why Elite TE is set to dominate in 2023 and share the 7 tight ends to target in all of your drafts. Check it out on the Deposit Kingdom channel.
🎡 Randomizer Draft w/ Dave Kitchen. Kitchen joins me for a Randomizer draft where he fires Davis Mattek from the Swolecast, tries to get his own Blizzard flavor at Dairy Queen, shows off his pickleball skills, and sketches out the infamous "Kitchen Tree" for the world to see. He also joined me for a Best Ball After Dark afterwards where he talked dad life, the DFS/best ball space, and what he’d be doing if he weren’t working at Rotogrinders.
💀 Are We Really Doing This Shit Again? Jameson Williams and Rashod Bateman are catching steam, so I decided to go full buzzkill in this new Fantasy Life piece.
☕ Best Ball Breakfast: An Extreme Zero RB Build. Four more drafts on BBB this week, including ones with Shawn Siegele, Pat Kerrane, and Lord Reebs. RB/WR pairings, extreme Zero RB, value vs. structure, and surprise late-round dart throws. Also: PREVIOUSLY ON BEST BALL BREAKFAST.
🏆 Fantasy Life roundup. This week I wrote about how to decipher camp buzz and two RB targets from the same team.
☣ The Oldest Person To Ever Stream All 150 Of Their BBM Drafts. Neil Orfiield joins LOLz to discuss his quest to become the oldest person to ever stream all 150 of their Best Ball Mania V drafts.
🚢 The Sprint Contest: Strategy, Elite TE, & Backdoor Stacks. Topics discussed: Drake Maye, optimal strategy for The Sprint, Elite QB vs. Elite TE, team stacking, rookie targets, and an ayahuasca-fueled lineup review.
🍾 The Club Went Sprinting, Too. Why is Josh Allen going so high?!
💪 The Swolecast Drafts A BBMV Team. The one where Dave tricks us into think he knows ball for a few rounds.
⏰ New Scroll Down Zero RB Targets. The Off & On The Clock crew discuss how camp news is bringing more clarity to a few backfields and which players we are willing to start targeting in Underdog drafts.
📈 2 Veteran WRs Catching Major Steam (ADP Chasing). Kerrane, Davis, and Sam dig into the camp buzz driving ADP movements on Underdog Fantasy. Related: ADP Chasing has entered its post “that’s fair” era.
🛶 Book #10 for June (35%): River of Doubt by Candice Millard
I knew Teddy Roosevelt was an accomplished guy, but I guess I never realized what an animal he actually was.
The dude was clearly built different:
Throughout his adult life, Roosevelt would relish physical exertion, and he would use it not just as a way to keep his body fit and his mind sharp but as his most effective weapon against depression and despair.
I was cracking up that he was proud of his son for risking his own health at a job:
After Kermit’s fall, Ted Jr. had written his brother that their father had taken “a sort of grim pride in the fact that you are doing dangerous work in which you could be injured.”
When there was concern about his new plans to explore the River of Doubt, Roosevelt laughed it off while admitting he was willing to die for the adventure:
“Tell Osborn I have already lived and enjoyed as much of life as any nine other men I know; I have had my full share, and if it is necessary for me to leave my bones in South America, I am quite ready to do so.”
Excited to see how much his outlook changes as we get deeper into the journey.
🕵 Book #11 for June (Haven’t Started): The Hunter by Tana French
✅ 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-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
✅ Book #1 in Jan. (COMPLETE): Clear Thinking by Shane Parris
Dwain on Best Ball After Dark was must see TV:
Need more newslettering? Check out the Fantasy Life newsletter I write regularly: