In this week's P.O. Box:

For the past year, I’ve been slowly building out my garage gym.

This is what it looked like last May after I first installed a rack and bench:

And here’s where we are at today after adding flooring, a couple mirrors, more storage, and additional equipment:

The newest addition is that assault bike you see in the foreground. And the direct impetus for that purchase was the return of Underdog Cardio Club for 2024.

This year, Cardio Club members will unlock various rewards based on how many BBMV drafts they complete. Each UCC draft equals one point. Here are the rewards:

Last year, streaming all 150 of my Best Ball Mania drafts made participating in UCC very difficult.

And dangerous.

But this year, I’m excited to dive back in and draft as many teams as possible while doing cardio.

I’ll admit, the Stairmaster is my S-tier cardio machine for drafting, but after shopping around I simply could not justify purchasing one of the expensive, industrial-grade behemoths that I used to love at my old gym for the sole purpose of drafting fantasy teams.

So far, though, the assault bike—which is just a very aggro way to describe a self-powered fan bike that gets harder the faster you pedal—has worked perfectly for drafting. There’s a holder for my phone and it’s easy to slow down while making picks and ramp up the speed in between.

In addition to the perks Underdog is kicking in to incentivize Cardio Club drafts, I legitimately love the “habit stacking” element of drafting + cardio.

If I want to draft? Well, better hop on the bike.

For this entire year, I’ve almost exclusively drafted under one of two conditions: 1) while doing some kind of cardio, or 2) while streaming or creating content.

My volume of drafts is down, but I’ve been able to get more shit done while also squeezing in more cardio than I would otherwise prioritize.

If you’d like to join us in the Cardio Club streets, the full set of details can be found in this video:

🎡 A BBMV Draft Challenge. I let a randomizer wheel determine how I drafted a Best Ball Mania V team and then tried to navigate the prompts while still building a team with tournament-winning upside. Check it out on the Deposit Kingdom channel:

💰 Everything You Need To Know About Best Ball Mania V. Whipped up a big BBMV primer that covers payout structure, playoff weeks, drafting windows, and managing a portfolio.

☕ Best Ball Breakfast: Elite TE Builds & Correlation Strategies. Drafted three Best Ball Mania V teams on Best Ball Breakfast--one solo, one with Shawn Siegele, and another with Pat Kerrane (who hit the rookie Dad wall mid-stream). Topics discussed: the massive opportunity with Elite TE, the importance of pushing QBs and getting as many stacks as possible, and rookie WR targets.

🏆 Fantasy Life roundup. This week I wrote about the Cowboys backfield (I don’t know how many more times I can write about Zeke tbh) and the NFL schedule release.

☣ Awesemo Returns To LOLz. We discuss what he’s been up to, the state of DFS, dad life, and the wild world of pro table tennis.

🤯 You Won’t Believe What These Rookies Did…incredible.

🚢 NFL Schedule Release & Underdog Draft. The crew discuss early over/under-reactions to the NFL schedule and correlation strategies before hopping in their first post-schedule BBMV draft.

💪 David Kitchen Drafts His First BBMV Team. There was a fun Overzet’s Overview at the top, too.

🍾 Strategy & Tips For The Eliminator Contest. We covered the fun Eliminator format on The Club this week and I made some Eliminator-ass picks in the process.

🏃 ADP Chasing: Undervalued RBs & ADP Movers. Underdog's Hayden Winks joins Pat, Davis, and Sam to discuss the ADP market, where his rankings differ from consensus, and why he likes late round TE. Also, can we get a Q tag on Underdog?!

⏰ Predicting Week 17 Steam Candidates. Off & On The Clock digs into early schedule nuggets before hopping in a BBMV draft.

🌒 Book #8 for May (COMPLETE): Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Normally, I’m pro everything being shorter, but I found myself wanting this book to continue.

I listened to interview with Mandel yesterday where at one point she described wanting her novels to have “velocity” and not get too distracted with ancillary characters, which I can certainly appreciate.

Still, there were so many heavy concepts at play (colonialization, simulation theory, pandemics, time travel, etc.) that it felt like it could have been double the length.

A couple quotes that will stick with me:

I definitely want to read more of Mandel’s work, especially after learning that there is some character overlap in her other novels.

Apparently there is also a meta-aspect to the Olive Llewellyn character in SoT going on an epic book promotional tour in this book, which parallels with Mandel doing a massive global book tour of her own to promote Station 11.

🖼 Book #9 for May (10%): The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

This gets off to a fast start with an immediate heist scene. I’m hooked.

✅ 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

We got one show on tap this weekend…

Fantasy Life's swiss army knife (and my Sirius XM co-host), Kendall Valenzuela, joins Best Ball After Dark for the first time. Become a YT member to watch live (top 2 tiers).

Seeing the band (MK.gee) who is responsible for my favorite album of the year on Sunday in Cambridge. I haven’t been to a concert since pre-pandemic. Can’t wait.

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