In this week's P.O. Box:

I’m not generally superstitious, but I do believe in the Ship Chasing clip curse.

For the past four years, the Ship Chasing crew (myself, Pat Kerrane and Ben Gretch) have collectively possessed a voodoo-like ability to mush our favorite players simply by making a highlight clip about them.

It started with Laviska Shenault in 2020.

Then there was Skyy Moore in 2022.

And last year, we accidentally cast our hex on Marvin Mims.

It’s honestly hilarious at this point. If Ship Chasing loves a player so much that a clip is made, they are destined to be a colossal flop.

Even the ancillary clips we’ve made (Greg Dulcich, Tyquan Thornton) feature players who have unequivocally busted at the NFL level.

Literally the only clip we have for a good NFL player is Justin Tucker singing opera.

Naturally, people are very curious which rookie’s career we plan to destroy this year…

Davis Mattek has repeatedly tried to guess who it is going to be. David Kitchen asked me on Wednesday’s Swolecast show. The entire Ship Chasing Discord has naturally spent time speculating:

Currently, it’s too early to say who will receive the kiss of death in 2024. All other clips have formed organically from us repeatedly selecting the same rookie in drafts.

We did our first BBM draft together last night, though, and there might be a clubhouse favorite after we selected Patriots rookie WR Javon Baker.

I can already see this Baker quote coming to life in a 30-second highlight reel that we play all summer long.

And if so, let me get out ahead of apologizing to Javon and all of his fans.

📈 Steal these 22 draft risers before it’s too late. You can build a superteam on Underdog Fantasy right now, but you need to move quickly to scoop up massive discounts that will not be there in the coming weeks. I’ll be dropping Pt. 2 of this video later today on the fallers to fade in drafts so make sure you are subscribed:

🎯 My favorite early draft targets. I then zeroed in on my five favorite guys to draft in Best Ball Mania V for Fantasy Life:

☕ Best Ball Breakfast: BBMV Kickoff Drafts. We had over 800 people watching live at one point on Monday as Shawn Siegele, Pat Kerrane, and The Club guys joined me for opening day drafts.

🏆 Fantasy Life roundup. This week I spotlighted three veteran WRs who should move up in drafts and got hyped on a RB sleeper who is screaming up boards.

⏰ Pete & Jon Draft a BBMV Team. I ran a two-man game with Warner for ‘Off & On The Clock’ this week. We reviewed our NFL Draft mock draft contest and early BBM strategies before drafting a team.

☣ Let’s Go Gamble On Skee-Ball At Dave & Busters. A story LOLz was built to cover.

💪 The Swolecast Recaps The NFL Draft. The episode where David Kitchen shows us how he would have reacted to the Michael Penix Jr. pick on stream.

🏃 ADP Chasing: BBMV Launch ADPs & Rookie Risers. Sam Sherman, Davis Mattek, and Pat Kerrane analyze the rookie landing spots from last weekend's NFL Draft and take a look at the opening ADPs in Best Ball Mania V. Also, don’t miss the Season 1 highlight reel.

🐶 Underdog Roundup. Schedule for upcoming contests, a contest comparison tool from JonBoy, my first Underdog Cardio Club draft, and a cold plunge slow draft?!

🚂 Book #7 for April (COMPLETE): Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

I wrapped this up on Tuesday and really enjoyed the ending. I think Stevenson successfully balanced the meta navel gazing with enough engaging storytelling to make it work. You could certainly envision it getting the Rian Johnson treatment for a Knives Out/Glass Onion-esque movie.

A few other thoughts from the Discord:

I’ll be syncing up with Laird and Mattek for a show next Friday where we’ll catch up and discuss the April selections.

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

A novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

I’m excited about this one. It gets us back on the sci-fi train after everyone seemed to enjoy Recursion (you’ll see lots of Cloud Atlas comparisons for SoT when you scan reviews). It’s also from the same author who wrote Station Eleven, which I haven’t read, but loved the TV miniseries adaptation.

🖼 Book #9 for May (NON-FICTION): The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century: the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser.

Someone suggested this in the Book Club form and it sounded cool. Then I realized I had read and loved one of the author’s earlier books (The Stranger In The Woods), so it was a no-brainer selection. It’s also on the shorter side, which feels more manageable after a late announcement (I’ll make sure to get the June selections out earlier).

Btw, I’m still checking the form each month, so if you haven’t filled it out yet with book suggestions—or have new ones—drop ‘em in here.

✅ 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

It’s wild how much good TV is out there right now. After we wrapped up Shogun and 3 Body Problem, we moved on to Ripley on Netflix, and it’s phenomenal.

For a black-and-white thriller that moves pretty slowly at the start, it surprised me how quickly the episodes fly by. Things really pick-up by Episode 3, though. It’s also very different from the movie based on the same story, The Talented Mr. Ripley, which helps keep you on your toes. We have two more episodes left and I can’t wait to finish it this weekend.

We got one show on tap this weekend before Best Ball Breakfast on Monday…

Tonight (8pm ET), ETR's Mike Leone makes a return to Best Ball After Dark to share what he's been working on, ETR's new best ball product, best ball ownership projections, running ultras, and fighting phone addiction. Become a YT member to watch live (top 2 tiers).

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