Daily Fantasy, Daily Life: Volume XXXVII - The Process
Sometimes, you just have to accept the fact the process was bad to begin with.
Sometimes, you just have to accept the fact that you’re a moron.
The first apartment my wife and I had was a unit with a fireplace. I never had one of them fancy fireplace things before, and so I loved using it. It was like a 500-square-foot apartment, so it would routinely get hot enough to make Venusians feel at home, but I didn’t care. I loved the thing and would fire it up every day.
As you might imagine, after a while, I had a pile of soot in there yay high, so I decided to remove said soot. So far, so good. I recognized there was something I wanted to do, and I decided to do it.
I then plugged in our new vacuum cleaner and proceeded to vacuum up the laughingly large pile of soot. I was in the middle of doing this when my wife walked in and said, loudly over the roar of the vacuum, “WHAT THE (BLEEP) ARE YOU DOING?!?!”
As it turns out, one should not attempt to remove a winter’s worth of soot with a budget-priced Hoover. Not only did I ruin the vacuum – it just wasn’t built for 43 pounds of soot – but I also overwhelmed the vacuum so much that the soot, after what I have to imagine was a short time, started blowing out the sides of the vacuum, blowing a fine mist of dirt everywhere.
In short: I made a bigger mess than I had when I started, I destroyed the vacuum, and my wife realized that she may, in fact, be married to an idiot who didn’t realize you use a broom to get rid of the soot, and a Shop-Vac to finish the job
Fast forward 20 years to this past Sunday night, where … well, where sometimes, you just have to accept the fact the process was bad to begin with. Sometimes, you just have to accept the fact that you’re a moron.
I am not a big Showdown player, but I don’t miss a slate either. Generally speaking, I’ll max enter the 20-max $3 Play Action, try to win the lottery against 80,000 other people, and net a negative 50% ROI. Good times.
The Cowboys-Eagles game was no exception, and I was throwing lineups together – I honestly don’t do a ton of Showdown research, in case you couldn’t tell – when I saw Dalton Schultz was once again out. The Cowboys have employed two backup tight ends in Schultz’s absence: Jake Ferguson and Peyton Hendershot. Last week against the Rams, neither saw a target. The week before, Ferguson had one catch for seven yards.
And that was enough for me. I built one lineup with Ferguson as captain.
Then I started bouncing around Twitter, and it was clear Ferguson was not the preferred choice. Hendershot was the play. Against the Rams, he ran 10 routes to Ferguson’s four. Obviously, you play Hendershot. So that’s what I did. I switched from Ferguson to Hendershot.
That actually was the right process based on the data. And as it turns out, it played out that way Sunday night. Hendershoot ran 23 routes to Ferguson’s 15.
The issue, as you’re undoubtedly aware, is that Ferguson went 4-40-1, Hendershoot 2-22. Luckily, my Hendershoot captain lineup cashed to the tune of $6. If I had kept Ferguson in the lineup … it would’ve tied for 5th place and paid out $1,600 and change (insert “Philip Rivers deep breath GIF here).
Now: I’m not going to be that guy that complains about a 1v1 mistake. It happens all the time.
But: If I thought building a captain Hendershoot lineup was a good idea, why didn’t I also build the same lineup with Ferguson as captain as well? Hmmm? Hmmm? Why?
Well …
Sometimes, you just have to accept the fact the process was bad to begin with.
Sometimes, you just have to accept the fact that you’re a moron.