Grout Week in Review: Week 2
Do you like Jello? I do.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be the kind laced with booze either. It’s tasty no matter what. Like mac & cheese, fruit snacks, and daily naps, Jello is one of those things you’re supposed to give up when you “grow up”. Then, you have kids, dabble in those things again, and realize you never should have stopped. Billy Madison may have had a point.
Anyway, I bring that all up just to say that there’s nothing worse than the moment after your mom has just finished a sheet of Jello. You are about knuckle deep in the goop before you realize it has got to go in the refrigerator yet, to set. The. Worst. The same thing happens when football kicks off for the first time, but it’s only the preseason. It happens when you get that first mildly warm day in April, only to see snow in the forecast the next day. It happens when you drive a long way to get to a big city, hit the city limits, and realize you’ve still got to get downtown.
I’m sticking with the Jello fake-out though. The. Worst.
Anyway, that’s what I’m doing to you here. I’m posting the results for the Week 2 Grout for a Shout, but like unset Jello, they are still soft. That’s because BreesToGraham, reddogv31 and NickyJ51 all picked Jeremy Langford, who plays tonight. He’ll need to hit 36.5 to be Shout-worthy, but until he hasn’t hit that number, he’s Lloyd Christmas.
As soon as that chance Keyser Soze’s, we’ll be left with two Shouts to holler. Both dethdealers and Texxdogg picked Dennis Pitta. I remember reading two different times that his hip injury was going to cost him his NFL career. Instead, he’s getting 12 targets and catching nine of them for 102 yards, and at a salary of $2,800, those 22.2 points were good for 7.929 PT/$K. I believe it was on the DFS Edge podcast where Al Smizzle told us all to lean in close, called Pitta and Joe Flacco “The Wonder Twins,” and suggested if their powers activate, good things could happen. Something tells me this isn’t the last time Al Smizzle and “good things happen” will show up in this article.
Back to Flacco and Pitta for just a second. If you’re rostering Derek Carr and Amari Cooper because they roomed together, let me introduce you to Flacco and Pitta, who are best friends. In fact, Pitta stood up in Flacco’s wedding. If Carr & Cooper are #NarrativeStreet, Flacco & Pitta just became #NarrativeHighway. dethdealers and Texxdogg drove down it with their windows open, making like Mr. T and Pitta’ing the fool who doesn’t believe in narratives.
Grout for a Shout Results
I’ll point out a couple things. Six people picked Danny Woodhead, chasing the usage from Week 1. Maybe more pertinent is that those six picked Danny Woodhead’s ACL, which is now torn. Tough break, literally. Also, Neal Sterling and I have gotten so close, over this last week, it pains me to see he didn’t register a point. Back to sleuthing for him.
Additionally, you’ll notice we have a couple cheaters in our midst. BusterinOut picked Kirk Cousins, who went for 3.223 PT/$K. Because Cousins’ salary was over $6,500, his entry was busted. Also cheating was gator25, who picked Jesse James, before swapping to Sterling Shepard. It would have been nice to get Shepard’s 4.365 PT/$K, but it would also be nice to have a friend like Joe Flacco. Unfortunately, we can’t always have nice things, so I defaulted gator25 back to Jesse James.
It pains me to say this, but JMToWin evened up the JMToLose challenge this week. He went full Eeyore as he picked LeGarrette Blount this week. I quote,
You took Fuller, so I already lost. Not even joking. So…vying for second place, out of two, I’ll go LeGarrette Blount.
That said, a win is a win, and that win is yours, JM. As to the issue that I always get to pick first? It IS an issue. Here is what I’m going to do. If you ever want a guy I picked, you get him. I’ll adjust. Just shoot me a text, so I know. Consider those times as you getting the first pick. JMToWin – 1, GiantBallofOil – 1.
Lastly, by settling on Blount, JMToWin settled into second place in the overall standings. Remember, you need to have played in two-thirds of the weeks to be eligible. With only two weeks done, that means you need to have played in both weeks. Here are the standings.
EDITOR’S NOTE – Somehow, some way, I got Dizzlewizzle’s, NickyJ51’s, and BusterinOut’s entries all mixed up. Dizzlewizzle didn’t cheat, he just took a donut. BusterinOut was the cheater who tried to slip Kirk Cousin’s inflated salary through, and NickyJ51 was one of the three people behind Jeremy Langford. Sorry ‘bout that.
Sunday Slate
There’s a familiar name.
Al_Smizzle, aka Al Zeidenfeld, a former GrindersLive host and current DFS fancy-pants parading all over ESPN air and print, took down the biggest tournament in the land. It’s not just that he’s a great player though. Our industry is filled with less-than-friendly folks. Frankly, it’s only natural, given the level of competitiveness we all share. Al is as competitive as any, but in the times I have met and chatted with him, he’s been nothing but exceptionally affable. Considering I’m a stranger to him at events filled with his legit friends, that he’s taken the time says all I need to know about the kind of guy he is. I’m certainly not the only one to have that opinion, either. Oh, and the fact that he late-swapped in Stefon Diggs for extra upside is just one more in a bursting quiver of This-Is-A-Skill-Game arrows.
Could he have done better? Well, yes and no. There is no place better than first, in the biggest tournament. On the other hand, his 230.12 points were 85% of the optimal and highest scoring Sunday only lineup, which is slightly less than RandyRanderson1’s 89% last week. Al shared four players with the optimal lineup (C. Newton, S. Diggs, K. Benjamin, & T. Benjamin). Of the 40ish points Al was shy of optimal, 16 were at TE, 15 were from the RB spots combined, 8 were from his 4th WR, and he missed the optimal defense by a point. There is something very fitting having one of Al’s greatest DFS achievements be in spite of his eternal chase for “Old Man Value”. Poetic even.
Congrats Al, Congrats.
