11. Samantha
We have some news!
In case you missed the memo or the giant image above, our league has a new member. As Semisonic once wrote, every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. And as Terryn exits The Worst League after seven proud seasons, we welcome a new member to our ranks. So please join me in welcoming our newest team owner—Samantha.
Now before you suggest otherwise, let me first say that this is not like that episode of The Office where Dwight tricks Jim into giving employee of the month to himself and then Pam. For the record, Alex approached me with the idea of Samantha joining the league once Terryn decided to step down.
Personally, I think it's a terrible idea. First of all, I will no longer be able to hide the hours I spend working on fantasy football nonsense from my wife. Now she'll know all that "work" I'm doing in the evenings is really just plotting out Erik's win probability graph. And second, I will no doubt soon be revealed as the fantasy fraud that I am now that the brains behind the operation has her own team. Cut to me four months from now.
I can also assure all of you that there will be no collusion in this household. So great is the fantasy animus between us that at our wedding, as some of you might recall, Samantha specifically wrote into her vows that she would continue to beat me in filling out brackets in March and fantasy football in the fall and winter because she loved me too much to let me win. Sweet girl.
Regardless, I reluctantly accept her addition to the league. Welcome. By the way sweetheart, it is customary for the newest member to take out the trash and do the laundry for the reigning champion for the duration of the season. And let's see, it appears last year's champion was... oh, that's funny... last year's champion was me. I prefer two dryer sheets. Thanks!
Samantha is officially the 15th member of The Worst League, including all current members plus Jackie (2011), Adan (2012-13) and Terryn (2011-17). She is also the first new addition to the league since Josh replaced Adan in 2014.
Not counting the league's inaugural year, newcomers have a mixed track record. Adan finished seventh in the final regular season standings with a record of 6-7 but with a TW% of .357 that ranked 11th. Josh fared much better. In his first season, he finished 9-3-1 with a TW% of .566, which ranked fourth in the final Power Rankings. That year, Josh grabbed the #2 seed, but ultimately fell to Gray in the semifinals and finished fourth. No doubt Samantha is hoping to replicate Josh's success in her debut season, if not surpass it.
To do that, she'll be drafting from the 11th position. As was noted in Erik's draft preview, teams with the 11th pick, despite drafting near the end of the first round, have fared very well. In fact, they rank fourth in wins (49), second in TW% (.553), second in scoring (90.3 ppg), tied for fourth in playoff appearances (3) and first in championships (2). Not bad.
Finally, before we officially welcome Samantha into the league, let us first bid farewell to Terryn. A charter-member of The Worst League, Terryn's final record was 43-48 with a TW% of .387, which ranked last. For her career, Terryn averaged a league-low 78.2 ppg. She was generally regarded as an ineffective drafter, for which she ranks 11th among active owners in the modern era. Most bizarre, despite a strong draft bias toward QBs—often drafting them early even as the league evolved to wait on QB—she averaged a league-low 15.2 ppg from QBs for her career.
Despite this, Terryn was a relatively active owner, though slightly below average. Her best season was 2013 when she finished 8-5 and made her only playoff appearance, finishing fourth. This despite the fact that it was the seventh-worst season of all-time by TW%. Terryn was notoriously a lucky player for which she ranked first, winning nearly eight more games over her career than she should have by TW%. Her 2013 season was her luckiest. To this date, it remains the luckiest of all-time. Only twice did her score rank among the top half of scores in a given week, and yet she won eight total games that season.
Despite her struggles, Terryn was a valued member of the league and will be missed. As Samantha steps into her place, she hopes to carry Terryn's lucky streak with her. Like Terryn, she will join the Legends division, which contains former league champions Gray, Alex and Jess.
Okay, enough with the pleasantries. Welcome, Samantha! Let's get to it.
