Everyone remembers their first. First kiss, first beer, first fuck, and first fantasy baseball title. Matt Maydew trail blazed his way into history in 2009 when he won the first Shocker Fantasy Baseball championship and even though he's yet to win title number two, he's always been someone to watch as the season unfolds.
Maydew fell only three games short of being our first regular season champ but he made sure he got enough wins in the postseason to secure our first league championship. Dew quickly found out that success during one season doesn't always translate to the next when he went from Champ to Chump in 2010. Matt's had a rough time replicating his 2009 success as he hasn't won a playoff series since that first season. Dew did have a dominating 2012 regular season but was dropped in the first round by the eventual champions of Arch and Rickey. Overall, Maydew's a consistent .500+ player but he can't seem to continue his winning ways when the playoffs start.
Nothing to see here, folks. Just move along to the next section. Definitely don't need to read about how much of a beating that Maydew's given the commish on a yearly basis. Overall, Maydew wins more rounds than he loses when the judges come to a decision at the end of the week although Richard has delivered some knockout blows to Dew's temple more than a few times.
Many owners would be just fine with this chart but being that Maydew is pretty damn competitive at everything he does, he's probably a little mad that the data points on this chart aren't more towards the tippy top.
Every year Maydew seems to gravitate towards the older players in the draft pool and looking at this list of teams, you could definitely see that the top ones employ more geezers than most others. Maydew's got a little place in his heart for the Spankees and being that Maydew rode Robinson Cano for four years it's not surprising that he'd try to pick up some of Robbie's teammates to help boost his overall batting stats.
This chart is loaded with old teams with old players. It's seemed to have worked for Maydew over the years but you have to float the possibility that some of Dew's old timers are breaking down toward playoff time, which could play a factor in a one n' done showings.
Cano was on Maydew's roster for many seasons and looking at these individual season numbers, we know why he was. Cano is probably the best hitting 2B we've seen in the past five years and he was piling up the stats for Maydew at a position that doesn't get a ton of offensive power. Cano also stayed on the field a ton, same with Prince, which is not something you can say for other 1st rounders. Cano is the leader for most statistical categories but don't sleep on Juan Pierre who is probably the last guy to wear his hat under his helmet and was the first guy to swipe a bag most games.
Maydew was able to watch Verlander's power in 2009 and 2010 and then watch the pinpoint accuracy of Cliff Lee in 2011 and 2012. There's a lot of aces on this list and some damn impressive numbers to go along with them. Maydew has done a nice job of finding steady, sterling starters and clutch closers.
As expected, Cano is on top for the franchise leaders but there are some nice showings from Prince, Adrian Gonzalez, and...Jeff Francoeur? Francoeur came out hot and faded like a meteor in the MLB but he did have a great rookie season and some alright numbers after. Looks like Dew hung onto him, waiting for him to get back to his rookie form. I also bet you didn't expect to see Juan Pierre listed 2nd on Dew's all time player rater list but stolen bases are scarce and when you can find a guy that steals lots of them, that's worth quite a bit in our league.
A nice gathering of the arms above with plenty of players that have helped Maydew stay up top in the standings year after year.
Here's the veteran presence that Maydew loves as his team has usually been a nice picture of steadiness throughout most categories. Maydew's players do a great job of hitting the ball and getting on first base but they are definitely a station-to-station team once they reach the bases. Overall, Maydew's right in the middle for most categories which is why he's been able to sit back as a coach and watch his vets hit the ball all over the park.
Maydew also has a middle of the pack mindset with his pitchers. Maydew isn't winning any year end trophies with these guys but he's also not running out a rotation that is laughed off the mound night after night.
Maydew's a baseball man so it's not surprising that he's well equipped to manage a fantasy baseball team in this league. While the postseason success has faded a bit, it's not due to a weak roster because Dew has a specific draft day game plan that's generally worked for him over the years. Maydew loves his old guys and it appears that maybe he's got a case of Alzheimer's this season as Dew appears to be forgetting to check his roster more often than usual. Maydew can still make a charge in 2014 and based on his consistently strong fantasy teams, we shouldn't be surprised if he does.