What a Moneyball season, indeed. I didn't yet look back before 2016, but if "Moves" compared to the last couple seasons are any indication, this was a super active & engaged season. In 2016, 9 of us made 30+ moves & 5 made 20-29 moves. In 2017, we dipped down to 6 of us making 30+ & 5 making 20-29 moves. This year? 13 of us made 30+ moves, 6 of us made 20+, and Wes made 19! So, yeah, that seems good.

I'm also happy about the new rules changes upcoming for 2019: 1) 5 NAs slots (in short); and 2) Draft Order now goes 6th Place-20th in that order, then 5th to 1st. Also, at some point in the off-season I'll see if our 2018 stat adjustments achieved our aim of bringing Pitching plus Fielding more in line w/ Hitting. I'm quite sure they did, but will be interesting to see if we went far enough or too far, etc. Regardless, I'm strongly inclined to stick to these same stats for 2019 so we can get another year of data.

So many great Moneyball finishes in 2018! The "battle" for 1st Place wasn't much of a finish, of course. Chico is really friggin' tough, it appears. Mucho Congrats, Chico, on your Three-Peat. Amazing. BUT, I will say, lest he start to get too comfortable on his throne, his margin of victory dropped from both 2016 (1,535) and 2017 (1456) to a mere 1,118 & 1,224 ahead of 2nd & 3rd respectively. And that's with more points available (mostly via IP) in 2018. Anyway, he needs two more seasons to match Chubby's five straight---we shall see if he even makes it to four!

FunPoPo nabbed the silver. Congrats, PoPo! In 2016, FunPo reached the Top 5 for the first time since 2010, but I nudged him out of 5th place last season. He came back w/ a vengeance this year. As I recall, his serious surge this year didn't happen until maybe June or even July? Maybe hit 2nd by July or August? But after that point, he didn't look back. Does he pose a serious threat to Chico in 2019?

3rd Place Squirrels did give FunPo a bit of scare in those last few weeks. Way to go, Squirrels! Mr Rupp finished in last place THREE straight years (2011-2013), and, as discussed in another thread, it's debatable whether or not he was strategically tanking/re-building more than he was just sucking. Regardless, he's clearly one of Moneyball's top dogs now. 2014-2017 saw four straight Squirrel visits to the Top 10, and, at long last, 2018 sees his first Top 5 triumph. Beautiful. But he is bound for Top 10 decency, or perennial Top 5 (or championship?) glory. We'll see. (BTW, while I know many have never made the Top 5, I'd need to look back to see if anyone has only been in it once?)

Now let's talk about me. While this was my fourth finish in the Top 5 and second straight, the last time I beat Chubby was the Devonian Age, when the first fish/animal species crawled ashore, and Bush 2 was still in the White House, about to defeat Kerry thanks to a rigged OH. 2004, that is. This was the last year of us NOT being a rotisserie scoring league. In other words, it basically didn't happen. All Hail the Ballers! Wooohoo!

But yes, Chubby did again finish in the Top 5, nudging out the upstart Hippies in a duel that went back-and-forth all day Sunday. Well done, Chubby. While you perhaps sneeze at your 5th Pl finish, the rest of us shall not! This was Chubby's ELEVENTH straight Top 5 finish. He's good. But is this finally the end of his Top 5 run? Indeed, is this the end of Chubby entirely? As some of you know, Chub is considering hanging up his Moneyball cyber-cleats. He'll decide somewhere around the Super Bowl. Feel free to let him know your thoughts on the subject. And none of this "do what you think is right" bullshit. Safe to say we all hope you get a 2nd wind in the offseason, Chubby.

* This is Hippies's fifth year in Moneyball and his first Top 10 finish. So close to Top 5! Well done, Hips. We'll see what you got in 2019.

* Welcome Back, Cotter! Starting from roster scratch, his goal was Top 10, and he finished a very strong 7th. Bravo.

* In just his second full year in the league, Corktown finishes Top 10! Well done, Cork!

* Hanging on by a thread, Tri-State finished in 10th, meaning he & Chubby remain the only Moneyballers to have finished in the Top 10 every single season. Bravo, Tri-State.

* There was an epic 6-team scrum for 11th, so I wanted to give a shout out to Betts & Big Dogs for finishing 11th & 12th, respectively. Congrats, fellas. Not much of a gap between 11th & 16th.

* DeGroman finished Top 5 in 2012, but we've barely heard from him since. When I say his 15th Place finish this season is worthy of note, you know how badly he's been sucking since. But really, some very nice momentum there. Congrats-ish, DeGroman.

* Is Munenori gonna climb out of the cellar in 2019? I reckon he very well may, but we'll have to wait & see if and when our league's most radical tanking experiment bears fruit.