(S24) - PT 2 - Rising Stocks

[Cheech65]

The Sarasota Sailfish have had an unprecedented amount of success so far this season. As a collective, we've been able to up our level of play on both sides of the ball. As of Week 5, we have a 5-0 record. On the offense, Dexter Banks II has settled into his position at QB, and is the top passer by yards and completions. 3 of the top 10 receivers by yards wear Sailfish uniforms, with James Angler at 4th, Rayne Gordon at 6th, and Michael Witheblock at 8th. Even Clark Boyd has more than doubled his yardage to this point last season. The only decrease has been in the running game, as is expected when the offense becomes more pass-heavy.
The real improvement and strength comes primarily from the Sailfish defense. Jamie Nkiah is slightly behind his tackling stats from this point last season, but Haha Mango-Panda has really stepped up his level of play. His tackling may not be up by much, but his sacks, passes deflected, and interceptions have all jumped up. Fawn Dillmiballs has also had an increase in PDs and interceptions. Collectively, Sarasota sits 4th overall for tackles, 4th for forced fumbles, 3rd in sacks and 2nd in interceptions. A great increase for a team that went 8-8 just a season ago.
This is not even to mention that fact that the actual value of Sarasota stock rose 30% from the start of the season.

[mithrandir]

Lots of people were low on the New Orleans Second Line going into this season, with many predicting that Arizona would replace them as a playoff team. With a rookie QB, lots of people were counting on NOLA regressing from their #2 seed placement from the previous season. Ben Slothlisberger has played well enough as Francisco's replacement, being reasonably efficient on low passing volume. NOLA has adjusted their strategy to allow Slothlisberger to succeed, leaning heavily on their superstar pair of running backs, Marcella Toriki and Forrest Gump. The real stars of the Second Line, though, have been on defense. This unit boasts the defensive player with the highest TPE in the league in CB David Rector, the two-time defending safety of the year in Mason Blaylock, last season’s leading tackler, Quentin Bode, and the S22 defensive rookie of the year, linebacker, Ugarth the Dissector. The rest of the defense is a great mix of solid veterans such as Ben Tu’inukuafe, Brave Ulysses, and Jordan Andrews, and young rising talents such as Magnus Rikiya, Hank Steel, Andrew Witten, and Literally Just A. Hexagon. With Rector scaring away quarterbacks, Witten has been tested as the cornerback on the opposite side of the field. He has played well, with 2 interceptions, including a pick six, in his first three games. Ulysses is having a late career resurgence, leading the league with 9 TFLs. As a unit, the Second Line defense is first in tackles for loss, first in forced fumbles, second in sacks, and have a defensive touchdown as well. Finally, they have only given up 16 pts per game, good for second in the league. If the defense continues to dominate, we could see NOLA clinch the top seed in the conference.

[abh89]

The S24 season has certainly been a surprising one as it relates to a few teams. I think it is pretty clear that the most surprising team so far, however, has been the Sarasota Sailfish and it isn’t particularly close. After five weeks, they stand atop the league as the only remaining undefeated team. Of those five games, they have won all but one of them by a margin of 16 points or more. The Sailfish defense has been phenomenal and has only allowed a league leading 58 points. The second best scoring defense has allowed 41% more points.  While the defense may be getting a lot of the spotlight, the offense has also been very strong. The Sailfish offense has been off to a blazing start and are putting up tremendous numbers. Lead by quarterback Dexter Banks II, they lead the league in passing offense and total offense. With conference road wins in Colorado and Philadelphia already in the books, the Sailfish have positioned themselves well in the early playoff outlook. If they can keep their foot on the gas and avoid getting tripped up later in the season, they will be in the driver seat for a first round bye on the road to the Ultimus.

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[Arkz]

Let's talk the Portland Pythons. Entering the season, I don't think there was a team with a lower stock than Portland. They are coming off 3 seasons of missing the playoffs, and the previous season had a rocky showing of 5-9, and they were also 5-9 the season before that. They had the worst record in the league and scored the fewest points while allowing the second most points. All in all, not good. To start the season, they faced off against the defending champion Norfolk Seawolves, who brought back a huge chunk of their players and promptly demolished the Pythons, to the tune of 31-17. Everyone was probably gearing up for another difficult year for the Pythons. However, things have changed since week 1, in a positive direction for the Pythons. Firstly, the Seawolves have proven to be a juggernaut. In week two they beat the Grey Ducks 20-0 at home, and then went on the road and beat Dallas 37-17. That's right, the Pythons have the closest margin of victory against Norfolk out of the three games the Seawolves have played so far. So maybe its less that the Pythons team is poor, and more that Norfolk is just a monster who will be difficult to beat this early in the season. Norfolk will probably come back down to earth, particularly as the season goes on and other teams' rookies progress, but for right now they are the clear best team in the league. For Portland's part, they beat the Royals on the road in week 2, in a convincing 23-10 win. The Royals have one of the best offenses in the league, particularly through the air, and their defense isn't half bad either. This meant a big upswing for the Pythons, as it showed they can compete in the DSFL this season. They would go on to host and lose to the Grey Ducks, 19-15, but this was a weird game in which both teams tried their best to lose. The offense is the biggest question mark for the Pythons, but they have some young talent on that side of the ball that should get much better as the season goes along. They are starting a veteran QB and have a talented WR already, so all they need is to round out that supporting cast a bit. Currently the Pythons lead the NFC, though each team in the division has a 1-2 record. But when you start from the bottom, any sign of life is going to see your stock rise and Portland has that in spades. 

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[Bruins10]

SHL Affiliate

[DonnoMania]

SHL PT

[Mavfatha]

To be fair there are stocks that are more than just hypothetical in the ISFL... but I'm also lazy and only pay attention to the team I'm playing for so let's talk about the Luchadores from the league down under aka DSFL. The Luchadores had a bit of a rebuilding experience last season after losing a lot of max earners to being called up to the ISFL. This led to a poor 6-8 record and missing the playoffs with just under 20 points per game on offense. It's obviously early this season, but the results have been much more promising so far. We sit with a 2-1 record after the Tuesday night sim, scoring upwards of 25 points per game and having a really close game for that one loss of the season. Our defense has been much improved as well as one would expect, getting down into the 20 points per game range (well actually exactly 20) so far. Another particular area of improvement is in our running game. Theeks had to literally carry the group on his back last season, but this season with a highly efficient secondary option in Mills along with an up and coming group of offensive linemen throwing blocks out there, the team has a whole benefits much more. I definitely see this trend continuing through the remainder of the season, so get in on some fake Luchas stock while you can.

[SomeSay...]

Written Option: After four weeks of league action (and one week of the league down under), some teams’ stocks are flying high while others have been driven low unexpectedly. In 200 words, discuss a particular team or player and demonstrate how their hypothetical stock has risen or fallen since the start of the season. Is the team facing unexpected issues or a flurry of success? Has the player regressed unexpectedly on the field or have they taken a step forward?

Well let's talk about my team. The San Jose Sabercats! Or stock has risen and I rightfully so. For us it starts at the top with our GMs and sim testers. For 98% of the time, they put us in the right gameplan to be successful, and he'll look at our drafts, a few players turned IA, but most of us are active max earners, which tells you they've been doing their homework for the last few drafts.

Then on comes the offense. Monty has grown so much from his rookie year and seems to have cut out most of the mistakes from last year at this point. Both our running backs continue to produce and max earn. WR core is something special, 2 veterans and sophomore Hood.

The defensive side is also stacked with mostly young active max earners. Myself, Philip, bass, Lanier and all of the others, they know who they are, keep this defense going. And with what we have done this is definitely not a flurry of success but a expected turn around. Now, being the realest I am, I think playoffs are rightfully in the picture. But after that we'll have to wait and see, things could change. And change fast, but overall San Jose is on the rise and rightfully so, don't sleep on the Sabercats

[katarn22]

Having been in the league for several weeks now, I am getting to know the DSFL fairly well. That being said, I am choosing to write about an ISFL team that has certainly surpassed expectations. Although I am most certainly not the only person to be writing about them, the Sarasota Sailfish simply cannot go unnoticed, especially since they are currently standing at 5-0, the only remaining undefeated team in the ISFL. That record puts them 3 wins off of their total from all of last season with another 11 games to play! Additionally 4 of their 5 wins have been by more than one possession (the lone game not fitting this criteria was a 22-19 victory over the defending Ultimus champions, the Yellowknife Wraiths).

So what is driving their success? I believe like any good team it is a combination of talent and game planning on both sides of the ball. While I could delve deeper into many aspects of the team, one player I particularly want to focus on is linebacker HaHa Mango-Panda. Their stats are impressive, to say the least. Currently tied for most sacks in the ISFL with 5, Mango-Panda also is tied for second place in the league with 2 interceptions - as a linebacker. Couple this with a respectable 38 tackles, 7 passes defended, and a forced fumble and recovery and we can understand why the Sailfish defense has not let up more than 19 points in a game this season yet. If player like Mango-Panda can keep tallying up the stats, the wins will keep coming for Sarasota.

[Daybe]

http://probaseballexperience.jcink.net/i...t&p=210340