Obviously I will be biased, since he is a friend of mine but it occurred to me many times before how underrated a certain someone is. I will also say that I am sure there are other players who are both consistent and underrated. Feel free to write articles about them! But this one is mine. Also, I don't necessarily think he is the most consistent and I don't necessarily think he is the most underrated. But I do think he is the most consistent AND underrated player/user at the same time, simultaneously. This has come up a few times before in history and it is just as true now as before. So I wanted to do a bit of a deep dive on this user's player and history and show how underrated he has been.
This particular user joined the ISFL in Season 4 and was actually rated very highly at first, probably due activity in the SHL (I am guessing). In his first draft, he was actually picked first overall, though it was a draft of only 18 players for the record. He enjoyed a very decent career at linebacker.
In the most recent updated version of all time stats which appears to be a year or two out of date, he sits in an excellent 29th spot all time for most career tackles, 15th for most forced fumbles, 28th for fumbles recovered, 64th in PDs. I would say while that is no hall of fame career, that is a very very solid career for someone in that spot, especially with how many careers we have seen since then. He never won linebacker of the year though. It looks like he made the pro bowl twice in his career, which is definitely on the lower side, but overall a very solid career still.
Still, despite that, his recreate was treated as a far lower option than his first. In S13 he created as a Wide Receiver and ends up being drafted in the third round, at 18th overall out of 26 players in that draft, so towards the end of that draft. He enjoys another very solid career, but again without particular personal highlights. He once again does not make the hall of fame and once again does not receive an award at his position, but his career stats are once again solid.
He ends this career (based on that same file I have) in 59th in receptions, 42nd in receiving yards, 19th in yards per catch, 43rd in receiving touchdowns and he breaks the record for longest reception. He once again makes two pro bowls, but like I said, once more he does not have the same shining career that maybe some others have had. I would say that he far exceeded his draft position though, given that he was towards the end of that draft and yet his stats are solid in the grand scheme of things when you consider the history of this league and how many players there have been.
I can't speak for his first player, but with his second player he also stays with the same team for his whole career and is the perfect player in that regards. He always signs for minimum deals and is never someone you have to worry about as a GM.
Yet, when he recreates with his third player, he once again does not get drafted highly. Once more consistency is not treated with respect because maybe that same upside isn't there. But consistency can get you very far. His S23 Wide Receiver gets drafted at 44th overall out of 93. He is obviously still going, but at the writing of this article, he is currently in 23rd in TPE in that regression class, now 21 spots higher than where he was drafted. Yes, he is behind some of the leaders in TPE obviously, but you can't argue with consistency and you can't argue with outshining his spot, especially when the user is one that you have no issues with and who will stay with the team and take min deals.
Speaking of such consistency... Since joining in S4 at Activity Check 16, this user has missed 30 out of 177 activity checks, so he has updated in 83% of his weeks here. This may not account for some weeks where he had no player between recreating, that's hard to gauge in retrospect. Also, he has not missed an activity check in an entire calendar year now (52 weeks in a row) and only one missed Activity check in the last 76 weeks. So most of the missed updates came with his first player or at the start of his second player, not any time recently. I understand updating is about a lot more than Activity checks, but once again, I want to highlight consistency. When you are in the draft and you draft someone, you also want to get players you know will be consistent and won't miss things like that. I would imagine that most users who have been in the league this long have missed a similar amount of Activity checks. I checked for myself, since I consider myself a very active user in this league and I have missed 42 out of 179 activity checks. I have only done 76.5% of them. Even in the more recent time when I was a GM and much more active than at my start, I have missed three Activity checks in the last year, when he has only missed one.
Funnily enough, I feel like this user also gets underrated in another league I am in, the PBE. In some ways, I feel like he faces a very similar issue there. Once more he is a very very loyal user, who stays with the same team for many seasons for minimum contracts and yet he often gets forgotten a bit or traded for very cheap. He has also had some rather tumultuous careers and while he misses that shiny career and misses fancy awards or a hall of fame career, he has been able to do some amazing things there too. Here a brief summary of that below:
He first joins the league in S2 under a different username, so he flies under the radar at first. He gets drafted 21st in the fourth round. He gets traded almost immediately in a trade for a fourth round pick in the future, though two other pitchers also change teams in the deal. He spends basically his entire career with that team then and is currently 28th in all-time career WAR among pitchers. In his career, he once again is never quite at the top to win pitcher of the year, but he has some amazing shining moments, including throwing the first ever perfect game in the league. His career is not good enough for the hall of fame but it's at least close-ish.
While many recreates with his pedigree went higher, he falls a bit in the second draft again and gets taken at 15th overall in the 2nd round. A few seasons later, despite earning at a decent rate, he once again gets traded, for even less value this time. A 4th rounder is enough to bring him to another team. He currently sits in 14th in TPE, at a fairly accurate spot compared to the draft position, though not fitting for someone who got traded for a 4th round pick. He had the perfect game in his first career and in his second career he hits the walk-off home-run to give his team the championship in the finals in extra innings, to give him that signature moment again, in a career that will likely not be enough for any major awards or the hall of fame again, but once more he is an incredibly solid and consistent contributor, something that many people seem to be underrating as a skill or quality in users.
Obviously I said the user was most active in the SHL, but I have least information about his career there. I can say that he was very successful once more with his player. It looks like his first player ended up with over 500 assists and over 700 points, it looks like he won one award, best defender one time. Besides that, from what I can gather with my very low research and knowledge for the SHL, he was once more very consistent and very underrated in some ways.
The user in question is of course Toivo.
This particular user joined the ISFL in Season 4 and was actually rated very highly at first, probably due activity in the SHL (I am guessing). In his first draft, he was actually picked first overall, though it was a draft of only 18 players for the record. He enjoyed a very decent career at linebacker.
In the most recent updated version of all time stats which appears to be a year or two out of date, he sits in an excellent 29th spot all time for most career tackles, 15th for most forced fumbles, 28th for fumbles recovered, 64th in PDs. I would say while that is no hall of fame career, that is a very very solid career for someone in that spot, especially with how many careers we have seen since then. He never won linebacker of the year though. It looks like he made the pro bowl twice in his career, which is definitely on the lower side, but overall a very solid career still.
Still, despite that, his recreate was treated as a far lower option than his first. In S13 he created as a Wide Receiver and ends up being drafted in the third round, at 18th overall out of 26 players in that draft, so towards the end of that draft. He enjoys another very solid career, but again without particular personal highlights. He once again does not make the hall of fame and once again does not receive an award at his position, but his career stats are once again solid.
He ends this career (based on that same file I have) in 59th in receptions, 42nd in receiving yards, 19th in yards per catch, 43rd in receiving touchdowns and he breaks the record for longest reception. He once again makes two pro bowls, but like I said, once more he does not have the same shining career that maybe some others have had. I would say that he far exceeded his draft position though, given that he was towards the end of that draft and yet his stats are solid in the grand scheme of things when you consider the history of this league and how many players there have been.
I can't speak for his first player, but with his second player he also stays with the same team for his whole career and is the perfect player in that regards. He always signs for minimum deals and is never someone you have to worry about as a GM.
Yet, when he recreates with his third player, he once again does not get drafted highly. Once more consistency is not treated with respect because maybe that same upside isn't there. But consistency can get you very far. His S23 Wide Receiver gets drafted at 44th overall out of 93. He is obviously still going, but at the writing of this article, he is currently in 23rd in TPE in that regression class, now 21 spots higher than where he was drafted. Yes, he is behind some of the leaders in TPE obviously, but you can't argue with consistency and you can't argue with outshining his spot, especially when the user is one that you have no issues with and who will stay with the team and take min deals.
Speaking of such consistency... Since joining in S4 at Activity Check 16, this user has missed 30 out of 177 activity checks, so he has updated in 83% of his weeks here. This may not account for some weeks where he had no player between recreating, that's hard to gauge in retrospect. Also, he has not missed an activity check in an entire calendar year now (52 weeks in a row) and only one missed Activity check in the last 76 weeks. So most of the missed updates came with his first player or at the start of his second player, not any time recently. I understand updating is about a lot more than Activity checks, but once again, I want to highlight consistency. When you are in the draft and you draft someone, you also want to get players you know will be consistent and won't miss things like that. I would imagine that most users who have been in the league this long have missed a similar amount of Activity checks. I checked for myself, since I consider myself a very active user in this league and I have missed 42 out of 179 activity checks. I have only done 76.5% of them. Even in the more recent time when I was a GM and much more active than at my start, I have missed three Activity checks in the last year, when he has only missed one.
Funnily enough, I feel like this user also gets underrated in another league I am in, the PBE. In some ways, I feel like he faces a very similar issue there. Once more he is a very very loyal user, who stays with the same team for many seasons for minimum contracts and yet he often gets forgotten a bit or traded for very cheap. He has also had some rather tumultuous careers and while he misses that shiny career and misses fancy awards or a hall of fame career, he has been able to do some amazing things there too. Here a brief summary of that below:
He first joins the league in S2 under a different username, so he flies under the radar at first. He gets drafted 21st in the fourth round. He gets traded almost immediately in a trade for a fourth round pick in the future, though two other pitchers also change teams in the deal. He spends basically his entire career with that team then and is currently 28th in all-time career WAR among pitchers. In his career, he once again is never quite at the top to win pitcher of the year, but he has some amazing shining moments, including throwing the first ever perfect game in the league. His career is not good enough for the hall of fame but it's at least close-ish.
While many recreates with his pedigree went higher, he falls a bit in the second draft again and gets taken at 15th overall in the 2nd round. A few seasons later, despite earning at a decent rate, he once again gets traded, for even less value this time. A 4th rounder is enough to bring him to another team. He currently sits in 14th in TPE, at a fairly accurate spot compared to the draft position, though not fitting for someone who got traded for a 4th round pick. He had the perfect game in his first career and in his second career he hits the walk-off home-run to give his team the championship in the finals in extra innings, to give him that signature moment again, in a career that will likely not be enough for any major awards or the hall of fame again, but once more he is an incredibly solid and consistent contributor, something that many people seem to be underrating as a skill or quality in users.
Obviously I said the user was most active in the SHL, but I have least information about his career there. I can say that he was very successful once more with his player. It looks like his first player ended up with over 500 assists and over 700 points, it looks like he won one award, best defender one time. Besides that, from what I can gather with my very low research and knowledge for the SHL, he was once more very consistent and very underrated in some ways.
The user in question is of course Toivo.