Tale of Two Coxes
Stats are not Cox’s thing. At least not good ones. He is ranked at the bottom in the big 3, has never won a bobblehead and has only appeared in one League! championship in 14 years.
When you look at what Cox has been able to accomplish over the years, it’s like night and day. Jekyll and Hyde. Boop and doop. Though he has been the same manager for the past 14 seasons, there is a clear line in the sand from when he was terrible to when he actually became a contender.
From 2004-2011 he was on the terrible side of the line. Cox started off so bad that in 2010 he took a year off to gather his thoughts and decide if there was another hobby that he should consider like walking around the beach with a metal detector or whatever else Floridians do down there. His thoughts brought him back to The League! in 2011 where he got back to his old ways with a 10th place finish.
But then in 2012, something changed. Cox finally hit his stride. If you could go back in time like the Pitbull song and men in black his memory before 2012, Cox would think he was one of the best managers in The League!. And statistically he would be right. Since 2012, he has a .538 winning percentage (currently at .417), 133.48 points per game (currently at 122.61) and on average has finished in 5.71st place (currently at 7.36)…good enough to make the playoffs every year. Like hips, those stats don’t lie.
He has made the playoffs 5 out of those 8 years since he did some thinking in 2011. The 6 years before 2011 he made the playoffs - never. Whatever happened in the offseason leading up to 2012 paid off because Cox has been a contender ever since.
| Before 2012 | After 2012 | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 29-67 | 57-47 |
| Winning % | .302 | .548 |
| Points/Game | 112.30 | 136.47 |
| Average Place | 9 | 5.29 |
| Playoff Trips | 0 | 6 |
While he had a resurgence on the field and was able to tame the dumpster fire that was his team, The League! is still waiting for his resurgence off the field as well.
Cox is one of 4 grandfathers that have been in The League! since day one next to Reichert, Carmen and Billy. Yet his Vegas attendance looks like someones that joined yesterday. Even the newest members of The League! have made it to Vegas more than Cox. A lot more. Smitty joined in 2010 and has been 10 times. Egon joined in 2012 and has been 6 times. Cox has been to Vegas a league low 4 times and hasn’t been to actual Las Vegas since 2013. He has also drafted remotely more than any other manager at 7 times, accounting for nearly 25% of teams drafted not in Vegas.
Cox remains one of The League!’s quietly impressive teams and should remain a contender unless he has a sudden relapse into terribleness.
