Wild Card
Trying to figure out where Carmen (all honor to his name) might land on the leaderboard every year is a near impossible task. One year he could be MIA on draft day and the next year he is playing the waiver wire and making trades on his way to a championship.
History usually can tell us something about a team. How good they are on paper. How impressive they’ve been come playoff time. How many bottles they bought in da club. Something. When you look at Carmen’s history you really have to study it. You can try to think you’re going to find something glaring back at you, but you won’t. It wasn’t easy determining where exactly he might land this year, but it was at the very least worth a shot. And when you look very, very closely - a pattern starts to emerge.
In the 15 seasons that Carmen has been a part of The League!, every 4-6 years he goes through a stretch where he remains fairly consistent. Whether he is The League!’s worst or The League!’s best, he is consistent. Granted the first 6 years are kind of all over the place in true wild card fashion, but nonetheless they have a distinct pattern of their own. Let’s take a look…
Carmen’s 4 year plan, which started as a 6 year plan, broken out by colors
2004-2009
The 6 year 6th Place Plan
In his first 6 years in The League! (shown in green in the chart above), Carmen loved 6th place. He loved it so much, he went back to it every other year. Every even year, Carmen ended the regular season in 6th place. Every odd year, he either excelled or regressed.
2004 - 6th
2005 - 10th
2006 - 6th
2007 - 1st
2008 - 6th
2009 - 3rd
2010-2014
Throwing in the Towel
In his next 4 year window (shown in orange in the chart above), he went through a rough patch. From 2010-2014, he finished the regular season in 12th, 11th, 11th, and 12th place. 4 straight years ending up at the bottom of the barrel. Magically, he only ended up being relegated one of those four times.
2010 - 12th
2012 - 11th
2013 - 11th
2014 - 12th
2015-2018
Eight is Great
In the next 4 year window, 8th place was where it was at. Carmen finished in 8th place three of the four years during this span in 2015, 2016, and 2018. The only blip on the radar was when he rallied his team to a 3rd place finish in 2017.
2015 - 8th
2016 - 8th
2017 - 3rd
2018 - 8th
2019-2022
Trending Up
Only time will tell how exactly the next 4 years will pan out. If there is any indication from his 2019 finish, it looks like things will be trending up. He finished the regular season in 5th place in 2019. That means we could be looking at 3 more years of being playoff relevant.
Could this be the year Carmen gets his 3rd bobblehead? In true wild card fashion, that remains to be seen.