Week 2 of Last Season

Going into Week 2, I still felt really good about my team, but I knew there were a couple of places where I might have trouble down the line. My biggest concern was at QB. All of the pundits were saying that Rivers should do well this week, but I just didn’t have confidence in him. As a result, I decided to go with Schaub. The reason I went against the grain was that I had been watching Schaub for the past few years as Mad Dog Michael Vicks back up and I knew he would excel if he could only get the chance. As the sole QB in Houston, I knew his time had come and he should be primed for a big game.

More important, I believed I had enough solid players at RB & WR that it would hurt me too much if Schaub faltered or didn’t have the week I hoped for. I was projected to get 68+ points, which was enough to beat my competitors projected stats. But I have to admit that I went into this week far too confident than I should have been, although hindsight is always 20/20. The problem I was about to run into was the juggernaut that is New England this year. See my opponent in week 2 was Belicheck’s Hoodies, a team filled with players from NE, which I mistakenly thought meant I would have an easy win. Heck even yahoo thought I would win, projecting only 60 points for my NE laden competitor.

Obviously, yahoo and I were wrong. My NE heavy competitor trounced me without mercy, racking up more than 100 points. I had solid performances from a number of players, and I really thought I had chosen well with my draft and my roster for this week. Since I didn’t feel like I made any errors in judgment during the second week, I felt I had no recourse left to me but to curse the Fantasy Sport gods for the outrageous luck my opponent had. I mean really, he had 4 spots filled with players from the same team and it added up to 50+ points. How often can that happen in a season?

At the same time, I was starting to wonder about the remainder of the season. I saw the NE game, and they looked amazing. I don’t think I have ever seen a team play like that before, which left me wondering what would happen if this continued… Even though it was early and I was still trying to tweak my roster, this loss really shocked me. I thought I had a solid performing team. Yet I wasn’t even in the match up. Looking at my team, I couldn’t imagine any way of matching a 100 point game. Strangely, I remember thinking that I would have to find some big performers if I was going to be able to compete. With that in mind, I knew that a bunch of my bench men were going to change. I also had to find a better K.

And here, I should point out that this kind of drastic thinking was a major mistake. While I had a couple of guys I could move, it really was too early in the season to start thinking about drastic changes. I DID have a solid team, and it DID put a solid number of points (79+) for my league, and that was more than the 1^st week. While switching Ks may have been a good idea in hindsight, I was only 1-1. Barring a season ending injury or a simply horrible draft, you should never even consider making drastic changes to your team until the 3 or 4 week at the earliest.

There were some bright point to acknowledge. Both my QBs did stellar. My starting RBs did solid. My WRs flip flopped, but still I felt confident. Todd Heap gave me an outstanding day, which is exactly why I picked him. Despite my fluke of a loss, I still thought my team could take me all the way.

Week 1 of Last Season

Since we have gone through my draft, let’s now take at each week of play. In week 1, I was matched up against the Gridiron Goons, which was a pretty good team draft wise but the owner didn’t do a good job keeping up with his line up. He was projected to get 69+ points with his starters, but he could have gotten nearly 75 projected points if he had just tweaked his line up better. This becomes important b/c I was projected to get 75+ points, so the manager of Gridiron Goons had to do something creative to win, but he didn’t.


Going into the game, I felt really good about my team. I was projected to get 75+ points, which was enough to beat my competitor. Yet once the numbers started coming in, I recognized that I might have a problem. My QB (Philip Rivers), TE (Todd Heap) and K (Nate Kaeding) all seriously underperformed. I could easily discount this situation as opening jitters, but it was something I knew I had to keep an eye on. I had viable replacements (QB—Schaub) and (K—Mare), but I was deficient at TE (as my hope that McMichael would be a sleeper was a wild card that could easily not play out).

Despite the setbacks, there were some great aspects to the first week performance: Wayne, Housh, Addai, Portis, and SD all did better than projected (and even better than I expected). I was also please with Norwood's performance. I saw him as the sleeper on my team with the most promise, and it looked like he was going to get the looks I was hoping for at RB in Atlanta.


With Week 1's victory behind me, I decided it would be important for me to keep an eye on the waiver wire for any pickups that might upgrade me at TE. I also knew it would be important to find out what the pundits were saying about my under performers, b/c if I had trouble this early on it was going to be a long season.

Running through the Season

I am going to take the next few weeks to run through the season analyzing each line up, player pickups and trades. I made a lot of mistakes last season (and some good decisions as well) ,so it would be useful to go back and see how things played out each week.

A day without football...

Damn, the weekend sucked. The first weekend of the year without football has just concluded, and it sucked!!!!!! I know the super bowl is next weekend, so there is something to look forward to, but it always seems weird when the season ends and there is no more games to watch. it is bad enough when FF season ends, but at least then you have the playoffs. It is too bad they don't have a bowl for 3rd, and 4th place. They could do the weekend before the SB, so we can still get our fix before the big game. I mean, they got that stupid ass Pro-Bowl game which no one watches (just kidding, I totally watch it every year just to have one last piece of football until the summer) and where every player hardly even tries to play cuz they're so afraid of getting hurt (can't blame em really). Why not have a keep the season alive?

Shit, I hate weekends without sports. I had to do wifey things, and she is already planning for next weekend (just Saturday folks, cuz she knows SB Sunday is a wash). If it isn't so cold, I might have to make plans for yard work just to escape...

The Seven Deadly Sins of Fantasy Sports

I just came across this painting by Hieronymus Bosch called The Seven Deadly Sins... and thought it would make a great fantasy sports list of don'ts, so here it goes:

1. Luxuria -- Lust for the championship. It is one thing to want to win, and another to be willing to do anything for it. Lust can drive us to make stupid moves, whether it is dropping a under performing stud too early to colluding with another player for the win.

2. Gula -- Gluttony for points, points, and more points. While it is always important to get as many point as possible, you should never let your ravenousness hunger for points to over ride playing the last weekends flash in the pan for a proven stud who has had a bad week or two.

3. Avaritia -- Greed to acquire all those stud players. It is always important to have as many stud players as possible, but you can't let acquisitiveness take over every trade. Sometimes the price for a stud is more than the player is going to be worth. Never make a trade that will hurt your team, even if you get the greatest player in the game in the deal. Besides the biggest names aren't always the best Fantasy players.

4. Acedia -- Sloth speaks for itself. Nothing destroys a good draft more than a lazy manager. Even a bad draft can be over come by active management. Keep up on league news, player injuries, and random team information. You never know what might prove useful, even if it isn't about your players. You never know when you might be able to turn someone else's misery into a beneficial trade. Fantasy Sports require constant diligence, or your attention at least 20 to 30 minutes a day in order to be successful.

5. Ira -- Anger at poor player performances, the shear insanity of a trading partner, or just plain bad luck. Anger can make you make stupid mistakes, like benching or trading a stud; nixing a trade b/c you are tired of the other guys shenanigans; or giving up on your team b/c of a string of bad luck. When this shit happens, take a deep breath or step away from the computer for a few hours or even a day, then re-evaluate your next move. Never make a decision based in anger, as you will only come to regret it in the morning.

6. Invidia -- Envy of other team's stud players. Someone is always going to have a better player in some position than you do, so never let your covetousness go too far. While you want to own as many stud players as possible, remember that no one player can win the championship (unless his name is A-Rod last season in FB or Tom Brady in this years FF). Envy can drive us to make foolish one sided trades, giving up too much for the stud of the moment.

7. Superbia -- Pride in one's team is always good, but never take it too far. Every team has weaknesses (including yours), so you should always be looking for a way to make your team better through trades or waiver wire pick ups.

Here is a clip from a FFl Documentary

This is a short clip from documentary about fantasy football and those who play it. Man these things always make us look like dorks.

Here is a Great FF Song