Updates from January, 2010

  • Poll: Where do you play fantasy football?

    Matt 12:12 pm on 10/28/2008 | 11 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , , fox, ,

    Now that we’re halfway through the season, I’m curious as to what websites our readers are using to manage their fantasy football leagues. We generally offer player ownership statistics for Yahoo and ESPN leagues (as in, “Pierre Thomas is available in 72% of Yahoo and ESPN leagues”), but that’s not too helpful if the majority of our visitors are hosting their leagues elsewhere. 

    Only one way to find out! This is one of the few polls around that doesn’t have anything to do with the election that will mercifully be over with in one week. If you answer “other,” we’d appreciate it if you enlightened us as to what system you do use – the comment section is below.

    [poll id="3"]

     

  • The Wire: Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 9, 2008

    Brandon 10:55 am on 10/28/2008 | 6 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , , kevin walkter, , , , , , , ,

    Here’s a look at the players to target on your league’s waiver wire this week. This list is ordered by the percentage of ESPN leagues in which the player is available; even if you’re not a ESPN user, it’s a decent indication of how likely you are to find the player on waivers in your league. We also note here how strongly we feel about this pickup with three categories: Instant Starter, Grab ‘n’ Stash, or Desperation Pickup.

    Nate Washington, WR, Steelers (6.6% owned, Desperation Pickup) – While his reception totals for each game this year aren’t all that consistent, Washington still manages to get some solid yardage and has been adding touchdowns to that as of late. I can’t recommend you start him on a weekly basis, but if you’re in a bind and it looks like a good matchup, you might consider him at the WR3 or flex position.

    Ted Ginn, Jr., WR, Dolphins (19.6% owned, Instant Starter) – Obviously you shouldn’t count on an other-worldly 175 yard performance from Ginn each week, but besides a bogus game in week 6, Ted Jr. has been pretty decent this year in his rookie season. He gets to play the lowly Broncos defense this week as well, making him even more appealing. (More …)

     

  • Tony Romo to play this Sunday after all?

    Matt 2:04 pm on 10/15/2008 | 2 Permalink Reply
    Tags:

    It’s just a rumor at this point, but it sounds like Romo might be throwing some passes in practice today, despite his broken (?) pinky finger. In any case, he’d better play or Brett Favre will think he’s a big pussy.

    This is hardly concrete at this point (really, it’s about as vague as rumors come), but with Roy Williams in town and the Cowboys’ receiving corps now officially in contention with the Cardinals’ wideouts for best-in-class, Romo owners would love to have him back ASAP. At the same time, you’d hate to see him hurt himself worse and miss a long stretch of games. Giving Brad Johnson a receiving corps like that is like dealing me pocket aces in hold ‘em – you know he’s just gonna screw it up.

    (To help illustrate this post, I tried to find a photo of Romo looking sad, but apparently that guy has a smile permanently affixed to his face, perhaps surgically. Or maybe it has something to do with Jessica Simpson.)

     

  • CBS is doing a bang-up job with the Bills broadcast

    Matt 1:54 pm on 9/14/2008 | 2 Permalink Reply

    Stupid CBS

    What you’re looking at there is a live play in the red zone, with a CBS promo right on top of the action (which, I found out after the play, was a pass to Matt Jones).

    This after I was already annoyed because one of the main cameras they’re using has some sort of problem and everything’s all herky-jerky whenever they cut to that angle.

    Anyone else watching the Bills game and throwing things at the TV?

    Update: I caught the highlights from the Raiders game and noticed that CBS had the same problems with one of its camera angles in that game too. There’s no way the problem is my TV; it only happened with the sideline camera in both games. Anyone else notice this stuff on a CBS game, or am I just slowly going insane?

     

  • Studs and Duds - Week 2: Ryan Grant ready to roll!

    Brandon 11:10 pm on 9/10/2008 | 5 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    After all the dust has settled and the injury count has been tallied (bye bye Brady, Burleson, Alex Smith and for a little while, Colston), it’s time to recount my predictions for the previous weekend and give you a few more for week two of the season. According to my slightly-biased count, I finished last week 13-7-6, which isn’t all that bad I guess. Some of my better picks included Thomas Jones, who re-assumed his spot in fantasy football relevance with a strong showing against the Dolphins and Chris Perry, who did very little with his first chance to shine as the Bengals new starting running back, as expected. On the flip-side, I did miss a few picks, including Ricky Williams, who returned to his role as a deadbeat (in fantasy production that is) against the Jets, while Brandon “The Bruiser” Jacobs taught me (and LaRon Landry) never to doubt him again. Anyways, it’s time for your week two studs and duds, so hopefully I can provide a little insight that can help your team this upcoming weekend…

    Studs

    Ryan Grant, RB, Packers: Unless Michael Turner is one of the greatest running backs of all time, I see no reason why Grant shouldn’t be able to exploit the same gaping weakness in the Lions defense that the Falcons did when they obliterated (for some reason the word seems like an understatement) them for 318 rushing yards in week one!

    LenDale White, RB / Chris Johnson, RB, Titans: If the Ravens, minus an injured Willis McGahee, could pound it out for 229 yards last weekend against the Cincinnati Bungholes, I have to believe a more talented duo can at least do the same. You should expect LenDale White (thunder) and Chris Johnson (lightning) to run the ball non-stop while the quarterback position for the Titans is currently going through somewhat of a a rough patch. (More …)

     

  • Anyone up for some fantasy Olympics?

    Matt 10:21 am on 8/08/2008 | 0 Permalink Reply
    Tags: olympics

    With a whole friggin month still to go before football season, and my fantasy baseball teams in various states of disarray, I’ve got a serious jones for some fantasy action. Thank goodness for ESPN’s Jim Caple and his scoring system for fantasy Olympics, which involves drafting athletes from a variety of Olympic sports. Scoring is quite simple, and actually makes a lot of sense: You get points for medals, plain and simple. Caple’s system also forces you to draft athletes from many different sports, so when you’re watching the Games at work, you’ll always have something riding on the action.

    You’ll need to get your league together by tomorrow, though, so get cracking!

     

  • Big Ben leads all fantasy scorers in the 2008-09 season

    Brandon 9:22 am on 8/05/2008 | 5 Permalink Reply
    Tags: madden, simulation,

    Well, at least he does in a recent Madden 09 simulated season, which ranked the following players as leading the league in fantasy points for the upcoming season:

    25. Reggie Wayne, WR, IND
    24. Willis McGahee, RB, BAL
    23. Thomas Jones, RB, NYJ
    22. Chad Johnson, WR, CIN
    21. Jamal Lewis, RB, CLE
    20. Adrian Peterson, RB, MIN (More …)

     

  • Favre's back for sure, unclear whether he'll remain with Pack

    Matt 12:09 pm on 8/04/2008 | 1 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , , Favre, , , , , , packers, Rodgers, , ,

    The Most Awkward Comeback Ever is finally a reality:

    The Green Bay Packers reluctantly embraced Favre’s forced return to the football field Sunday, after failing to come to a financial agreement that would manage to make Favre happy while staying retired.

    And while it’s not yet clear what role Favre will play once he reports to Packers camp Monday, Aaron Rodgers says he’s ready for a potential competition with Favre after serving as his backup for three seasons.

    It’s still unclear whether Favre will be traded. The Vikings seem to be back in the picture as his potential future home. They’d clearly be a perfect fit in every way but one: They just so happen to be Green Bay’s most hated division rival. Minnesota has a solid (if lopsided) defense, the best running game in the league – and a quarterback in Tarvaris Jackson who’s probably got one last season to prove he can play at this level before he’s cut loose. Stick Favre into this mix and you’d upgrade the Vikings from a trendy-pick contender to a serious force to be reckoned with. This trade would be excruciating for Packer fans – and a lot of fun to watch for the rest of us.

    Aaron Rodgers is promising to make it competitive, but he won’t, so let’s just go ahead and forget about him. If Favre stays in Green Bay, the value of every offensive player on the team is positively affected. My biggest concern about Ryan Grant has been that, with Rodgers behind center, teams would simply focus on stuffing the run. If Favre’s there, I see no reason not to expect him to return to the consistent performance his owners enjoyed in the second half of last season. Receivers Jennings, Driver and Jones all would benefit as well.

    Aren’t soap operas fun?

     

  • Dissent in the ranks

    Matt 7:44 am on 7/10/2008 | 2 Permalink Reply
    Tags:

    My buddy Sean, a fellow RIT alum and lifelong Bills fan, sent me an email taking me to task for daring to be disgusted with Marshawn Lynch. Since I’m kind of a jerk, I’ll post it here, and then eviscerate it publicly.

    I wholeheartedly disagree with you on the Marshawn post from the 21st of June on FFgeekblog.com.  Yes I am trying to kill time until the end of work.

    A.  Police were quoted as saying they believed he didn’t know he hit a lady because there was no attempt to cover up the marks on his whip which clearly indicated he hit something AND it was parked in his driveway.  Not hidden in the garage, not being worked on in a chop shop, just sitting in his driveway.  Marshawn is not the new “crime-scene-OJ.” (More …)

     

  • Revolution Money Exchange is the worst PayPal alternative ever

    Matt 10:17 am on 7/02/2008 | 7 Permalink Reply
    Tags: paypal, revolution money exchange

    If you’ve already joined a Yahoo fantasy football league this preseason, chances are you’ve noticed the big ad for Revolution Money Exchange across the top of the league home screen:

    Screenshot038

    I’m always up for free stuff, so I signed up even though I had no idea what the heck it was. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that what they offer, in theory anyway, is kind of like PayPal but without any fees whatsoever. Normally I’d be kind of sketched out by something like this, which sounded a little too good to be true, but their affiliation with Yahoo made me feel like they were probably pretty legit.

    Well, they aren’t. Stay. The hell. Away. (More …)

     

  • Javon Walker found unconscious in Las Vegas

    Brandon 10:15 am on 6/17/2008 | 3 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , ,

    This particular news update caught my eye, considering I was just in Las Vegas this past weekend for my cousin’s bachelor party. It appears that the 55 million dollar (over six years) man, Oakland Raiders WR Javon Walker, was found unconscious in a street off the strip in Las Vegas after an apparent mugging. The Associated Press reports:

    Police spokesman Bill Cassell said in a statement that Walker was taken to a hospital with “significant injuries” after being found early Monday on a street off the Las Vegas Strip.

    Cassell said Walker remained in fair condition at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.

    (More …)

     

  • Update: Witnesses say Marshawn Lynch was driving

    Matt 10:11 am on 6/06/2008 | 4 Permalink Reply
    Tags: asshat, , , seriously what a douche

    Lynch is an asshatThere was previously some ambiguity as to whether Lynch was actually driving the Porsche SUV that hit a woman and sped away at 3am last Saturday, but even that glimmer of hope appears to be fading:

    WGRZ in Buffalo reports that a source with knowledge of the investigation says four witnesses say Lynch was at the wheel of the vehicle at the time it hit a woman and sped off.

    If you’re wondering, in New York a hit-and-run that causes personal injury (but not death) is treated as a class A misdemeanor due to a tougher law passed in ‘05:

    This legislation also elevates the crime of leaving the scene of an incident involving personal injury, which under current law is a class B misdemeanor (maximum sentence of up to 90 days in jail), to a class A misdemeanor, with a maximum sentence of up to one year in jail, with a second or subsequent violation could be charged as a class E felony.

    Refusing to talk to the cops isn’t the kind of thing that will make a judge go easy on you (though it might be his best option at this point). Looks like Lynch could be looking at some jail time. Meanwhile, every keeper league owner on the planet whose setup allowed them to keep Lynch this season is frothing at the mouth right now. I’m not in that group thankfully, but as a Bills fan, I still feel your pain.

    Time to take a long, hard look at Fred Jackson and figure out where it might make sense to draft him. Xavier Omon’s worth keeping an eye on as well.

     

  • Marshawn Lynch still not talking to cops

    Matt 4:42 pm on 6/04/2008 | 3 Permalink Reply
    Tags:

    That pit in the stomach of every Bills fan on the planet right now? You can blame it 100% on Marshawn Lynch:

    Police investigators are growing impatient with running back Marshawn Lynch and his failure to meet with them more than three days after his vehicle was involved in a hit-and-run accident.

    Buffalo, N.Y., Police Department spokesman Mike DeGeorge suggested Tuesday that Lynch could face an obstruction-of-justice charge if he doesn’t cooperate. He said Lynch’s lawyer finally contacted investigators on Monday but said a meeting has not been set.

    I just threw up in my mouth a little, and then a whole lot more all over my desk, keyboard, and hey-what-a-coincidence my Marshawn Lynch jersey. Refusing to speak to the cops can be translated roughly from Asshat to English as: “Yep, I did it.”

    I was expecting big things from Lynch this season. The kid has scary talent and is the biggest weapon on an offense that’s ready to take the next step.

    Now he’s an unknown. And it ain’t looking good.

    (An unrelated aside: If you’re looking to rob a professional athlete’s house, do not under any circumstances choose Noah Herron’s house. Try robbing a kicker, perhaps.)

     

  • Fantasy football comes to the rescue of horse racing in Minnesota. Wait, what?

    Matt 1:45 pm on 5/13/2008 | 0 Permalink Reply

    From here:

    While some states have used the development of racinos and the introduction of slots at tracks as a method to subsidize and save the horse racing industry, Montana has come up with an intriguing alternative. The state legislature has passed a plan to create a statewide fantasy football league, which would pay funds to horse tracks.

    So let me make sure I have this straight. Horce racing isn’t doing so well in Minnesota, due, according to this article, to “rising costs and diminishing returns.” In order to save it, the state will operate its own fantasy football league, with payouts of “74% for participants.” The leftover cash will be “divided 15 % to the fantasy operator, 24% to the facility, and 61% into a reserve fund.” I assume the “reserve fund” part goes to the horse racing industry. Who knows what the “facility” is.

    In essence, Minnesota will be creating a new state lottery, with fantasy football in the place of scratch-off tickets and Scan-Tron sheets. While I’m happy to see that there are apparently at least a few influential fantasy football fans in the Minnesota state government, this plan seems downright silly to me. Using a government-run version of a popular form of gambling to bail out a struggling one has “epic fail” written all over it. Why not put the same amount of effort and expense into a strategy that might actually revive the sport of horse racing itself, rather than propping up a sinking ship with some bizarre corporate welfare scheme? Improve the marketing. Renovate the facilities. Come up with innovative and fun betting options. Hell, why not create a fantasy horse racing league and generate some actual interest in the sport itself?

     

  • Hazean mock draft update

    Matt 8:37 am on 4/16/2008 | 2 Permalink Reply

    As I mentioned previously, we’re participating in the Hazean’s 2008 NFL mock draft. We’re representing the Jets and their #6 pick. We went with Vernon Gholston, whose name has been associated with the Jets for a good month now. He’s a perfect fit for them, but I have a feeling that they’ll be very, very lucky if he falls to #6 (the Dolphins are even rumored to be considering taking Gholston with the top overall pick). Our (well, my) justification for the pick is after the jump.

    (More …)

     

  • Fantasy football: 17, fantasy baseball: 3

    Matt 6:49 pm on 4/06/2008 | 2 Permalink Reply

    Here’s an interesting stat:

    …while Rotisserie baseball is recognized as the granddaddy of all fantasy sports, football has emerged as the most popular fantasy sport among the 15 million Americans who spend hours massaging statistical data and picking teams. There are now 17 million unique users of fantasy football sites, compared with 3 million fantasy baseball players.

    17:3 sounds about right to me, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen it tallied up.

    Also, fantasyplayers.com apparently has a bigger chunk of the fantasy sports market than I would have thought:

    Mr. Russo scored a coup of sorts in the world of online fantasy games when Nielsen Online reported last November that fantasyplayers.com was the No. 4 site among fantasy football destinations, behind Yahoo, ESPN and CBS SportsLine, but ahead of NFL.com, FoxSports.com and SI.com. His company was No. 2 in fantasy baseball.

    Never used them before. Was frankly pretty much unaware of them until today.

     

  • Brandon Marshall out for 4 months?

    Brandon 11:47 am on 3/26/2008 | 4 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , denver,

    In case you hadn’t heard the news yet, recently the Denver Broncos top receiver, Brandon Marshall, was injured in a freak “fast food bag” incident. According to Stats.com:

    Marshall could miss up to four months of off-season preparations after slicing his right forearm in a freak accident. Marshall said he slipped on a fast-food bag Saturday while wrestling with family members at a Florida resort and put his right arm through a home entertainment center.

    In a statement, Broncos head athletic trainer Steve Antonopulos confirmed reports Marshall “sustained right forearm lacerations to one artery, one vein, one nerve, two tendons and three muscles.” Marshall might be ready to resume football activities in time for the start of training camp in late July.

    (More …)

     

  • Pardon our dust

    Matt 4:27 pm on 3/10/2008 | 0 Permalink Reply
    Tags: redesign

    We’re going with a somewhat more refined, cleaner look for our second season (which, by the way, is only 179 days away, not that I’m counting). Things seem to be working OK at the moment, but I’m sure we’re bound to run into problems in the near future. We’ll try and work out the kinks before the hordes of people Googling fantasy football cheat sheets zOMG start to show up around late July.

    P.S. I know this has nothing to do with the topic of this blog but holy wtf the intarwebz are asploding!

     

  • Mock draft roundup

    Matt 2:51 pm on 2/21/2008 | 2 Permalink Reply
    Tags:

    It’s still ridiculously early, but there are already a few published mock drafts for next year’s fantasy football season out there…

    NFL.com: I find quite a few nits to pick with this one. One could certainly argue for Tom Brady as the top overall pick, but despite the terrible year for tailbacks that 2007 was, I’m still taking Tomlinson with the top pick. They’ve got A-Pete 2nd, and while he’s plenty tempting, I’ll take the sturdy LT over a guy as injury-prone as Peterson any day. Ronnie Brown (12) goes too late; I’d grab him mid-1st-round for sure. Same with Joseph Addai (8) – what in the world did he do this season that would make him anything but a top-5 pick?

    The Hazean’s mock first round: Now this is more like it. Every pick makes sense to me. The only things I’d change would be to bump Addai (3) above Peterson (2), and to drop Peyton (8) down to 10 or so, which would slide Gore and Lynch up. To be honest, I really wouldn’t draft him in the first round at all this year. I truly believe he and Harrison had something special, and since Harrison doesn’t seem likely to ever be the threat he once was, I think Peyton’s numbers, while they’ll continue to be pretty great, won’t ever reach those astronomical 2004 levels again. (More …)

     

  • 2008 NFL Mock Draft - count us in

    Matt 10:02 am on 1/28/2008 | 2 Permalink Reply
    Tags:

    The Hazean is hosting a mock draft, and we’re bravely taking on the role of the Mangenius in this one. The Jets are one of those teams that has so many different needs, I think it’s almost pointless for them to target any specific position. They can use the help all over the field. The defense, though, was even more pathetic than the offense, so my instinct is to go for the best defensive player available when the #6 pick comes up. Chris Long would be the best-case scenario since he’s got the most experience in a 3-4. Vernon Gholston’s been jumping up draft boards lately and Mel Kiper’s got him as the Jets’ first-round pick on his mock draft. Sedrick Ellis and Glenn Dorsey are the other obvious names here, but I highly doubt that Dorsey will fall to #6, and Ellis isn’t a great fit in a 3-4 (though I read things like this and wonder if it matters).

    Some positions I’d rule out right away in the first round:

    • Wide receiver: The Jets are OK with Coles and the Cotch Rocket for another year.
    • Running back: Unless McFadden’s available. You’ve gotta at least consider him. But this O-line is so bad, I don’t know that he’ll make much of a difference.
    • Quarterback: I like Kellen Clemens a lot. Don’t forget that he was in the running for the 2006 Heisman until he broke his ankle. Pennington, if he can stomach it, will serve as a better-than-average backup.

    Jake Long’s the only OT worth taking at the #6 spot, but he won’t fall that far. Too many teams have a desperate need at that position, most notably the Rams (#2) and Chiefs (#5).

     

← Newer Posts | Older Posts →

c
compose new post
j
next post/next comment
k
previous post/previous comment
r
reply
e
edit
o
show/hide comments
t
go to top
esc
cancel