Fantasy files: One Yahoo in Twelve

A fantasy football-related blog would be nothing without some self-congratulatory posts about one's own drafts. I got into a work-related league and the draft was last night. Responses ranged from "cool" to "what's football?" I tried to get as many guys in the latter category involved as possible. We had to rush to draft because one guy's wife is due to give birth like tomorrow. He's a big University of Florida fan so I expected him to take Rex Grossman in the first round.

I signed up for Yahoo because I've used it for countless baseball leagues. The highlight was the entire draft page crashing a minute into the first pick. Once we collected ourselves and reconnected, the draft took off. We started with a bang, finishing the first two rounds in ten minutes. I thought the pace would slow, but the entire draft was complete in 84 minutes.

I had pick four and I knew who I was going to get. I debated taking Chris Johnson, even to the point of discussing it with my ever-patient wife. Her response to my worries about holdouts getting hurt was a curt "that sounds like superstition." Yeah, she hit the right buttons.

With the possibility of CJ being a wasted roster spot, I wondered if I would have to reach for another RB in the second round. My first sign that running backs would fall in the draft was the selection of Philip Rivers at 1.07. He did get Darren McFadden in the second round. Running backs falling in the draft would be a theme.

I got LeSean McCoy in the second round. I would have taken him at pick 1.06. In the third I took Mike Wallace over Miles Austin. Miles Austin feels like that good slice of pizza that's good mainly because it's pizza. No excitement there.

Continued strange picks: first team D was Green Bay in the third round. At this point I knew that I could wait on players I liked. The problem with knowing that players are going to fall is that you have to pick someone.

My fourth-round pick was Mike Williams of the Bucs. That felt like stealing money. I had Mark Ingram queued up for that pick and felt fortunate to get him in the fifth. I never expected to get three running backs in the first five picks. What the heck; I assumed that I'd catch up on wideouts later.

In the sixth, the WTF pick was Michael Crabtree. Even if he's completely healthy this would be a reach. I started referring to the guys who made those picks as "stretch". I took Vernon Davis. He was the last of the so-called stud tight ends, although like when I took Jimmy Graham in my keeper, few tight ends went off the board in the next three rounds. Kenny Britt in the seventh? Too soon?

In my last mock draft, I took Josh Freeman and Matthew Stafford at the 8/9 turn. I did not think this could happen in real life. QBs flew off the board until Tony Romo in the fourth round then it slowed down. I could have waited on Stafford until the 10th but I was glad to get a solid QB duo and did not feel the need to take another.

After I took three running backs early, they stayed on the board for ages. Fred Jackson went in the 10th, after Ryan Torain. Jonathan Stewart was pick 10.11. Joseph Addai also went in the 10th. I took Ryan Williams. Lance Moore and Jacoby Ford were my next two picks. I thought about Beanie Wells in the 12th but passed. Eric's going to be so pissed.

I thought the final six rounds would be slow, but again the pace was insane. Kickers flew off the board, as did defenses and receivers I thought would be on few if any fantasy rosters like Louis Murphy and Kevin Walter. I took McGahee in the 13th, Chris Cooley in the 14th, Greg Little in the 15th, Javon Ringer in the 16th, the Rams D in the 17th and scored with Alex Henery as my kicker in the 18th.

Another one of my favorite moments, the bad trade offer, came this morning. Marshawn Lynch and Mike Sims-Walker for LeSean McCoy. Is that two nickels for a quarter, or two dimes?

If holdouts do not continue, I will be starting Josh Freeman, Chris Johnson, LeSean McCoy, Mark Ingram, Mike Wallace, Mike Williams, Kenny Britt, Vernon Davis, the Rams D and Alex Henery. Oh, I see the Eagles are playing the Rams. Yeah, it's time to hit the waiver wire.

Fantasy files: Intervention time

America, I need an intervention. I've made some fantasy football transgressions recently and I need to atone. I'll take these one at a time.

I can't stop making waiver moves in my dynasty league. I checked today and I have picked up 11 guys while releasing 11 guys (many the same guys) since our rookie draft in May. In the offseason we're allowed to have 60 players on the roster. We cut to 53 for the regular season. I thought it made sense to use those seven spots for speculative undrafted rookies. There's a good chance that most of these guys aren't going to make a roster, let alone a practice squad. It's a deep class, at least according to my blog buddy Matt Waldman.

Since the lockout, I've bid on the following players: Mario Fannin, John Clay, Chad Spann, Jeremiah Johnson, Darren Evans, Damien Berry, Adrian Arrington, Maurice Morris, Lonyae Miller, Terrence Toliver, and Jaymar Johnson. What's the deal with guys who have inexplicably spelled last names like Toliver and Mathews? I already dropped flavors of the week Mario Fannin and Damien Berry. To pick up these so-called lottery tickets, I've dropped roster chum that were likely cuts like David Buehler, Rennie Curran, and Mike Kafka. I could be prescient with all these guys and have to make cuts of players who might contribute.

My second transgression is something I've never done but is a sad fantasy cliché. I joined a work fantasy league. Not only that, I took on the role of Commish. Yeah, one of my co-workers lingered at my cube too long and my boss showed up. It was all fun and games until he volunteered me to run a fantasy league. Is this a Philadelphia Eagles situation? I've been in dozens of leagues and thanks mostly to association, I can be considered a fantasy insider. In short, I should dominate this league. If I don't win, it's a disaster. I had to look up a few how-to-play-fantasy articles because I'd say a third of this league has never played the beautiful game. I look forward to explaining that a flex position is not something their wives do in a Pilates class.

The upside? There will be beer. There better be.

Fantasy files: Keeper draft post-mortem

This is normally the spot for interviews with fantasy experts of the highest caliber. Occasionally I backslide into what this blog started as: my own fantasy football journey. When my year begins, there's one weekend that's been steady and sacred for the past decade. That's local keeper league weekend. It started as a draft in a friend's basement and morphed into a three-day odyssey.

To skip directly to my team, click this here button.

We have Thursday activities, Friday activities, and the draft on Saturday. The focus on Thursday is reunion and drinking. Friday is all about poker and drinking. Saturday is drinking and the draft. This year, we reversed the priority on Saturday.

In 2010 we attempted our first off-campus draft and landed in Tunica of all places. It was a complete redraft. It was also a gathering in which Keith Richards might have said "you guys could slow down a bit". The drinking was a priority over the drafting, and the results were shall we say predicable.

We changed things up this year. Draft used to start at 9 in the morning, with a mandated "nap time" between the draft's end and the post-draft party. The post-draft party features families, so we have to behave ourselves. Most of us were hung over anyway. This year we started the draft at noon and decided to go straight to the party Instead of our boisterous penalty shots and ridiculing everyone's pick, no matter how good, we were sedate. Heck, we finished the draft in less than four hours. Usually it's more like five or six, and the last few rounds are particularly painful.

We changed one rule this year, other than cutting out most of the drinking. Last year I suggested that we add a flex position that was WR/TE. One problem with this rule is that we only have four WR slots on the rosters so things get tight on bye weeks. Instead of expanding our small benches, we added RB to the flex. My goal with adding the extra WR/TE slot and making our league PPR was to increase the value of receivers compared to running backs. We were about to go back to RB crazy land.
Enough about our league and my feelings. Let's talk draft. As I thought, there were 12 teams in the first round and 12 running backs went. The shockers were LeGarrette Blount and BenJarvis Green-Ellis going one and two. Congrats to the two former undrafted free agents. Matt Forte went third and Steven Jackson slid to a surprising 8th. The pick before me was Cedric Benson.

I had two guys I really wanted with my 10th pick. I wanted either Mark Ingram or Jahvid Best. Best went 4th. I play introduction music for all the owners in the first round. I sat back, pressed play and listened to the first few notes of "Bridges Burning" by the Foo Fighters. I casually stood up and selected Ingram. My next pick was 3.10, so I could all but take a nap for the next 30 minutes.

I had decided before the draft that Kenny Britt would be my 3.10 pick. He was a no-brainer as a WR2 in my opinion, despite the transition in Tennessee, his recent hamstring issues, and of course his troubles with the po po. I had a dilemma at 3.10, as Austin Collie was still available. He's not unlike Britt in that there's plenty of risk. I don't know if there's another player in the league with a higher risk/reward ratio. I took him. Britt surprisingly was available at 4.03 and I was poised to take him. I paused. I made an impulse buy and took Jimmy Graham. After going on the Twitter Roundtable show a month ago and saying that Graham was too high as the 6th TE off the board, I took Graham as the 6th TE off the board. Half the league seemed to not know who he was.

That's the only pick that could haunt me. It was almost two rounds until another TE went off the board. I took Mike Thomas with my second fourth-round pick and followed up with A.J. Green and C.J. Spiller in the 5th. It was the round of initials. Since almost everyone had locked down their second and third RBs, I waited and took the high-upside PPR guy. After hearing mixed reviews on my pickup of Mathews as my keeper RB, I took Mike Tolbert in the 6th round. In the 7th I took who could have been my starting TE had I passed on Graham in the 4th and taken Britt. I got Chris Cooley.

The league has roster limits. We can only have 3 QBs, 4 RBs, 4 WRs, 2 TEs, 2 Ks and 2 team defenses. That narrows your options later in the draft. I hadn't taken a backup QB yet but I had a plan. I went upside. I got the Giants D in the 8th, Beanie Wells in the 9th, and my first backup QB in the 10th was an actual backup QB in Tim Tebow. I generally wait for my last two picks to take kickers but teams were grabbing them like crazy so I took rookie Alex Henery in the 11th. I'll take the kicker from the Eagles who kicked in Nebraska where they have a bit of winter weather. I shocked the league again by grabbing Vince Young in the 12th. It's embarrassing that he was once a keeper for my team. The main reason for that pick was to make the Vick owner sweat. I finished out with the Rams D (hello, NFC West) and Adam Vinatieri.

The consensus on drafting is that you should have a complete plug and play team after the draft. I drafted knowing that my roster would be fluid. I have Peyton, and feel like he's going to be a starter for 15 of the 16 weeks that I'm going to play. Instead of taking snores like David Garrard and Jason Campbell, neither of whom are locks to start all year, I went with the high-upside backups. Seriously, if Tebow or Young start, they become top-ten guys. If they stay on the bench, I'll have to pick up a waiver guy. Manning does have an extraordinarily late bye week (11). I have time. Ingram, Spiller, Tolbert and Wells have breakout potential. A guy like Cedric Benson has breakdown potential. My WR corps is thin but chock full of youth and upside. Calvin Johnson is the old man of the group. I didn't really need to grab two tight ends so early, especially since Marcedes Lewis went in the 10th round, but with the flex option I could conceivably start both. Graham's still somewhat unproven so I'm glad to have Cooley, and if the great tight end injury run happens again in 2011, I'll be prepared. Defense and kicker are impossible to gauge. At least I got kickers on great offenses. The Giants should get their usual high number of sacks.

My team:

Keepers: Peyton Manning, Ryan Mathews and Calvin Johnson

Draft picks: traded my 2nd, traded for extra 4, 5, and traded up in the 7th

Picks:

1.10: Mark Ingram

3.10: Austin Collie

4.03: Jimmy Graham

4.09: Mike Thomas

5.??: A.J. Green

5.10: C.J. Spiller

6.03: Mike Tolbert

7.05: Chris Cooley

8.03: Giants

9.10: Beanie Wells

10.03: Tim Tebow

11.10: Alex Henery

12.03: Vince Young

13.10: Rams

14.03: Adam Vinatieri

Fantasy files; Beware of Trader Zach

My keeper league has made me crazy. I've started referring to myself in the third person, as Trader Zach.

I started with Eli Manning as my QB keeper. That was not sufficient. I had Frank Gore and Darren McFadden at running back. I considered them equal talents with McFadden's inability to stay healthy matching up with Gore's age. McFadden's talent and Gore's track record felt like a wash. I had Hakeem Nicks, Miles Austin, Brandon Marshall and Vincent Jackson at wideout. All four seemed keeper-worthy although Nicks was the stud. I decided to use my two most valuable chips and moved Nicks and McFadden for Peyton Manning. I had plans for Eli.

I started by asking for a third-round draft pick for Eli. It took me a month but the deal was done for a fourth-round pick. After considering the merits of Miles Austin versus Vincent Jackson, I decided to stick with Austin. I offered Vincent Jackson for a fourth and settled for a fifth. The other guy's top WR was Santana Moss.
All the news I've heard since I made my trades focused on Gore's injury from last year and Peyton's neck injury. I wasn't worried about the Gore's injury history and age until the Panthers decided to spend a boatload of money on DeAngelo Williams. Gore decided to hold out. I had to hit the eject button.

I botched a Shonn Greene for Mike Wallace trade, although in the end that might work out in my favor. I made an off-the-cuff counter-offer of Frank Gore for Calvin Johnson. The trade offer was to my dad. He, like any smart fantasy owner, knew the trade was unbalanced. In a phone call he mentioned that he'd take Gore and a second-round pick. I decided I wanted a pick back, and we agreed on his seventh rounder.

Making this deal would take guts. It would leave me vulnerable as my only two running backs on my roster are Shonn Greene and Fred Jackson. Neither are keeper-worthy. I'd have to make one last deal to get that keeper running back.
Scouring the rosters, I saw that one guy had Mendenhall and Forte and three WR2s. I offered him Miles Austin for the running back he didn't want. Forte has more potential in PPR but Mendenhall seems like a lock for 300 carries and maybe six guys can say that in the league. Both are young enough to be keepers at least for another year. He said he'd think about it. I was in.

It's been intoxicating to deal this much. Trading gives you a feel of what other people think about players and it makes a league a ton more interactive. In the end, I will have traded Eli Manning, Frank Gore, Darren McFadden, Hakeem Nicks, Miles Austin, and Vincent Jackson, and my second-round pick. I'll end up with Peyton Manning, Matt Forte/Rashard Mendenhall, Calvin Johnson, and extra fourth, fifth, and seventh-round picks. I traded for extra picks in my rookie draft because I trusted in my ability to pick the right players. In this case, I'll have to find a player of second-round value with one of those three picks. Then again, I could bundle them for a trade up. Trader Zach approves.

Fantasy files; Best week ever?

Let's face it, fans of faux football: This has been the best offseason ever. What would you rather have, a long, boring free agency in March or this week of insanity? I think Twitter took this week over the top with updates about every 45 seconds today with new signings and rumors nonstop. Most of the news was bad for us fantasy-ers.

DeAngelo Williams re-signs with the Panthers. Boo! Williams drops in value for two reasons. Jonathan Stewart will steal touches and Cam Newton probably will poach a few touchdowns. Stay away from all Denver/Carolina running backs. I might benefit from this move in one league, though.

Sidney Rice to the Seahawks. The wha? He's a high-ceiling guy, but Seahawk fans are going to pine for the halcyon days of Seneca Wallace after watching the Whitehurst/Jackson show.

Santonio Holmes back to the Jets. I'll be honest. I get the same non-fuzzy feelings with Holmes as I do with Vincent Jackson. I'd love either of them on my real team, but on my fantasy team I'll pass at their current price.

Matt Hasselbeck to the Titans: Really not much of an impact. He's still a borderline QB2/3. Kenny Britt and CJ2K don't move. Jared Cook stays in intriguing TE2 range.
Santana Moss and roster churn to the Redskins: I didn't know Donte Stallworth was still in the league. Moss is a WR3, and a pretty unexciting one.

Lots of undrafted free agents sign with the Eagles: The Eagles let Jerome Harrison go, so someone from the youngster pu pu platter of Eldra Buckley (as if), Dion Lewis, Noel Devine, Graig Cooper and Derrick Locke will win the backup job. Or will they? Have fun in your Zealots-style drafts trying to figure out who to target.

My continued pursuit for mid-round picks in my keeper league continues. I started with an offer of a third round pick for Eli Manning and snagged a fourth. I have offers out for Vincent Jackson and Shonn Greene. My poor father thought he had a deal for LeSean McCoy that evaporated and his best remaining RB is Jonathan Stewart. I don't know if Greene is keeper-worthy but he's a better piece than J-Stew. If I manage to get as many as five picks in the 4th through 5th rounds, I'll need some help on what to do with them. This isn't much of a trade on draft day kind of crew. We promised to drink less as this year's draft goes straight into the family-attended post party. Some of us will comply with that request.

Fantasy files: Motorboatin'

My first podcast appearance was a fun experience. At least I knew I was going to be on a podcast. The second time was not quite the same.

I listen to piles of podcasts, mainly fantasy football of late. The first and still best is The Audible. You have the sports radio guy in Cecil Lammey, the die-hard film buff in Matt Waldman, and the all-around fantasy know-it-all in Sigmund Bloom. Cecil occasionally throws in sound clips. His new favorite references motorboating.

All men know what I'm talking about when I say motorboating. Think Wedding Crashers. In the show Cecil insists it refers to his deep love of larger running backs like Jerome Bettis, LenDale White, and the Lion rookie Mikel Leshoure. The verb comes out as "motorboating" a running back. If you think about it deeply, you get disturbing images. The point is not to do that.

The wife and I are discussing taking a trip to Italy in the spring. One city she wants to visit is Venice. She showed me a brochure last week referencing, since the city's short on roads, that all travel packages include a complementary motorboat ride. We both thought that was unintentionally hilarious. Remembering my connection with the audible, I tweeted Cecil this thought: As we looked at a brochure for an Italian trip that started with "complementary motorboat transfer to your hotel", I thought of @cecillammey.

Once again, using the term "motorboat" attached to a guy has bad connotations. Early in this week's podcast he teased motorboat. I thought there was no way that my comment out of the many he certainly receives on a weekly basis would be the one singled out. It was. About 57 minutes and 30 seconds into the podcast, Cecil read the tweet to his co-hosts and it got the longest, loudest laugh of the show.

Motorboating has never been so satisfying.

Fantasy files: First swipe at keeper strategery

It's 15 days until my local keeper draft and I do not have a strategy. I'm trying to offload Eli Manning and Vincent Jackson for mid-level draft picks to stock up. So far I have heard nothing from my leaguemates.

My roster: If nothing changes, I will start with Peyton Manning, Frank Gore, and Miles Austin. That's two injury risks and a guy who once dated Kim Kardashian. I draft in the 10 hole due to my semifinal appearance last year. Our starting lineups are QB, 2RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, D/K and a flex. The flex was WR/TE, making a WR/WR selection with my 1/2 picks interesting. We're voting on changing the WR/TE flex to RB/WR/TE. If that's the case and we can start up to three running backs, our league reverts back to going running back heavy. This does change the strategy. Note that this is a PPR league. If I have the 10th pick and say seven of the nine picks behind me are running back, I could panic and take the eighth best RB or I could go with the third best WR. I could counter the entire league by taking two WRs in these slots, locking up that position.

The eighth best RB or the 20th RB total scored 189 points last year. The third best WR or the 15th WR total scored 217 points. Yeah, the PPR format really changes things up. Even with the keepers taking the top 12 (or so) players off for QB, RB, and WR, maybe going with Matt Waldman's upside-down draft strategy would work. I'd get, say, Brandon Marshall and Mike Williams with my first two picks. By the time my third-round pick comes up, 29 running backs are off the board. Half the teams in the league have three RBs and I have one. I'd have to decide between guys like Joseph Addai, Marshawn Lynch, and Mikel Leshoure. I just Lepuked on my keyboard.

I went with Addai and Leshoure with my 3/4 turn picks. It's going to be very tough for me to pass on a RB with that first pick. Maybe it's the shiny object that the position represents. I don't believe in my ability to mine two pieces of gold out of the three RB roster slots I have left when I have dregs from which to select. Now if I can trade for those extra mid-round picks, I'd be able to hold onto an extra player or two until the season starts and depth charts start to shake out.