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When the owner in my keeper league was fortunate enough to pick up Stephen Strasburg on waivers, once he became available on CBS’s fantasy site last season. Not only did said owner not have the worst record in the league, he now boasted a rotation of Halladay, Sabathia, Strasburg, Latos, Brett Anderson, Jurrjens, Wandy, Gavin Floyd. Very impressive indeed, especially given how Anderson and Latos have become two of the better young pitchers in real and fantasy baseball. Losing Strasburg for this season and most if not all of next is obviously devastating, but could he have been traded before the worst case scenario? Read the rest of this entry »

An article I contributed to my buddy John’s fledgling fantasy football site, www.ffpharmacy.com

Dallas Clark has been one of the top two tight ends off the board in fantasy football drafts this summer so far (along with Vernon Davis). The 31 year old Clark is coming off of a career season, hitting the century mark with precisely 100 catches, and eclipsing the 1,100 mark in receiving yards and also hit paydirt ten times. Add it all up and the culmination was a very worthy All-Pro selection.

Ostensibly,there are many reasons to draft Clark with a high pick, especially in PPR leagues. The Colts have featured one of the most prolific offenses in the league for over a decade and future HOF QB Peyton is showing no signs of decline whatsoever. Clark more than capably filled the void left by the hasty departure of Marvin Harrison, long one of the best receivers in the game, and along with Manning forming one of the most lethal QB-WR duo in the history of the game. Clark benefited from the attention Reggie Wayne draws as an elite WR and dramatically outproduce his 2009 ADP.

All that being said, I am not really bullish on Clark equally or surpassing his 2009 numbers. My lasting memory of Clark’s 2009 season is his 7 catch finale being so contrived to get him his 100 catches. Unfortunately, I don’t see such theatrics this year to help out his fantasy owners. Secondly, the emergence of playoff hero Pierre Garcon will definitely diminish Clark’s targets this year.

Clark was targeted a whopping 132 times in 2009, behind only Tony Gonzalez. For comparison, Wayne was targeted 149 times in 2009, an average of approximately once more per game than Clark. Needless to say that is going to be an extremely tough trend to sustain. No doubt the number of looks is definitely going to decrease with Garcon becoming more of a traditional No. 2 WR in Indy. And we haven’t even discussed Anthony Gonzalez yet, who is coming off of injury and is looking to get into the mix after some major unfulfilled sleeper status to replace Harrison. The Colts will work Gonzalez in slowly but he definitely has the pedigree to thrive in Indy’s passing game, equaling more bad news for Clark’s 2010 fantasy prospects.

With so many things breaking right for Clark in 2009, it translated to a monster fantasy season. I don’t believe the indicators portend to a repeat performance so it is definitely folly to expect a duplicate season from Clark. The man will still get his, but I think something along the lines of 75 800 6 TD is more prudent, leaving his current 4th RD ADP a bit of a reach.

In third place in my division going into this, trailing the playoff leader by four games with twenty-four remaining, so I am very much in the thick of things. Being in this precarious and familiar position of trailing this late, has me pondering the following dilemma: should I buy (make a dramatic push for a legitimate playoff run) or sell (trade off useful but expendable pieces i.e. Erick Aybar, Bronson Arroyo and make a minor makeover while improving keepers)?

A major characteristic of fantasy keeper league success is Read the rest of this entry »

From www.rotoworld.com

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.aspx?sport=MLB&hl=283057&id=2773

I have no adequate in house candidate to mitigate this loss, so I am going to have to mix and match my bench pitchers (Scott Feldman, Ross Ohlendorf, Jason Hammel) etc to help out. I am not going to outright drop Nathan yet because maybe I (and the Twins) get lucky and he only misses a couple of months, but that is indeed the best case scenario.

This is my first NBA Fantasy league in a few years, the last time was ‘03 and I missed the playoffs after a very unimpressive and pedestrian effort. This time at the urging of my college friends, I joined their league and was in first place for the most part. However, injuries to Kobe and Brandon Roy loosened what had been a stranglehold on the division and allowed Stat King to usurp me for the top seed..

It definitely has been a valuable learning experience. I had to adjust to the shallow rosters and it is my first time ever playing in a head to head rotisserie league. But all in all, it’s been fun. I have gotten great returns on Bargnani, Brook Lopez, Al Horford, and Boozer. Jarrett Jack has filled in nicely for the since-released Mo Williams as my backup pg for Devin Harris, who has picked up his level of play recently.

We have nine scoring categories and to advance you obviously have to win at least five of them. My strategy in the first round of the playoffs is to win points, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, blocks, and rebounds. He has the upper hand in my opinion with steals, three pointers made. Turnovers and assists are up in the air..

I have Kobe and Prince against Granger with this limited Tuesday NBA slate…

The last few years have allowed me to build a rock solid core in my keeper baseball league. I have to come clean, the last couple of drafts I basically mailed them in, figuring I can rip off an owner or three with my shrewd fantasy sports acumen and salesmanship. Also, I stay on top of the waiver wire and always manage to grab impact players as the season proceeds. Even though I had a very successful season and finished runner-up, I can reflect and say for the first time in years that I lost to a better team. No scheduling quirks, no role players having unprecedented hot streaks, no games adversely affected by mother nature. It was a classic case of not being good enough.

This has humbled me enough that with the baseball draft almost a week away, I have done my research and will not be under prepared again. I bring back a rock solid core –names like Utley, Braun, Kershaw, Papelbon, Nathan can bang with anyone in this or any league. I just have to deepen my roster as my overabundance of “lightning in the bottle” role players really caught up to me. Guys like Ryan Franklin and Brian Fuentes showed their true colors in September and I paid the price. Well, back to the drawing board so we can reign supreme once more! I am hungrier than ever and eager to reclaim the throne! Congrats to Randy Wasoba and cannot wait for the draft and the season to start!!

What a difference a year makes! Last season, I made like the ‘07 New York Football Giants and caught lightning in a bottle, taking out the two higher seeds en route to an unlikely (but not undeserved) championship. I had high hopes as I retained a rock-solid core going into the season —Chris Johnson, Steven Jackson, Welker, Fitzgerald, and the controversial choice of Brandon Marshall over Tony Romo.

My draft was absolutely horrendous — Derrick Ward, Earnest Graham were my first two picks. However, I was able to get Big Ben in the 3rd round to salvage my season, getting Romo-esque production and retaining a 3rd consecutive 100 catch season from “Baby TO”

I was the 2nd seed at 9-4, finishing with the most points in the league. I was extremely confident after last season and a 2nd title was merely a formality, reflecting back in hindsight. I blew out my two opponents in the playoffs and won convincingly and drama free, the way I envisioned.

The undisputed MVP was obviously 2,000 yard man Chris Johnson, after some uneven performances to start the year, the guy was absolutely bananas! Steven Jackson, in spite of playing for the worst team in the league, was the second leading rusher in the league and absolutely gutted out some great performances considering the circumstances. I didn’t really made that many trades but I did trade Santana Moss for Johnathan Stewart who was tremendous down the stretch when his fellow 1,100 yard rusher De’Angelo Williams got injured over the last few games of the season. That trade mitigated the disaster of trading for Owen Daniels and then only to watch him go down for the season the next day!

All in all, it was a fantastic run. My core is in its prime so I can definitely dominate for a couple of more seasons, even though the NFL is so fickle. My tough decision is letting Welker go after his horrific knee injury and keeping Stewart, but other than that, I should be the odds on favorite again in ‘10!!!!

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Have been away for a minute, just haven’t had anything relevant to post. But it’s almost playoff time, so want to check in. Keeper football is going well, 8-4 with 3rd seed locked up and a chance to move up if I win or one of the other 9-3 guys lose. It’s not a likely scenario, but far from impossible. Ben and Matty Ice being banged up doesn’t aid my chances of repeating, but Ben looks back on track…

My 9-3 team doesn’t look that strong on paper, but I am winning, so just hope to stay lucky…

Rodgers, Jacobs, Fred Jackson, Welker, MSW, Witten..doesn’t really make you petrified to see me, but again, it’s working, not going to fight it..I will preview my playoff matchups once they are set.

The trade deadline in my keeper football league has came and went, so there have been a few trades over the last few days (this trade season has been extremely stagnant) as owners scramble to upgrade or shore up their rosters as we head into the last 6 weeks of the regular season. As mentioned in my prior post, I am right in the thick of things, but a league owner brought up some interesting points: How owners “playing for next year (or beyond)” and “giving up too early” can really affect the contenders. He believes it’s way too early to pack things up if you have a mediocre record and that by “selling” all of your tangible assets and “building for the future” in deals that are one-sided or deemed that way, other owners will suffer as a result of the have’s getting richer. Read the rest of this entry »