Birth of a Fantasy Football Fanatic

My fantasy baseball roots go back to 1990, when I met this pretty woman at work who was into fantasy baseball, and had her own team.  We got married, had kids, and are still together today, though she’s not into the team anymore (yes, it’s the same keeper league!).

That team, The Scorpions, had an ugly, rebuilding season in 2009…and is long gone from the playoff picture.  So is my non-keeper league team The Swingin’ J’s.

So, a little fantasy football anyone?

I started playing two years ago, and I almost hate to admit it, it is just as fun as fantasy baseball….without having to tinker with your lineup on a daily basis.  Oh, but for sure, I’m just as obsessed…just ask my wife.

I have two teams…one in The Western Mass. Conference, which I have been a member since 2007 (came in third last year!), and I also have a team in The QB League, which I founded last year.  Both leagues are “re-draft” leagues, meaning you pick a whole new team each season.  For many, the draft is the best part. 

The Western Mass. Conference holds it’s draft online.  The QB League has been hosted at my house the past two seasons.  It’s more fun that way if you can get everyone together…they’re lots of razzing and stuff.  What’s interesting about The QB League is I founded it in part to get my kids involved in something mathematical.    So the league includes them as team managers, along with six other middle schoolers!  And don’t laugh.  Last year, the kids took spots number one through three in the final standings…and all the adults took up the league’s bottom rung!

This year will be different, I hope.  The kid who won last year (who is nicknamed “G“) had Tom Brady (QB-New England), and lost him in the first 20 minutes of the season, but he was smart enough to have Phillip Rivers (QB-San Diego) as his backup.  The other half of the league are all “grownups”.  We have added some that will hopefully be smarter than the ones who got pasted last year…in addition to myself, Bob the firefighter down the street, and my Eyewitness News assignment editor Skeeter, we have a bunch of new “managers”. 

For starters there’s Chris, a well known police Lieutenant with a penchant for all things Redskin,  Eyewitness News photographer Tom, and someone you really may know, Eyewitness News reporter/anchor Hallie Jackson…a rabid Philadelphia Eagles fan, I might add. 

So The QB League did its draft in late August.  It’s what’s called a PPR League, which means that in addition to the traditional fantasy football scoring, you get “points per reception”, increasing the value of a guy like Wes Welker (WR-New England) who makes a lot of catches, but doesn’t always get TD’s.

As far as my team goes, I co-own it with my youngest daughter.  It’s called Skills, a salute to one of our favorite movies, Napoleon Dynamite.

We did pretty well in the draft.  Our team (in the approximate draft order) includes:

QB-Drew Brees (New Orleans)

RB-Marion Barber (Dallas)

RB-Pierre Thomas (New Orleans)

WR-Vincent Jackson (San Diego)

WR-Bernard Berrian (Minnesota)

WR/TE-Eddie Royal (Denver)

K-Kris Brown (Houston)

DEF-New Orleans

Our reserves…

RB-Ahmad Bradshaw (New York Giants!)

RB-Jerious Norwood (Atlanta)

QB-David Garrard (Jacksonville)

WR-Chris Henry (Cincinnati)

There will be much fantasy fun to follow.  Right now I gotta go get ready for the 6 o’clock news!  Can’t wait until my next draft tomorrow night!…lb

Quittin’ Time

Well, you know what they say about the best laid intentions…

My fantasy baseball team in a keeper (legacy) league, The Scorpions, is toast.  Didn’t make the playoffs.  Didn’t finish over .500, just not a good season.  There were some bright spots, the emergency of Scorpions rookies Colby Rasmus (OF-Cardinals) and Nolan Reimold (OF-Orioles),  the acquisition of Brandon Inge (3B-Tigers),  and Elvis Andrus (SS-Rangers) and the emergence of young pitchers Gio Gonzalez (SP-Athletics).  These players will be some of the building blocks for the team going forward.  I get to keep 18 of the 25 players on my roster during the offseason.  We’re going young.  Most of the players next year will be under 30 years old.  The plan is to take my lumps for a few years, then emerge a much stronger team.

As far as the non-keeper league team, The Swingin’ J’s,  I’m afraid we peaked early, with players like Raul Ibanez (OF-Phillies), Carlos Beltran (OF-Mets), and David Wright (3B-Mets)…who either never came back following injuries, or just never came back offensively.  The Mets nightmarish season has made mine one as well…though I can keep these two guys on my disabled list and replace their active roster spots with other players.  That’s where The Swingin’ J’s are now swingin’ for the fences.  I just picked up David Ortiz (DH-Red Sox) also known as Big Papi.  A risk, an ethically challenged pick as well…but you can not argue with the recent numbers.  He just hit his 20th home run and the Sox are in a race for the last wild card spot, so you know he’s gonna play and play hard…also playing hard to quiet doubters after that New York Times performance enhancing drug story last month.    For the first six weeks of the season, this fantasy team was in first.  Then we drifted down to the middle of the pack in this 12 team league around the All Star break, and now we’re mired in ninth.  The good news is, the top 6 teams make the playoffs, so I’m not giving up yet!

Now to the big announcement.

Even though the excitement over baseball is dying down for me, I will introduce the newest part of the blog…fantasy football!  I plan to bring you dispatches from this front going forward, along with baseball stuff as well.

As far as the gridiron goes, I am in two private, head to head leagues, one that I’ve been in for three years with a bunch of guys from Western Mass. (The Western Mass Conference)  that I was introduced to through a news photographer here that used to work for WWLP-TV40 in Springfield, and another league in which I serve as Commissioner (The Quarry Brook, or *QB* League).

More updates to come!

It’s Tough Being Me….

When it comes to this year’s fantasy baseball season.  The Scorpions, my keeper league team, is mired in the basement.  Rebuilding has begun in earnest.  I just picked up rookie pitchers Gio Gonzalez of the Oakland A’s and Bud Norris of the Houston Astros.  We’ll see how they do in the second half and see if they are in fact “keepers”…or maybe I’ll have to be even more patient than that.

 

As far as my other team goes, The Swingin’ J’s….the team peaked early.  Coupled with the fact I’ve had some serious injuries, The New York Mets  outfielder Carlos Beltran, and the Florida Marlins’ closer Erik Lindstrom to name a few,  and it adds up to a big six week slide that has the team going from 1st to 5th out of 12…and the top six teams make the playoffs.  Stay tuned.

The Injury Bug

Well, The Scorpions just stink.  My keeper league team is in a really tough division, we’re in last, and I’m just trying to have a respectable season.  Right now though, we’re like 25-50 and going nowhere fast.  I’m very encouraged by rookie outfielders Nolan Reimold (Orioles…8HR, 17RBI, .287) and Colby Rasmus (Cardinals….7HR, 28RBI, .270), and now even Wladmir Balentien (2HR, 17RBI, .227) is getting a full time shot with the Mariners.  But patience is the watchword with this team.

The Swingin’ J’s is another story.  We have been in and out of first place much of the year, but now we may be about to slide.  Two of our stud outfielders, Carlos Beltran (Mets…8HR, 40RBI, .336) and Raul Ibanez (Philies…22HR, 59RBI, .312), are out…on the Disabled List, possibly until the All Star break!  I’ve picked up Andre Ethier (Dodgers…11HR, 43RBI, .268) and Mike Cameron (Brewers…12HR, 38RBI, .248) as replacements, but it’s just not the same.

The good news is I have someone coming off the DL on this time.   John Smoltz will have his first start for the Red Sox on Thursday!  That is, if it doesn’t get rained out!

How About Those Yankees?

You almost have to feel sorry for the New York Yankees.  Well, not really.  The team spent millions during the offseason to land heralded free agents C.C. Sabathia, and Mark Texiera, all in an effort to challenge the vaunted Boston Red Sox. 

The result?  0-8 head to head so far this season. 

Last night’s game was just sad.  C.C. gets the Yanks to the 8th with a 3-1 lead and runs out of gas.  The bullpen couldn’t hold the lead.  A-Rod, normally the goat, was left on 2nd the inning before after a big hit.

There was a big upside for my fantasy teams, The Scorpions and The Swinging J’s?  I have Jonathan Papelbon on both squads, and he got the side out 1-2-3 and got the save.

The June Swoon

Well, you knew I couldn’t be “Mr. May” forever.  I just didn’t think my fantasy baseball teams would slide so quickly.

The news for The Scorpions has been harsh.  Pitching, normally our strength, has been in the toilet.  It doesn’t help that closers Jonathan Papelbon of the Red Sox and Matt Lindstrom of the Marlins have had shaky outings.  They are actually the least of my worries.  It all began with starter Ricky Nolasco of the Marlins (15 game winner in ’08) going down to the minors to get his mechanics worked out.   Then the same thing happened to Indians starter Fausto Carmona (19 game winner in ’07).  Couple that with subpar performances from Pirates starter Ian Snell, who normally gets a lot of strikeouts, and a four game skid by starter Joe Saunders of the Angels, and you can understand why my team is 1-13 the past two weeks! 

The bright spots for The Scorpions are our younger players.  So there is hope for the future.  We snagged Orioles outfielder Nolan Reimold just at the right time!  He got called up to the big club a little more than a month ago and has 7 homers and 16 RBI in just 78 at bats!  Then there’s outfielder Colby Rasmus of the Cardinals.  We have had him stashed away in this “keeper” league for two years, and finally he’s producing.  He is only 22.  In 175 at bats he has 7 homers, 23 RBI and he’s hitting .269.  More importantly though, both these guys have fought their way into the starting lineups of their respective teams.

 

The Swinging J’s are faring better…but it has been a down few weeks.  We are in third place after an 8-12 week, followed by a 10-9 week.  So far this week though we are 13-3, so improvement may be right around the corner.  The trouble has been two of our fantasy studs on the Mets, outfielder Carlos Beltran, and 3B David Wright, were both in a funk until about two or three days ago.  Now Wright is somewhat back on track (no power, but .354 average and 16 stolen bases) , and Beltran got rid of the stomach flu that knocked him out of the lineup for a bunch of games.

Mr. May

That originally was a nickname Yankees owner George Steinbrenner derisively gave to high priced (at the time) free agent Dave Winfield in the 1980’s.  It might as well be my title in one league.  As of Monday, The Swingin’ J’s are in first place!  We are 69-42-29.  Yes, there are ties in this league.  We are a game and a half in first.  So it could be short lived.

The Scorpions are not as lucky.  We are in last place in our division.  The toughest division in the league.  Here’s a look:

 

Arch Rivals         39-10

Cracker Jacks     32-17

Colt 45’s                 30-19

Scorpions              21-28

 

But again, just as my first place run in one league could end soon, it is only May.  So there’s hope for the other league too!

The First 30 Days

Well, were about a month in to the season, and my two fantasy teams are doing pretty well. The Scorpions are just a shade under .500, powered by strong play by surprise upstart Brandon Inge of the Tigers, who appears to be much more comfortable at the plate thanks to his return to his natural field position of third base. I think he’s up to 5 dingers or more. I have a bunch of other guys with a lot of homers, Curtis Granderson of the Tigers, and Casey Blake of the Dodgers….but their stats are sort of “hollow”….not much of a batting average or extra base hits to back up the strong homer numbers. None of our starting pitchers have been standouts, except for Joe Saunders of the Los Angeles Angels…who is 3-0. He doesn’t get a lot of strikeouts though, so if he doesn’t get the windsor, I don’t get a lot of points. Jonathan Papelbon of the Red Sox, has rocked as usual…..with 5 saves so far.. My other closer, Matt Lindstrom of the Florida Marlins, is on shaky ground, but has a lot of saves as well.

My real rock star team so far is The Swingin’ J’s. They are a half game out of first place at this writing, powered by strong performances from the above said Brandon Inge, along with Pablo Sandoval of the San Franciso Giants, who plays third but qualifies at catcher, New York Mets centerfielder Carlos Beltran, and early on, second baseman Kelly Johnson of the Atlanta Braves. He’s in a slump now. Pitching wise on this team….we’ve been anchored for the second season in a row by emerging Los Angeles Dodger superstar Chad Billingsley, who appears recovered from that broken leg he suffered in the offseason. He is a just a great fantasy pitcher to own. Lots of wins, and strikeouts, and he gives up few runs, walks, and home runs.

More reports from the front to follow…..

 

 

So Far, So Good…

Well the season is just a few days old, and some of my players are already turning in strong performances. 

Team #1…The Scorpions

The first outing for stud pitchers Joe Saunders and Ricky Nolasco turned out as advertised…solid wins…in the case of Nolasco, a number of strikeouts!  Hitting wise, my Brandon Inge pickup is a winner so far.  He homered in his first two games.  And in the bullpen, Jon Papelbon squeezed out a save in the Sox opener. 

Two days in….my record is 7-0 in this league.

 

Team #2…The Swingin J’s

So far in this league, I am 8-8…if all trends continue through the rest of the week.  Stars for this team include Brandon Inge (see Scorpions)…along with Curtis Granderson, a fellow Tiger who also homered in his first game. 

 

Fantasy baseball though, like the stock market, can be very fickle…I’ll let you know how things turn out by the end of the week!

Here We Go!

Less than a week and counting!  My two drafts are done, and I can’t wait to get going!  The draft highlights:

 

Team #1…The Scorpions (a keeper league)

This league, since it is a keeper league, only has a supplemental draft.  That means we picked up 7 additional players to add to the 18 we kept since last season.  This is a “points” league, meaning we get points for everything a player does (hits, runs, rbi, wins, saves, etc.).  That has an effect on who you decide to pick up.  You want to make sure you have the best possible players at every position that can get a lot of points in the “points categories” your league has.   Some of the new players include:

Brandon Inge (3B/C-DET)…one of my favorite pickups…starting 3b qualifies at Catcher!  20 HR potential!

Justin Masterson (RP-BOS)…he’s one injury away from being a stud starter for one of the best teams in baseball.

Matt Linstrom (RP-FLA)…new Marlins closer throws 100mph!

 

Team #2…The Swingin J’s (non-keeper league)

In this league we draft all new teams each spring.  It’s sort of overwhelming on draft day…you have to make some decisions really fast!  This league has fewer teams than my other one…so more superstars per team.  This league, compared to the other one,  has you go against a different team every week, and you win based on how well you do in categories…so regardless of position, you want to have some guys strong in homers, some in triples, stolen bases, etc….along with pitchers who can get wins, shutouts, strikeouts, and not give up a lot of homers, walks, or runs, for example.  Here’s how it went…again…the highlights:

David Wright (3B-NYM)…one of the best players out there..strong in multiple categories…including walks.

Carlos Beltran (OF-NYM)….ditto

Justin Morneau (1B-MIN)….same deal

Curtis Granderson (OF-DET)…he doesn’t have power of the other guys….but he hit a ton of triples last year.  I also have him on The Scorpions.

Raul Ibanez (OF-PHI)…surprisingly strong in a number of categories…but he is 36 and an injury/sunset of career risk.

Derek Lee (1B-CUBS)…same deal as Ibanez.

Kelly Johnson (2B-ATL)…emerging 2B who could have breakout year in ‘09.

Brandon Inge (C/3B-DET)…name sound familiar?

Pablo Sandoval (C/3B-SF)…hopefully my pick that slipped under my competitor’s radar.  Hit like .345 in 100+AB’s late last season!

Ricky Nolasco (SP-FLA)…Marlins starting pitcher gets lots of wins/strikeouts, does give up a lot of gopherballs.

Ted Lilly(SP-CUBS)…same deal as Nolasco except not Cubs Opening Day starter.

Chad Billingsley(SP-LAD)…emerging ace with lots of wins/strikeouts.

Jon Papelbon(RP-BOS)…perhaps the best closer in baseball…I’ve had him for years on my keeper team, The Scorpions.

Matt Linstrom(RP-FLA)…again, name sound familiar?

 

So remember how I said The Swingin J’s draft was overwhelming because you have to pick so many players so quickly? (btw you have a minute thirty to make each draft pick) Well, the crutch I used to help me is that old phrase “…dance with the one that brung ya’?”  That’s what I did in this draft.  I would often revert to picking either:

a) players I had on The Swingin’ J’s last year (Nolasco, Billingsley, Lilly, Wright, Beltran)

b) players I have on The Scorpions (Papelbon, Granderson, Linstrom, Nolasco)

c) players I used to have on The Scorpions (Ibanez)

The advantage of going for these guys is, while it is a little boring to have players you’ve had before, they are steady, known quantities, giving me more time to concentrate on other players in the draft. 

 

No more time to crow about my picks.  Let’s see how it goes.  The games begin Sunday!  Good Luck to all you Fantasy & Roto players!