There may not be a more non-descript injury than the dreaded "high ankle sprain" (HAS) in all of football. What does it mean? I know what what it is in medical terms, but how it translates to a player is a totally different story. It could take a player out for a week, 3 weeks, or the whole season. Michael Turner had one last year, and it pretty much took him out of relevance for the last 6 weeks of the year. Julius Jones pulled the high ankle sprain in 2005 and, save for a couple of spurts over the past 5 years, has been nothing but a pedestrian NFL running back. How quickly a player recovers from this injury is totally dependent on the players ability to heal and their ability to withstand pain. TO had one in the Eagles Superbowl year, and came back to play, and play well, just a couple weeks after sustaining it. But he's a freak of nature. For fantasy football players, seeing the guy you drafted highly come down with the HAS has to be one of the most disheartening moments we can live through (in our fantasy lives, which dominates my real life). At least when an ACL get's blown out, you know that player is DONE. The HAS leaves hope, albeit false hope, that your guy will be back shortly and return to the guy you drafted so highly.
Ryan Matthews owners, I hope you picked up Mike Tolbert; I just don't think the kid will be back anytime soon. The Chargers are going to be extra careful with their top draft choice and I'd be shocked if he plays anytime soon.
The only thing worse than the HAS *might* be when a coach comes out and says a player "tweaked" something. Tweaked? Thanks for the hard hitting medical analysis.
Top Starts for This Week You May Not Consider:
1. Donovan McNabb, QB, WAS. St. Louis is weak. He's actually not half bad this year. If you don't have a stud QB (P. Manning, Rodgers, Brees) you could do worse (Flacco, Favre).
2. Matt Forte, RB, CHI. This game against GB is poised for a shootout. Forte is starting to look like a mini-Marshall Faulk. I'd get him in.
3. Darren McFadden, RB, OAK. Despite Michael Bush coming back this week, Run DMC is starting to look like the old Run DMC the Raiders drafted 4th overall in 2008. After what Jason Snelling did to the Cardinals last week, you have to get McFadden in there.
4. Jahivd Best, RB, DET. I know, he's the top fantasy producer YTD. But I've seen a lot of people benching him because of his matchup with Minnesota. Don't do it. He's talented AND has great football sense. Keep him active. The cream always rises to the top.
5. Correll Buckhalter, RB, DEN. If you've been living in a cave you may not have heard that Knowshon Moreno is out this week (first reported as a "tweak"; thanks Dr. Josh McDaniels) against the Colts, and the Colts couldn't stop me or my grandma in the running game. Get him active if you have him.
Best of luck to everyone, except PLOWWWWMAN this week.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Almost the Typical Disaster
This was close. Really close. Week 2 of this young NFL season nearly bestowed upon me the typical disaster that has marked my 10+ years of fantasy football.
Sunday started off great. It was a thing of beauty, watching Michael Turner destroy the Arizona defense. 75 yards on only 9 carries. Are you kidding me? I was looking at putting up near triple digits. My man, Jay Cutler, was carving up the Cowboys, I had Antonio Gates and Ryan Matthews in the afternoon. It was gonna be a good, good day.
Then it stopped. Turner stopped getting the ball. All I saw was Jason Snelling, Snelling, Snelling to the tune of 186 total yards and 3 TD's. Panic set in. I began checking twitter constantly, looking for an update. There it was: tightness in the groin. WHAT!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Here we go again.
Well, at least I still have rookie stud Ryan Matthews.
FAIL.
After getting over the shock of watching Jason Snelling take all my guys caries and touchdowns, I get word Matthews sprained his ankle and his return is questionable. I threw a towel at my TV. I think my wife was scared. Could this really be happening? The two guys I had to have this year, both hurt in week 2. I was still fantasy-cursed. In another league, the upstart and fantastic PFFL http://pffl2010.blogspot.com/ I left Jahvid Best and his 33 fantasy points on the bench. Things had gotten real ugly, real fast.
Well, that is how things usually work out for me. If it's inevitable, I might as well just enjoy it, right.
But something happened: a festivus, miracle if you will: I won my game. Narrowly, but I'll take it. Victories like this don't happen to me. I went 1-13 last year; the culture of winning is not something I'm used to. So I started thinking maybe my team is not so bad after all this year. 2-0 for the first time....ever, I think. Granted I had guys like Jay Cutler (stud), Antonio Gates (super stud), Jeremy Maclin (2 TD's in two weeks ain't bad), and Darren McFadden (surprisingly serviceable) helping pick up the slack. In fact, looking at the big picture I went 2-1 across my fantasy landscape, and ended the weekend a combined 5-1 in all leagues combined. Perhaps I've learned from all my losing over the past few years. Or it could be one of the most important aspects of fantasy sports was on my side: the schedule.
I'll argue the most important aspect of a fantasy season is your match-up's. Sure, you need to draft a decent team, based on projections and a crystal ball. But a "virtual defense" is so important, yet the most difficult position to draft (because you can't). This week I faced Tom Brady as he faced the Jets. Yes he had a couple scores, but it was nothing like the week before where he went off against the Bengals. Had he duplicated the performance, I'd be singing a very different tune. Over the past few years, I've routinely lead the league in "most points against", not a stat you want to lead a league in. Chris Johnson vs. the Raiders (21pts) is very different than Chris Johnson vs. the Steelers (2pts). A bad "virtual defense" can make you pull the trigger on bad trades, bad free agent pickups, and give you a bad disposition. Just remember, the "VD" is something you simply can't control; just make good, logical decisions and don't panic if your 0-2 because you were matched up with Arian Foster in week one then got Jahvid Best in week two. Make good trades, good free agent picks, and you should be fine.
The situation improved Monday as word came down that Turner and Matthews would both be fine for this Sunday. But....the injuries have started. Once you tweak an ankle or a groin, do things ever really get better without a couple weeks rest? I know these guys have access to some of the best medical care in the world, but the fact remains these guys aren't from Saturn and need time to heal, just like you and me.
I'm going to be adding a few things to the site. Look for Hot Free Agent recommendations and lists my projections for the upcoming week. Look at it this way: my track record is not great over the past few years, so you can think of it as a "list of players to avoid".
As we would say in 12W, Have A Nice Night!
Sunday started off great. It was a thing of beauty, watching Michael Turner destroy the Arizona defense. 75 yards on only 9 carries. Are you kidding me? I was looking at putting up near triple digits. My man, Jay Cutler, was carving up the Cowboys, I had Antonio Gates and Ryan Matthews in the afternoon. It was gonna be a good, good day.
Then it stopped. Turner stopped getting the ball. All I saw was Jason Snelling, Snelling, Snelling to the tune of 186 total yards and 3 TD's. Panic set in. I began checking twitter constantly, looking for an update. There it was: tightness in the groin. WHAT!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Here we go again.
Well, at least I still have rookie stud Ryan Matthews.
FAIL.
After getting over the shock of watching Jason Snelling take all my guys caries and touchdowns, I get word Matthews sprained his ankle and his return is questionable. I threw a towel at my TV. I think my wife was scared. Could this really be happening? The two guys I had to have this year, both hurt in week 2. I was still fantasy-cursed. In another league, the upstart and fantastic PFFL http://pffl2010.blogspot.com/ I left Jahvid Best and his 33 fantasy points on the bench. Things had gotten real ugly, real fast.
Well, that is how things usually work out for me. If it's inevitable, I might as well just enjoy it, right.
But something happened: a festivus, miracle if you will: I won my game. Narrowly, but I'll take it. Victories like this don't happen to me. I went 1-13 last year; the culture of winning is not something I'm used to. So I started thinking maybe my team is not so bad after all this year. 2-0 for the first time....ever, I think. Granted I had guys like Jay Cutler (stud), Antonio Gates (super stud), Jeremy Maclin (2 TD's in two weeks ain't bad), and Darren McFadden (surprisingly serviceable) helping pick up the slack. In fact, looking at the big picture I went 2-1 across my fantasy landscape, and ended the weekend a combined 5-1 in all leagues combined. Perhaps I've learned from all my losing over the past few years. Or it could be one of the most important aspects of fantasy sports was on my side: the schedule.
I'll argue the most important aspect of a fantasy season is your match-up's. Sure, you need to draft a decent team, based on projections and a crystal ball. But a "virtual defense" is so important, yet the most difficult position to draft (because you can't). This week I faced Tom Brady as he faced the Jets. Yes he had a couple scores, but it was nothing like the week before where he went off against the Bengals. Had he duplicated the performance, I'd be singing a very different tune. Over the past few years, I've routinely lead the league in "most points against", not a stat you want to lead a league in. Chris Johnson vs. the Raiders (21pts) is very different than Chris Johnson vs. the Steelers (2pts). A bad "virtual defense" can make you pull the trigger on bad trades, bad free agent pickups, and give you a bad disposition. Just remember, the "VD" is something you simply can't control; just make good, logical decisions and don't panic if your 0-2 because you were matched up with Arian Foster in week one then got Jahvid Best in week two. Make good trades, good free agent picks, and you should be fine.
The situation improved Monday as word came down that Turner and Matthews would both be fine for this Sunday. But....the injuries have started. Once you tweak an ankle or a groin, do things ever really get better without a couple weeks rest? I know these guys have access to some of the best medical care in the world, but the fact remains these guys aren't from Saturn and need time to heal, just like you and me.
I'm going to be adding a few things to the site. Look for Hot Free Agent recommendations and lists my projections for the upcoming week. Look at it this way: my track record is not great over the past few years, so you can think of it as a "list of players to avoid".
As we would say in 12W, Have A Nice Night!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
1st & 10
Welcome and thanks for checking this out. Fantasy sports players get a bad rap: nerdy basement dwellers and uber-stat geeks. Nothing could be further from the truth. I play with teachers, doctors, real estate moguls, and some of the smartest people I've ever met. Fantasy football is a wonderful thing, and I love it. I listen to radio shows all day discussing fantasy football, I read countless websites, pre-draft I buy more magazines than I can count, and obsess constantly over my RB-WR-TE flex position. I love it, eat it, breathe it.
I'm just not very good at it.
Actually, maybe I'm being too hard on myself. The past few season's I've had a hideous run of bad luck combined with mediocre drafts. 2006, I drafted Tom Brady in an auction style draft. Paid like 5 bucks. He was ok, but threw a couple picks in the final game of my fantasy season (week 14), thus I missed the playoffs. The next year he goes nuts and throws like 134 TD's. So come 2008 I decided I'm back on the Brady train. I paid $20 for him in my draft, which was the highest amount anyone paid for a QB. I was stoked. Decent draft otherwise, but Brady was my guy. First game that year also happened to be my birthday and I was fired up to sit around, watch Brady go nuts (playing the "Chefs" that day), and begin my quest to fantasy glory. Except Tom Brady died to me that day. Same thing with Matt (my boy, who I was sure was going to go for 3500 yards and 31 TD's in 2007) Leinart. Last year Brandon Jacobs, Steve Slaton, Carson Palmer, and Roy Williams all forgot how to play good football. I drafted all of them. Julius Jones blew up in Dallas in 2004. I got him in 2005. I routinely draft Lee Evans. It's like I'm addicted to him. He NEVER, EVER pans out. But I keep coming back (if only he played for the Patriots, ahhh). I could go on and on, but the point is in my 10 years in my primary league, I have a winning percentage of.... .363. Even the Tampa Bay Rays went to the World Series, when can I catch a break?
Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time. This year I prepared different, drafted different, and am taking a different approach to in-season moves. Call me crazy, but I have a feeling this year will be different.
I'll be posting my thoughts, reactions, predictions, complaints, and trash talk here, along with suggestions and tips. I know my stuff, things just haven't worked out.
I'm just not very good at it.
Actually, maybe I'm being too hard on myself. The past few season's I've had a hideous run of bad luck combined with mediocre drafts. 2006, I drafted Tom Brady in an auction style draft. Paid like 5 bucks. He was ok, but threw a couple picks in the final game of my fantasy season (week 14), thus I missed the playoffs. The next year he goes nuts and throws like 134 TD's. So come 2008 I decided I'm back on the Brady train. I paid $20 for him in my draft, which was the highest amount anyone paid for a QB. I was stoked. Decent draft otherwise, but Brady was my guy. First game that year also happened to be my birthday and I was fired up to sit around, watch Brady go nuts (playing the "Chefs" that day), and begin my quest to fantasy glory. Except Tom Brady died to me that day. Same thing with Matt (my boy, who I was sure was going to go for 3500 yards and 31 TD's in 2007) Leinart. Last year Brandon Jacobs, Steve Slaton, Carson Palmer, and Roy Williams all forgot how to play good football. I drafted all of them. Julius Jones blew up in Dallas in 2004. I got him in 2005. I routinely draft Lee Evans. It's like I'm addicted to him. He NEVER, EVER pans out. But I keep coming back (if only he played for the Patriots, ahhh). I could go on and on, but the point is in my 10 years in my primary league, I have a winning percentage of.... .363. Even the Tampa Bay Rays went to the World Series, when can I catch a break?
Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time. This year I prepared different, drafted different, and am taking a different approach to in-season moves. Call me crazy, but I have a feeling this year will be different.
I'll be posting my thoughts, reactions, predictions, complaints, and trash talk here, along with suggestions and tips. I know my stuff, things just haven't worked out.
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