General update

I've been ranting about politics for a while now so I thought that I'd use this time to talk about some other, non-political things.

I'm going to start by sharing an update on the status of my fantasy football team. We stink.

After 7 weeks, I've compiled a wretched 2-5 record and I'm averaging less than 110 points a week, which ain't all that good. A healthy part of the problem has been the status of the players I drafted. In general, I think that my strategy (focus on receivers who have lots of catches and rookie running backs) was sound, but that my execution could use serious improvement.

Anyway, here's the status of the guys I drafted:

Still with the squad:
Round 1: Braylon Edwards, WR, CLE
Round 3: Jason Witten, TE, DAL
Round 4: Wes Welker, WR, NWE
Round 5: Matt Forte, RB, CHI
Round 7: San Diego Defense
Round 8: Jonathan Stewart, RB, CAR
Round 11: Jake Delhomme, QB, CAR

Traded:
Round 2: T.J. Houshmandzadeh, WR, CIN (traded for Amani Toomer and Randy McMichael, both of whom have been subsequently cut. Ironically, Housh has been subsequently traded)
Round 9: Felix Jones, RB, DAL (traded with Jackson and Fasano for Lee Evans and Eli Manning)
Round 10: Vincent Jackson, WR, SDG
Round 13: Anthony Fasano, TE, MIA

Cut:
Round 6: Marc Bulger, QB, STL
Round 12: Davone Bess, WR, MIA
Round 14: Ahmad Bradshaw, RB, NYG
Round 15: Kevin Jones, RB, CHI
Round 16: Phil Dawson, K, CLE

I replaced Dawson with Gostkowski. I replaced Bulger with O'Sullivan and then cut him. I dropped Bess, Bradshaw, and Jones, and have worked through several WRs and RBs, including Steve Smith (from the Giants, not the Panthers), Reggie Brown, Koren Robinson, Duece McAllister, and Ricky Williams.

Now, what have I learned from all of this? Next time, I shouldn't simply go with WRs who rake in passes because situations can change and without proper research, it can blow up in your face. Had I known that the Bengals gutted their offensive line, I might have been able to avoid selecting Houshmanzadeh that high because a WR is only as good as the QB throwing to him and Palmer hasn't had the time in the pocket to make the throws.

Also, when it comes to any player whose job it is to catch the ball, see how often they get the ball thrown to them. Something I heard about a week before my draft was that while TO is Tony Romo's deep connection, his favorite receiver is still Jason Witten. That was all I needed to hear to bump Witten on my board.

What I also learned was that you should really think twice before picking a QB higher than the 8th round. Yeah, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady put up gaudy stats, but when your league gives you 1 point per 25 passing yards and 1 point per 10 receiving yards (plus a point per reception), receivers offer better value in the higher rounds.

And, lastly, never draft a defense/special teams unit before the 12th round. Unless you're going after the Chicago Bears, there isn't any significant difference between the #2 ranked defense and the #12 ranked defense so don't waste the draft pick.

I guess those are things to think about next year.

Another thing on my mind is music. I was digging through a stack of old backup CDs and I came across a CD with a bunch of MP3s on it. On of them, was a track from Tribe of Judah called "Left for Dead" that my buddy Joe hooked me up with. Tribe of Judah is Gary Cherone's post Van Halen project. The track isn't bad at all. Thanks again, Joe!

And of course, we have the Red Sox. The dirt dawgs made a season out of it by not only beating the Angels (who only posted the best record in baseball this year) in the Division round playoffs, but took the Rays to Game 7 of the ALCS after being down 3 games 1 and trailing by 7 runs going into the bottom of the 7th inning of game 5. Kudos to them because I really had moments this year when I doubted their ability to make the playoffs, let alone win a game or a series. They really surprised me and I'm very happy to have enjoyed the season as much as I did.

I'm also looking forward to seeing how things transpire this offseason. The Sox have some very hard decisions to make regarding two guys who've appeared in 5 American League Championship Serieses with the Sox, namely Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek. They need to add depth to their bench as well as a quality right-handed bat to the bench. There's also the starting pitching which is very much in flux right now as well. It's going to be a very interesting November in Red Sox nation.

My last thought before I close this post is this: the most anticipated (at least, most talked about) album of the decade is actually due to be released next month. Yes, Guns N Roses' "Chinese Democracy" actually has a release date, November 25th. I'll wait until I hear something from it before I even consider buying it because the idea of GNR without Slash, Duff, or Matt is almost as bad as Boston without Brad Delp.

Fantasy Football draft

Well, we had the big Fantasy Football draft this weekend and here's how my team shook out:

Round 1, 12th pick: Braylon Edwards, WR, CLE
Round 2, 13th pick: T.J. Houshmandzadeh, WR, CIN
Round 3, 36th pick: Jason Witten, TE, DAL
Round 4, 37th pick: Wes Welker, WR, NWE
Round 5, 60th pick: Matt Forte, RB, CHI
Round 6, 61st pick: Marc Bulger, QB, STL
Round 7, 84th pick: San Diego Defense
Round 8, 85th pick: Jonathan Stewart, RB, CAR
Round 9, 108th pick: Felix Jones, RB, DAL
Round 10, 109th pick: Vincent Jackson, WR, SDG
Round 11, 132nd pick: Jake Delhomme, QB, CAR
Round 12, 133rd pick: Davone Bess, WR, MIA
Round 13, 156th pick: Anthony Fasano, TE, MIA
Round 14, 157th pick: Ahmad Bradshaw, RB, NYG
Round 15, 180th pick: Kevin Jones, RB, CHI
Round 16, 181st pick: Phil Dawson, K, CLE

Now, fantasy football veterans would obviously have some questions about the reasoning behind this draft. Simple, in most fantasy football leagues, it's all about the running backs, because most leagues award 1 point per 20 or 25 yards receiving vs. 10 rushing yards and don't award points per reception. Not in my league, it's all about the receivers.

Why? Our league awards 1 point per reception and 1 point per 10 yards receiving. Therefore, a receiver who catches 110 balls for 1200 yards and 8 scores (278 points) is more valuable than a RB who rushes for 1000 yards, 10 TDs, and catches 40 passes for 350 yards, and a score (241 points). What makes Welker a huge steal is that he also will gain rushing yardage and he returns punts and kickoffs. If he returns so much as one kick for a score (which he can do), that's like free money.

As for the Chicago RB connection, that's easy. I anticipate them running the ball a lot this year as they still haven't figured out who their starting QB is (not that it matters because they can't pass protect worth a damn). Couple that with the fact that they don't have any WRs who can threaten with deep runs, so I see a lot of dump off passes coming their way.

We'll see how this works out. If it pans out like I hope it will, then I just screwed myself for next year's draft because everyone will follow the same strategy.

Some idle thoughts...

My brother Greg and my buddy Joe asked me about fantasy football this year and, since I've been posting about it recently, I thought I'd offer some more information about the concept. Fantasy football is a misnomer. It's probably better thought of as "rotisserie football" but since the majority of guys who play are under the age of 30, I guess the whole fantasy tag was part of the hook.

Anyway, the basic idea is that you assemble a team of NFL players and you get points based on the stats they produce. Sounds simple enough, right? So, you play in leagues where each week you go head to head against another player in the league. Whichever player's team scores the most points in a given week gets a win for that week. The teams with the most wins at the end of the fantasy football season (which usually occurs about week 12-13 of the NFL season) make the playoffs.

Now, the key about fantasy football is building your roster. This is the part most people struggle with and it's something that Bill Simmons (a.k.a., ESPN's Sports Guy) has discussed in the past.
Quite simply, each league varies and, while the concepts are usually the same, differences in implementations can make a huge difference.

Here's what I mean. Almost universally, leagues award 6 points for a passing, rushing, and receiving TD and 1 point for every 10 rushing yards, and 1 point per 25 passing yards. However, points for receiving yardage vary and some leagues award points per reception while others don't. (The league I'm in awards 1 point per reception and 1 point per 10 yards receiving.) Then there's the issue of defenses. In most leagues, you have a generic defense/special teams unit but there are some leagues where you can pick up individual defensive players too. Defenses score points based on take-aways, sacks, and points allowed.

Back when I made my first foray into fantasy football, I got screwed by a couple of things. The first was that our provider (Yahoo!) awarded kick (both punt and kickoff) return TDs to the individual who scored them, not to the unit as a whole. Since I had Chicago's defense/special teams unit that season (a.k.a., the year Devin Hester returned 5 kicks for scores), I got screwed. To make matters worse, I couldn't even add him to my roster because it wouldn't let us add defensive players. I also made the mistake of picking several Miami Dolphins higher than they should have been selected.

Bottom line, if you're going to play, learn the rules, learn the players' situations, and build your team to maximize your point output. For example, Frank Gore of the 49ers has run for just under 2800 yards over the past two years and, based on our league's scoring, has produced an average of 287.9 points a year. But you need to know the circumstances. In 2006, he produced 333 points (with Norv Turner as his offensive coordinator). Last year, he produced only 242 points. This year, his offensive coordinator is Mike "What do you mean, run the ball?" Martz. Is Gore someone you want to count on for production? I wouldn't.


Other things

Saw JibJab's latest political satire this morning. For those of you who forgot, these are the same guys who did the Bush-Kerry sign-along to "This Land is Your Land" 4 years ago. Anywhoo, this year they've done a number called "Time to do some campaigning" (which I think is done to Richard Thompson's "Time to Ring Some Changes") and manages to mock Bush, Cheney, Obama, McCain, both Clintons, and the whole political process. I love it. Here's the link to watch it:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/sendables/1191/time_for_some_campaignin#/teaser/1191

Now, if we could just get some candidates that were worth electing...

---

The second-half of the baseball season kicks of tonight (although, this year, it's more like the last 40%) and it finds the Red Sox in first place in the AL East. The Sox have a record of 57-40 and look to be in pretty good shape to make another playoff run. Important bits of information to consider for the Sox:

• they have 65 games remaining (34 at home, 31 on the road);
• their remaining games are against Angels (6), Mariners (3), Yankees (9), A's (3), Royals (3), White Sox (7), Rangers (6), Blue Jays (12), Orioles (6), Rays (6), and Indians (4);
• the pitching has been doing well, but they get their lineup monster, David Ortiz, back at the end of the month and that should help produce more runs.
  

The next 2 1/2 months ought to be exciting.

Fantasy Football moment

Wa-hoo! Traded the #3 pick (and associated picks in the snake-style draft) for the #12 pick (and associated picks) in a 12-player league.

For those who aren't familiar with a snake-style draft, it works like this:

If you have the 1st pick in the first round, you have the last pick in the second round. You then have the 1st pick in the 3rd round and the last pick in the 4th round. If you have the second pick in the first round, you have the second-to-last pick in the second round. I could continue, but I think most people now get the idea.

Sure, it'll be forever before my turn to pick comes up again, but that ability to make back to back selections is huge.

Ha! Made it.

Patience is a virtue. Sometimes, I surprise myself and demonstrate it. This time, I lucked out and got one of the two spots that opened up in the fantasy football league I played in two years ago. (I had to drop out last year because I just didn't have the time.)

So, the draft is August 16th at 1 PM ET. I have the 3rd overall pick. Hmmm, decisions, decisions...