Another Fantasy Football Season in the Books



And guess who's the remaining champ? That's right, moi. I've squeezed out another championship. Can you say, "dynasty?" I ask, "Who's dat who can make chump-meat outta tha maestro? Nobody. Nobody."

Ok let me stop there.

But really it was a great season for me. The three main things factored into my repeat ring: stat-tracking, gut instinct and luck. I believe each of these shares an equal part in fantasy football success.

When it comes to stat-tracking, crunching numbers or following rankings it's all right there for you on the Web. You just need to know where to look. I mostly stuck with Yahoo on this, which is also the host site for the BFFG. They provide very good fantasy advice and breakdowns. Right on your team roster page is a link for "Gameday Decision" and "Fantasy Matchups" where each player is given a star rating and a written blurb for their weekly matchup projection. It's really a great resource. I find that it seldom lets you down. There is also the "Research" link, which provides composite rankings and stats and compares other valuable information with active Yahoo leagues. And last I'll mention Yahoo's top analysts: Brandon Funston, Brad Evans, Matt Buser and Michael Salfino. These guys know their stuff and can usually point you in the right direction.

Gut instinct comes from watching football games and nothing else. The best resource for this is NFL Red Zone. I've subscribed to RZ for the past two years. It is the best way to watch football. They do all the channel surfing for you by going right to the game that matters. They also use split screen to show multiple games at once. You typically get to see every touchdown as it happens, a real bonus. Watching a lot of RZ will lead you to understand the pace of a football game and how it's all about momentum and clock management. You will get to know who the 'go-to' players are in the league.

And lastly there's luck. It's crazy how some games and situations turn out. No doubt, football is chaos. You don't know if the ball will bounce in your favor. It has for me. I must say. It's a strange but good feeling. It has me question fate, destiny, spirtuality and such, all things that I typicaly don't believe in. Regardless of luck you must always set your best line-up and never quit until the last game 'cause you just never know. The ball could bounce your way.

Me = satisfied ;-)

Coming soon: BFFG 2011 Team Manager Reports

Once again, the feast is mine!

Last Wednesday was a pretty good night in baseball world. My home team, the O's, knocked the Red Sox out of the playoffs and I won the "Thank God The Steelers Lost" fantasy baseball championship. Talk about payback innuendos. It may be the first time that I've ever been this interested in baseball late in the season. For a fantasy sports fanatic and O's fan, this is about as good as it gets.

Thanks to James who was commissioner of TGTSL. He did a pretty good job setting up the league and recruiting. It was a fun and challenging season.

Here are a few of the major components that contributed to my champoinship.

Landing first pick in the randomized draft order
I took Albert Pujols #1 overall and it paid off. he started off the season on the cold side but heated up in September when it really counted. Albert finished in 9th place for batters in the TGTSL.

Adding Strasburg in August
It was assumed that Stephen Strasburg would miss the entire season for Tommy John Surgery. But news reports informed that he was looking good, participated in minor league baseball and was available for the Nationals in September. Strasburg pitched on the last game of the season and scored 35 points. He basically solidified my win on the last day.

Here is my fantasy squad.

• Carlos Santana, Cle C, 1B   
• Albert Pujols, StL 1B   
• Dustin Pedroia, Bos 2B  
• Mark Reynolds, Bal 3B, 1B    
• J.J. Hardy, Bal SS    
• Lance Berkman, StL 1B, LF, RF, DH    
• Josh Hamilton, Tex CF, LF 
• Nelson Cruz, Tex RF, LF
• Adam Jones, Bal CF 
• Alfonso Soriano, ChC LF  
• Derek Jeter, NYY SS, DH 
• Curtis Granderson, NYY CF
• Jered Weaver, LAA SP 
• Stephen Strasburg, Wsh SP  
• Rick Porcello, Det SP  
• Clayton Kershaw, LAD SP    
• Ubaldo Jimenez, Cle SP   
• James Shields, TB SP  
• Daniel Hudson, Ari SP   
• Kyle Lohse, StL SP
• Heath Bell, SD RP    
• Joel Hanrahan, Pit RP  
• Neftali Feliz 

The Buffalo Wild Wings draft party blew-up in my face

Buffalo Wild Wings' commercial suggests if you want to stay longer all you need to do is let the bartender know and at a push of a button the game goes into overtime. Or if your boss is nagging you to come back from your lunch break. No problem. [Bartender pulls a lever] there's a hurricane in the area! "Guess we have to hang back and ride this thing out."

This advanced technical prowess couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, they don't know how to reset a wireless router.

The BFFG 2011 draft party fell apart. Nobody could get online. I asked for help but the BWW staff was way too busy to deal with me and my 'reserved' draft party. I explained to one employee that all they needed to do was turn the router off then back on and she thought I meant to kill the power to the whole place. Duh! Jim's remark was the best. "They probably don't have a clue where the router is dude." Agreed.

The manager came out, as we were all leaving, and her appearance only added to the overall let-down. I was too upset to even say anything. Thankfully the girls had my back. Erin said to the manager, "That's ok mam. We're gonna leave now and not pay for any of this [drinks]." Leslie followed up with a nice email complaint to BWW headquarters. Who knows if their email works.

Luckily I can reset the draft in Yahoo without a glitch. We'll try again on Wednesday evening at 5:15.

Two new stats added to the BFFG

Each year, Yahoo adds new features and customizations to its fantasy football. I spend a good amount of time thinking over all the new stuff. As commissioner, I'm very cautious to make any changes to a system that already works so well. Usually things are kept ass-is, however; this year Yahoo made some new stat categories available that I believe will contribute to the overall balance and intrigue in the league's competitive scoring system.

The pick-six is -1
For the most part, the BFFG sticks to the Yahoo default scoring system, which is the mainstream standard. One of the few categories that is different is the passing touchdown. In the Yahoo default it is four points but in the BFFG it is six. This choice is popular with most members in the BFFG. The consensus is, "a touchdown is a touchdown" and a touchdown, of course, is six points. As a result of this the top scorers in the BFFG tend to be all quarterbacks. There have only been a few exceptions where an elite running-back has wedged himself in-between the top fifteen or twenty who are mostly passers. This labels the BFFG as a quarterback heavy league, which is not a bad thing but I would like to level it out a bit.

The pick-six, or interception for a touchdown, is a major game changer. I believe this momentum swing should translate somehow in to fantasy scoring. Currently, an interception in the BFFG counts as negative one point. A pick-six is totally different than a regular interception and should cost more points. Adding an additional negative point, for a total of negative two, will complete this translation from the real game to fantasy and also balance out the overwhelming quarterback scoring edge.

Extreme fantasy factor
Imagine the opposing quarterback in your weekly match-up is blowing it up. You were up thirty points before the Monday Night Football game. Now you're down by one! The opposing quarterback finds himself in the red zone again. Your blood is boiling. You receive a text from your opponent, "say goodnight buddy." You're about to text back, "lucky bastard" when you hear, "and it's picked off!" The defense has intercepted the ball and taken it all the way. Now you're up one point with a few seconds left on the clock. The kickoff leads to a mediocre return. A couple of hail-Mary's with no chance and the game is finally over. You text back to your opponent, "put that in your pipe an smoke it." 


A defensive fourth down stop is +1
Team defenses get point for defensive stuff only in the BFFG. There is no mix with special teams points and team defense. This setting is popular in the BFFG. The consensus is, "why should a defense get points for an offensive player's return?" Instead the individual player gets points for their returning effort. The only thing that is missed is if a individual defensive player makes the return then there is no way to gain that production. Individual defense players can't be placed on a roster in the BFFG. This does, however; take a lot of solidarity out of defensive scoring. The other factor is that special defensive plays like sacks, interceptions and fumble recoveries, which all count as one point, are hard to come by. Adding another special stat category for team defense will boost it's value a bit.

A defensive stop on fourth down can be a big game changer. This huge momentum swing should translate into fantasy football as well. A defensive stop on fourth down will count as one point.

Extreme fantasy factor
The defense you started in your weekly match-up is getting killed. What was supposed to be a low scoring meeting between two division rivals has turned into a shoot-out. Your defense has scrapped together only four points so far and the game just won't end. Once again your defense finds itself in the red zone against its opponent who is down by a touchdown in the real game. They go for it on fourth down. Stuffed! Game over! Your defense ends the night with five points. Your opponent for that week had the kicker on the same team who never got a field goal chance, only four PATs. You win by one. Kicker jokes are in order and you text a good one to the loser. 

It's on paper now: the NFL Lockout is over

In case you were waiting for the fat lady to sing. Here you go. The lockout is over. "Zurück vom Ring!"

Now you can exhale

Players have approved

The vote is unanimous

The Lockout will result in better preseason games

NFL teams are forced to squeeze months of preparation into just a few weeks. How will this effect the quality of the preseason games? Will teams be more careful with their quality players or will they need the opportunity of the preseason to cover what was missed from a regular off-season?

Expect the 2011 preseason to be more exciting than normal. Of course teams will want to be careful with their quality players but that's not much different than the perception of any other preseason. Teams are always concerned with injuries. The difference, this year, is that teams have not had the chance to work everything out in the off-season. This leaves the preseason as the main opportunity for teams to build chemistry among their players and gel for the regular season. Also, factor-in that we are heading for one of the most interesting weeks in football in regards to free agent signings and trades. Teams will want to use the preseason games to test out their new investments. Fans will also respond with more enthusiasm. The lockout caused us to be more anxious than normal and now it's, "game time!" Everyone is amped up to see some football. Preseason games usually just give us a taste but this year there will be a lot more to sample.

There's plenty of games to get excited about in the first week of the preseason, one in particular being the Ravens versus the Eagles. Could this be a Superbowl 46 preview?


There's some history here with the Ravens playing against Michael Vick in the preseason. Back in 2003 when Vick was with the Falcons (and on the cover of Madden), he was tackled by Adalius Thomas, which resulted in a broken leg. That kept Vick out for the entire season. You can call that a big impact game. How will this year's match-up play out? We'll have to see. 

"What time is it!"

The good news is here. ESPN and Yahoo Sports report that the NFLPA is expected to vote for and approve the new deal tomorrow, which will end the lockout.

Some fans may still be anxious to here the final word. Many of us believe it's not done until it's done. One small hiccup might be the class action suit against the league, which includes plaintiffs Brees, Manning and Brady. But NFL expert analysts, including ESPN's Adam Schefter, ensure that tomorrow's vote is "more of a formality" and that the lockout will indeed end and the most exciting week in off-season football drama is to follow.

This is going to be a great week for football fans. There will be plenty of juicy NFL news reports: trades, free agent signings, training camps, etc. So saddle-up because this is going to be fun.

I'm excited to open recruitment for my league the BFFG. I've been waiting in the background for some time now. I began the 'heads-up' phone calls, emails and texts about a week ago. It seems that's good timing. I expect BFFG members to be even more excited than the average fan. Being part of a steady fantasy football league makes you feel that much more connected to the real NFL. "It's game time!"

We're almost there: NFL owners approve new CBA

Roger Goodell makes the announcement that the NFL owners agree to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The end of the lockout pends approval from the players union.

The owners are first to cross the finish line here and that helps their image. The players may not be willing to flip the switch just yet. Expect them to want their remaining issues to be given some attention before voting for the new CBA. Understand that they are in a situation where every hour that goes by may cost them support of public opinion. Fans should welcome the new season satisfied that one organization knows how to compromise.

It won't be long now. Expect to watch the preseason into the regular season on-time.

NFL-Team owners vote to approve new deal with players

Owners approve proposed labor deal

Financing a league

Handling the league finances is a very important duty for the fantasy commissioner. In order to run a legitimate fantasy league that awards prizes you have to:

• collect and secure the league dues,
• determine the prize levels and
• payout to winners at the end of the season. 

I've gone through a lot of changes with this process in my ten years as commissioner. This year is no exception as I will be trying a new on-line system. It's appropriately called LeagueSafe.

When I conducted off-line draft parties everyone attended bringing cash or check and I got all the money up front, for the most part. When I made the switch to an on-line draft it got a little bit trickier. No longer was I meeting everyone at the same time to collect dues. Instead I was meeting members at different times and, in some cases, making separate types of arrangements. For example, if I met a member at a sports bar it's conceivable for them to just want to pick up the check in exchange for paying the dues. It seemed reasonable. When you get down to it it's all relative, right?

In fact the biggest mistake you can make as a commissioner is to tie up the fantasy league finances with other things. When out with friends, who offer to pick up the bar tab in return for paying the dues, you should respectfully decline. It's a fine suggestion and they are probably just trying to make it easier for you but it won't work out well at the end of the season when you have to pay out to winners, especially with holiday shopping looming.

Here are my main suggestions when dealing with fantasy league finances.

• Keep league finances isolated.
• Don't involve any other deals you may have with your friends and other members in the league.
• Use an on-line system like PayPal or the new LeagueSafe.
• Collect the dues before members register their teams.
• Try to get it all done before the draft.
• Try to construct 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prize levels. 
• Make distribution of the winnings as simple as possible. 

I've used PayPal as my league's payment system the past two years. It's sufficient but, I feel, not all that user friendly. For example, members have had issues setting up an account and getting it to accept check cards. It's not that aesthetically appealing either. Then there's the fees. If you use it to both collect and payout then you're hit with the 2.9% fee twice in addition to another 30 cent fee each way as well. There also may be a withdrawal fee. And if a member pays via credit card without setting up an account then distributing winnings on-line is not possible for that member. This forces the commissioner to make the withdrawal themselves and either mail a personal check or deliver cash personally to pay that winner. Both can be very inconvenient and time consuming. The final word: PayPal is ok but I think one can do better. LeagueSafe, on the other hand, looks to be just right for fantasy football.

I'm going to use LeagueSafe for the first time this season. I've done some research and like what it offers.

• Convenience: you can pay with credit/check card or e-check.
• There are several simple options to distribute prizes to the winners.
• It's cheaper.
• It's easy to set up an account compared to PayPal.
• The site is designed for fantasy sports enthusiasts and it looks great.
• But most importantly, it's secure.

So far I've set up my league bank in LeagueSafe and made my own payment. Everything went ok. I contacted their customer service through email to ask a few more questions about security. They replied promptly and provided much detail about their Web security. LeagueSafe uses 128 bit encryption. They are tested and certified daily by McAfee. The site just went through a redesign phase and it looks very professional.

With the NFL lockout expected to end soon, I'm comfortable sending payment requests and getting members registered for the league. I'm excited to use LeagueSafe and feel that it will contribute legitimacy to my league, which is ten years old now and running-strong. 

In mid-summer, fantasy football recruiting pends end of the lockout

For years, Fourth of July celebrations have been all about cookouts, fireworks and talking about football. This summer, however; football talks are taboo.

The NFL lockout has certainly placed a gloom over anticipation for another season of America's favorite sport. It seems that nobody wants to talk about football, at least not until this lockout thing ends. Simply bringing up the subject induced negativity and cynicism with my friends at a Fourth of July gathering last weekend. Can't blame 'em? I too have sensibilities about my opinions of the subject, as you may have read from this blog.

Here's my biggest problem right now. If I can't bring up football then I also can't inject any discussions about my fantasy league. I can't start recruiting. Will my fellow league members get side-tracked and lose interest? Will I be able to recruit enough players in time to start the BFFG? So far I've emailed and FaceBook-ed everybody and have received little to no response. Boo-hoo! "Just relax" I keep telling myself. It will all work out. It better. I hate the thought of joining a public fantasy league alone.

Sports media continues to report overall optimism that the NFL Players Union and the owners are making progress over the new collective bargaining agreement. The main obstacle, which is the overall revenue split between players and owners, is mostly finished. Still, issues remain including some class-action lawsuits players have against the league, which could probably hold things up a bit longer. Periodically we read headlines like today's "Order lifting NFL lockout thrown out" and it doesn't help reinforce the overall optimism. There's ups and downs in this thing.

I'm staying on top of the story. I can't wait to break the news that the lockout is over and we can return to a normal summer of football chatter.

NFL lockout symbolizes America's political split

The NFL lockout has made it clear just how much control a few rich guys can have over an entire country. You read me right. These are the two sides to the NFL lockout saga. On the right we have the NFL owners who opted out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) back in 2008. All of whom are filthy rich dudes looking to get an unreasonably bigger piece of the pie. On the left are the players, coaches, staff and, don't forget, over 100 million fans. Let's just modestly call it, "half of the county."

How is this legit? The NFL's popularity increases year after year. It is the #1 past time in the US, making tons of money. Players, coaches and staff are to take pay-cuts. Fans spend more money. Owners hoard all the dough. Are we really supposed to abide by this? It's an outrage and I don't get it.

Surely our judicial system has our backs, right? They should be able to sort this mess out. Oh! That's right. They can't because we have a total split of political ideologies in our country. Government represents its people and vise versa. Damn!

On one side of the split, we have those who are mislead to believe that we need to reinforce capitalism by supporting greed. The other side, those who are mostly neutral, also struggle with this theory because being rich is often confused with achieving the American dream. "If I made it rich then I wouldn't want anyone to take it away from me," is the notion. So, owners are just doing what anyone else, with that notion, would do if they were in their situation. These convictions make the filthy rich false symbols for the American dream. Contemptuously call them, "the real American idols."

If we conclude our reasoning about the NFL lockout this way then we will give in. The 2011 season will commence thanks to our sacrifice. We will pay more money. We will give plenty to those who already have it all. We will watch our favorite players get more injured (Cole, Yahoo Sports). This is not the base for the original American dream where everyone was supposed to get "a piece of the pie." That's true capitalism. Instead we live in a type of structure where we always owe to someone. It is debt-ism.

I will go further to the left than most are willing to. The teams should belong to the fans. We should be allowed to invest in our own hobby as a committee of owners. It's fitting that the winners of the Superbowl, the Green Bay Packers, are the ones that prove that concept can be a reality (Murray, NPR). Congratulations to them. They deserve it.

A Sign of Humanity from an Owner

The Baltimore Ravens owner, Steve Bisciotti, at first cut pay to the team's coaches and staff then refunded the money. "Until those owners get religion the way Bisciotti did, I'm going to regard them as sinners . . . " (Silver, Yahoo Sports).

Sources

NFL owners opt out of CBA

Owners bullying coaches, staffers with pay cuts

Expect injury totals to rise following lockout

In Green Bay, Packers Fans Are 'Owners,' Too

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A cure for lockout blues

With the NFL lockout presumably bumming everyone out, it's refreshing to see certain things carry-on as planned. "Yahoo Fantasy Football is open for sign-ups" was found in my in-box today. Exciting! I plan to reinstate my league this evening. Let's stay optimistic. Believe that, this fall, we will be playing fantasy football and not fantasizing about football.

It's game time!

Every year I'm excited for the new features in Yahoo FF. It seems they always add about a dozen new things. Many end up being quite useful. Like they were reading my mind. Here are some this season's new features that caught my eye.

New Live Auction Draft App
Draft your team by bidding on players with a fixed auction budget
Stay organized and nominate wisely with our Roster Grid
Use commissioner controls to pause the draft and undo picks

I do a standard draft but I'm really interested in trying out the auction method. It seems more intuitive. For more info on Yahoo's Live Auction App go to:
What is the difference between a Standard and Auction live draft?

Android App
Set your roster from your Android device
Get real-time fantasy score updates
Add and drop players

Updated iPhone App, iPad (coming soon)
Set your roster from your iPhone
Get real-time fantasy score updates
Add and drop players

Every year the mobile fantasy apps get more capabilities, which makes me think, "I need to join the 21st century and get a phone with internet access."

New Scoring Categories
Award bonuses for long passing, reception, rush plays and touchdowns
Penalize quaterbacks for pick sixes thrown
Add defensive stats for yards allowed, 4th down stops, tackles for loss, 3 and outs, and more!

I pretty much have a lock on the scoring system for my league but if I were to make changes, it would be to spice up the defensive teams scoring a bit.

Franchises
Invite league members to manage their teams from last year
Invite new managers to run one of last year's teams
Finalize your league's team list for easier draft and keeper management

With this new capability, allowing one or two keeper players may end-up being a reality.

Upgraded Message Boards
View messages by topic, upload images, format text, and post unlimited messages

Cool.

Transfer Team Ownership
Change the manager of a team so that teams can continue to be actively managed throughout the season

Where has this been?

Configurable Draft Pick Times
Change the time allowed per draft pick to speed up or slow down your live draft

Finally! This one is very necessary.

I can't wait to get started!

Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football
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ESPN's Fantasy Baseball Vs. Yahoo's

A friend of mine recruited me to join his fantasy baseball league on ESPN. "Thank God the Steelers Lost" is a 20 (units) buy-in, head-to-head weekly match-up with 10 teams. Usually, I run my own fantasy baseball on Yahoo for free. "Fourth Place Haters" (in honor of my unfortunate MLB team the Orioles) is also head-to-head weekly match-up with 10 or so players. Because I've always wanted to switch to a paid fantasy baseball league, needed a break from the commissioner duties and loved the name of his league; I joined.

I must say the I'm totally satisfied with this league. ESPN has a leg-up on Yahoo when it comes to fantasy baseball because scoring structure is more like traditional h2h fantasy football. In your weekly match-up versus the other player, the result is either one win or one loss. It's that simple. Yahoo's h2h set-up does not do this. Instead you compete separately for each stat category: hits, runs, home runs, steals, wins, losses, saves, etc. You either win or lose in each category. These wins and losses are added to your total for the week and for the season. For example, your match-up for one week could result in 6 wins and 4 losses. Your year-end record could be something like 144-56, if you're lucky.

Yahoo's h2h scoring system doesn't feel genuine like fantasy football, which results in only one win or one loss for that week. It's hard to tell what you're worth in the standings, difficult to strategize and way too overwhelming for beginners.

ESPN's fantasy h2h baseball works a lot like traditional fantasy football. Each stat that a player can record is worth a set amount of points, for example a hit is 1, a home run is 4, a win is 10 and a save is 5. All of these points are added to your total for the week. If you have more points then you opponent for that week you get a win. If you have less then it's a loss.

I don't know exactly ESPN has been hosting fantasy baseball this way. I recommend it over Yahoo. If you are looking for the second best fantasy game after traditional head-to-head fantasy football then, in my opinion, it's ESPN h2h Fantasy Baseball.

I'm excited. My team "The Essex Meat Sox" are currently 5-2. So far I'm winning this week 239-230. I got first pick in the draft and landed some really good players: (in draft order) Pujols, Hamilton, Pedroia, Kershaw, Weaver, Jimenez, Santana, Jeter, Berkman, Shields. Hopefully I can hold this team together and get in to the playoffs for a chance to win a cool 100 units.