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