Fantasy Football Librarian

Go Cats!

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:58:00 +0000

I don't normally post on the weekends very often but my friends we have a momentous occasion on our hands: my Northwestern Wildcats beat the #4 ranked Iowa Hawkeyes. Now if you're not a college football fan, just humor me on this one. It was unbelievable; a beautiful, beautiful thing. There's lots of yammering on about Iowa's QB Stanzi getting injured and going out for the game and hey, read between the lines, that's why Northwestern won...but no word at all on the fact that Northwestern's starting QB played through an injured hamstring (injured last week against Penn State, whom we were beating for awhile), was replaced by our backup QB who then got injured himself, forcing the starting QB to come back in - not exactly an ideal situation. But the 'Cats can clearly bring it when needed with or without our starting QB. Fan freaking tastic. Now that I'm done thoroughly gloating and ensuring that Iowa alum Andy Behrens from Yahoo/Roto Arcade will never link to me again, let's get to today's fantasy links...

We've got Week 9 Rankings and Projections from Fantasy Phenoms - this link will take you to QBs but you can find info for all offensive skill positions.
If you're looking for more Week 9 rankings, hit up one of my favorite sites: Rotoworld. Seriously if I was on a desert island and could only bring one FF site with me, after bawling my eyes out since a future with just one FF site seems like no future at all, I'd probably pick Rotoworld.
GoGameFace has pulled together something that's right up my alley - a ranking of defenses based on fantasy points allowed to each position. Add in a little chart with Week 13-17 playoffs schedules and you're all set to do some trades or lineup tweaks.
Heads up, Moats is getting the start over Slaton this week. I certainly think that gives you reason to start Moats in a flex spot but be prepared for the inevitable uncertainty there about Slaton's role.
Finally, IDPers who want some last minute advice, head on over to FantasySharks.com's The Hive.

Consensus Start/Sit - Week 9

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:02:00 +0000

Before we get to the consensus start/sit picks for Week 9, a quick glimpse at a few gems out there:

My buddies at FFGeekBlog are offering up a $50 gift card to NFL.com if you can guess the top fantasy QB this week. Check out their site for more details.
The Hazean takes an interesting look at the top 12 fantasy players at each position now that we're at the midpoint of the NFL season.
Scope out Roger Rotter's Top 10 sleepers for Week 9 - I'm seeing Hasselbeck and Crabtree all over the start lists this week.
Always a good read, take a look at FFToday's Inside the Matchup for some hints on what to expect from the running and passing games from a fantasy standpoint.

Okay, consensus time. Keep in mind that I've gone through all of the sites that I link to with start/sit advice during the week and have tallied up those players with the most start/sit votes, or the most consensus from the experts. So here they are, listed at random:

Start: Matt Hasselbeck, David Garrard, Joe Flacco, Alex Smith

Sit: Matt Ryan, Eli Manning, Kyle Orton, Chad Henne

Start: Ryan Grant, Jamaal Charles, Brandon Jacobs, Julius Jones, Joseph Addai

Sit: Knowshon Moreno, Ryan Moats, Cadillac Williams

Start: Dwayne Bowe, Mike Sims-Walker, Michael Crabtree, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Santana Moss

Sit: Steve Smith (NYG), Roy Williams, Santonio Holmes, Antonio Bryant

Start: Fred Davis, Vernon Davis, Jason Witten

Sit: Greg Olsen, Heath Miller

Kicker

Start: Lawrence Tynes, Mason Crosby, Olindo Mare

Sit: no consensus

D/ST

Start: Saints, Patriots

Sit: Bears

A parade of start & sit advice

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:31:00 +0000

Greetings fantasy footballers and happy Friday! I feel like I should be part of the Yankees Ticker Tape Parade in Manhattan right now if for no other reason than how often can you participate in a parade?? This is exactly the logic I'll be using when I tromp around the Macy's Day Parade on Thanksgiving. Who knew my parade options would increase exponentially upon moving to NYC?

Considering I'm still in my pajamas (hey, what's the rush?) and thoroughly enjoying my morning coffee, the whole parade thing might get tabled for now. There are football links to get to!

Wondering if there are some guys you should target as the playoffs creep closer? The Hazean looks at Six Small(er) Fantasy Names to Buy - or scope out Rotoworld's Looking Ahead: Best Playoffs Schedules.
Ultimate Fantasy Football Strategy has a handy little Team by Team Projections chart for Week 9.
IDPers, you'll want to scope out SI.com's Eight in the Box: IDP Report.
I'll probably gush over this column every week, but seriously, go read Mike Tanier's Week 9 NFL Matchups on the Fifth Down.
Yahoo!'s Roto Arcade has rest-of-the-season rankings up in Shuffle Up and Deal.
If you've been hoping Anthony Gonzalez would be back and better than ever soon, I've got bad news. The dude just underwent more knee surgery.
And since it's Friday, you know there are many start/sit links to post...

Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit
SI/RotoExperts' Dear Diary: Start/Sit
NFL.com's Start 'Em & Sit 'Em
Bruno Boys' Week 9 Start Ems
Rotoholics splits up their start/sits into tiers for each position - like it, like it a lot. Except I'd bump Carson Palmer up into a "Strong Starter" and I'm crossing my fingers that Matt Forte could really be worthy of that label, too, against a pretty stout Arizona run defense...he might be more of a "Mediocre Starter" in my book.
One of my favorites, Rapid Draft's Week 9 Start 'Em/Bench 'Em Report
Sports Outlaw's Start 'em Sit 'em
Junkyard Jake's Sleepers/Creepers
FFToolbox's Week 9: Sit 'Em
CBSSports.com's Week 9 Start 'Em and Sit 'Em
FFGeekBlog's Hits & Misses - Week 9: Baseball is finally over!
The Hazean's Week 9 Start & Sit: Warner, Jacobs Ready for Bounce Back Weekend

Double post day

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:15:00 +0000

Well my husband is off at a conference and my sister is froufing around in Cali for a wedding - that means the quantity of friends I have in the city has just been reduced by about 50% - which frankly benefits you all since I'm hanging out writing another post tonight. I know, I need to get more friends. Funny how hard making friends can be when you work from home on fantasy football and basically hang out with cats all day (they're adorable cats, but still, they don't talk back)...all kidding aside though, it's kind of nice to have a quiet weekend after we had so many folks in town for the marathon last weekend.
Anyway, a quick housekeeping note first before I get into the rest of tonight's post. So I've updated the 1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice survey - despite my efforts to be as thorough as possible, I missed a few sites that I feel belong in the survey. Plus some of the additions are sites that have seen a massive number of write-in votes, too. So if you feel this invalidates the survey, my apologies, but we're talking fantasy football here not neuroscience. You've got all month to vote and many thanks to those who have already done so!

Now onto my big winners in the 96-team FFLibrarian league...these are the top 5 scorers across all 6 conferences:

BIG DUKE - 128.20 points
Bookie - 127.80
Vick's Cellmates - 123.70
Skins North - 121.85
Poopship Destroyers - 121.75

And the winners of my two weekly contests with 365FantasySports.com are WIguyinMN (see winning roster in image below) in the freeroll "pick 2" contest and mscogle in the points cap contest. Nicely done! I should point out that WIguyinMN came in 2nd in the points cap game, too, so he's clearly a dude to be reckoned with...and apparently I need to start taking these contests a bit more seriously. Play against me this week using password book9 and see if you can beat me! While you're at it, join the Commish Chick's weekly league for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate.

Okay finally time for some links:

This is a roundtable discussion kind of night - we've got not one but two roundtables going on:

RapidDraft brings us expert opinions on Week 9 sleepers and busts.
And LOTS of different opinions from FantasyFootballFools' 4th & 1 debate this week - clearly Jacob and I were thinking along the same lines this week since he posed essentially the same question I did in my Bruno Boys article: who has a sweet playoffs schedule??

I like how Razzball offers up an analysis of matchups based solely on passing and then rushing matchups. Check out this week's passing matchups analysis - rushing goes up tomorrow (Friday).
A few start/sit links:

Ask the Commish's Sit or Start
Pyromaniacs.com's Start 'Em - Sit 'Em: Week 9
Fantasy Phenom's Early Week 9 Starts and Sits
Talented Mr. Roto's Love/Hate: QB, thy shalt not sit thyself (video starts right away)
Yahoo!'s Roto Arcade Flames/Lames Ahmad Bradshaw, boogying in the Big Apple

Week 9 Start/Sits and Rankings

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:33:00 +0000

Congrats Yankees fans! I'll be honest, I was pulling for the Phillies since I was hoping for another championship for my sister's friend Eric Bruntlett, but I can put that aside and be happy for my new hometown team. You guys all know my heart is really with football anyway...

So speaking of which, let's jaunt on over to today's football articles:

My weekly article with the Bruno Boys is up - I'm looking at some players who have sweet playoffs matchups, but not the top guys, more like your borderline/bubble players. But to be honest, wait an hour or so to check it out. One of the graphics/charts was accidentally left out so there's going to be some tweaking needed...
In the meantime, check out my recommended reading in the Fifth Down's Week 9 in Fantasy Football Matchups - lots of good advice from the Sablich Bros, too, so definitely swing by the comments section if you've got a question about your lineup.
I don't know what it is but I love reading ProFootballWeekly.com's 10 Most Intriguing Players series - I always feel a little rumble of excitement for the weekend's games after reading this article. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'm even eager to see what Tampa Bay's offense will look like with Freeman at QB.
By this point in the week most waiver wire articles have been posted and you're likely past your waiver deadline...but I think Yahoo's Caught on Tape: Week 9 fantasy pickups is worth a watch anyway for Andy Behrens' helpful tips.
Drum roll please...time for start/sit links:

Fantasy Joe's Studs, duds, and sleepers: Dolphins' Brown, Patriots' Moss to duke it out
Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Studs, Starts, Sleepers, and Bench
FFToolbox's Week 9: Start 'Em
Fantasy Depth Chart's Sit/Start: Week 9 (Part 1)
FFXtreme's Start and Bench Advice: Week 9
FFManiaxs' Week 9 Start/Sit
FFGoat's Start em, Sit em, and Sleepers Week 9
FootballDocs' Start Sit

Some rankings for the week:

Mac Bros Start/Sit Rankings Week 9
FFToday's Week 9 Rankings (link goes to QB & RB)
Bruno Boys' Week 9 Rankings (link goes to TEs, more will go up today)
FOX Sports' Rotter's rankings: Week 9 (link goes to WR)
FootballDocs' Weekly Rankings (link goes to QBs)

The ultimate gut call

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:24:00 +0000

I might have just done something a bit crazy: I turned down a great job offer this morning. Without getting into too much detail, I was offered a position at a library (let's call it Library A) here in NYC but I still have a final round interview with another library (Library B) that I believe is more in line with my long-term library career aspirations coming up in a few weeks. I really wasn't ready to pull the trigger on Library A before meeting again with Library B, and since Library A decided they couldn't wait until my Library B interview had concluded, I declined the offer. I feel a little nuts: a job in the hand is worth two in the bush, right? But I firmly believe that there are times when you just have to go with your gut and trust that circumstances will evolve as they're meant to...so here's to Library B (or options C, D, and beyond!).

This of course is a perfect segue into fantasy football since I so often urge you all to go with your gut when faced with some tricky decisions. Use of the gut of course comes after you do your research, so let's research baby!

FFToolbox brings us their Week 9: Super Sleepers but I have to say that Malcom Floyd is far from a super sleeper - I'd happily add him to my lineup in just about any league with 3 WRs or a flex spot.
Looking for some thoughts on who you can buy/sell to sweeten your squad? Check out Pyromaniac.com's Pyro Stock Exchange. Other than disagreeing firmly on Aaron Rodgers, I really like a lot of the thoughts here. Good read.
A few IDP links for you:

Numbers & Guts' IDP Wednesday: Week 9 - chock full of interesting nuggets as always
FantasyFootball.com's Wire Me This (IDP) - I've got Greer in one of my leagues so glad to see some love for him here.

Razzball's Game (Day) Theory: Sleeper Math Week 9 - you can get advice on players with the most potential + opportunity divided into tiers here.
I know how you all love your targets, so for a snapshot from Week 8, see Rotoworld's Week 8 target report highlights.
Still lots of good waiver wire links up today:

Rotoworld's Turnover in Texas
Talented Mr. Roto's The Green-Eyed TMR
FantasySharks.com's Waiver Wire Pickups
FantasyPros911's Added and Dropped: Backfield Reinforcements
Fantasy Depth Charts' Waiver Wire (new site for me, would love any feedback)
Fantasy Phenoms' Searching the Scrap Heap
RotoExperts' The Pick-Up Artist: Pretty Boy Floyd

And of course the start/sit links are starting to roll out now, too:

FantasySharks.com's Start/Bench List
FFToolbox's Who to Start Rankings/Projections
Pigskin Addiction's Start/Bench - Week 9

Oh and you guys rock - there are already nearly 250 votes in the FFL Readers' Choice poll after just 36 hours. Keep it coming!

Waiver words of wisdom for Week 9

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:27:00 +0000

I don't know about you all but I can't believe it's November already - my husband and I are getting our Thanksgiving plans together, but I think despite the fact that we're now many miles closer to our family, we might just have a 2-person Thanksgiving dinner. A large part of it is thanks to my hesitation to travel that week (it ranks very, very low on my list of fun things to do over holiday weekends, especially since we travel like crazy over Christmas) but I'm kind of looking forward to our Thanksgiving. We'll hit up the Macy's Day Parade because we can and watch unbelievable amounts of football - sounds pretty decent to me.

On another note, I should have known you guys would flood the FFL readers' choice survey (thank you!)...to the point that I need to switch survey hosts from PollDaddy back to my original Google Forms plan. So if you try to answer the survey today and aren't able to do so with PollDaddy, stay tuned...I'm getting it switched to Google. And don't worry, if you already voted, I'll be transferring those votes over. Thanks for being patient!

Time for today's best links...

Of course there are several waiver wire links to scope out:

Pigskin Addiction's Waiver Wire Work
KFFL's Waiver Wire by position (links to QBs)
Fantasy Joe's Moats: Worth a pick but maybe not a start
FFManiaxs' Week 9 Waiver Wire
Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's video
NFL.com's Smith, Charles among the players to target off the waiver wire (includes video)

Sigh. Kevin Smith owners (such as myself), beware of his falling value thanks to the incoming vulture, Maurice Morris. Rotoworld takes a look at what this might mean for Smith's fantasy worth.
Take a look at MyOfficePool's Moving Up, Moving Down to get a sense of players who might be worth starting or targeting in a trade.
Wow, the Chargers have released Chris Chambers. They must have read my article for the Bruno Boys last week that noted his poor fantasy points per target ratio this year...kidding, kidding. But on the fantasy front, Malcolm Floyd will probably start turning a few heads.
Okay, FFGoat led me to this new site that I think you all will really dig...mostly because many of you have asked me to analyze the experts on a weekly basis, which FantasyXPERT.com has found a way to do. Basically when you sign up for a free account you can access a consensus on the best waiver wire advice, start/sit advice, and player rankings advice. Now where it really gets interesting is that with a premium account you can find out which sites have the most accurate waiver wire and start/sit advice. I'd like to know how they assess the accuracy of those advice pieces, but you can get some details on how they analyze the rankings here, but not a ton since it's a proprietary algorithm.
If you're wondering what to do with Owen Daniels or Chris Cooley, take some advice from Top Fantasy Football and see why Fred Davis might be a great grab in Fantasy Sneak Peek: Fred Davis.

1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice Poll

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:36:00 +0000

The 1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice Poll is up! It's the eve of Election Day so it seems appropriate to roll out my first ever readers' picks poll. I'm eager to hear which sites you all deem to be the best of the best, so please take a few moments to answer the survey when you get a chance. There are 8 questions and I'm hoping that I've got all the right sites in all the right categories. If you see any mistakes, let me know stat! Fortunately each question has an "other" answer option so if you don't see your favorite site listed, you still have a place to let your voice be heard.

The poll will be up until the end of the day on November 30, 2009 so you have plenty of time to vote - the link to the survey will be on the top right side of the blog for the rest of the month. The results will be made available on FFLibrarian in early December.

Thanks for participating, I really appreciate it!

The road goes on forever...

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:57:00 +0000

...but the party never ends! Not sure my husband would agree that the whole marathon was a party since he later declared it to be a tough race, but I for one enjoyed spectating. Frankly I'd like to brag for a minute and note that we were able to see him at four different spots including a monumental mile 18.5 to mile 22.5 to and finish line viewing stretch (that included my sister on her husband's shoulders as our lookout at the finish line and a troop of unhappy Italian tourists who had to put up with us). This was no small feat and I'd like to thank the subway for being remarkably - no, stunningly - super speedy.

So the race is over and my sister and 2 brothers-in-law and I are making our way to my husband who has basically just crashed post-race onto a bench alongside the park. My husband has a bit of a history of tough times post-race (for example, there was the heatstroke post-Chicago marathon in record heat a few years ago; or the hour-long 5-block walk back to our hotel in Portland last year)...so I had myself braced for the worst. And he didn't disappoint. So we're all with my husband at this bench, and there were marathon employees and cops wandering around with megaphones telling everyone who is not a runner to vacate the benches for those who need them. I'm cool with that of course but there weren't any struggling runners needing a bench at that moment - and when you're sitting next to your spouse who looks like he might just make camp at that bench and try for home tomorrow, trust me, you're really not going to listen to these folks. So finally a cop approaches us and asks us and the rest of the bench loafers to move on. Since there was no way my husband was going to get up and get moving at that moment, I asked her to give us a minute and with fantastic timing my husband proceeded to puke basically right at the poor cop's feet just to make our case. A family with a small child next to us cleared the bench in record time and the cop and a megaphone-toting employee looked on with horrified faces. It was awesome. Not to say I wasn't mildly concerned, but I also know my husband's post-race patterns well and knew he was just fine; needed to hurl and would be ready to rally.

Anyway, I've had a weekend full of copious amounts of pasta and good friends and family - a little light on the football though. My apologies if I didn't get back to any of you with start/sit questions but by this time you're probably getting used to my completely erratic schedule that doesn't really lend itself to much e-mailing over the weekends. Let's get to today's links...

I heart Owen Daniels. So I was very sorry to hear about his knee injury. For the latest updates on injuries yesterday, see KFFL.com's Post-game injury report.
Scope out FFManiaxs' Top 10 Disappointing Players and Top 10 Surprising Players for the season. I'm not sure I agree with all of their calls but a good read nonetheless.
If you're looking for some recaps of yesterday's games, there are several good wrap-ups for you:

I always like reading FootballOutsiders' Audibles at the Line
Fifth Down's What We Learned: Week 8
Rotoworld's Titanic Day
CBSSports.com's First Response: Houston's win is our loss - some good TE suggestions to replace Daniels are mentioned, FYI.

Speaking of Houston, I've got two words for you: Ryan Moats. I'm guessing 80% of the FF world will be putting in a request for him. For the latest waiver wire advice, check out these fine sites:

FootballDocs' Waiver Wire Advice
The Hazean's Early Week 9 Waiver Wire Thoughts
ProFootballWeekly's Fantasy Ticker: Week 9
Lester's Legends' Get 'em or Don't sweat 'em
The Bruno Boys' Cut Them Loose and Pick Them Up
FanHouse's Whatever Floats Your Moats
For those in IDP leagues, see Monk's IDP Waiver Wire Pick Ups

Finally, I should have my 1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice poll up tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest. I'll let you all know as soon as it's up and will link to it off the right side of the blog for the rest of the month.

Consensus Start/Sit and more!

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:54:00 +0000

A few quick links before we get to the consensus start/sit for the week...

Need some IDP advice? Scope out FFManiaxs' Week 8 IDP Start/Sit.
Okay deep leaguers, you're going to want to pay attention to KFFL.com's blog post Don't overlook the fantasy football depths. Names that only those in the deepest of leagues should be interested in, fyi.
I was on GoGameFace's GameOn podcast earlier this week talking about how I got my start, my love for the Broncos, and my conviction that Austin Miles Miles Austin (ahh, gotta love a name screw up -I'll blame that on Austin Collie and my 8th grade boyfriend, Austin. Perhaps if I'd dated a Miles...) is a great start this week. Bonus? You get to hear Bill Root from RotoExperts.com, too.
Speaking of podcasts, back in September I spoke with some of the Fantasy Football Tonight guys (thanks Ryan and Jeff!), but there are many, many podcasts to chose from, which is one of the great features offered from Fantasy Football Search.

Consensus time - remember, I've gone to each of the start/sit sites I linked to earlier this week and pulled together the players with the most start and sit votes for the week. They're listed here in no particular order:

Start: Brett Favre, David Garrard, Jay Cutler

Sit: Donovan McNabb, Matt Ryan, Eli Manning, Matt Hasselbeck

Start: Steven Jackson, Matt Forte, Kevin Smith, Beanie Wells

Sit: Ryan Grant, Knowshon Moreno, Marshawn Lynch

Start: Austin Collie, Donnie Avery, Mike Sims-Walker, Devin Hester

Sit: Derrick Mason, Terrell Owens, Mario Manningham, both Steve Smiths (NYG and CAR), Ted Ginn Jr.

Start: Jeremy Shockey, Vernon Davis, Zach Miller

Sit: Tony Gonzalez, John Carlson, Visanthe Shiancoe, Todd Heap, Tony Scheffler

Kicker

Start: Robbie Gould, Matt Prater

Sit: John Kasay

D/ST

Start: Colts, Chargers, Bears, Cardinals

Sit: 49ers, Broncos

Lots of Week 8 Start/Sit Advice

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:43:00 +0000

Thanks to all for your input on my 1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice poll - I should have the poll ready to roll early next week and have definitely added some questions and sites thanks to your emails and comments. Can't wait to find out which sites you all love to read!

I've got a fun weekend ahead with lots of friends coming in for the marathon - and my brother-in-law should be en route from the ATL before long. Good times ahead. Look for me in my FFLibrarian t-shirt spectating on the marathon course!

You're all really here for the start/sit advice, so let's get to it!

Start/Sits:

Talented Mr. Roto's Fear and Loathing in Fantasy Football
FFGeekBlog's Hit & Misses - Week 8: Happy Halloween!
Bruno Boys' Week 8 Start Ems
FFToolbox's Week 8; Sit 'Em
The Hazean's Week 8 Start & Sit: OK, now you can start Brett Favre
Yahoo!'s Roto Arcade Flames & Lames: Darren Sproles, Three, Two, One...Liftoff!
Pyromaniac.com's Start 'Em - Sit 'Em: Week 8
NFL.com's Start 'Em & Sit 'Em
Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit
CBSSports.com's Start 'Em & Sit 'Em: Week 8 (video starts right away)
Rapid Draft's Week 8 Start 'Em/Bench 'Em Report
RotoExperts' Dear Diary: Sit/Start

And of course there are other things to link to today besides start/sits...like The Hazean's Bye Week Plug-and-Play suggestions.
Check out Rotoworld's Football Daily Dose for some thoughts on this weekend's upcoming games.
Some rankings for the week:

Mac Bros Start/Sit Rankings
Fantasy Hulks' Week 8 Rankings
FOX Sports' Projections/Rankings by position
Yahoo!'s Early Position Ranks

Finally, don't forget to participate in my weekly league with 365FantasySports.com - this week's password is 8book.

I want your opinion!

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:48:00 +0000

I've had an idea rumbling around in my head for awhile and think it's time for the 1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice poll. I want to know which fantasy sites and writers you all find the most helpful - and there's nothing like a good ol' fashioned poll. So here's the deal - I'm pulling together my poll right now using Google Docs (don't worry, you'll be able to answer with or without a google account) and am hoping to have the poll up and running for the entire month of November. In early December, I'll reveal the winners in each category. Now before I get too far into the poll I wanted to let you know the questions I'll be asking and give you a chance to respond in the comments section if there are any sites that I should be sure to include in the survey. I'm already including a lot (and I mean a LOT) of the obvious sites that I link to frequently, but please feel free you voice your opinions below just to be sure I cover all my bases! The questions will be:

Which website featured on FFLibrarian is your overall favorite fantasy football resource?
Which website featured on FFLibrarian has the best preseason rankings?
Which website featured on FFLibrarian has the best waiver wire advice?
Which website featured on FFLibrarian has the best start/sit advice?
Which website featured on FFLibrarian has the best weekly rankings?
Which fantasy football columnist featured on FFLibrarian is your favorite?

Hope you guys are as excited about this idea as I am!

Get ready for Week 8 prep

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:53:00 +0000

I love my neighborhood - I think it's just beautiful. I felt this way as soon as laid eyes on it when we were apartment hunting this summer. There's just such an abundance of character between the brownstones, old apartment buildings, churches, banks, and even the court buildings. Now I'll be the first to admit that I didn't think anything in New York City could possibly top my Boulder foothills, and while Boulder still takes the cake, my Brooklyn 'hood is awesome in a totally different way. I was walking around in the cool drizzle here yesterday thinking about how absolutely lovely the changing leaves are, even on a soggy day...and it occurred to me: this is it. This is how autumn was meant to be.

And what makes autumn even better? Football. So let's get to today's links:

In yesterday's comments, reader Brian reminded me that I've been neglecting FantasyPros911 - and what an oversight! Thanks for the nudge, Brian, since it's definitely worth your time to check out some of their gems. Today I'm particularly enamored with their Week 8 IDP Fantasy Football Rankings: Top 225. Who else ranks that many IDPers?? You can break it down by position as well.
Another by request item - a few weeks ago a reader asked for an analysis on fantasy points per target and since I like to play with just about any football stat available, I pulled something together for my weekly Bruno Boys article. Take a look to see which WRs aren't quite living up to their potential but might have a little something more to give in the second half of the season.
Scope out Ultimate Fantasy Football Strategy's Team by Team Projections for Week 8 - you'll see some nice charts with projected fantasy points based on matchups.
The NY Times' Fifth Down blog has their weekly matchups advice ready to go (including a few favorite links for the week from yours truly) - great place to go if you're looking for start/sit feedback.
The Hazean's Six Big Fantasy Names to Sell is full of good stuff. I have to admit I don't agree with the idea of trading away some of these guys, particularly Greg Jennings and Steve Smith (CAR), but I love reading the Hazean's thoughts.
ProFootballWeekly.com's Ten most intriguing players of Week Eight hit the nail on the head with Miles Austin. Will he keep it going? I say yes, indeed!
A handful of start/sit and rankings links are up:

FFGoat's Start em, Sit em, and Sleepers Week 8
Junkyard Jake's Sleepers/Creepers
Mr. Fantasy's Week 8 Rankings (link goes to RBs)
12StepDrop's Contentious Starts and Sits: Week 8
FFToolbox's Week 8: Sit Em
FFXtreme's Start and Bench Advice: Week 8
Fantasy Joe's Studs, Duds, and sleepers: Colts' Collie to fill injury void
Ask the Commish's Sit or Start for Week 8
FFToday's Position Projections for Week 8 (link goes to QBs)

Will you all be tuning in to watch The League tonight? I'm headed to a concert so I've got it set to DVR - I'm intrigued, I admit it, despite this far less than awesome review.

Contest news from Week 7!

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:01:00 +0000

A few early evening links for you before my weekly contest update...

Rotoworld's Week 7 Target Report confirms what I was thinking and writing about in my column for the Bruno Boys this week (article will go up in the next day or so) in terms of Chris Chambers. His number of targets per game have actually increased since 2008 but clearly he isn't capitalizing on them...combine that with Norv's comments and Floyd will soon take over giving Chambers little to no fantasy relevance.
Take a look at FantasySharks.com's Week 8 projections or FFToolbox's Week 8: Start 'Em for some early Week 8 lineup advice.
I'm following the news on Goodell appearing before Congress to talk concussions - I read Malcolm Gladwell's article on the topic in The New Yorker a few weeks ago and definitely learned a little something. What I find most fascinating are the responses to the CBS article I link to here...lots of negativity. Am I naive in that I was expecting football fans to actually care about the long-term health of players?

Well there are plenty of 6-1 teams in my monster 96-team FFLibrarian League, but only one team remains 7-0: Dangerous Beans, who posts on this site as EshInPennsyltucky. So when he comments, I say listen up since he clearly knows what he's talking about. Though it pains me a bit to say that since I'm sitting here at 1-6 in that league and yet I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about most of the time. I'll blame my situation squarely on Matt Forte's shoulders but to be honest, I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons. What I have learned from this monster league experience is that 16-team leagues just aren't that much fun for me...when your waiver wire options are truly awful, it takes away a bit of the fantasy joy for me.

Anyway, here are the top 5 scorers for the week in my monster league:
1. The Sugar Bakers - 158.80 points
2. ColdOne - 152.60 points
3. Lab - 131.55 points
4. Scotch for Breakfast - 131.45 points
5. Up Down Left Right B A - 130.95 points

Last week a great number of you participated in my weekly contest with 365FantasySports.com - love having all that interest, thanks guys! Below you can see the winning roster below from our winner: Tourinct, who rocked the win despite a 1-point performance from Westbrook. Impressive. The point caps game winner this week was repeat player (and winner!) Zrayed. Nicely done to both of you!

If you'd like to join in on the fun and show off your fantasy football knowledge for Week 8, then feel free to join us! It's free, very quick and easy, and full of smart fantasy minds. Get started here if you haven't participated before. The password this week is 8book - enjoy!

Gearing up to spectate

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:28:00 +0000

I was watching the weather forecast this morning (fairly standard since I'm a weather nut) and couldn't help but wish I was back in Boulder where they're getting dumped with snow today. Much better than the sogginess that has descended upon NYC. Here's hoping the snow clears out in plenty of time for our Boulder buddies to make it out here for the NYC marathon. My husband and a bunch of our friends are running the marathon this weekend and I'm planning out my spectator route - any suggestions? I'm thinking mile 8 and mile 19 or so - then closing things out near the finish. I'm taking advice from seasoned NYC marathon spectators though.

It's just occurring to me now that I should have made a Fantasy Football Librarian shirt for my husband to run in for the race - that would have been awesome. By the way, if you're thinking to yourself, gotta get me one of those FFL t-shirts, fear not, it's as easy as could be. Click on the Support the FFLibrarian link on the right side of the blog and buy up a shirt, a mug, a whatever for your favorite FFLibrarian fans. I mean the holidays are right around the corner, what says Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah better than a FFLibrarian shirt, eh? Right?!

Moving on to today's links:

First off, I can't ignore Larry Johnson's pure idiocy. His hateful language was just deplorable but I guess the upside is that it leads to articles such as the Fifth Down's Being Gay in the NFL: "The Only Thing We Need Is a Hero" that look at the macho culture of the NFL a bit more. With Johnson likely out the door before long, remember to grab Jamaal Charles if he's on your waiver wire.
Speaking of waiver wires, there are some good ones still out there:

Talented Mr. Roto: The TMR FAQ - learn everything you ever wanted to know about Matthew Berry and of course some player pickup advice.
FantasySharks.com's Waiver Wire Pickups
Numbers & Guts' IDP Wednesday: Week 8 for those in IDP leagues

Last week I did an interview with The Football Girl - Melissa from The Football Girl is interviewing lots of players and other interesting folks so keep your eyes open for podcasts from her in the future, too.
On the podcast front, I'll be talking with the GoGameFace ladies today - should be fun.
Some of my favorite bloggers out there teamed together to answer the question, Who is your biggest buy-low candidate for Weeks 8 through 16? in this week's roundtable discussion. Lots of Jennings love here - read on to find out who else they like.
The Hazean's Seven Fantasy Mirages or Seven Fantasy Studs-to-Be? offers up some sage advice on the fantasy worth of 7 players you might be considering for your squad.
FFToolbox's Week 8: Sleepers of the Week advises playing Marc Bulger if you're in a bind. Oh man, I feel sorry for those in St. Louis and Detroit being forced to watch that matchup. Cross your fingers that the local stations will take mercy on you and offer up another game, too.
A handful of start/sit links are up with advice for your roster this week:

FantasySharks.com's Start/Bench List
FFToolbox's Who to Start Rankings/Projections
Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Studs, Starts, Sleepers, and Bench
FFManiaxs' Week 8 Start/Sit

Just part of the club

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:16:00 +0000

My dad was in town last night (major bonus to living in NYC? seeing my family frequently) so I missed part of the MNF game to enjoy a tasty dinner at Basera (best naan I've had in awhile, by the way) with the NYC transplants in my extended family. Always a good time. Meanwhile tonight I'm embarking on what I see as a ritual for practically every urban-dwelling 20/30-something woman I know: a book club. It's like the urban response to being a soccer mom or something. To be honest, I don't really understand the appeal. Now I realize that I'm a librarian and in theory I should enjoy incorporating books into my everyday life as much as possible, but there's something so incredibly cheesy about a book club. That said, this is my sister's book club so I'm trying to have an open mind here. And that whole reading thing is of course something I can get down with...

Speaking of reading, I've had a busy morning reading the latest waiver wire posts and other helpful hints for Week 8 and beyond:

First up, Chris Cooley is out for the year - heads up for Cooley owners to go grab a new TE off of waivers (of course if you need suggestions, you can scope out waiver options in the links below).
Jay Clemons is the commish of my fantasy basketball league and I think I can safely say that the man does not sleep. Or perhaps he just cat naps his way through the day. Which then only makes his Fantasy Clicks: Week 7 Revelations article that much more impressive. Great read for a fantasy take on last weekend's games.
Sports Grumblings' The Fire Sale: Kicking it up a notch is up with World Series thoughts and of course fantasy football. Gotta admit that moving to NYC has not made me a Yankees fan at all. Plus my sister's friend Eric Bruntlett (of the unassisted triple play action earlier this year) plays for the Phillies and is their good luck charm for the playoffs, so I'm totally pulling for Eric and the Phillies.
It might be two weeks away, but PFT reports the Steelers could be shorthanded in Denver.
Lester's Legends has a few guys that you might want to avoid this week if possible in Fantasy Football Pitfalls - Week 8.
Waiver wire links for today:

KFFL's waiver suggestions by position (links to QB)
The Hazean's Week 8 Waiver Wire Adds
Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Week 8 video
FFManiaxs' Week 8 Waiver Wire
Fantasy Joe's Signs point to Greene for upstart rookie
FFGeekBlog's The Wire - Week 8: What Greene Can Do for You (sense a Greene trend here?)

Week 7 with a dash of fantasy basketball

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:07:00 +0000

I have a whole new respect for double fantasy sports players - by that I mean those who are playing two different fantasy sports simultaneously. I've decided it's time to tango with another fantasy sport and since I dig basketball, I jumped in head first to an SI Friends & Family league, which started drafting a few days ago. Here's hoping I'm not way in over my head. Thanks to those of you that sent fantasy basketball resources my way - I'll be getting a post up (hopefully this week!) with feedback on my favorites so far just in case any fantasy basketballers out there are interested.

Some good games and some serious blowouts yesterday - I thought I'd get started today with a few injury updates and then dive right into the rest of the links:

There's a very good chance that I'll pull out a win in the BWW All-Star Blogger League this week despite a goose egg from Leon Washington, who is unfortunately out for the season with a broken leg (which required immediate surgery in Oakland). Tough times for Leon, here's hoping for a speedy recovery. Meanwhile, fantasy footballers who are in need of a RB who might have some good weeks ahead, you know what to do - Shonn Greene. His 144 yards and 2 TDs should be reason enough to grab him.
More injury news from FFToolbox - Jermichael Finley is out for a few weeks with a sprained knee. Bummer, the dude was putting up pretty decent numbers. And other news just to be aware of for now, Andre Johnson suffered a chest contusion - if he does miss any time, Kevin Walter could likely pick up some yardage as he did last year when Johnson was out.
If you need a wrap-up of some of the games this week, check out CBSSports.com's First Response: Something is in the air. Or of course Peter King's MMQB, Seven storylines from wild Week 7, is also a good read as always. Will the NFL have a franchise play annually in London? Intriguing.
Two more good reviews of the weekend's game from Fantasy Hulks - Mr. Monday Morning and Rotoworld's Beyond the Box Score.
Time to scope out the waiver wire advice for Week 8:

Lester's Legends' Get 'em or Don't Sweat 'em
The Hazean's Daily Haze: Early Week 8 Waiver Wire Thoughts
FootballDocs' Waiver Wire
ProFootballWeekly's Fantasy Ticker - I'm psyched about Mike Wallace, too...
The Bruno Boys' Cut Them Loose and Pick Them Up
IDP Waiver wire pick ups from Monk's IDP Week

Favorite article of the week & consensus start/sits

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:34:00 +0000

Wow. I just watched a heart-breaking loss for the Tennessee Volunteers (and my husband) as their kicker had a 45-yard FG blocked, to lose to top-ranked Alabama. What a disaster for the Vols kicking game today...meanwhile my Northwestern Wildcats narrowly eked out a win against the lowly Indiana Hoosiers. Could've been a bit embarrassing - oh wait, a bit more embarrassing - had we lost.

Anyway, thought I'd get the consensus start/sit links for Week 7 up - and a few extra links for those looking for one more opinion or one more interesting football tidbit. First up, links:

I've written a lot about it this week but the photo documentation of my brussels sprouts adventure is up on Fighting Chance Fantasy, as well as this week's Five Game Parlay bets. Will I be able to turn things around this week? One can only hope.
Football Outsiders' Mike Tanier does another excellent job with his Week 7 NFL Matchups on the Fifth Down - I'm honestly not sure if there's a better review of each week's games out there. Seriously, do yourself a favor and go read Tanier's piece.
FantasySharks.com's The Hive is up with advice for those in IDP leagues.

Consensus start/sits - for those new to this feature, I read through all the start/sit links that I provided earlier in the week and tally up those players with the most start and sit votes. You'll see their names below listed in no particular order...

Start: Jay Cutler, Matt Cassel, Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger

Sit: Brett Favre, Jake Delhomme, Mark Sanchez, Jason Campbell, Kurt Warner, Donovan McNabb

Start: LaDainian Tomlinson, Laurence Maroney, Jonathan Stewart, Ryan Grant, Thomas Jones

Sit: Brandon Jacobs, Rashard Mendenhall, Clinton Portis

Start: Austin Collie, Miles Austin, Hines Ward, Johnny Knox, Steve Smith (NYG)

Sit: Santana Moss, Terrell Owens, Roy Williams, Steve Smith (CAR), Braylon Edwards

Start: Heath Miller, Greg Olsen, Sean Ryan, Visanthe Shiancoe, Jason Witten

Sit: Vernon Davis, Brent Celek, Owen Daniels, Zach Miller

Kicker

Start: John Kasay

Sit: Robbie Gould

D/ST

Start: Colts, Patriots

Sit: Cardinals

Lots of start/sit advice for Week 7

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:58:00 +0000

So I attacked my brussels sprouts consumption challenge with vigor last night. To many of you this might seem like a small task, but those who knew me in my youth (and my mom in particular) perhaps understand the undertaking that this was for me. I like to refer to myself as someone with a sensitive palate; my family just calls me a picky eater. I have of course progressed quite a bit since my youth but just to give you a sense of my picky eating (and my stubbornness), I didn't eat pizza until I got to college. Yeah, I said it. No pizza. My worst years were my elementary school years: I was that kid at birthday parties who showed up already fed; the one with a PB&J sandwich in my lunch box at a restaurant while the rest of my family ate normally; the one that possibly offended her grandmother with her refusal to eat more than one pea. Yes, I was a joy to feed. The good news for those parents out there with picky eaters is that we grow up and accept that spinach is a treat, lima beans are delicious, Indian food is tasty, and damn that pizza sure tastes good.

Point being, I played the role of Brussels Sprouts Chef last night and determined that you can dress up a sprout all you want - but it's still a sprout. I used two recipes, the better one being a variation of a recipe that a reader posted here on my site (thank you Les Savy Ferd!) and the first few bites really weren't that bad. The second recipe had such promise (it included pine nuts, apples, honey - those are all tasty items!) but it failed miserably. I've sent photo documentation of the evening to Fighting Chance Fantasy, which will probably go up tonight with the next set of bets in the Five Game Parlay series - here's hoping my picks this week will be a bit more accurate.

Moving on to today's start/sit and other great links:

First up, start/sits:

FFGeekBlog's Hits & Misses - Week 7: New England Heads to Old England
FFToolbox's Week 7: Sit 'Em
Matthew Berry's Life's little dilemmas (I'm Facebook friends with both my mom and dad so I found this one particularly amusing)
The Hazean's Start & Sit Week 7
Bruno Boys' Week 7 Start Ems
Ask the Commish's Sit or Start
Rapid Draft's Week 7 Start 'em/Bench 'em Report
CBSSports.com's Week 7 Start 'Em and Sit 'Em
FFNerd's Where to Put 'em - I like the Nerd's willingness to put Owen Daniels on his bench list despite the fact that the expert consensus has Daniels as the #5 TE for the week.
Roto Arcade's Flames/Lames: Jonathan Stewart will slather Bills in Baconnaise - nice little nugget I learned here: the Steelers haven't allowed a 100-yard rusher in the past 28 games.

Onto the best of the rest:

Which franchise might be moved to L.A.?? See Fifth Down's Los Angeles Needs a Team: Which Franchise is the Flabbiest?
Yahoo!'s Shuffle Up and Deal rankings for the remainder of the season.
I love it when I can go to one site and find a variety of expert opinions, so I'm digging all the roundtable discussions I'm seeing this season. Take a look at RookieBlitz.com's Week 7 Sleepers discussion today.
Mr. Fantasy's Week 7 position rankings - this one links to QBs.
Fantasy Check has a great run down of the injuries that players are battling this week in Fantasy Check Up.
My Office Pool has advice on Week 7 Buy Low, Sell High if you're contemplating making some roster moves.

I'll be back with the consensus start/sit either later today or tomorrow. Enjoy your Friday!

Afternoon links & contest updates

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:48:00 +0000

Come and get your fantasy love here, friends. I'm in a great mood - just finished up an interview with Melissa from The Football Girl (the podcast will be up in the next few days) and spent basically the whole day at a spa by accident. Well kind of by accident. I was getting my hair cut and my stylist ended up needing to leave in the middle due to a family emergency - while I really didn't mind (family comes first and far, far before hair cuts), the salon bent over backwards to make me feel like a valued new customer and I ended up with a facial, hand massage, a goodie bag of lotions, and the best stylist in the salon to finish up. Trust me, it was good. You ladies out there in Brooklyn (and dudes who like nice a coiffure) who need a new salon, just drop me a line and I'll send along their name.

Anyway, all of this makes me want to put a few more fantasy links up - and of course update you on the FFLibrarian weekly contests. So links first, contest news second:

12StepDrop's Contentious Starts and Sits: Week 7
FFManiaxs' Week 7 Start/Sit
Pyromaniac's Start 'Em Sit 'Em (new link, would love to know what you all think)
The top 5 scorers in all 6 conferences of the monster 96-team FFLibrarian league are:

Vick's Cellmate - 165.50 points
Beltway Bandits - 160.75 points
The Sugar Bakers - 156 points
Dangerous Beans - 151.15 points
Sweet Thunder - 149.50 points

And for the first time this season, one player has won both of my weekly contests with 365FantasySports.com: garywink - congrats Gary! His winning roster in the main pick 2 contest is pasted below. Remember, you can jump into this league any time - the password this week is book7 and here's a good starting point if you haven't participated yet. I've got the pick 2 contest and a salary cap contest up this week; play in one, play in both!

Sprouts, start/sits, and rankings

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:36:00 +0000

Those of you who have been following along with the Five Game Parlay I've been participating in with Fighting Chance Fantasy know that I got a bit too sure of myself (and the Eagles) last week and set myself up for a brussels sprouts extravaganza - I promised to provide photo documentation of me eating a sprout if the Eagles didn't cover against the Raiders last week and trust me, I do not want to eat a sprout. But you fine people have given me several sprout recipes, and I'm a woman of my word, so tonight we'll be fixing up several sprout dishes. Should be an interesting dinner.

So let's get to some start/sit links and other good stuff...

The Fifth Down's Week 7 in Fantasy Football is up with my weekly batch of best links and lots of matchup advice from the Sablich brothers.
Good stuff from the KFFL blog - this week's roundtable discussion between a bunch of my favorite bloggers is "Which two players are you stashing for the second half? Why?"
ProFootballWeekly.com's Ten Most Intriguing Players of Week Seven - love the Frank Gore call. I added him to my list of players that will jump up into the Top 10 fantasy RBs by season's end in my column with the Bruno Boys this week.
Time for your Thursday dose of start/sit links:

FantasySharks.com's Start/Bench List Week 7
FFToolbox's Week 7: Start 'Em
Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit
Fantasy Football Xtreme's Start and Bench Advice: Week 7
NFL.com's Start 'em & Sit 'em
Football Docs' Start Sit

Also lots of rankings:

Fantasy Hulks' Week 7 Rankings by position (link goes to WRs)
Mac Bros' Start/Sit Rankings Week 7
Bruno Boys' Rankings by positon (goes to TEs)
Yahoo!'s Early Position Ranks, Week 7
FOX's Weekly Rankings/Projections
RotoExperts' Lineup Rankings from Scott Engel

Wish me luck with the brussels sprouts...

Week 7 (already?!) prep

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:40:00 +0000

This might be a quick post - I've got a final round interview with a library here in NYC and need to head out the door before long. I'll try to get another post up this afternoon with more links plus some info on this week's FFLibrarian weekly contest with 365FantasySports (password is book7 for you eager beavers out there).

Last night I had about 17 different windows open on my computer, working on a presentation that's part of my interview today, working on my Bruno Boys article, and working on my links for the NY Times' Fifth Down. My night work session was peppered with cheers from our downstairs neighbor who is quite clearly a Yankees fan. Speaking of baseball, big night tonight in our house since my husband is a big Dodgers fan...

Anyway, here are some quick morning links:

There are still some quality waiver wire articles to scope out:

The ever-entertaining Matthew Berry's Waiver Wire: Celebrity edition
FantasySharks.com's Waiver Wire Pickups
FFGeekBlog's The Wire - Week 7: Shiancoe on the Move
The Hazean's Week 7 Waiver Wire Adds
CBSSports.com's Waiver Wire: Will Maroney be a phony again?

Numbers & Guts does another great job at pulling together all sorts of IDP nuggets of info in this week's IDP Wednesday. Note the suggestion to go grab Witherspoon off of waivers.
A little something else for those in IDP leagues - FantasyFootball.com's Wire Me This (IDP: Week 7).
Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Week 7 Studs, Starts, Sleepers, and Bench is up and will be updated daily until game time.
KFFL.com's Week 7 Sleepers (listed by position) are up - the Raiders D/ST is an interesting and perhaps clever snag this week, particularly for those who are rewarded heavily for sacks and interceptions.

Finally, I'm playing a new fantasy sport this year, my fine readers: fantasy basketball. I'm starting the prep but would love to hear about any favorite fantasy basketball sites that you all use. Not sure I'm ready to whip up a Fantasy Basketball Librarian site quite yet, but that's on the horizon.

Tuesday morning fantasy links

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:23:00 +0000

Eddie Royal really pulled through for me. If you missed what happened last night, check out this ESPN article first. So let me list the ways I love Royal...first and foremost, he helped the Broncos win. Second, in my BWW All-Star Blogger League, return TDs count so I pulled out a 3 point win thanks to Royal (and Prater) to go 5-1 and get a little bit closer to the trip to Miami during the Super Bowl. Third, I was playing against my husband this week - he had Royal, I had the Denver D/ST. In a move that I couldn't have orchestrated better myself, our league settings did not give my husband points for Royal's TDs, but gave them to me instead for the Denver ST. Now for those of you calling shenanigans here (like my husband), I still would have won despite Royal's TDs. Oh winning against a spouse in FF is a beautiful thing.

Thanks for letting me talk about my fantasy successes here - the fact that I worked the system so well this week was just too noteworthy.

So moving on to today's links:

Lester's Legends offers up some much-needed Bye Week Alternatives for Week 7 with a bunch of big fantasy teams on bye - take a look at his high-end alternatives, solid alternatives, and even desperation time picks for some bye week void help.
A few articles note which players are moving up or down in value after Week 6 games:

Sports Grumblings' The Fire Sale - which inevitably provides a few chuckles as well
FantasySharks.com's On the Rise, On the Fall

Take a look at FFToolbox's Week 7: Hot Trading Tips for guys you might want to try and move off your squad off possible.
Yahoo!'s Roto Arcade's 7-on-7: Running is clearly not our Forte - some good injury updates/nuggets here.
I'm so glad to see a little love for Tony Scheffler in Rotoworld's Still in the woods review of the MNF game and other league updates. I love me some Scheff...perhaps he's on the fantasy rebound here!

A few more waiver wire links for you today:

NFL.com's Week 7 waiver wire report video
KFFL.com's Waiver Wire by position
Fantasy Football Jungle's Waiver Wire
The Hazean's Waiver Wire Thoughts
Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Week 7 video
FFManiax's Week 7 Waiver Wire
Fantasy Hulks' Waiver World: Week 7

Scouring for new names on waiver wire

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:41:00 +0000

What a crazy Sunday. As evidenced by my picks in Fighting Chance Fantasy's Five Game Parlay for the week, I was pretty off on the outcome of a lot of games. And now I have to eat a brussels sprout. I'm not happy about this and my inner child is emerging ("does one bite count?" "what kind of a chaser food can I have ready?").Oh Eagles...how did this happen?

I had a great weekend with my mom in town though I did end up trading in some football for a trip to the MoMA, so I've been catching up on the big football news from yesterday. If you also missed any of the games yesterday, there are a few good recap articles out there. So onto today's links!

First great recap of the weekend comes from USA Today's Fantasy Joe - Explosive games make for hectic Week 6.
Another good game review, which includes some waiver wire names you might want to scope out - CBSSports.com's First Response: Is the Brady of old back?
In addition to some unexpected outcomes for the week, there were also an unusually high number of injuries. Rotoworld's Week 6 Bumps and Bruises covers injuries on the biggest name players. Check back with their NFL Injuries section for more details over the coming days.
There aren't a ton of new names on the waiver wire this week but there are several sites reminding you of which players you should focus on picking up this week:

ProFootballWeekly.com's Fantasy Ticker: Week Seven
FootballDocs' Waiver wire pickup/drop advice
FanHouse's Waiver Wire Wonders: Take the Last Train to Sidney
Bruno Boys have both their Cut Them Loose article up with Pick Them Up still to come
Lester's Legends Get 'em or Don't Sweat 'em
For those in IDP leagues, check out Monk's IDP Waiver Wire Pickups

I'm sure my regular readers know how excited I am about tonight's MNF game - go Broncos!! Eddie Royal is tweeting how ready he is for the game with a link to the MNF theme song, and frankly I couldn't agree more!

Consensus Start/Sit for Week 6

noreply@blogger.com (Fantasy Football Librarian) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:08:00 +0000

Sorry for the late posting of the consensus start/sit lists this week - my mom is in town and honestly I just completely forgot! My apologies...keep in mind that this consensus is an average from all the start/sit sites that I linked to earlier in the week, many of which try to avoid recommendations on total studs or total duds. So if you're debating between a stud and one of these guys, definitely keep that in mind when you look at these names:

QB
Start: Matt Hasselbeck, David Garrard, Matt Ryan
Sit: Mark Sanchez, Eli Manning, Trent Edwards, Matt Cassel

RB
Start: Rashard Mendenhall, Knowshon Moreno, Cedric Benson, Cadillac Williams, Ryan Grant, Jonathan Stewart
Sit: Brandon Jacobs, LaDainian Tomlinson, Jamal Lewis, Willis McGahee, Julius Jones

WR
Start: Santana Moss, Donnie Avery, Wes Welker, Nate Burleson
Sit: Vincent Jackson, Terrell Owens, Derrick Mason

TE
Start: Jermichael Finley, Jeremy Shockey, Todd Heap
Sit: Heath Miller, Zach Miller

Kicker
Start: Josh Scobee, Jason Elam, John Kasay
Sit: Rian Lindell

D/ST
Start: Patriots, Panthers, Packers
Sit: Bears

Perhaps it's needless to say but I'm also way behind on e-mails and start/sits in the comments for the weekend. I'll try to get back to you before game time tomorrow!