Championship Week: Try Not To Get Cute

For most of us, this week is Championship Week for fantasy football players. In my opinion, this year championship week is a bit different than previously because there seems to be a lot of injuries and players getting benched that have come with last week's results. This may cause fantasy players to try to get "cute" with their lineups by picking players off of waivers based upon last week's performance and these unfortunate injuries and benchings. As my man Matt Berry said at the beginning of the playoffs, this is not the time to get cute. At the same point though depending on the situation you may have to look at alternative options to fill out your roster if you're playing in a championship matchup this week, or even if you're trying to place well overall. I'm going to discuss just a few interesting scenarios that you may have come across due to injuries or players getting benched.

Of course I have to start off with my boy Cam Newton. There's a good chance that if you have Newton you're not playing in the championships unless the rest of your squad is full of studs, like my squad in Coast2Coast Ballers. Because of the way the positions are in this league, I had been starting 3 quarterbacks, one at starting quarterback and the other two at the "offensive player" position. Anyway, as of writing this, it's still unclear if Newton is going to play or not. He did throw the ball in practice on Wednesday and the Panthers' camp are saying that the situation is similar to when he missed week 1 and came back week 2. However, if he doesn't come back, Derek Anderson has actually been a reliable replacement for Newton this season. I used him last week and he didn't put up super numbers, but he got me about average fantasy points, and he got the victory for the Panthers.

Sticking with the quarterback position, on Wednesday the Chicago Bears decided to bench Jay Cutler for Jimmy Clausen. This is exactly what Matt Berry and I are talking about with don't get cute. If you have Jay Cutler you already know he wasn't putting up stellar numbers, and putting in Clausen is not going to make a difference at all. Personally, I didn't know Clausen was still in the NFL, but apparently he is and he's getting the start. I don't intentionally give advice on who to start or who to sit, but in this case I implore you not to start Clausen. Even if he does have a decent game, I'm steering away from Clausen at all cause. Do you remember when he was the starter at Carolina before Cam Newton got there? He didn't do anything, and most will say he didn't have any talent around him. I'm not buying that excuse at all because he had Steve Smith Sr. Also if that was the case he would be starting right?

Somehow, DeMarco Murray broke his hand last week against the Philadelphia Eagles and had surgery on Monday. Amazingly he was back on the practice field on Wednesday, but it is still uncertain if he'll start. Should he not start, the next best option probably would be Joseph Randle, who took first-team snaps at practice on Wednesday. My boy Victor like Lance Dunbar, but to me Dunbar hasn't done enough for me to consider him. You can say that starting Dunbar is another example of getting cute. I know that Dallas has an impressive offensive line that has allowed Murray to go crazy, but out of the two back ups, Randle will be the more reliable of the two.

In San Diego, Keenan Allen is out all of a sudden, I'm not quite sure what the injury is as he's been dealing with a groin and a hamstring for most of the season, but he's out. I think the biggest beneficiary from Allen's injury will be Eddie Royal. Even though Phillip Rivers will most likely be looking for Antonio Gates, don't sleep on Royal. He has been a sneaky play all year. If it doesn't go to Gates or Allen, 9 times out of 10 it's going to Royal. He has a few touchdowns this season and should see more targets with Allen out. There's a similar situation going on in Indianapolis with TY Hilton. He should be out this week but I'm not sure who is going to step up. They still have Reggie Wayne, but it gets interesting when it comes to Hakeem Nicks and Donte Moncrief. Nicks and Moncrief have been competing for snaps over the last month. Nicks has had the upside over the last two weeks, but with Hilton out Moncrief should see some additional snaps. I have Moncrief on the team I have playing in the championship this week, but I'm not sure about starting him, I'm trying not to get cute.

I could say something about Johnny Manziel and RGIII, in which both players are starting this week for players who have been benched. However, we all know what RGIII has done this season, and we definitely know what Manziel did last week. Bernie Kosar ripped the Browns' coaching staff and front office this week, pretty much saying that the coaches and front office personnel have failed to do their jobs thus setting up Manziel for failure. He also mentioned that previous quarterbacks from Tim Couch to Brady Quinn had this same problem while they were quarterbacks for Cleveland. I believe this to be true and I also believe that RGIII is dealing with the same situation in Washington. Manziel and RGIII both are athletic guys with the potential to be deadly at the quarterback position, but things just hasn't gone as planned for either. Some fantasy players may have gotten cute last week and started Manziel which resulted in those players crying with their tail between their legs. The question is, do you risk being cute again this week starting Manziel or RGIII?

And Now, Starting At Quarterback...

Cam Newton's truck protects him better than his offensive line

I've been pretty critical of Cam Newton for most of the season. He has not only disappointed me on that PhantasySteez, but also in the actual game. I'm not a Carolina Panthers' fan, but I am a Cam Newton fan and have been since he won the championship at Auburn (I'm not an Auburn fan either). I've had to stick with Newton throughout the fantasy season in which most of the season his performance has been horrendous, but I've managed to grind it out with him. In the two leagues I have him in, one going to the playoffs the other fighting not to come in last place, I've started him all season. Now during a crucial moment in the fantasy football season, it looks like he's going to sit out this week because of that weird accident that happened on Tuesday. So now I'm trying to figure out who am I going to start this week to keep my interesting playoff journey interesting.

The obvious answer of course is Derek Anderson. Anderson did start for Newton in week 1 and actually played quite well. He had 230 yards and two touchdowns with a fantasy score of 13.6 in standard leagues. Anderson has experience and shouldn't have a problem against the Tampa Bay defense. The problem is that he's available in one of the leagues I need him in, but in the other league, Roughing the Picker where the other players stalk the free agency like vultures waiting to feast, he's not available. Unfortunately, the options are very slim after Anderson.

Looking at the free agency in Roughing the Picker, there are only three, maybe four viable options that I would consider to replace Cam Newton; Derek Carr, Blake Bortles, Teddy Bridgewater, and Geno Smith. This isn't a sexy list to choose from, but times like these you gotta work with what you got. I got a thing against Derek Carr because he plays for Oakland, I don't trust his receivers, and he's burned me once this season already. Carr was on my boy Victor's team and Victor is in the playoffs, but when I had him he put up some unacceptable numbers and I don't think I really want him on the team. Bortles has been interesting to me all season because Jacksonville seems to start off slow then play come from behind. The only thing is like most I haven't watched a Jacksonville game, so I really don't know what I'm getting myself into if I pick Bortles. I like Bridgewater and in my opinion he's been getting better every week, but he plays against the Detroit Lions this week and they have a good defense. Lastly, Smith is an interesting pick, but the Jets offense is horrible. I know he had a good game last week, but once again the Jets offense is horrible.

I also have Ryan Fitzpatrick and Colt McCoy already on my team. In this league you start two quarterbacks and Fitzpatrick is most likely going to get one of the starts, but I don't know about Colt McCoy. I think he got benched or injured last week so I don't know if he or RG3 is going to get the start (RG3 is not available). So I have about five options that I need to pick from. Who would you start? Hit me up on twitter @donofalldons, google+ +Marcus Nickerson.

The Difference Between Making and Not Making the Playoffs

I have asthma, and depending on who you ask it's really bad asthma or it's not that bad but when it hits it's devastating. Last weekend my asthma kicked in and I was forced to go to the hospital. I watched most of the Saints/Steelers game before I left, but that was the only game I was able to see. I spent the rest of my Sunday and most of my Monday in the emergency room where I was placed on 24 hour observation. Yeah, my asthma gets that bad. Anyway, being stuck in a room with nothing to do gave me a lot of time to think about a lot of things. I was thinking about my overall success this fantasy football season and prior to being in the hospital I had pretty much written this season off as not a very good one. I only did five teams this year and I had teams not going to the playoffs, and it bothered me a little bit. I was thinking about my teams that didn't make the playoffs and I noticed that these two teams had one thing in common. The two teams that I did not make the playoffs with, I did not draft these teams.





8th place in the consolation bracket in Roughing the Picker

When I first started this blog, my first two posts were specifically about drafting. In the first post, The Draft, I mentioned that if you draft well your team can pretty much manage itself. This season, I think I've proven that theory with the two teams that I didn't draft myself. I missed two drafts this season both due to technical difficulty, if that's what you want to call it. The first draft I missed was in my most competitive league, Roughing the Picker. In this league we have a live in person draft, which if you haven't been in one of these leagues you should find one to join. It's makes fantasy football way better than online drafts where you don't get to meet your opponents. Anyway, the draft was held in California, but I was stuck in Alabama and I wasn't able to attend. My boy Victor committed to drafting my team for me, and even though I appreciate the effort, I was not excited when I saw the team drafted for me. We actually got into a friendly argument about the quarterback he drafted for me, Cam Newton. I didn't like the make up of this team all season long and because of it I know I made some bad moves trying to improve the team. Overall, right now I'm in eighth place and I missed the playoffs. I'm in the consolation bracket right now fighting not to come in last place which has a consequence of paying the third place winner.

The other league I missed the draft in was in Victor's friend's league. Victor had asked me if I had wanted to join the league and I had accepted. About a week later, after I had accepted the invite, Victor informs me that there was a $50 buy-in which I wasn't willing to pay. So I had told Victor to get me out of the league, and he decided he wasn't going to participate either. The next week I get a phone call from Victor saying he hadn't talked to his friend about dropping us from the league and that we had drafted teams. The cold part about it is he actually participated in the draft while I was thinking I was dropped. So now I had this team that I didn't fully commit to and it was a pretty good team for an auto drafted team, but I just was not interested in properly managing it. I started out strong, but after Nick Foles got hurt/benched my team hit a downward spiral. I'm currently in seventh place missing the playoffs and competing in the consolation bracket.


The three teams that did make the playoffs, I drafted myself. They were all online drafts which agreed with my schedule. I had made it a point to attend these drafts because I wanted to guarantee a good season in these leagues, which were all managed by fellow classmates from Dillard University. In one league, Coast2Coast Ballers, I dominated the draft getting just about every player I wanted. That was due largely to the fact that maybe only 4-6 players actually participated in the draft. Everyone else auto drafted, so when it was my turn, I had many options every pick. When you auto draft, your basically going off of a list that is pre-determined by some "fantasy expert." However when you draft yourself, you do your homework and you pick the players you feel comfortable with. I'm currently second in Coast2Coast Ballers, and even though the playoffs doesn't start until week 14, I'm pretty sure I'll remain playoff bound.



This is the original team I drafted in Coast2Coast Ballers

The last two leagues, who are managed by my boy Mike, are interesting leagues. The first league which was reopened from last season, only has four players in it which meant everyone was automatically headed for the playoffs. All four of us participated in the draft and every team is ridiculously good, not to mention the free agency is unbelievable. However, the team I drafted finished the regular season in first place, and I'm pretty confident I can beat the other three teams to win the league. The other league has fourteen teams in it, which is very difficult to manage. I participated in the draft, but it was challenging as I was arguing with my then girlfriend now ex at the time. However, my squad turned out to be pretty decent. Even though I finished the regular season in fifth place, that team which I drafted is playoff bound, unlike the two teams that I didn't draft.
The draft is probably the most important aspect of your fantasy football teams. Now I see why my boy Michael Smith from ESPN is so adamant when it come to drafting teams. When you auto draft, you're not really taking control of your team. You don't know what you're going to get. When you draft your team, not only are you more comfortable with your team, but you have a better chance at success. As always, you can leave comments on this blog, or you can hit me up on google+ at +Marcus Nickerson , twitter = @donofalldons. Oh, and you google+ users, don't forget to +1 my posts.

One More Week Until Fantasy Playoffs

In most leagues, there's one more week left before the start of the fantasy football playoffs. At this point in the season, there are many very interesting scenarios playing out in the NFL that could have a definite impact on your fantasy team. By now your team probably looks completely different than the team you drafted, or maybe it looks the same just with some minor tweaks. Maybe you're sitting on top of the league or maybe you're fighting for that last playoff spot. This week is crucial and there are some things you definitely should look out for this week...

...Such as that opponent you're facing who is fighting for that last playoff spot. Depending on the make up of your league, this is the guy who started off bad but through good managing and pick ups from free agency, this guy is on multi-game winning streak and could possibly end up winning the league. This happened in my league this year and it's somewhat happening again this season, and it's my fault. I traded Tom Brady after week 4 to the guy who is in currently first place for Ben Roethlisberger. At the time of the trade I was in 8th place and he was in 9th. It worked out fine until two weeks later when the real Tom Brady stood up and has been on fire ever since. I did this with the guy in 4th place too. I wasn't patient with Roethlisberger and I traded him away before the real Big Ben stood up and started throwing mad touchdowns like he was playing Madden. Had I been more patient, I probably wouldn't be fighting not to come in last place (actually, I was patient but with the wrong quarterback, should've traded Cam Newton instead).

There isn't anyone available in my league to help anyone trying to make a playoff push. Everyone in my league are sluts (picking up players they don't necessarily need). My boy Victor picked up Ray Rice yesterday who did get reinstated, but is not on a team and probably won't be on a team this season. However, in many regular leagues there still might be some players available who can help your team out during this oddly stressful time. Some of these guys might not and should not be available in your league, but these guys are definitely worth mentioning because they were not in the picture in the beginning of the season, but they now play a key role in their respective team's success.

If C.J. Anderson is available in your league, you should grab him real quick. I had never heard of this guy until about two weeks ago, but he has a major advantage because he plays with Peyton Manning. Over the last three weeks he has scored an average of 19.76 points in standard leagues, including 25.5 points last week when he rushed for 167 yards. Most running backs can excel in a Peyton Manning offense and Anderson is definitely taking major advantage of this opportunity.

Even though Odell Beckham Jr. plays for the Giants (I'm not a Giants fan), I can't sleep on him on that PhantasySteez. He was injured for the beginning of the season but since then he's been pretty productive, especially since Victor Cruz went out for the season. He's probably not available in your league and by now everyone has seen the catch that has gotten the attention of almost everyone. That was no fluke, the catch was real and Beckham Jr. is definitely one to watch out for as the playoffs is just around the corner and he will definitely have an impact for some lucky players who start him.

Another guy who has came up all of a sudden is Mark Sanchez. I personally didn't think he would do good in Chip Kelly's offense, especially after what happened to him with the Jets. However, Sanchez has used that Jest situation as fuel and has mounted a major comeback, probably the comeback of the season. He's been at the helm for the past three weeks and has put up good numbers. It helps when you got Shady McCoy in the backfield, just like when he had LaDamian Tomlinson back there with the Jets. On Thanksgiving Sanchez had 21.48 points which was well over the 17.47 points that were projected. I know he already played this week, but watch out for teams who has him starting at quarterback.

If I'm going to put Mark Sanchez on this list, I have to also put his favorite target Jordan Matthews on it too. Matthews is a second round pick and since Sanchez has been at quarterback, Matthews' stock has noticeably risen. Even though he plays behind Jeremy Maclin and Riley Cooper, Matthews has proven that he can also be relied on. You'll probably catch him as a WR3 on most squads, but his fantasy point production has major potential.

I think I'm only making the playoffs in one league, but I'm still playing spoiler in the leagues I'm not. Watch out for Mike Evans who has been one of the top receivers over the last month. I also go LeGarette Blount on the squad who had a good game last week back in a Patriots' jersey, but we all know you can't rely too heavily on Patriots' running backs. If you got some sleepers on your radar we should all be looking out for, let me know. Feel free to leave a comment, hit me up on twitter @donofalldons, google+ +Marcus Nickerson, instagram @donspook.

Going into Week 12...

Fantasy Football Playoffs is right around the corner and right now you're either trying to maintain position, trying to build momentum to get into playoffs, or you're tanking. Every move is crucial at this point and even the sexiest lineup can be unpredictable. There are a few names going around this week and while some may be a clear bet to have a good week, others are not what they appear to be.

Jonas Gray had a Patriots' career day last week against the Colts and he is one of the top pick ups for most people in most leagues. I considered dropping Montee Ball who should be out for the next 2-3 weeks for Gray but I decided not too because of two reasons. First, as a Patriots fan I know that a running back can have a career game one week and have a vanishing act game the next week. Secondly, I know that the Patriots will change up their game plan next week. It is well noted that when the Patriots play the Colts, the Patriots pound the ball and expose the Colts weak run defense. It has worked over the past two seasons, but going against the Lions who have a top rated run defense, I expect Gray to not get as many touches and for Tom Brady to take over as he usually does. By the way, LeGarette Blount signed with the Patriots on Thursday, so now Gray has to come behind Shane Vereen and Blount. It's not looking too good for the kid.

Speaking of quarterbacks, one person I wanted to add this week and who I should've added two weeks ago is Josh McCown. I've never been a huge fan of his as I've always thought his success in Chicago last season was a fluke. While his stat line hasn't been off the charts, he's been consistent and has been one of the better fantasy football quarterbacks recently. He has one of the best fantasy football wide receivers to throw it to in Mike Evans. Evans has dominated over the last month and I was lucky to pick him up through free agency. Also, McCown still has Vincent Jackson to throw it to on the other side, but the real advantage is Evans. McCown may not light the board up with yards and completions, but with Jackson and Evans he should get at least two touchdowns a week.

There are a lot of interesting things going on in Cleveland this week. Josh Gordon is expected to come back from his suspension. Doesn't it seem like Gordon is always suspended to start the season? Usually he comes back and scores a lot of fantasy points for us. With the Browns doing so good and Brian Hoyer performing better than usual, he shouldn't have a problem producing on that PhantasySteez right? This could be, but I have to be a little pessimistic because the Browns let go of Ben Tate this week. Tate is now with the Vikings and this could be a good thing for Teddy Bridgewater, but what's going to happen with the Gordon and the Browns' backfield? With Tate's departure it'll be between Isaiah Crowell and Terrence West. I haven't seen either of them play, but if one of these guys don't step up it could be a rough return for Gordon. Well, then again the Browns' running game has always been kind of jacked up and that hasn't stopped Gordon in the past.



Last but not least, RGIII is starting his third game since coming back from injury. He's been in the sports news lately for trying to throw his teammates under the bus, but coach Jay Gruden defended and his players and let it be known that RGIII is the one who needs to get his rep up. I wonder if RGIII will rise to the occasion. Since his return he has had below average production on that PhantasySteez, and it mostly comes from sacks and turnovers. I believe that he has all the weapons he need with DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garcon (who has fallen off), Jordan Reed and Alfred Morris. However, last week he stunk it up against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and this week they play the 49ers who are looking better now that Aldon Smith is back in the lineup. I don't want to start RGIII this week, but unfortunately in a league where free agency is beyond slim, I have no choice.

Feeling Some Kind of Way

As the fantasy football season continues on, I find myself in an interesting position as a fantasy football player. For some reason, this season feels very different than previously. One thing is I'm not having the success I've had in previous seasons, and it has kind of lead me to losing interest in playing the game. For instance, this morning my boy Vic had called me to talk fantasy football, but I was totally not interested in the conversation. I was watching a game at the time, a game that I was upset about having to watch, and none of my players were in the game. Secondly Vic was questioning me about why I haven't picked up Shaun  Hill. At that moment Hill had just threw his touchdown pass to Kenny Britt, a pretty play might I add. I have no interest in Hill, but Victor was pointing out that at the moment Hill had more fantasy points than Cam Newton, which was true at the time but turns out Cam found some way to turn it around and did eventually outscore Hill.

Speaking of Cam Newton, he has been a thorn in my side all season as I'm sure most of you who owns him feels the same way. Last week, I was ready to just get rid of Newton all together. I felt like one of those losers who take fantasy football way too seriously and go off on players' twitter accounts. I didn't resort to that low life behavior though. Instead I tried to trade him to another player in my league but all I was offered in return was a bag of Fritos. In the league Roughing the Picker, I've lost 7 games already and in most of those losses, Cam Newton did not meet his projections. In week 8 he got me 7 points, and he followed that up with 11 and 13 points in weeks 9 and 10 respectively. I already dropped him in another league, Coast2Coast Ballers, but that came back and bit me in the ass because my opponent picked him up this week when Cam decided he didn't want to play like Tim Tebow.

Going forward at this point, I don't know what I'm going to do with Cam. Even though he did okay this week, in most weeks he's been absolutely horrific. I've had opportunities to trade him multiple times but I felt it was dumb to trade him because of his potential. I mean, this is Cam Newton we're talking about. He's bound to come around sometime right?

In this league Roughing the Picker, the last place player pays the prize for the third place and currently I'm in last place. That will change this week as the two players that are in 8th and 9th will lose, but how am I going to maintain that going on? Newton is on a bye next week and my other two quarterbacks are RG3 and Mike Vick (Roughing the Picker is 2 quarterback league). Vick has been not great, but better than expected. RG3 on the other hand, well in a week that he should've dominated against a week Tampa Bay defense, he finished with 207 yards, one touchdown, and 2 interceptions. Honestly, a part of me wants to tank, but as I mentioned earlier the last place guy has to pay the third place guy, we did this to prevent tanking in the first place. Funny thing about it is that I still have an outside chance of making the playoffs, but quite frankly I'm almost to the point to where it's not even worth it. The only thing that's motivating me to keep playing at this point is avoiding finishing in last place and having to pay the third place winner.

I mentioned my other league Coast2Coast Ballers earlier and I should be somewhat satisfied in this league. Even though I should lose this week, I've been dominating throughout the season. Including this week I've lost two out of the last three games but that's mainly because of byes. I'm still in playoff contention and I should rebound sooner rather than later. The reason why I'm not feeling this league though is because it's so quiet. This league in particular is why I play fantasy football. Usually the competitive banter is off the charts. It's a very prideful league and trash talking is usually a constant. This season however, no one is talking. Even the commissioner has been quiet as of late.

This has made this league mad boring. My fantasy football rival Mr. Hindsman is in this league and when we played, there was nothing epic about it. I almost forgot we were playing against each other. He's not doing too good in this league and another league that we're in and it's like he's lost interest because of it. I called him out about this last week on Facebook and his response was simply, I forgot. I FORGOT? He was talking all that good ish during the preseason and now all of a sudden he forgot? I expect more from Mr. Hindsman but I know, the sun don't shine, the sun don't shine. I'll go ahead and win the league, since it was also thrown in my face that I haven't won the league yet, but I'm going to put an asterisk by this victory because it just isn't the same.

How Many?

How many of you started Branden Oliver? He was one of the flavors of the week last week and he came through for those who picked him up. Oliver had 26 carries for 101 yards and a touchdown.  He also had 23 receiving yards. The other flavor of the week didn't do as good. How many of you started Andre Williams? I did and I lost in the two leagues I own him in. Williams had 16 carries for 58 yards and no touchdowns. I might keep Williams though because even though he didn't produce like everyone thought he would,  he's not the main problem to me losing in those two leagues.

Once again I made a benching error.  How many of you benched Larry Fitzgerald? I woke up Sunday morning and felt like I needed to get Fitzgerald out of there ASAP. Sounds familiar right? But I had a valid reason. Fitzgerald was scoring low for my team and it had seemed as if the Cardinals were not going to throw the ball to him just because his name is Larry Fitzgerald. Something happened though, Carson Palmer came back from injury and Palmer knows who his #1 receiver is. Fitzgerald had 6 catches for 98 yards and a touchdown, and I had him on the bench. Worst part is I replaced him for Kendall Wright who didn't do anything against Jacksonville.  I lost by just a few points and starting Fitzgerald definitely would've made up some of the difference.

On the other hand though, it looks like Cam Newton is starting to get back to his old self. I was considering trading Cam and I had been reading everywhere that he should be benched until he started running the football again. How many of you benched Cam Newton? I don't think many of you did, but I know one person in Big Mike's league did and missed out on 284 passing yards, two touchdowns, 107 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown. It's what everyone who drafted Cam had been waiting for. When Cam runs the ball, he's a top 5 quarterback. When he doesn't,  he's like in the late teens to early 20s. Hopefully we can get more of the running Cam for now on.

Response and Reactions

Week 5 in the NFL was a pretty interesting week indeed. I made some teerible mistakes this week and I realized that I needed to get back on the grind. If I continue on like this I'll end up in last place. Last place is no bueno, the last place has to pay the third place's prize money. So after months of being away, PhantasySteez is back! I have been playing fantasy sports all along. Both of my baseball teams came in 3rd place. Right now though, in between my 5 leagues (one of those leagues I won't talk about much) my teams are either doing extremely well or extremely poor. I jotted down some notes about how exactly I ended up in this situation.

Starting off with the biggest and dumbest mistake of the day, for some odd reason I benched Matt Forte in Noe's league, Show Me Ur TDs. Noe is this guy that works with Victor and invited us. Back to the matter, I woke up on Sunday morning and felt like I should bench Forte for Giovanni Bernard. Why did I come to such a dumb ass decision? I figured that Bernard would have a field day against the Patriots' disoriented defense.  Bernard did produce but Forte dominated scoring 23 points, 12 more than Bernard. I only lost by 4 points. Had I started Forte, I would've had more than enough to continue my winning streak and move on to 4-1. I'm still in second, but the lesson of the day is DON'T BENCH FORTE.

The rest of the mistakes all comes from the ever so competitive Roughing the Picker. This year is unique for me because I was not able to attend the draft and Victor basically drafted my team for me. I'm in 9th place today and not necessarily because of the draft but because of once again, bad decisions... and good managing by my opponent Mark. This guy has been trying to get Cam Newton or Ben Roethlisberger  from me but I want Nick Foles and he's not willing to go for it. I've been hinting that it needs to be Newton for Foles because in a two quarterback league, Mark did not have a reliable second quarterback, which is why

he was pressing me for Newton in the first place. In the midst of checking scores and stats I noticed this guy had Austin Davis in the game. He picked him up last Wednesday and decided to put him in. Why all of a sudden Davis wants to have a breakout game? He got Mark 45 points like his last name is Manning. This league is PPC (pass per completion) or 1/2 PPC, or something like that. Meanwhile Roethlisberger was below average from a phantasy point of view and Cam still isn't running. I got Bridgewater, but I'm going to have to keep an eye on all three of them.



It wasn't just Davis that killed me. Thanks to Victor, Mark also has Julio Jones and Eddie Lacy to go along with Antonio Brown. He is, or he WAS weak at quarterback but he has good productive "role players" once again thanks to Victor. My squad however, I have decent receivers but my running backs suck.

I got stuck with C.J. Spiller and Maurice Jones-Drew as my starting running backs. I dropped Jones-Drew for Chris Ivory and I've been running with them. This combination has me so uncomfortable every week. With Spiller you don't know whats going to happen between him and Fred Jackson. With Ivory he gets touches but from a phantasy point of view he's mediocre at best.

I feel the same way about one of my receivers so I low key been trying to trade Percy Harvin for a running back. It's not been as easy I thought it would be because either the other players are trying to send me someone of lesser value, or they see the same thing I do in Harvin. He's a top 10 receiver and he can be productive, but you have to consider how Seattle uses him. He goes out on little screen passes and runs reverses. In Seattle's system he's a decoy with big play potential, not the consistent main threat that you want in your phantasy receiver. Like I said I got a decent group of receivers, so I'm willing to trade Harvin for a productive running back to try to balance out my team.

On a more positive note, things are going smoothly in Coast2Coast Ballers, the league with my Dillard University classmates. I'm in first place and I can honestly say its because my draft was immaculate. In this league there's one quarterback but two Offensive Player positions. Yes, you can put quarterbacks there potentially having three quarterbacks. I've adopted this strategy from my phantasy arch nemesis Mr. Hindsman. He'a won three championships using this strategy and after being kindly reminded that he's beaten me in a championship I felt no shame in using the tactic. Funny thing this year is Mr. Hindsman is in 9th place right now. He's been quiet these last few weeks, but winning in this league is nothing unless I see Mr. Hindsman in the playoffs.

What makes matters worse is Mr. Hindsman, Victor and myself are in another league my boy Mike invited us to... AND MR. HINDSMAN IS IN 11th PLACE. He says he's trying to adjust to the Yahoo! format, and while I didn't agree with his excuse this league is a little different.  There are 14 players and the draft was crazy long. By the time it was your turn to pick everyone you had on your radar were gone. Free agency is very slim so you literally have to work with what you got. Mike is in 1st but to my pleasant surprise I'm in 6th and Victor is in 2nd place. He drafted really well, but I have a lot of make or break players that I need to work on. Somehow I need to figure out what to do with Larry Fitzgerald and Roddy White. The Cardinals are not feeding the ball to Fitzgerald and White is living in Julio Jones' shadow.

Okay, so I've been MIA for months and I come back 5 weeks in like nothing happened.  However PhantasySteez is improving everyday with interesting fantasy tidbits and what nots from a player's point of view. Got something to say? Leave a comment. Tweet me @donofalldons Google+ +MarcusNickerson Instagram @donspook :-)

Partners in Phantasy

Back in 2007, I recall being in an epic fantasy football league with some of my colleagues who attended Dillard University with me. Each week critical moves had to be made. I got into the playoffs and eventually won the league. During this campagin, I often talked to my boy Victor about the league, especially when it came to available players.  It was very interesting because I would pick someone up that morning and we'd talk about the same player later that evening.  The next season he played his first fantasy league and he would call me about new players before I would even begin looking for them.  Even though he hasn't won a league yet, he's usually in the top three and the reason being is he has an uncanny talent of finding good fantasy players in free agency.  It doesn't even matter if its football or baseball, he can find you a low key player who's going to produce for your team. He's not so good in basketball but between the two fantasy baseball teams I have, one of which I co-manage with Victor, he has found most of these surprise pick ups that has benefited both of my teams.

It's an interesting thought when you manage a team with another, you go check out your lineup and there's a couple of new guys on your team that your partner picked up without you knowing. Usually it's either "who the eff us this dude?" or "Why did he drop that player for this player? I logged onto the team one day I saw Lonnie Chisenhall on the squad and it was the first thought that came to mind. I knew Victor was big on batting average and at the time Chisenhall was batting around .351. As usual, I didn't refute the pick up and to my pleasant surprise Chisenhall is now batting .393 with 32 RBIs. Even though he only has 7 homers, that batting average and those RBIs have come through for my squad in a major way. I had to scoop him up in my other league because he usually gets hits on a consistent basis which helps the squad tremendously. A few days ago he went 5 for 5 with 9 RBIs and 3 homers.

This past weekend I was setting up the lineup and I noticed we had a guy named Dallas Keuchel on the bench and that he was starting. I didn't know who this dude was, but we definitely needed a W in the wins stat category, so I put him in. He wasn't sexy to me at all, but when I looked him up I realized that he only had one loss in May, which also was his last start. He got us a win and naturally I was excited then I noticed something very interesting. Keuchel and my ace Max Scherzer both have 8 wins. Scherzer has more strikeouts, but Keuchel has a better ERA, which usually kills the team when it comes to stat categories, so I can definitely appreciate him as a great pick up. Even though he plays for the Astros, he gets wins.

We got this guy named Kolten Wong who is probably one of my favorite pick ups. A couple of weeks ago I saw him on SportsCenter and about an hour later I get text from Victor saying, "I just saw Kolten Wong steal second..." Of course I was like who the eff is Kolten Wong? He replies "Kolten Wong of the Cardinals got 2 steals."  A couple of days later I went to check the lineup and Wong was on the squad. He now has 8 steals, even though he was out for a few games last week. Another stat category that has been killing us is steals, and now Wong has the second most steals on the team. Other than the steals he's not too sexy, but I think he'll get a lot better as the season progresses.

These three guys were probably available in most leagues this past weekend, but they're probably not available now because players like Victor has already scooped them up.

Football Dominates

It's the beginning of June... Well, its early-mid June... And while some of us are still deep in battle with fantasy baseball, it's almost hard not to notice that fantasy football is right around the corner. I couldn't help but to notice that Matt Berry and the crew from ESPN has already come out with fantasy football rankings and has even aired a fantasy football special. This was the last week in May and it made me think about how much love fantasy football gets while fantasy basketball and baseball are kind of left on the back burners.

I first noticed it when the fantasy football season was over and I started playing fantasy basketball. Due to my own negligence, I had drafted two fantasy basketball teams but I didn't really pay them too much attention to them until after the fantasy football season was over. Once I did turn my full attention to fantasy basketball, I noticed how there wasn't a flood of information on things like who to pick up, who's hot, and projections. If there was something about fantasy basketball, it consisted mostly of game recaps. Most of my strategy for fantasy basketball was based on stats, game results and keeping an eye on injuries. I ended up coming in second in one league and winning the other league.

Fantasy baseball wasn't too much different, but it did get a little more attention than fantasy basketball. There was a little more talk online about fantasy baseball than fantasy basketball, but not as much as fantasy football. My strategy in fantasy baseball has been similar to my strategy in fantasy basketball as far as just keeping up with stats and trends.

Even though baseball pioneered fantasy sports, football gets the most fantasy attention. I believe it has to do with the frequencies of the game. In football you have one game a week which allows fantasy experts more time to do more research and come up with projections and predictions. In baseball and basketball, they game is played everyday. There isn't much time for projections and predictions when the next game is tomorrow. This also affects the fantasy player. In football you have all week to set your lineup up. If there is something you don't like, someone gets injured, or you find out someone is not playing you have ample time to make an adjustment. If this happens in fantasy basketball or baseball, you have a minimum amount of time to tweak your lineup. In fantasy baseball and basketball, you have to be on it, consistently monitoring your team for last minute updates. You have to set your lineup everyday as opposed to every week like in fantasy football. You can't skip a day of not checking on your team without it having an impact on your team. I did myself just today by not benching Yasiel Puig. This discourages people from playing fantasy basketball and baseball because they may feel like it's too much maintenence, even though I know most of these players over manage their fantasy football teams. What I mean is they check their team about four times a day. Therefore, with less people playing fantasy basketball and baseball, there isn't a need of an influx of resources for these games.

Over the next few weeks, fantasy football is going to get bigger and bigger. They'll talk about it on social media, there will be draft parties, you'll get advertisements in your e-mail inbox, they'll even talk about it on SportsCenter. Even though fantasy baseball is still in season, you'll notice how much more attention fantasy football gets over fantasy baseball. When it all boils down to it, it's easier to watch 17 football games than it is to watch 82 basketball games or 162 baseball games.

Phantasy Resurrection

PhantasySteez came to life in late August with the beginning of the fantasy football season. It was young, fresh and full of ambition delivering compelling content on a consistent basis. Once football season was over, PhantasySteez got slowed down, like it was sick or something. The fantasy basketball season brought forth some good moments, but it was obvious that the Steez was dealing with a serious illness that affected quality and production. By the end of the fantasy basketball season, it was like PhantasySteez was on it's death bed, struggling to breathe. It produced one last entry about a month ago pertaining to fantasy baseball. That post promised more consistency and content, however nothing has come of it since, and PhantasySteez kinda... died.

It may seem that since the last post, the PhantasySteez has been put on the back burner. Personally, I've been trying to adjust to the new situations of living in Birmingham, Alabama. For the most part, my new job wears me out as I have to be there sometimes as early as 2:00 a.m. and even though I'm usually done by noon, I'm also usually extremely exhausted. While I rest, I often think about PhantasySteez and how it can grow. Right now, there really aren't any excuses as to why the Steez died because unlike when I was in California with no computer, I now have a laptop, which I'm using now, and a desktop which I haven't even turned on and I have sitting on the floor. I should be cranking out at least three posts a week... AT LEAST!!



I must resurrect PhantasySteez but now the question is how do I take on such a daunting task. Well, daunting is a major overstatement. The most obvious way is to write more. Next, I need to spruce up the page, put a little lipstick on her. No reason why that can't be done because like I said, I actually have a laptop now instead of just my Galaxy Note 3. Another tactic and very important is to increase my presence on social networking such as Facebook Twitter and of course Google+. Not to mention participating in forums and blogging communities. I also want to get into freelance writing. Mainly though, I need to keep writing.

Had to throw that in there

I got this fantasy baseball team called PhantasyKingz where my boy Victor is the co-manager and quite frankly I can generate a post everytime we talk. About 50 percent of our conversation is about the team, another 35 percent goes to other sports, and the other 15 percent is about actual stuff. You know, how are you doing? how's the fam? etcetera etcetera. Right now we're in 7th place in a 12-man league. I think our team is well rounded, but in the beginning of the season we we're only winning about half of the stat categories. We had two problems. First, our high draft picks, Hanley Ramirez, Yasiel Puig, Robinson Cano, got off to slow starts. Second, even though we're both fans of the games, neither one of us actually watch that much baseball. Lately though after making a few moves with our lineup, things have gotten better and I think we're on the right track. Our Achilles heel right now is stolen bases and I truly believe that if we can fix that I think we'll be alright.



Of course, I don't claim to be a fantasy expert so I'm always open to non-offensive suggestions. You can always comment on this blog. I can also be reached on Google+, my twitter is @donofalldons. Victor's twitter is @DonBryzii. My instagram is donspook. Holla at me, I got all those apps directly on my Note 3.

@donofalldons

40 Days of Phantasy Silence Broken

That barber killed my hairline

The last time I posted in this blog, it was about 40 days ago. Well today is actually the 40th day, but you get the point I'm trying to put out there right? It's been a very interesting 40 days in real life and on that PhantasySteez. Trust me, it isn't that I've lacked content or anything like that. I had plenty of excitement with my fantasy basketball squads, fantasy baseball and NCAA brackets, which I didn't do because I turned my brackets in too late. It's more of I've completed a major transition in a lot of areas. One of my mottos is "I'm trying to make my next move my best move." Most people wouldn't understand as in most cases, your best move may be unconventional to others outside of the situation. I relocated, and I'm not talking about moving like around the corner or anything like that. I moved to the other side of the country, Sweet Home Alabama. Yeah, talk about a major transition. I've been here for a week and I'm still trying to get adjusted to living in Roll Tide/Auburn nation. I'm still trying to find a decent barber who won't massacre my hairline like the guy did in that picture of me. However, deep down inside I feel like in the long run and for many different reasons, this move will be the most beneficial for my personal goals and for that PhantasySteez.

As of today...

Over the last 40 days, the PhantasySteez has seen a lot of interesting action. Let's start with fantasy basketball. Today is the last day of the season in Yahoo Fantasy Basketball and to my surprise, both of my teams are playing for the championship. In my main league, The Syndicate, I'm playing against no other than All the KING'S Men. And just like all season, she is kicking my ass. One thing I must point out in this matchup is Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, both of who are on my team. The Oklahoma City Thunder didn't play much this week. In fact, their first game of the week wasn't until Thursday. They had three days off, and I couldn't get any production from Durant and Westbrook. Meanwhile, All the KING'S Men was just racking up points. If you remember, LeBron James is on All the KING'S Men and while the Thunder were resting up, the Miami Heat played Monday and Wednesday. Also, Dwyane Wade didn't play in any of those games which meant more production the LeBron. The Heat played in 4 games this week while the Thunder only played in 3. I can't forget to mention that the rest of my guys decided to just play average. I think my depth at point guard killed me though as my rotation seems to be stuck because I really couldn't make any interesting lineup changes. I'm just gonna chalk this one up as a lost and settle for second place.

At least it looks like my other random team is going to win the championship, unless something weird happens by the end of today. Honestly, I can't tell you much about this team. Jamal Crawford and Wade have been injured so I didn't really have to change my lineup much. One thing I can say is somewhere within these 40 days I picked up D.J. Augustin and he has been a pleasant surprise. I was about to lose last week when Augustin went off for 33 points. That helped my team come from behind and land a spot in the championship round. Should I win, I'll be content, but winning the Syndicate would've been much more satisfying.

Last, but definitely not least, baseball season started last week. Originally during the last 40 days I wanted to do a preseason write up and talk about draft strategy and all that good stuff. I got caught up with this transition and working and linking up with certain people and plotting and scheming on the low. I got probably 3 different drafts of fantasy baseball content, but they never got done. I did however manage to draft a fantasy baseball team but of course not without some minor discrepancies. I wanted to make sure I drafted my team instead of using the ever non popular auto draft. The problem was I really didn't know anything about how to draft a fantasy baseball team, who should go first, when to draft pitchers, which positions where more important, just to name a few. I tried to get some advice and cooperation from my good friend Vic, but I had to remind myself that Vic likes those sleeper picks and most of the time I don't really agree with his draft style. Also, he wasn't playing fantasy baseball because he says it's to much work as baseball players play just about everyday. I tried to argue with him that it would be just like football because when football season is in, he's constantly managing his team, every day every hour. Only difference is you play everyday instead of just Sundays. He didn't do buy it and suggested that I purchase a fantasy baseball magazine.

After studying this magazine for a couple of days, I felt like I was ready to draft my first team. Not thinking at the moment, I scheduled to draft at 10:30 p.m. If you know me, you know I'm usually in bed at 9, so by the time the draft started I was really tired. I had the number 5 pick and I lasted the first 5 rounds, after that it was a wrap and unfortunately, the remainder of my team was auto drafted.

The next day when I woke up and reviewed my half-drafted team, I really didn't know how I felt about the team. My first pick was the reigning NL MVP Andrew McCutchen. My next two picks were Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, the first two pitchers I drafted. I didn't know, and I still don't know if this was a good move or a bad move being that they both play for the same team. At fourth and fifth I picked Adrian Gonzalez and Matt Carpenter respectively, then I crashed. The first thing I noticed was that while I was wide asleep, auto draft picked up Aroldis Chapman. Chapman is one of the top closers in the league, but as we all know he took a line drive to the dome during the preseason. He'll be out for a minute, but he is expected to return around late May, possibly in June. Luckily, I didn't have to drop him and I was able to put him on the DL list. As Vic suggested, I picked up Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez has gotten a save for me and has an ERA of 0.00 in 2 innings pitched. Trevor Rosenthal has been my main closer though with 2 saves, 3 strikeouts and a 0.00 ERA also. As far as my batters go, I can't really say much right now. Honestly, I don't know who some of these guys are like Leonys Martin, Domonic Brown, Wilson Ramos (who I already had to replace due to injury) and Kendrys Morales, but it looks like my team should be well-rounded as far as getting points in every stat category.

Overall, I think this major transition will result in a very positive way for PhantasySteez. It give me a chance to get PhantasySteez to a different level by having more access to information and having the ability to network with other fantasy players/gurus. I look forward to the opportunities that my current situation presents. I must admit, this fantasy baseball season is very interesting as far as keeping up with players and strategizing, but in the end we'll see how this fantasy baseball season goes.

All the King's Men

This week should bring about a good matchup in my fantasy basketball league, the Syndicate. It's #1 vs. #2 as this week my WestCoast Lakers takes on All the KING's Men. Last time I wrote about this matchup she was in first place and I was in second. During that week she had some key injuries and I was able to slip past her to take claim to first. This week I don't expect it to be that simple.

Her lineup is beasting in most matchups this season. I see she picked up Rajon Rondo who was on the free agency until about a week after he came back. To compliment Rondo she also has Damian Lillard, John Wall and Trey Burke. Those are just her point guards as she also has Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Andre Drummond, Blake Griffen, Greg Monroe and David Lee. I don't know if this can be an advantage or a weakness, but she has several players who play for the same team with Thompson, Iggy and Lee playing for the Golden State Warrior and Drummond and Monroe both playing for the Detroit Pistons. To me though, the main ingredient, the determining factor in this matchup is LeBron James, who is on her squad. James didn't play yesterday with a broken nose. Yet, he seemed absolutely fine shooting one handed threes from the bench in his suit Sunday. I'm not sure what's the standard injury time for a broken nose, but I couldn't imagine that it would keep him out all week.

Between the two of us, we own the top two players of fantasy basketball with James being on her team and Kevin Durant being on my team. It's no wonder why the two of us are just crushing the competition as these two players have dominated all season and one will be crowned MVP of the NBA. But just like there's a little bit of "controversy" with James, something I will need to watch when it comes to Durant this week also. Russell Westbrook was injured and while he was out Durant took full advantage. Durant stepped his game up in every way and pretty much carried the team on his back. Westbrook came back last Thursday and everyone is wondering how Durant will perform now with Westbrook back. I don't think it'll affect Durant too much. Durant won't have to take as many shots, but he already makes almost everything. If it does negatively affect Durant, I'm not worried because I purposely stashed Westbrook on my bench while he was injured specifically for when I play All the KING's Men.

Speaking of all the king's men, I'm glad I didn't listen to some people and tried to trade Dwyane Wade. During the first half of the season Wade didn't play every game. He would sit a game or two and when he did play he had average games but not Dwyane Wade type games. Recently however, Wade has been playing has been back to normal looking flashy averaging 20 points and 8 assists a game over the last week. If you have him, keep him. He'll definitely be a factor when the fantasy playoffs roll around.

A Trade That Effects My Teams

The over hyped trade deadline has passed and while no major moves were made, there was one move in particular that could have impact on my fantasy teams. Spencer Hawes has been traded from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Cleveland Cavaliers. I was hoping we could get him to come to the Lakers, but I guess that was just wishful thinking. The reason why this is interesting to me is because I have him on both of my fantasy basketball teams. I wonder how this move will effect him on the Phantasy Steez.

In my first league, the Syndicate, I picked up Hawes after missing the draft and feeling like a needed to pick up a center. In my random league I ended up drafting Hawes as a back up center. Even though Hawes' stat line isn't that impressive, to my surprise he has been a pretty good all around player from a fantasy point of view. He's averaging 13 points and 8 rebounds a game. Where his fantasy values comes from is his field goal percentage and the fact that he can hit the 3.

Hawe's is joining a very interesting Cleveland Cavaliers team. The Cavs have been pretty active during the season trading away Andrew Bynum for Luol Deng, and now with a new general manager he was itching to make a move before the trade deadline. Also, word on the street is the working environment in Cleveland is not ideal. The Cavs have Kyrie Irving, Luol Deng, and Dion Waiters, just to name a few. Hawes could have an immediate impact on this squad, but then you have to wonder what will happen between him and Anderson Varejao.

Varejao is having one of his better seasons this year averaging almost 9 points a game and 10 rebounds. He's owned in about 74% of Yahoo leagues. Right now he's injured but when he comes back he will resume the starting responsibilities. This could hurt Hawe's value directly as he will be going from a starter to an off the bench guy, not getting the minutes he's used to getting on the 76ers. Best case scenario would be if Mike Brown figured out how to utilize both of them, maybe by moving Hawes or Varejao to power forward. I don't know how long Varejao is going to be out, but I'm going to  have to come up with a back up plan just in case.

All Star Break Moves

There isn't another NBA game until Tuesday, so that gave my guys about four off days. My team sure could use it because I got four dudes, Mike Conley, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Martin and Andrew Bogut who are injured right now. Of the four, Conley is on the Can't Cut List. I wouldn't think about dropping or trading Westbrook. I'm feeling 50-50 ish on picking up someone for Martin. When it comes to Bogut, he might be getting the axe this All Star Weekend.

Bogut has been dependable for the few weeks I've had him on the team. However, since I picked him up I've been waiting for him to get injured, which he has. One advantage for Bogut is he leads my team in rebounding, probably why I picked him up in the first place. Martin has been dependable most of the season.  He's fourth in 3 pointers made and second in free throws made on my team. The rest of his stats are mediocre.

When I looked at the free agency list, two names stuck out to me immediately, Kyle Lowry and Robin Lopez. Both Lowry and Lopez have been pleasant surprises this season. In my opinion, neither one of these players should be in free agency as Lowry has become somewhat of a top point guard in the East and Lopez looks better than ever on his new team the Portland Trail Blazers.

I decided that I would take a closer look at these "injuries" of Martin and Bogut. Martin is going to be out for a couple of weeks and I probably could get more productivity dropping Martin and picking up Lowry. Actually that last sentecne is an understatement. I will get more production picking up Lowry for Martin. On my social networking sites I asked Kyle Lowry or Kevin Martin. I didn't get any response on Twitter but on Google+ it was an unanimous decision Lowry over Martin. So now I have Lowry on the squad.  I'm still struggling with releasing Bogut, the leading rebounder on my time. The problem is I haven't gotten any recent injury updates on Bogut. Even though Robin Lopez's scoring has improved,  Bogut has nearly 150 more boards than Lopez. I guess I'll keep him on the team for now, but he could end up getting moved before the end of the week.

Morning Glory? Not Exactly

I woke up early this morning, a little earlier than usual. As I thought about everything that was going on in my life, I felt good and confident. I felt like writing, but about what? I got on the bus on my way to work and I checked on my fantasy basketball teams so I could change my line ups when I noticed I lost in both of my leagues yesterday. In my main league I'm still in first place but in my random league I've fallen to second place.

The lost in my random league isn't that significant. I had a slim margin between myself and the person in second place. I won my matchup as far as winning the majority of stat categories, but with me only winning 5-4 and the person ahead of me winning 6-2, he took a one game lead over me.

The lost that interests me the most is the lost in The Syndicate. This lost was significant for two reasons. First, it is only my second lost of the season. Secondly, the lost was to one of the better players in the league. This was our third time playing each other this season in what I think have been epic battles. When the league first started and the draft was complete, I was fussing about David's Team because in my opinion he had one to the top 3 teams. I remember telling Big Mike that he had the Dream Team of Fantasy Basketball. What made matters worse was that I played him week 1. I wasn't too thrilled about playing him week 1, especially since I had missed the draft and my team was auto picked. To my surprise, it wasn't that bad. In fact, I ended up winning by just a few points. Crazy part about this victory was I was losing the whole week and I somehow managed to sneak up on him that Sunday.

The second time we matched up was week 8 and this time it was nothing like week one. I won the match by 241 points. There was two things that I can attribute to this win. First, I had Russell Westbrook in the lineup. As you all remember, Westbrook didn't play his first game until a few weeks after the start of the sesason and when he came back he was lighting it up. I didn't have Westbrook available the first time I matched up with David's Team. Secondly, Michael Carter-Williams got injured during the matchup for David's Team. I didn't really know who Carter-Williams, but I sure knew who he was after week 1.

Last week was somewhat similar to week 1. All week it was pretty much neck to neck. There were a few lead changes, but it remained close throughout the week. On Saturday I slept though. I was watching college basketball and sometime around 1:30 I decided to change my lineup for the day. I was too late because the Milwaukee Bucks were already playing and I had Brandon Knight on the bench. I believe this was a critical mistake because my other two players on the bench, Mike Conley and Westbrook, are injured and I needed to start as many players as I could. Sunday morning I was down by a few points and even though I had Kevin Durant, who went for 41 points yesterday, it wasn't enough. Durant did his job, but Rudy Gay and Spencer Hawes didn't show up... especially Hawes as we witnessed Blake Griffen hold his own slam dunk contest against the Philadelphia 76ers.

So, right now I'm down but I'm not out. I'm still holding down the #1 spot for now, but I know real soon imma have another matchup with All the Kings Men. On the bright side though, I play Big Mike this week. Perfect matchup to bounce back from a defeat...

Don't Sleep

So I was supposed to post this yesterday, but when I'm at home people bother me. When I'm at work people bother me. So, this post is a day late. If  was working for a major publication, this would be totally unacceptable, my editor would probably demote me to mail room clerk or something, and I would end up a starving writer. I got to grind harder. Excuse the pre-rant, just a little vexed. Yeah, that's it. Vexed.

Anyway, something rare happened yesterday... I mean Sunday. Well, rare might be a little overkill because it might not be as rare as it once was at the beginning of the season. Unusual, yeah, I'll go with something unusual happened yesterday... I mean Sunday. I got to watch some NBA action. Now that football season is near completion, the NBA puts games on regular TV on Sundays. Sadly, this is how I will get to watch some games until my diabolical plan reveals itself. Not only am I going to be able to watch games but these are nationally televised games which usually produces a good match up. Yesterday, I mean Sunday, I was treated to the San Antonio Spurs vs. the Miami Heat in a "NBA Finals rematch" followed by the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the New York Knicks.

I was quite interested to see both games because I had players from both games on my fantasy basketball
team. In my main league, The Syndicate, I didn't have any players in these two games, but in my back up league which I randomly joined and I didn't even name the team, I had players from the Heat, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, and from the Lakers, Jodie Meeks and Nick Young aka Swaggy P.

Now here's where it gets interesting. I don't have cable or internet at the house so I rely heavily on my Galaxy Note 3 for just about everything. My Note 3's battery life is stupendous. I can have it in frequent use and still get about 10-12 hours battery life. If I'm just idle with it or using it occasionally, I can make it last for about 20-28 hours without needing to charge it. Of course these estimates are exaggerated, but point is my phone lasts longer than yours. This weekend, I left my charger at work. This created an interesting situation because the Note 3 has a very unique looking charger. I doesn't take the standard micro USB plug that most Samsung phones take. The plug for the Note 3 looks like two different plugs in one.

Galaxy Note 3 Charger Plug

On Saturday, I came up with the great idea to use an external battery charger that I had for my last defective phone where the port on the phone was broken. This worked but I had two problems, first it took forever to charge just the battery and then the second time around I ended up breaking the charger. So yesterday morning, I mean Sunday morning, I needed to charge my phone again and I figured if I could just use the standard micro USB charger in the section that looks like a micro USB port, if that makes any sense. It worked!! I love this phone/mini tablet. It was right before the first tip off when I discovered my old charger would work, but I figured I would just let it charge without turning on my phone because I had a feeling it would take longer to charge with the old charger, which it did. Also, even though I had Bosh and Wade on my team, I figured that I had them starting. Plus, with Wade and his current knee situation, I wasn't too worried if he was in the game or out. Lastly, I low key didn't want to be bothered, but that's another story for another day.

I had Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade on the bench Sunday

I was wrong. I had both Bosh and Wade on the bench. Sad part about it, I didn't turn my phone on until after the game. My assumption was wrong, I made an ass of myself. Coming of the bench, Wade's stats were below mediocre at best. Bosh had a decent game with 24 points and 5 rebounds. At least I had him in the game on Thursday when he had 31 points and 6 rebounds against the Lakers. That wouldn't be enough though as I ended up losing in this stat category league 2-7 where I lacked in field goal %. free throw %, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks and turnovers. If anything, I could've used Bosh yesterday to get a better field goal and free throw percentage. I definitely slept on Bosh, who has been having above average games since Wade only plays every three games. Bosh is taking advantage on that "Y'all Must've Forgot" steez.

The next game was the Lakers vs. the Knicks, which I thought as a Laker fan we had a chance to win. To me, the only difference between these two teams was that the Lakers play in the Kung Fu Strong West and the Knicks play in the East where with a losing record is good enough for a playoff spot... Well, not for the Knicks. But Melo was coming off of a 63 point game and he followed that up with 35 points against the Lakers. Meeks kind of did his job scoring 24 points but the Lakers' leading scorer Swaggy P only had 13 points. I'm not sure what exactly happened, I fell asleep during the game.

I got blew out

Even though I was able to retain first place, I lost badly last week. I had always assumed that I needed to upgrade at the center position with rebounding and blocks kind of like I need to upgrade that position in The Syndicate. However, losing 2-7 tells me that it's not just rebounding and blocks. While many of the the of the categories I lost in where by small margins, the one that concerns me the most is the assist category. There was a 35 point differential in the this category. When I look at my guards, I don't have many superstars at the position outside of Wade, who as I mentioned earlier is not playing every game. Out of all the guards I have though, the only other point guard I have is Jamal Crawford. The rest are all shooting guards who are also eligible to play small forward.

Once again I slept. You see, I had Jordan Crawford on my squad two weeks ago when he was still playing with the Boston Celtics and starting at point guard. In the middle of the week he got traded to the Golden State Warriors with the return of Rajon Rondo. I dropped Crawford because I had a feeling that his production would drop coming off the bench. Where I messed up is replacing him. I picked up Meeks to replace Crawford which sounded good at the time, but Meeks doesn't play point. From a scoring standpoint it was a good pickup, but from an assist point of view it was a horrible decision considering my lack of point guards.

So now it looks like I have to look for a guard, a point guard in specific to get my rep up. I'll be looking but if you have anyone in mind let me know. Leave a comment or e-mail or something, because I as you can see, I really don't know what I'm doing.

Taking Over Control

In a very interesting yesterday, I went to the season-ending fantasy football meeting for my main league, Roughing the Picker. It was at the same place we had the draft, Buffalo Wild Wings in Torrance, CA. It was cool, but I'll admit it was a bit awkward for me. Awkward may not be the correct word, but for now I'm going with awkward. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed myself and it was good getting with the fellas. However, it was kind of awkward because for some reason I couldn't recognize everyone, and people were coming up to me giving me dap, and I knew I had just played these same guys in a grueling fantasy football season, but I couldn't put a name to a face. Weird part about it was they knew who I was. Knew my team. Knew my blog. But then again, maybe the reason why I was out of zone was because I was deeply worried about my fantasy basketball team.

Last week in my main fantasy basketball league, The Syndicate, I was matched up against the league leader, All the KING'S Men. I already lost to this chick once. Yeah I said it, I lost to this CHICK once. Again don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with females on that PhantasySteez. In fact, I love it and encourage. I can't wait to teach 2 Cs how to play. I'm just saying, I've already lost to her once. It's my only loss in this league this season, so I was kind of anxious all week. I mean, this girl has what's turning out to be a fantasy dream team. check it out...

This lineup has wrecked havoc in the league. Highlighting her squad is LeBron James, John Wall, Damian Lilliard, Klay Thompson and Blake Griffin. My team is highlight by Kevin Durant, Rudy Gay, Deron Williams, and Russell Westbrook. As you can see, the two of us have the two most dynamic players in the NBA, but in my opinion, the rest of my squad are role players. Also, let's not forget that Westbrook is injured, so is Deron Williams, both who have been in and out all season. Not to mention I had to find someone to replace Ryan Anderson who was out all of last week and probably for most of the remainder of the season. 

I picked up Jonas Valanciunas to replace Anderson, and I had came up with this grand scheme to drop him on Sunday for another center. My theory was to start more players than she, as she only had one player for Sunday. But I was sitting there at Buffalo Wild Wings while the winner of our fantasy football league was presented the trophy and we went over rules, I was worried about my fantasy basketball team when I noticed something. First thing I noticed was that I was winning on Sunday morning with four players starting to her one. But then I wondered how was I able to overcome such a fantasy basketball juggernaut. The answer is simple...

In the screenshot above that I took today, she has Jrue Holiday on the bench, but yesterday she had Holiday starting. Holiday has been injured since last Wednesday in the fourth quarter and is expected to be out for at least a month. My worthy opponent failed to notice this and kept him in the lineup. Isn't that cute? She could've picked up someone like Kyle Lowry, Nick Young, Reggie Jackson or Darren Collison. She didn't, I scored more points. I won. I claimed first placed.

The Fantasy Football Playoff Challenge

Have you ever seen that one commercial for a playoff version of fantasy football where they have the people crying over there poor fantasy football team and they show the team name with their record? And  in thecommercial they're playing that one song "Had A Bad Day" by Daniel Powter? The only site I've known to do it is nfl.com and they giveaway a trip to the Super Bowl. I've always wondered how fantasy football during the playoffs worked. My main question was what happened when a player's team lose? Well, I decided that since I was on that PhantasySteez I would try it out.

First I wanted to figure out how it worked. Here's a screen shot of the rules from nfl.com...

As you can see, it doesn't really give a description of how the points are distributed, but what I find intriguing about it is that multiplier when your player's team wins.  The next week, the points that player accumulates is multiplied.  This is definitely something to keep in mind when it comes to setting up the lineup.

Instead of the familiar head to head format, this playoff version uses more of a pick 'em format where you can pick any player instead of once a player has been chosen by someone else that player is no longer available.  They use an overall leader board which presumably determines the winner of the Super Bowl prize.  You can also join our create groups with your people just like in the regular fantasy football leagues.

So this is who I picked up...

When I was picking my players, I tried to keep in mind the weather crisis that most of the country is going through right now (but not here in So-Cal). Starting with my running backs, LeSean McCoy is clutch. It's gonna be cold in Green Bay so i think Ed Lacy should get some good touches. Even though the Saints are a dome team and they're playing in Philadelphia in the snow today,  I picked Drew Brees and Jimmy Graham because I figured that connection would be most likely to score. That goes for pretty much the rest of my lineup too.  A.J. Green and Jordy Nelson play in the snow too, but I figure if Aaron Rogers and Andy Dalton are going to throw it's probably going to be to Nelson and Green respectively.  Adam Vinatieri is a kicker playing in a dome so that was a no brainer. The Bengals Defense play at home in the snow against the Chargers of San Diego, another no brainer.

So we'll see how this goes. I didn't create any groups because I decided to do this at the last minute,  but I'll keep yall posted.