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.

I Got Russell Westbrook and Al Horford On the Same Team

Fantasy Football is over, and yes I lost in all three of my main leagues, Roughing the Picker, Coast2Coast Ballers and Thieveland Ohio. Congratulations to Mr. Hindsman who did end up winning the Coast2Coast Ballers league. I like how Big Mike had to confirm that I didn't win...

Yes, I didn't win. The leagues that I did win championships in were just random leagues that I didn't pay as much attention as I did with my three main leagues. However, when it comes to our fantasy basketball teams, the roles are reversed my friend...

Even though I'm way overdue when it comes to managing this team and writing this post, I must make some adjustments though as there are still many weeks left in the fantasy basketball season. I could easily slip down a few spots before the All-Star break. For some weird reason, I have both Russell Westbrook and Al Horford on the same team. Both Westbrook and Horford got injured last Friday. Westbrook is expected to be out until after the All-Star break. Horford is done for the season.

At this point, I'm not too concerned with replacing Westbrook. I think I already have a lot of guards on my team already with Mike Conley, Deron Williams, Brandon Jennings and Brandon Knight on my squad. My squad is PG heavy so I should be able to hold out until Westbrook gets better. However when it comes to Horford, I'm not that deep when it comes to center. I got Spencer Hawes, Ryan Anderson and Horford as eligible centers. I was already feeling that this position was the weakest link of my team, and now I have to replace Horford, who ironically is my team's leading rebounder and is out for the rest of the season.

When I looked at free agency it was kind of difficult to decipher who had the most value because of two reasons. One, I don't really watch much NBA, and secondly there aren't as many resources when it comes to fantasy basketball like there is in fantasy football. After going over who was available in free agency I had narrowed it down to two players: Andrew Bogut and Robin Lopez. At first neither of these two seemed too appealing to pick up, but I looked at the stats over the past two weeks and I decided to go with Bogut. Bogut had accumulated the most rebounds over all the other available centers in free agency in a two week time period. In most of the matchups that I've had so far, my team has come short in the rebounding department. I still may  have to consider dropping one of my guards to pick up another rebounder though.

Fantasy Football Championships and Abruptly Switching to Fantasy Basketball

I went to a Christmas Eve party with my sister a few days ago.  Hanging out with my sister can be interesting because it always seem like the most random occurrences happen when we get together, and this night was no different. Besides the fact that we were in Compton and there were children running around everywhere, I wasn't too much into the party. Me being me, I was just laying back in the cut plotting on the low.  I was thinking about ways to improve my blog.  More importantly,  I was thinking about ways to improve my PhantasySteez.

Now when I started this I let it be known that I am not some type of fantasy expert, just a regular guy and my fantasy football record for this season proves that. I started off with 15 teams. Six of those teams went to the playoffs. Three went to championships.  One of those three teams lost.  Another team won and was crowned champion.  I still have one active though in an ESPN league with a two-week championship game.

Going into the second week of this championship game I have a 32 point advantage advantage against my opponent. I actually just put in Colin Kaepernick this week. He started off as my starter, but for the past five weeks Tony Romo has been my starting quarterback. It looks very doubtful for Romo this week so I had to bench him.

I already took out the Detroit Lions defense for the Cincinnati Bengals defense.  Starting the Lions D was an experiment I tried last week when they played against the New York Giants. They did earn me 10 points last week, but for right now I'm going to stick with the Bengals D against the Baltimore Ravens. Come to think of it, I might have to reconsider because the Ravens are fighting to get into the playoffs. I'm going to have to do more research, something that I haven't been doing because I've been playing fantasy basketball. I think I've found a way to incorporate the fantasy basketball into PhantasySteez, but for now I'll just give you a small synopsis of whats going on.

So I have these two fantasy basketball teams which I may have mentioned in previous posts, but I never really got into it. I don't really play fantasy basketball, but when my boy Mike invited me, I took it as another way to get my rep up on that PhantasySteez. Besides, I was getting mopped up in Mike's fantasy football league, so I figured why not. I went ahead and picked up another random league just to compare. Like I said I don't really play fantasy basketball, so there was no need to go all out and draft 15 teams like I did with fantasy football.

I only have 2 Fantasy Basketball teams

I'm doing a little better than I expected. Both squads are in 2nd place. The scoring formats in these leagues are different. In Mike's league, you have to win a majority of the stat categories to get a win. For example, if I win 6 out of 9 stat categories by the end of the week, I get the W. In the random league, you the stat categories you win goes towards your record. For example, if at the end of the week I've won 6 out of 9 categories, my record is 6-3. Interesting, but we'll see how this plays out now that I'm about to fully transition to fantasy basketball.

Vacation

It's the playoffs... Or to be more specific,  it's Fantasy Football Super Bowl week. Win or go home. Guess where I am right now... AT HOME. I'm on a little little vacation from my regular job. Feels good, but it hasn't done anything as far as my losing streak on that PhantasySteez is concerned.

To start off, in my two main leagues, Roughing the Picker and Coast2Coast Ballers, I have officially been eliminated.  In Roughing the Picker I was eliminated a couple of weeks ago, and I lost the 5th place game last week. My boy Victor lost last week too, but right now he's in the 3rd place game hoping that Frank Gore doesn't go off tonight.  In Coast2Coast Ballers I lost last week to my arch rival Mr. Hindsman and im pretty sure I lost this weekend as well in the 5th place game.  Basically,  in both leagues I finished in 6th place.  Very disappointing.

On the plus side, I got 3 teams,  one on ESPN two on Yahoo, in championship games.  Starting with the ESPN league, I'm currently ahead right now and I got one player for tonight. However, ESPN leagues have two week playoff games. So it's not over, but I go into next week with an advantage which will bring me that much closer to winning the league.

I my Yahoo leagues, I have a split between the two leagues. One league I lost so I'll end up in second. Not bad, but nobody remembers second place. If I can steal a line from Ricky Bobby, "If you ain't 1st, you're last" The other Yahoo league I'm in victory lane. I'm up by 11 points and I still have Phil Dawson to play tonight. My opponent has nobody left,  so that's one guaranteed trophy for the mantle.

So now it's pretty much a wrap for fantasy football. Now I have to think about what's next because I've enjoyed writing about fantasy football, but with the season quickly coming to an end what do I write about now? Most likely it'll be my fantasy basketball teams. I have two of them but I've been shying away from writing about it simply because I can't decide to write it under this blog PhantasySteez or create a whole new blog for it. Most likely, I'll probably just do it on that PhantasySteez instead of creating a while new blog, but who knows. We'll have to wait and see.

Lastly,  I just want to say thank you to all those who read my blog. When I first started, it was just something to do.  But it has motivated me in so many ways and my readers have motivated me as well. Shout out to 2 Cs,  Victor,  Mr. Hindsman, +Salvatore Surra, +Robyn Adams, Isolda Aldana, and everyone else who reads my blog. I greatly appreciate your support. Happy Holidays.

Playoffs!!

Playoffs! I had been waiting for this to come up all season, but now that it's here, I don't even want to play the game anymore. Something happened not this past weekend, but the weekend before last week in one of my leagues. It kind of just killed the whole PhantasySteez for me.

In one of my main leagues, Coast2Coast Ballers, I felt like I got bamboozled. I after Sunday night I was up by at least 170 points against my opponent. For Monday, my opponent had Golden Tate and the Saints Defense. Now, in this league the way the score settings are, you defense can easily score 170 points. My defense, the Packers Defense, had pretty much scored the difference of the score at this time, having 1 touchdown, 2 forced fumbles and two interceptions. The Saints Defense, who played the Seahawks, had no touchdowns, no interceptions, no force fumbles, and the Seahawks scored 34 points against them, yet they scored like 185 points. By the end of the Monday night, I had lost by 20 points.



I was low key pissed off. How did the my team have a much impressive defense have a pretty decent defensive outcome while the Saints Defense had a miserable outcome but had more fantasy points than my Packers Defense? I ranted about this in our league and this was the response I got from the commish...

Like how I scratched out everyone else's comments #GalaxyNote3

Rules are rules, but I was pissed. All the Saints did was tackle. Special teams didn't do anything. I was very upset. So upset in fact, I didn't even want to play anymore. Even though I had barely made the playoffs in Roughing the Picker that week, this mockery of points just killed the whole scenario for me. I didn't plan for anything last week. I didn't do any research, no writing, no nothing. Then Friday, I got my new toy, the Galaxy Note 3! Shout out to 2Cs!! I played around most of the weekend, and by Sunday morning, I was happy again... content. Now though, I was spending Sunday morning trying to make sure my lineups were good in Roughing the Picker where it was the first week of the playoffs and in Coast2Coast Ballers where it was the last week of the regular season and I was trying to keep a hold of the first round bye.

Well, I got blew out in both games. Most of my players had bad games, most likely due to injury or bad weather. It was snowing everywhere this past Sunday. Ironic part is, the scores in two different leagues, on two different platforms, look almost identical.

So I'm out of the playoffs in Roughing the Picker. As far as Coast2Coast Ballers, me losing has me barely in the playoffs in sixth place. Not only that, I have to play Mr. Hindsman this week. The two of us weren't expecting this matchup until the championship. Apparently, I'm not the only one who has fallen off as he has lost four in a row and both of us lost our top ranked status. So now only one of us are going to to ship... maybe.

I still intend on going to the championship, regardless on if I have to play Mr. Hindsman in the first round. I must plan carefully though if I'm to win because Mr. Hindsman can be relentless on that PhantasySteez. Last time I played him in Week 1, he won convincingly. This time though, I'm trying to have opposite results. Mr. Hindsman like to run multiple quarterbacks, as most of the players in this league do. Outside of Cam Newton, my quarterback squad sucks. Luckily, it looks like Aaron Rodgers is not going to play this week, so I picked up Matt Flynn off of waivers. Flynn has been inconsistent for the most part, but he has improved with every start. Also, the Packers play the Dallas Cowboys this week, and their pass defense sucks ass.

I also picked up Kirk Cousins. In case you missed it, RG3 has been benched and Cousins is going to start. This could be a good thing in the NFL and on that PhantasySteez. Last season, Cousins started in two or three games and did fairly well. Actually, he did above average. This week the Redskins play the Atlanta Falcons and Cousins could potentially feast on their defense. Most likely I'm going to start Cousins and not Flynn, which will have my lineup looking like this...

The Don vs. Mr. Hindsman II

Pretty tasty matchup on that PhantasySteez, I must say.

The Thrill of Victory, the Agony of Defeat

Well, here we are. Week 13. In most leagues, this is the last week of the fantasy football regular season. The last chance to make it into the winner's bracket of the playoffs. In most of my leagues I'm averaging a record of about 7-5, but of course in my two main leagues one is playoff bound and the other is not.

Starting out with my most important, the league I have money on, I have failed to make the winner's bracket in Roughing the Picker. I talked a little about what happened with Danny Woodhead and Bob Rainey yesterday so I won't go into why I think I lost this week. Instead, I look at some of the inconsistencies of my lineup. I drafted Alfred Morris, but I was never quite sold on him having a solid sophomore campaign. I tried to trade him for Trent Richardson. Good thing Choopie refused that trade as we all know how Richardson has been doing this season. So I've been stuck with Morris who was too good to drop, but playing for a confused Washington Redskins team has definitely affected his production.

Aside from Morris, I was never really a fan of having two quarterbacks on my bench. Even though this is a two quarterback league,  I knew I didn't need to have two quarterbacks on the bench. I felt like it was limiting the capacity of my bench, which i realized later to be fact as I suffered during bye weeks. I never fixed the situation until last week when I dropped Geno Smith for Bob Rainey, and as we all know, Rainey didn't do shit this past week.

Crazy part is I still have a very slim chance to make the playoffs. As of writing this, I was going over the league schedule and playoff format and it looks like this league takes six teams to the playoffs. I thought it was only four teams that went into the winner's bracket. Currently, I'm in seventh place, and coincidentally, I'm playing the guy who is in sixth place. This put me in a must-win situation, or as I like to call it, Manning Eli mode. I'll get more into that later, but right now I can't stress how imperative victory has become. Should I win, I'll have the same record as my opponent, but I would've scored more points overall, thus putting me in sixth place.

The scenario is not as scary in my other main league, Coast2Coast Ballers. I recovered from a four game losing streak last week with a victory of Ron. I'm still in second place, but I got Savel on my ass. The playoffs doesn't start until week 15, so I'm trying to retain second place so I can get that first round bye. Also coincidentally, I play Savel again week 14. Savel beat me a few weeks ago after I talked all that shit. I should still be able to win, but I gotta be careful. Just one loss could have me in the same situation I'm as Roughing the Picker.... MANNING ELI!