Practice What You Preach Part 1

Yesterday I wrote about how three individuals were talking about how they were going to beat me this week. I kindly responded by declaring I will be victorious and low key taking a couple of jabs at some of the remarks that were made. Well, now it's time for me to back up all that trash talk. Even though I proclaimed I would come out with Ws, the task is easier said than done.

Starting with my team going against Victor in Roughing the Picker, I don't really like the situation at all. I have three key players on byes this week. I need to find players to fill in this week for Matt Forte, Martellus Bennett, and Danny Woodhead. Being that this is a PPR league, all three of these players have been crucial components of my team. The bad news is, since there isn't a waiver wire in this league, finding players from free agency can be difficult as other managers keep a close eye for players who are available. Even on Sunday during games, you can add players on your squad for the upcoming week. It also doesn't help that this years injuries are coming at a rapid rate.

So far, the only player I've picked up from free agency is Chris Ivory to fill in for Forte, but I'm a little skeptical on this pick up. In my opinion, he's only going to be productive if Bilal Powell doesn't get many snaps. As of writing this, I can only assume Powell is healthy and Rex Ryan could have a different games plan than he did last week where Ivory got a majority of the touches and fantasy points. Looking at who else is available in free agency, the most intriguing players available are Powell, Rashard Mendenahall, Mike Tolbert, Andre Ellington, Jason Snelling, and Brandon Bolden. As of right now, I haven't made a final decision on who to start at for Forte, but the wrong decision could be extremely crucial.

The situation is very interesting when it comes to finding someone to fill in for Martellus Bennett. I have Bennett and Gronk as the two tight ends on my squad. The problem is both of them start as Bennett fills the TE spot and Gronk fills in the versatile W/T (wide receiver/tight end) position.Obviously I'm going to put Gronk at TE, but that leaves the W/T position open. On my bench I got Kenbrell Thompkins, Steve Johnson, Geno Smith, and Terrelle Pryor (I've been trying to figure out why I have two quarterbacks on the bench). What concerns me is with Gronk back, Thompkins production, which hasn't really been too consistent, is expected to go down. With Steve Johnson, the quarterback situation is a little too shaky for me to really depend on him. The free agency for wide receiver is below average full of people either I've never heard of or third or fourth option receivers, so I'm going have to make it work with either Thompkins or Johnson.

The problem I have with finding someone to fill in for Danny Woodhead is pretty much all of the above I explained with replacing Forte and Bennett. I have Woodhead at the W/R (wide receiver/running back position. I only have three running backs, well four if you include Ivory. So I can either pick up one of the running backs I mentioned earlier from free agency, or again, I can decide between Thompkins and Johnson. Right now, I like Johnson, but I'm going to have to further investigate before Sunday to see exactly what the final lineup is going to look like.

Most likely, it's going to be a game time decision when it comes to who's going to start. Tomorrow I'm going to figure out how I'm going to back up all this shit I talked in Coast2Coast Ballers.

Are you questioning my Phantasy Steez?

I know I've started of this way before, but I'm a very busy man. In fact, I'm busier than I think I am. Between work, that girl from high school, that dude in Oklahoma, the Carson House, looking for property, trying to finish school, taking care of the Don's business, and other random fuckery, sometimes I can hardly think. I'll be the first to admit, I've gotten lucky the last couple of weeks with my fantasy teams as I have barely managed them. In fact, my boy Victor had to remind me to put Gronk in this past Sunday. In the middle of that, some haters out there are trying to question my Phantasy Steez.

It's hard being in a league with your best friend because eventually you have to play them. That week is this week as I play Victor in Roughing the Picker. Because in this league we don't have a waiver wire and have to wait to pick up players, I was trying to get my lineup set for next week when I noticed that I play Victor this week. Victor is in first place in this league going 6-1. I'm in third place going 4-3. I sent him a text saying "ummm... you know you're going to lose this week, right?" That's where it all started. He went on about how he's had his lineup set since last Saturday. Then he kindly reminded me that if he hadn't reminded me to put in Gronk, I probably would've lost. Even while writing this post, he's texting me bragging about how he's projected to win. I take this as him questioning my Phantasy Steez because if anyone knows how hectic my real life is, it should be Victor right? But he insists that I'm falling off because my personal life distracts me from my fantasy squads. Truth be told, my real life is more interesting than my fantasy football teams. I'm not worried about making stupid trades with Donkey Punch when my squad is already legit, like yours is. Side note, I really think he's trying to punk you out of your best players for popular named players. Back on topic and keeping it real, the only reason why your squad is in first place is because Peyton Rocket Laser Arm Manning is holding your squad together. Truth be told Victor, you're my best friend and we go back to when the Don was just Spooky, but I'm going to win and if you so happen to win, it'll be because I told you who to start. #DonStatus.

But Victor is the least of my worries right now.

My house is reminiscent of the stone ages. I don't have cable and I don't have internet. Crazy right? I know, but that's what it is right now. So when it comes to managing my teams, it's mostly done on my phone. Usually, I only pay attention to my teams to make sure my lineups are straight. Yesterday, I just so happen to check it out while I was at work from my computer in the warehouse and I was amused by a post from Mr. Hindsman basically disrespecting my Phantasy Steez, while low key jabbing at others. Today I jump on and there's a message from Savel directly calling me out, disrespecting my state and claiming by the end of next week I'm going to be 6-2. To make matters worse, Mr. Hindsman bandwagons the post daring me to blog about it... which pretty much prompted this post. You see, the rivalry between me and these two cowards go back some years, and now that I'm in first place, or second if you ask Mr. Hindsman, all they can do is hate.

First of all Savel, seems to me as if the only thing you're the best in the world at is popping off at the mouth. You're lineup is garbage and your three victories have come against bums. Sad part about that is two of your defeats to bums has come by 2 points or less. Okay, you have some key Saints players on you team that can do damage, but don't think with players like Golden Tate, Reuben Randle, BenJarvis Green-Ellis, and Kyle Rudolph that you're going to beat me and I'm going to be 6-2. Oh, and by the way, Westside is the Best side! Bow down when you come to my town!

And as for you Mr. Hindsman, I really don't know why you talking. True, we met up week one and you came out victorious. I even gave you props for your victory in a blog post afterwards, yet you still out there hating. You better be lucky our commissioner, who I've already beaten twice, only scheduled us to play once. Must be because he's in grad school why he failed to match us up more than once. But regardless, I understand that the rest of the guys in our league are bums and you had to spice it up by hating on me. Its okay, I understand. I also understand that you are the number one fan of my blog, so you gave me the brilliant idea of bringing our shit talking to Phantasy Steez. Thanks Mr. Hindsman, because I was going to blog about something completely different. I'll see you in the Championship Mr. Hindsman.

Practice?

I'm a sports connoisseur. I get down with a lot of sports. Basketball, football, baseball, soccer... Don't really get down with hockey, but I love sports. One of the things I like about sports is sports journalism. I especially like post game interviews. After the joy and agony of the game, post game interviews can become very interesting and entertaining.

One of my favorite post game interviews is Allen Iverson back in 2002. A reporter asked him about a comment his coach made about his participation in practice.  Iverson simply responded ” practice?” He ranted on voicing his frustration of the question emphasizing that at a post game interview the question wasn't about the game that was just played, the question was about PRACTICE. This post game interview went on to become one if the most memorable post game interviews in American sports history.

Unfortunately, I had to give a slightly modified version of this speech last night. It all started yesterday afternoon right before quitting time. I received an email from Yahoo sports. I thought it was concerning this league I'm in where this guy is trying to trade me Seattle defense and Rob Gronkowski for DeSean Jackson. Instead it was about a trade that went on in one of my main leagues, Roughing the Picker.  The trade consisted of Danny Amendola, T.J. Yates, and Brandon Myers for Matt Ryan. Weird but if that's what they want then I'm with it.

How did T.J. Yates get involved in a trade?

When I got off of work I sent a text to my boy Victor to talk about the trade. He let's me know that he was texting with the other members of the league and the trade was a ”joke” and the two members who agreed to the trade wanted us other members to vote against the trade because it was supposed to be just a "joke". Are you serious? So you mean that the trade is not real and this dudes are joking, or the way I see it, practicing? It's the middle of the season, and these dudes are practicing. This ain't practice. Practice? This ain't practice. We ain't talking about preseason or a mock league. We talking about a real league in the middle of the season, and these dudes are practicing. This ain't practice. Practice?

Now I understand that it's a game and this is Phantasy Steez, but it's the principle of the overall situation that has my gears grinding. In this league, we had a live in person draft. We went over all the rules together and there is a rule about members being in cahoots with other members to create "super teams". Victor and I were used as an example of this rule because we're friends it would look suspicious if we made a trade proposal. Most owners would probably think we're working together to create this "super team" if there's a such thing in fantasy football. So if Victor and I are trying to make a legitimate trade, it could lead up to our teams getting locked or denied access, but these guys are practicing... practice. We ain't talking about a legitimate trade negotiation, we talking about practice.

Trust me, I understand that it's a game and it's supposed to be fun.To me however, considering the circumstances and situations, we ain't talking about Phantasy Steez, the thing we all love and prepare for and get together for every year and commune and strategize over during the football season. We talking about practice. I think the trade should go through, since some think this is practice. However, the other managers have already decided to vote against the trade because it's just a joke, and majority vote rules, so these guys are going to get away with practice.Victor, I'm sorry that you had to here the Don's version of the practice speech. The other managers probably won't know about it unless the read my blog, which I doubt. But nooga, I'm just saying. We ain't talking about Phantasy Steez... WE TALKING ABOUT PRACTICE! This ain't practice.

Sign and Trade

During the NBA offseason, sometimes teams and players come to an agreement called a sign and trade. In this scenario, an unrestricted free agent will sign with his current team. The team then trades that player just signed to another team. Its a way to make sure you get something for the player leaving your team. I've managed to do this on that Phantasy Steez.

It all started last week which was the first week of byes. I have Aaron Rodgers on about three teams. One team in particular, Rodgers is my starting quarterback and I have Sam Bradford on the bench. I didn't want to start Bradford, and it's a good thing I didn't because Bradford did not do well last week against San Francisco scoring 8 points. Terelle Pryor is also on my bench, I wasn't sure if he was going to play, which he didn't. So I I was perusing around the free agency and for some weird reason Philip Rivers was available. This was shocking to me because all of the fantasy "experts" were talking highly about starting Rivers all week. So I picked him up and to great effect as Rivers had a great fantasy game scoring 27 points for me.

Fast forward to this week. Aaron Rodgers is back so naturally I want him to start. Now I'm looking at my bench and I have Rivers, Pryor and Bradford on my bench. That's way too many quarterbacks. Looking back at free agency, there really isn't anyone worthy of picking up for one of these quarterbacks, so I decided to see about making a trade. I could make an offer for any of these quarterbacks,  but I think I could get the most in return for Rivers. Plus, in case anything should happen to Rodgers, I do still have Pryor and Bradford, and even though they may not be as "elite" as River, I think they can still be product enough to get points.

I made a trade offer based on what I felt I needed on the team and the value of Rivers versus that position, which for some reason I decided I needed a running back. I have Reggie Bush and Ray Rice who are both coming off of injuries. Bush in particular could get hurt again before the end of the season. I also have Bernard Pierce who was just on my team to fill in for Ray Rice. I felt like I needed a more dependable running back. After looking at different running back rankings, I felt I could get away with trading away Rivers for DeMarco Murray. True, Murray has been injured in the past, but this season he looks great and I still think a lot of people are sleeping on him.

It only took a couple of hours before the owner of All i do is WIN accepted the trade offer. He probably thought I was high or something when I sent him the trade offer. Actually I wasn't, I was at work, but if this is what he was thinking, it's exactly what I wanted him to think. Truth of the matter is, I signed a back up quarterback to fill in for Rodgers, signed Rivers, then traded Rivers to a team that has Tom Brady and E.J. Manuel for Murray, who I feel was this guy's best running back. He also has Darren Sproles, Chris Johnson and DeAngelo Williams. I get an insurance policy in case on of my backs get injured. He gets a quarterback who is most likely going to be useless until Brady goes on a bye. In my opinion, coming from a phantasy point of view, I think I win...

Hitting the Panic Button

First of all, I know I haven't been doing such a great job with keeping up. I had some great things to post about too like my boy Victor winning by .02 points, my thoughts on the Trent Richardson trade, and this 8 team league I'm in that started a week late. I know, but my scheduled is more complicated than I can grasp. I'm looking for a new job, I'm trying to finalize things between me and that chick from high school, I'm on the bus, my friends keep me busy, I'm blindly looking for property, plus all the regular fuckery that's involved with being Mr. Nickerson. In fact, I'm so busy that keeping up with my 15 teams is crazy. Not too mention that me resources are limited due to circumstances and situations, so probably about 7 times out of 10 I'm probably adjusting my roster from my phone.

Regardless of how busy I've been, most of my teams have winning records. Unfortunately I do have two teams that are 0-3 which is pretty good considering that I have 15 teams. Also, the team in that 8 team league is 0-2. That's not too bad considering that I'm barely managing 15 teams, but then I start to wonder why. When I look at these three teams, I think all three rosters are good enough to at least be average. For some reason though, none have been able to pick up the W. At this time, I can only point to two main reasons: player inconsistencies and bad management on my behalf.

When I look at these three teams, I noticed that there are a couple of similarities with these teams. First, but not that important, all three of them are Yahoo leagues. Second, and most important, these three teams have a few players in common. These players, Ed Lacy, Tavon Austin, Sam Bradford, Rashard Mendenhall, Tom Brady and Andrew Luck are on two two of the three teams.

Brady and Luck displays both inconsistency and bad team management. Over three weeks Brady has under produced averaging about 16 points a game, but he was projected to average 19 points a game. This makes me think that I probably should've started Luck instead of Brady. Luck has scored more fantasy points than he was projected to in every week except for last week where he 15 points and he was projected to have 16, which still isn't bad. The question though, how do you bench Tom Brady for Andrew Luck? Especially now that the Colts picked up Trent Richardson.

Ed Lacy has been busy in Green Bay, but in week two he suffered a concussion on the first play. That week, he had one carry for 10 yards, which got us 1 point. He didn't pass the NFL's concussion protocol so he didn't play last week. So in the two leagues that I have Lacy, I replaced him with Rashard Mendenhall. Going into week 3, Mendenhall had exceeded expectations in weeks 1 and 2. In week 3 though, the week I needed him to fill in for Lacy, he disappeared... against the Saints. I need someone to fill in for Lacy this week too, but most likely it's not going to be Mendenhall.

I can't really say much about Tavon Austin and Sam Bradford. Austin had one good game in week two, but for the most part he's been on my bench. I have him on many of my teams that are not win less, but with Austin, unfortunately he's been on my bench because I have better receivers on the teams that he is on. Weird part is I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Same thing goes with Bradford. He's been on my bench waiting for my starting quarterback to go on a bye. Coincidentally, I have him starting in a two quarterback league, and that team is 2-1.

There are probably more reasons why these teams are win less, or it could be simply a matter of bad luck. Whichever reason it is, my competitive nature will not stand around and let these team tank out the season. I can probably spend more time with these teams during the week, but I don't want to neglect my other teams just to get a W. I could propose a trade or something, but that could come back to bite me in the ass like the Andre Johnson-Danny Amendola trade has done in a different league. Something has to be done because 0-3, or 0-2, is not a good look.

Stop Roughing With Me

Last week I lost in both in both of my main leagues, Roughing the Picker and Coast2Coast Ballers. While my lost in Coast2Coast Ballers was bearable, the loss in Roughing the Picker has been playing tricks with my mind all week. Out of all of my leagues, this is the main one. We drafted together, in person, not online. There's money and bragging rights on the line. I drafted well, with the exception of my bench. And I still lost. After thinking about it, I realized that even though I drafted well, I made a crucial mistake. You see kids, this is the importance of going over the rules of your league before you draft. Even though we all read over the rules together before we drafted, I totally disregarded two important aspects points wise in this league.

First brain fart is the very first thing listed on the point sheet that we all received at the draft. For every completion, you get a point. Not too much of a big deal, but it should have a major impact on who you draft at quarterback, especially since this is a two quarterback league. My quarterbacks in this league is Matthew Stafford and Cam Newton. There really isn't a problem with Matthews, I think he'll come through with plenty of completions. Newton however is a different story. Now don't get me wrong, I expect Newton to produce plentifully for me in this league, but when it comes to completions I have to question the whole situation. The Carolina Panthers don't have enough quality receivers for Newton to throw to. Steve Smith will get his, but outside of that Cam really doesn't have too many options other than to run the ball. So while Cam is doing his thing, other teams with more reliable receivers are racking up more points because of completions, thus dramatically impacting the scores in this league.

The second thing I missed is a very crucial aspect for this league. This league is a PPR league. I think the reason why I overlooked this is because nowhere on the point/rule sheet does it say anything about PPR. While I was drafting I obviously did not keep this in consideration. Even though I have high quality receivers, I stocked my team with running backs, and not the pass-catching type of running backs. What I should've been doing was stocking my bench with mid-range wide receivers.  Instead I drafted Mark Ingram and Vick Ballard. I've already dropped Ingram.

I'm going to have to resolve this problem immediately if I'm to make it to the playoffs. Bad news is the free agency market in this league sucks. That means I'm going to have to put together a pretty attractive trade package. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of including Alfred Morris in this package, but that's just a thought. Bad thing about trading in this league is the owners are greedy. So I'm going to have to make it an offer that can't be refused...

Get Shorty!

I'm a Don's Don, a man's man, and most importantly, a fantasy football player's fantasy football player. I know when I'm defeated and in this case, even though it's only Monday and there's two more games to go, I got beat this week in Coast2Coast Ballers by Mr. Hindsman. Kudos, Mr. Hindsman. But most of the mistakes I made were a matter of bad management on my behalf and coincidental occurrences. One of these occurrences was none other than Peyton ROCKET LASER ARM Manning!

As we all know by now, Rocket Laser Arm had a career night last Thursday against the Baltimore Ravens. Were you one of the many victims who went up against a team that has Manning? I was. Manning is Mr. Hindsman's starting quarterback. Rocket Laser Arm had 462 yards and 7 touchdowns in a Madden-like game. He scored a whopping 60 points for Mr. Hindsman. How many of your players are you expecting to score 60 points for you? Better yet, how do you come back from a 60 point deficit put up by one player? In Roughing the Picker, Rocket Laser Arm got my boy Victor 105 points. How is Chilli supposed to come back from that?

Besides Rocket Laser Arm proving that he's Rocket Laser Arm, I made a few crucial mistakes trying to outsmart Mr. Hindsman. Mr. Hindsman likes to play quarterbacks at the Offensive Player position. Basically he had three quarterbacks playing against me. I tried to counter this by starting Brandon Weeden, and now that the disaster is done, I'm kicking myself. Somewhere during the draft season, I was convinced that Weeden would get his rep up this year with Norv Turner being the new Offensive Coordinator. Weeden got me an embarrassing -5 points. Meanwhile on my bench, Sam Bradford, a quarterback that I traded for before the season started, had 299 yards with two touchdowns and scored 25 points. My dumb ass had him on the bench, instead of in the second Offensive Player position where I had Eric Decker. Decker was probably the only receiver who didn't take advantage of Rocket Laser Arm. He had only two catches for 39 yards with a few drops, including a drop for a touchdown. I could've started Jordy Nelson instead of Decker, who score 22 points on the bench.

There were some bright spots on my team. Adrian Peterson proved himself worthy of the number one pick racking up 93 rushing yards, 2 rushing touchdowns, 18 receiving yards and 1 receiving touchdown scoring 34 points. A.J. Green also chipped in with 162 receiving yards and two touchdowns scoring 35 points. Clearly, Green is coming for the number one spot when it comes to wide receivers.

Unfortunately, AP and Green's efforts were not enough to take out Mr. Hindsman as there were some not so bright spots on my squad. I wasn't comfortable with starting Ahmad Bradshaw because he's been injured the whole offseason. Bradshaw proved me right having 7 carries for 26 yards. He only got 2 points. I really don't have a viable option at running back on my bench, so this week I'm going to see what I can do through free agency or trades to fix that problem. I'm pretty sure Bradshaw is going to be cool once he is 100%, but right now I can't afford to have him holding down my team. Cam Newton also under performed throwing for 125 yards and one touchdown. Newton also rushed for 157 yards and two touchdowns which made up the difference, but he could've been very much more productive.

Lastly, I screwed up my TE position. I ended up benching Martellus Bennett for Zach Sudfield. That was a huge mistake as Sudfield only had the ball thrown to him once. They're saying now that he pulled a hammy, but I don't care about that. Meanwhile, Bennett was a good fantasy tight end scoring 10 points. But I had him on my bench. Now I have to decide if I'm going ride with Bennett and drop Sudfield, or do I have enough confidence in Bill Belichick to straighten out Sudfield.

To be honest, its always difficult to predict who's going to do what on Week 1. But I wanted this one bad. I talked a lot of shit to Mr. Hindsman and I lost. I might end up getting rewarded the Shittah, which is a league trophy handed out to players who lose by 100 points or more. Right now I'm down by 65 with no players left while Mr. Hindsman has Santana Moss and Michael Vick playing tonight. Well played Mr. Hindsman, but don't go popping bottles just yet. This is only the beginning. You may have won the battle, but the war is far from over... #DonStatus