Good morning/afternoon all you Tebowlievers and soon to be Tebow converts. As I’m sure you heard at the water cooler on Friday what happened at Thursday’s game because either you are like most of the US and don’t have the NFL network or could not sit through a game that stilted and ugly with a clear conscience. To say the game was boring would be like saying Prince is a little eccentric. That was until the last minute of the game where Tebow, like the the patron saint of one dimensional skill sets, was able to run 30 yards untouched into the end zone. Apparently “Revis Island” is much like the island in the show “Lost’ where at any given time through a metaphysical wormhole the island moves to a different less effective location. The hole he ran through was so wide that Rex Ryan could have jogged through it while simultaneously eating a KFC Famous Bowl.
ANYWAY, this is the kind of year that sports geeks love because they are forced into one of two dreams of theirs via fantasy football. The first is to be an ESPN Sportscenter broadcaster and the other is the be a GM. I never knew anyone who wanted to be a coach. All they wanted to do is evaluate players, do a little math about salaray, pick players, and see how they do during the game to see if they could have been the Theo Epstein of fantasy football or David Kahn (but he landed Rubio!). No game plans, no massaging egos in the locker room, no gameday decisions as a GM. You do all the prep work and then you sit back and let others make the best out of your decisions...done and done.
There is however a reason it’s called fantasy. The Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks have been a part of the Northern League which is an independent minor league baseball league called the American Association of Independent Professional baseball. One of the teams in this association is the St. Paul Saints. The Redhawks have boasted such stars as Chris Coste, Ruben Salazar, and Daryl Motley.. During the fall of my sophomore year of college, one of my buddies had tickets to a Redhawks game and invited me to go. His uncle just so happened to be the general manager of the team so we had tickets in the front row right behind the dugout. This game would decide whether the Redhawks would be league champions that year.
By the way, did you know that Jose Canseco has a twin brother? It’s true! In fact if you ever line up for an autograph for Jose be careful. Ask Jose something that only he would know, like what is it like to play a full season in the MLB or what is it like to hit a home run. Well the nice thing about being an independent baseball league is you can attract attention by signing a recognizable name. The Saints had Daryl Strawberry for a while. Remember when a minor league team had Michael Jordan?
ANYWAY, this is the kind of year that sports geeks love because they are forced into one of two dreams of theirs via fantasy football. The first is to be an ESPN Sportscenter broadcaster and the other is the be a GM. I never knew anyone who wanted to be a coach. All they wanted to do is evaluate players, do a little math about salaray, pick players, and see how they do during the game to see if they could have been the Theo Epstein of fantasy football or David Kahn (but he landed Rubio!). No game plans, no massaging egos in the locker room, no gameday decisions as a GM. You do all the prep work and then you sit back and let others make the best out of your decisions...done and done.
There is however a reason it’s called fantasy. The Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks have been a part of the Northern League which is an independent minor league baseball league called the American Association of Independent Professional baseball. One of the teams in this association is the St. Paul Saints. The Redhawks have boasted such stars as Chris Coste, Ruben Salazar, and Daryl Motley.. During the fall of my sophomore year of college, one of my buddies had tickets to a Redhawks game and invited me to go. His uncle just so happened to be the general manager of the team so we had tickets in the front row right behind the dugout. This game would decide whether the Redhawks would be league champions that year.
By the way, did you know that Jose Canseco has a twin brother? It’s true! In fact if you ever line up for an autograph for Jose be careful. Ask Jose something that only he would know, like what is it like to play a full season in the MLB or what is it like to hit a home run. Well the nice thing about being an independent baseball league is you can attract attention by signing a recognizable name. The Saints had Daryl Strawberry for a while. Remember when a minor league team had Michael Jordan?
Anyway, Ozzie Canseco was on the Redhawks and was batting in either 4 or 5 that night. In the 5th or 6th inning, Ozzie looked less like Canseco and more like Osbourne at bat and struck out looking. A consummate professional, he argued with the umpire on the call from the dugout and, thinking the ump might need a drink, tossed the entire cooler out on field. Ejected from the game, Ozzie was not seen again until the Redhawks won the game. The Redhawks celebrated by running around the field and dowsing the crowd with some champagne. One of the infielders dumped a bunch of champagne on me from the top of the dugout and that is the closest to feeling like I won anything athletic in my life. During the party on the field Ozzie made an appearance, in a polo shirt and some 1980’s khaki shorts, with his hands in his pockets and emotionless, like he was waiting in line at the DMV( which he is used to by now). I found out later that immediately after the ejection Canseco came up to the GM’s office and demanded the team buy him a ticket to Central America right away because he was done with this team had to leave right now. Apparently he was like this all season. I imagine it was from the whey protein he took to keep in shape. So it just goes to show that with general managers it isn’t all passive and analytical. That’s why we have video games and fantasy leagues.
So how are we all doing as GMs? To me it’s not always your record that shows how well you’ve done. Whether it’s injuries or over the hill players or Desean Jackson, they weren’t what you thought they were and you have to use the waiver wire to just to make it to .500. Sometimes it’s an achievement just to break even.
Well here are some illustrations on how a season can change and how we all have responded.
Below is the top 40 picks of the draft. You’ll see big names like Felix Jones, Miles Austin, and Peyton HIllis.
It’s easy to see the players that were picked and didn’t live up to their position. But what about the players that didn’t get picked the first 4 rounds. As of this week here is a link to how the draft should have went if we picked players based on total points this year. 2011 Scoring leaders. Lots of QBs right? I looked at my first 4 rounds and determined that I would have picked 4 QBs based on the leaderboard right now. Also, Fred Jackson is a man!!!! He’s 40!!!
So how are we all doing as GMs? To me it’s not always your record that shows how well you’ve done. Whether it’s injuries or over the hill players or Desean Jackson, they weren’t what you thought they were and you have to use the waiver wire to just to make it to .500. Sometimes it’s an achievement just to break even.
Well here are some illustrations on how a season can change and how we all have responded.
Below is the top 40 picks of the draft. You’ll see big names like Felix Jones, Miles Austin, and Peyton HIllis.
It’s easy to see the players that were picked and didn’t live up to their position. But what about the players that didn’t get picked the first 4 rounds. As of this week here is a link to how the draft should have went if we picked players based on total points this year. 2011 Scoring leaders. Lots of QBs right? I looked at my first 4 rounds and determined that I would have picked 4 QBs based on the leaderboard right now. Also, Fred Jackson is a man!!!! He’s 40!!!
Also Matt Hasselbeck is outscoring most of the top 10 running backs. The draft is all about strategy guys!!! I don’t know how many times I told you guys to make sure you draft an aging QB on a run first team with little WR depth. Come on, guys we need to step it up next year.
So how have we, as a league responded? Well here is a link to our current rosters and how many of each starting lineup is starters and how many are free agents. This isn’t a perfect analysis since it’s bye week but nonetheless it’s interesting: Rosters
Unofficially I think I counted that 55-60 % of our lineups are from Free Agency with the teams with the best records emulating that percentage. So the draft can’t kill your season necessarily, as long as you use the wavier wire.
So everyone put their fantasy GM thinking caps on this week as we all have until 11/23/11 to make a trade and transform the season. Remember last year Mono Peligroso traded for Michael Vick and he was a major contributor to Mono’s run through the playoffs. We have 8 out of 10 teams in the playoffs this year so anything can happen.
Get your GM on!
Here are the lines:
So how have we, as a league responded? Well here is a link to our current rosters and how many of each starting lineup is starters and how many are free agents. This isn’t a perfect analysis since it’s bye week but nonetheless it’s interesting: Rosters
Unofficially I think I counted that 55-60 % of our lineups are from Free Agency with the teams with the best records emulating that percentage. So the draft can’t kill your season necessarily, as long as you use the wavier wire.
So everyone put their fantasy GM thinking caps on this week as we all have until 11/23/11 to make a trade and transform the season. Remember last year Mono Peligroso traded for Michael Vick and he was a major contributor to Mono’s run through the playoffs. We have 8 out of 10 teams in the playoffs this year so anything can happen.
Get your GM on!
Here are the lines:
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