2 | TB Sherpa
ID: 031811922 Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 03:32
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The MyFantasyLeague.com Auto-Recap - I don't think they put much stock in return yards and a bit too much into ADP rankings from drafts completed months ago. For instance, had I drafted Ben Tate in the 24th round (ADP in the 6th round) I bet it would have loved the value, while the player spends all season on the IRR. Here is what it said anyway:
Coach Thomas Bennett had a unfortunate draft in the recent 2010 Rotoguru Invitational Football Challenge - AA draft. Their TB franchise came away with the number 12 ranked draft (out of 14) in the league based on analysis by MyFantasyLeague.com.
TB made their best pick of the draft in round 7, selecting Jon Beason with the 96th pick of the draft, as compared to the 70th spot he should have been selected in, according to ADP rankings. "He decided to forego his senior season and enter the draft," TB coach Thomas Bennett said.
TB made their worst pick of the draft in round 11, selecting Danny Amendola with the 152nd pick of the draft, as compared to the 336th spot he should have been selected in, according to ADP rankings. "I know some are thinking that he will be this year's Ryan Leaf," TB coach Thomas Bennett said.
Starting in week 6, TB won't be able to submit a full lineup, due to having 1 defensive team on bye.
TB nabbed DeSean Jackson in the 2nd round, which reflects the fact that he was the number one ranked wide receiver for the 2009 season, based on this league's custom scoring rules.
With a little bit of work on the waiver wire this season, or a few strategic trades, coach Thomas Bennett should be able to turn their 12th ranked draft effort into a championship fantasy team this year.
My Life Story and maybe a Draft Recap
A couple seasons ago I was playing in a dozen fantasy leagues and got burned out on fantasy football. My beloved Raiders were in year five of this seven year stretch of shame, I was going through a career change, one of my keeper leagues had major drama, my RIFC AAA league had the commish quit and was on the worst site ever (AOL), and while football is clearly my favorite sport it was a depressing time in my life. To top it off, after bouncing from the original RIFC to AAA to RIFC and then back to AAA, my team hit rock bottom and I just stunk up the joint. I needed a break, so I dropped down to two keeper leagues and a year later dropped down to just one keeper league. I was gearing up for our keeper league draft and cruising the forum when I saw they needed a couple more AA managers to get the league going. While I was hesitant to jump back into a redraft league, I didn't want to see the guys already signed up not get a league going so volunteered to play.
I didn't have a draft strategy and was kind of hoping somebody else would post that they wanted to play so I could give them the team and crawl back into my hole. When it came time to pick draft spots, I wanted something near the bottom for the early 3rd round pick. I ended up getting a player that would have been available at the end of the 3rd round anyway so meh.
I buckled down and did my research as we took 4 months to select our draft order, which was just slightly longer than it took for Boozer and FootballChallenged to make their draft picks. We were well behind the other three leagues in drafting and it was apparent early on that D.Williams or Mendenhall were going to be who I would be picking from if I went RB in the first round. Both great running backs and worthy of being picked here, but for some reason I am always compelled to draft Peyton Manning if he was available. In all my RIFC seasons, my best one was when I waited to grab a QB later in the draft. You'd think I'd have learned something by now, but you know what they say about old dogs...
I also knew that I wanted DeSean Jackson and was actually tempted to take him with the first pick and go Manning or RB in the 2nd round, but this goes back to the MUST DRAFT MANNING thing I have going on. No idea what will happen to me when he retires. It's like contemplating division by zero, bad things happen.
So now I am stressing out the fact I have no RB while I am waiting for my third round pick, watching them fly off the board. I really thought Forte, who I expect to have a great season, would make it back to me. Then I thought well Pierre Thomas will make it back to me and had my queue set so I'd get a RB. I am okay with Addai in this spot, but seeing him go in the 4th round in all the other drafts makes me feel like I reached because I was in panic mode over having a RB1. I could have gone for Gates, Colston, or Marshall. So the 4th round comes along and I knew I wanted Sproles as my other starting RB. As the 11th highest scoring RB in the league last season he had 340 yards rushing, 500 yards receiving, 7 TDs, and 1 fumble. That’s about 120 of his 200 points. FYI, only 5 WR topped 200 points so we are talking about the 16th ranked non QB/Defense from last season. Maybe he gets fewer touches this season, but his performance from last year was only 20 points more than 2008 when he was the 15th ranked RB and Tomlinson still racked up 1500+ yards and a dozen TD's. He is undervalued in this format with his return yards and I saw him going much later in the other drafts so elected to get Eight Five in this spot and nab Sproles a round later. I debated Stewart or Wells as RB here and a couple other WR. In hindsight (meaning after more preseason games and getting to see Jahvid Best play) I wish I went with the rookie Best. Man, what a great pick in the fourth round.
I've never had two good WR in this format. Heck, most seasons I don't have one good WR. Don't even get me started on my first RIFC season where I drafted Deuce in the first and S.Smith in the third and lost them both at the beginning of the season. This doesn't bode well for anyone who happens to own DeSean Jackson in another league. Madden curse has nothing on me.
So I get to see more preseason action and really like what I see from the rookie running backs. Best is already gone at this point, but Spiller comes up in the 6th and I select him. If Fred Jackson wasn't injured I might not feel as good about this pick, but if Spiller can stay healthy he is going to get his touches and provides me with a decent trio of RB. We can only start 2 a week so I am feeling pretty good up to this point. So good, I decide to do more research and really start digging for sleepers or late value gems. I got four of the ones I wanted to get in Amendola, Huggins, Tate, and Chung. Avery getting hurt only increased the value Amendola, who I was already targeting. The other leagues were already doing rationales or had picked some of those other guys and I'm surprised other players didn't take fliers on some of them before I got around to drafting them. Maybe none of them produce anyway but it's always kind of fun to grab a guy later in the draft who you think might be a steal. It's even better when they actually work out that way. There were other players I really wanted at different points in the draft, but they went just a little before I felt I could afford to draft them. Cribbs in the 5th scores great in this format and is 2nd round value. Riskier pick than I was willing to take with my first WR, but would have jumped in the 6th. If he scores this year like last year, we will see him gone much earlier next season. Mike Williams from Tampa, who Ocho Cinco got. What a great group of WR he drafted. Great value with Harvin and Williams both. Yeah, being in the Bucs offense could be a little worrisome, but this guy has 1000 yard receiver written all over him. Jacoby Jones was another guy I wanted, but I had to get the best receiving option from the Raiders in the 8th round and couldn't risk him being taken before I got to select again.
I love Zach Miller. I also think he is going to have a monster season and end up ranked in the top three of TE now that he has a QB who can actually complete passes. Nothing better than having a great player from your favorite team.
What else do I want to talk about? I have some great LB according to my rankings, which means I probably have some crappy rankings...lol. I actually made my own using the rankings from idpguru.com, fftoolbox.com, footballguys.com and making some gut decisions. The reality is we should be starting at least 3 DL, 3 LB, 3 DB, and 3 flex IDP in this format, but because we don't there are always tons of IDP players available that will score as well as most of the guys initially drafted. I am in a 16 team league that starts that exact IDP, 2 RB, 3 WR, 2 TE, 3 RB/WR/TE, 1 QB and 1 K and it makes for many more interesting draft decisions. The two best IDP at their position were drafted by Donkey Hunter and while they both went earlier than what I wanted to draft them at, he should be solid there all year. Looking over all the teams I think this will be a fun and competitive league. I'd mention how extremely annoying it was to constantly wait on a couple of the same managers throughout the draft, but not only would the point be lost on them, most of us stepped up and took care of business so the league could carry forward.
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