Yahoo! fantasy football opened up for registration today! I've already set up one league and the draft is coming up.... in 95 days. That is a long wait. Anyway, it's time to do some recruiting. I am looking for two clans/gangs of managers. Anyone who has a group of regulars they do battle against, who thinks they can take on the Abbot and the Drunk Monks aka the Million Dollar Man-agers can step up. no comments

There was no Band of Boxscores last night because I was (furiously) preparing for a fantasy football mock draft for the Lindy's magazine. It's almost hard to believe I was preparing for football during May, but it's true. It was a 12 team league with no Flex (RB/WR/TE) spot so it wasn't terribly deep, but nevertheless, I was looking to "win" the mock draft. This is what I came away with... the team is known as Mike Tice's Pencil

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I think I'm beginning to display all the classic symptoms: fever, runny nose, headache, body aches, chills and fatigue, among other things. No I'm not talking about swine flu, I'm speaking of a much more serious problem.... Brett Favre withdrawls. The Vikings would have won the Super Bowl tonite if it weren't for Adrian Fumble Fingers Peterson. It woulda been something like 42-0, I just know it!

other classic symptoms of Brett Favre withdrawls:
loss of interest in the Favre-less Super Bowl
developing conspiracy theories about the Vikes NFC championship loss
lashing out at anyone who mentions Brett retiring
Chester Taylor is your new favorite running back
going back n forth, contemplating retiring from fantasy football

Are you suffering too? This is a serious illness that requires immediate action. People who have not acted in time have been known to ask their barber for the Jared Allen and may even bruise their own hamstring and ankle to feel Brett's pain. It's never wise to self medicate but you must act now, drink two beers and email me in the morning. no comments

Fantasy Football 2011: with the first pick MDS selects....

Shane Falco: Quarterback for the Washington Sentinels

Now some ppl may laff at this selection and say, "MDS, he is a scab. That guy aint no Eddie Martel. I lost a ton of money on him on that Sugar Bowl disaster of his." They may even say he gets a little distracted by the cheerleaders and gets scared when the game in is his hands, but lemme tell you something... Shane Falco has the tools to lead the league in scoring (and clean the plankton off your boat). He has the weapons too: convenience store guard Clifford Franklin, gangster rapper brothers Andre and Jamal Jackson, former sumo wrestler Jumbo Fumkio, a Welsh "futball" player called "The Leg", a deaf player, a convict on a work-release program and a tough SWAT leader. Who else could chuck a football underwater like him? no comments

Finally, a blog league that had some real competition. I think Behrens took some of my words to heart and decided to step it up. He brought in three other fantasy gurus and allowed me to nominate ten managers from my private leagues to play with us. The rest were commenters of distinction. Of my six leagues, this was the one I wanted to win the most.

the industry gurus:
Andy Behrens: Roto Arcade
Paul Bourdett: the Pick-Up Artist (Roto Experts)
Scott Swanay: the Fantasy Baseball Sherpa
Chett G aka Doc: Razzball

MDS' private leaguers:
MDS: Y!'s finest private leaguer, self-proclaimed expert
AMak-15: one of Roto Arcade's best
Blaze: one of MDS' favorite arch rivals
Mak: another of MDS' arch rivals
Tweedly: one of my favorite private leaguers
Xobai: another fine Roto Arcade commenter/manager

This was a 16 team IDP league, my first ever IDP or Individual Defensive Player league. I didn't want to walk into this draft without being familiar with IDP players and where they go in drafts, so I asked Antonio D for a little advice. I got a rough strategy for where I wanted to start picking my DL and LB and I used Antonio's IDP ranks to select my picks. My only plans were to not be the first person to take a IDP, lock up quality DL and LB and wait on a DB. We played 2 DL, 2 LB and 1 DB each week.

This was a fun league, the best blog league I've played in. Behrens stuck me in a division with the PUA so we could squash some beef. Paul took it to me in week 1 as my team struggled to get out of the gate. It was actually the Toyota blowout of the week or whatever it's called. Paul's prize: I agreed to stop talking smack on Scott Engel. Not only did I lose to Paul, I lost to the Sherpa, Razzball, Mak, Tweedly and Xobai. Those were my 6 losses, quality opponents indeed. I took out Behrens during Rivarly week (yes!!!!), Amak and 5 of the unknown managers including a team named MDS Strange Love to earn my playoff seed.

Stat Adjustments: during the first week of the playoffs, I went to bed after MNF with a 4pt win. I beat Mak (take that bitch! lol) and was ready to rumble NYG in rd 2. Then the Tuesday morning stat adjustments came. AND I LOST. Yahoo and the NFL conspired to take out MDS. I emailed the yahoo help dept. and demanded the stat adjustments to be negated.... two days later it happened! It was a pleasant surprise to say the least.

and the rest is history. MDS won! I am the champion, my friends.... I went from IDP rookie to IDP wookie. Gimme the keys to the starship enterprise, man your battle stations, beam me up to the top of the standings Scotty! Not only did I win, but my private leaguers looked great, giving me and my boys a little street cred. Around the halfway point of the season, we made up 6 of the 8 playoff seeds. My claims of my private leagues being more competitive than the Friends & Family leagues don't look so foolish anymore....

yes, it is possible to win a championship with David Garrard at QB

in season coverage of this league:
the Trade Artist
this is for Steve Smith
Q & A with Antonio D'Arcangelis
Gearing Up for IDP Leagues
Roto Arcade Invitational Draft Results no comments

Round 2 vs Brad Evans

Again, this is a blog league where the other 16 managers are from who knows where. IMO, they're all scrubs. We had one guy claiming autodrafting is the way to pick your players, then he put a kicker on the trade block. Then he quit. These are the types of losers I have to put up with while trying to take out Yahoo's finest.

The league was interesting in that it was an 18 team PPR league. 18 teams is a lot, the deepest league I've played. It wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't join a 20 team league. My draft was OK at best. In a deep league like this I would not advise drafting to trade, but I couldn't pass up on Felix Jones and then Ahmad Bradshaw as my 4th n 5th rd picks (my 3rd n 4th RB). I needed some WR n QB help after the draft and I wasn't comfortable. If I didn't make some trades, I prolly would have gotten my ass kicked. Here are the deals I made:

Oct 1st
dealt: Steve Slaton, Shaun Hill and Michael Jenkins
for: Randy Moss, Brett Favre and Jermichael Finley

Oct 22nd
dealt: Ahmad Bradshaw and Kyle Orton
for: Steven Jackson


These two trades helped put my team back on the map. I started the season 1-4 and ended up winning my division with a 8-5 record. The 5 week win streak, including a 96 pt win over Brad Evans, was huge for my team, but I lost in rd 1 of the playoffs. This set up a consolation playoff matchup vs Evans, but he didn't even set his lineup so that was LAME. Talk about taking your ball and going home. You won't ever see MDS pack it in, even if I lose in the first rd to some lucky scrub.

Even tho I destroyed Evans in the regular season, somehow he beat me in the playoffs with his mediocre team. Lucky, but I have to consider this another dam loss to Evans. My team was by far the best in the league heading into the playoffs, but everyone knows the pitfalls of H2H play. You just have to suck it up sometimes. I'll just have to settle for giving him the worst beating of his fantasy career, scoring more points than him during the season and capturing my 2nd Bring the Noise blog league divisional title. Sigh

in season coverage of this league
MDS & Virgil VS the World
the Noise vs MDS Update
Wilt Chamberlain no comments

what a year it was.... here are some random thoughts....

I was completely wrong about Darren McFadden. What a bum. Sweet dreams of Adrian Peterson lite quickly turned into nightmares. Is he really that bad or is Al Davis holding him down like he did Randy Moss? Next year, DMC will be avoided, but maybe I'll dabble in the Michael Bush market. F'in Raiders

Speaking of players I now hate, Eddie Royal is dead to me. He gets my vote for Most Hated fantasy draft pick. Felix Jones and DMC were the runners up, but Eddie took the cake. I wasted numerous PPR picks on this guy. Where did my easy 90-100 receptions go? Was it the coaching or the QB change? both? or does Eddie just suck Michael Clayton style?

does anyone else regret not taking a shot on Wes Welker or Brandon Marshall? We're talking about 3rd rd picks with question marks to open the season tho...

I'm glad I avoided Michael Turner, Brandon Jacobs, TO, Antonio Bryant, Roy Williams like the plague. I wasn't going to avoid Barber so much, but I would've looked to deal him by asap if I had drafted him. Same thing with Ronnie Brown. Deal em before they break down.

Who was the best FA WR pick up? Sidney Rice, Mike Sims-Walker or Miles Austin? I didn't have any of em on my teams, even tho I was talking up Rice to ppl before the season... Austin had the best season, but can he do all that again? 421 yds in two games? pfffff, I'm not paying for that.

Next year, are you taking Chris Johnson or Adrian Peterson? Talk about a nice problem to have. I won't even bother thinking about this until I'm staring at the #1 pick 30 minutes before a draft. It's like trying to rank the top 3 QBs, I'm not getting one of em so fuck it, who cares. Drew Bees, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning can enjoy losing to David Garrard and the rest of my boys. But I might lean toward Chris... errr Adrian... I dunno yet lol

It'll be interesting to see Jamal Charles' ADP next year.... It'd be nice to see KC draft a few offensive linemen...

Thankfully I did reach for Ray Rice in one league. His ADP was rising each day we got closer to the season. If you drafted him in rd 7, your league sucks and you need to find some better competition. I was hyped up, but it was a complete guessing game to where he would be picked. Most leagues I played, he was gone by rd 4 or earlier. Man it was fun looking at him and MJD in my lineup.

It'll be fun to see a few ppl overdraft Vince Young next year...

For all the shit Pierre Thomas took during the season, he was still better than Michael Turner, Matt Forte, LT, Jacobs, Portis, Westbroken, Slaton, Barber.... Pierre got a lot of negative press and he has more upside to tap into so this guy could end up on a few of my teams next season.

Speaking of LT... was I disappointed with him? Not really, no. Will I draft him next year? Hell no!

Hopefully Jake Delhomme retires or loses his starting job. For Steve Smith's sake. Would a rookie QB entice you to take Smith?

Why was I the only person saying Matt Ryan is overrated? dude threw like 12 TDs his rookie season and ppl were getting excited about him... wtf?!? lol. He threw 20 TDs this year, wow! I got Orton 10 Rds later, suck it!

Brett Favre needs 1 more TD for 30 on the year. Isn't life grand?

All in all, it was a great football season for MDS. All six of my teams made the playoffs, even the team where my first 3 picks were LT, Pierre and DMC. Ouch! I won two leagues, including the Roto Arcade Invitational, but I should have won 4 leagues. Chris Jennings and Arian Foster will forever be hated on by MDS. I'd like to enjoy my wins, but I can't get over the fact I should have won more. Pimpin aint easy no comments

click to enlarge and see six of Virgil's sworn enemies

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I've made a lot of trades in the fantasy world and I've played in my fair share of leagues vs industry gurus, but recently I accepted an offer and completed a trade with an expert for the first time. Usually I don't send these guys offers in blog leagues, I tend to pick on the smaller fish, but I awoke to find a gem of an offer awaiting my approval. Last week, the one and only, Roto Experts' Pick-Up Artist Paul Bourdett offered me Donald Brown, Mike Bell and Jermichael Finley for Felix Jones and Visanthe Shiancoe in the Roto Arcade Invitational. At first, I thought it was too good to be true so I checked out some news sources to make sure these three didn't have some recent injury problems. A day after I accepted it, I came across news of Donald Brown having back problems. Those are usually troublesome so that had me worried Paul pulled a heist on me. After Donald returned to practice those thoughts faded and I think I improved my team. I am a big believer in Jermichael and think Bell and Brown have some nice upside down the stretch as the Colts n Saints may look to rest Addai n Pierre.

MDS' pre-trade situation
Felix Jones was my RB2 behind Chris Johnson and wasn't doing me any favors. Trading Felix away was a pleasure and I wish I could do it again. He's played 13 or so career games and only once has he (barely) reached double digit carries. The upside is there, but I have serious doubts in Dallas' play calling and Felix's ability to handle a workload. Plus, I chose Felix over Thomas Jones in the draft (what was I thinking!?!) so just looking at him created bad vibes between us. Shiancoe was pretty much good for 1 catch, 2 yards and a TD every week. Austin Collie filled my FLEX spot in Weeks 9 & 10 after the Leon Washington injury.

The PUA's pre-trade situation
He just lost Todd Heap and was looking for some stability at the TE position. At the time, it wasn't 100% certain Finley would be able to play that week. Paul was using Sidney Rice in his FLEX spot and choosing between Donald Brown and Mike Bell as his RB2.

Comments after the trade

"i think i would have given you chester taylor too in that deal if you asked... thats how much i hate felix jones and the cowboys"

"I hated parting with Donald Brown because I think he can be special down the stretch if he gets healthy and they rest Addai. But I also think Felix has the higher upside. This was the first time Wade Phillips has publicly acknowledged that Felix needs to be more involved, so we'll see. More importantly, with Todd Heap hurt, I desperately needed a TE. People in our league hoard tight ends like it's nobody's business"

Post Trade Results
Donald Brown: Week 11 2.00 Pts, Week 12 3.80 Pts
Mike Bell: Week 11 20.00 Pts, Week 12 5.00 Pts
Jermichael Finley: Week 11 5.40 Pts, Week 12 2.50 Pts
Felix Jones: Week 11 5.60 Pts, Week 12 12.90 Pts
Visanthe Shiancoe: Week 11 13.80 Pts, Week 12 11.10 Pts

Worth Noting
MDS and The PUA are battling for our division's top spot. Also, I had dropped Jermichael Finley a few weeks back after his knee sprain, so this was the first time I had traded for a player I recently dropped, nice sell Paul. I generally laugh at those type of offers, especially 3 for 2 deals.

what The PUA wants you to know:

"Even I can't argue against MDS getting the better end of this deal. But that's the least of my concerns when making a trade. As long as I feel that I bettered my team at the time the trade was made, I've done my job as an owner. Look, when I made the deal, Finley's status was undetermined, Mike Bell had become a dud (there was no news on Reggie Bush' knee at the time), and Donald Brown was still hurting/Addai still surging. Obviously, things have changed in the two weeks since, but Felix Jones and Shiancoe have performed admirably for me. From my perspective, that's all that matters. If any of the players involved are the reason why I either don't make the playoffs or lose before the championship round, then perhaps I'll admit that I gave up too much. But again, all that matters to me is how my team performs. I could really care less if the trade makes MDS' team better (which is something I think too many owners care about when making trades)."

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You gotta love the fantasy community. It doesn't matter if the Saints are undefeated at 11-0, the masses are still angry with Sean Payton. Specifically Pierre Thomas owners; and with MDS doubling down on the PT Bruiser, the playa hater in me is bubbling with frustration. Sure, the accusations of Payton trying to get fancy and stroke his ego with his redzone plays may be true, but we need to be equal opportunity playa haters. We need to spread the anti-love and focus our negative energies onto Jason Garrett and Wade Phillips. These two are the Beavis n Butthead of football, "Heh heh heh, I said stroke his ego." Actually Wade Phillips is more like Stewart with his Winger t-shirt and Jason Garrett is the bully Todd getting his way. At least the Saints are scoring points, what has Marion Barber, Felix Jones and Tashard Choice done lately? These three are a more favorable group of RBs than Pierre Thomas, Reggie Bush and Mike Bell, but they don't get any love from the play callers. What are the Cowboys doing? Garrett needs to stop doing his Mike Martz imitation and pound the dam ball. Dallas should be running the ball 30 plus times a game with these guys.

Marion Barber (10 games) 152 touches, 770 YFS, 4 TDs
Pierre Thomas (9 games) 136 touches, 783 YFS, 7 TDs

Felix Jones (9 games) 68 touches, 485 YFS, 2 TDs
Reggie Bush (9 games) 84 touches, 484 YFS, 6 TDs

Tashard Choice (11 games) 73 touches, 462 YFS, 3 TDs
Mike Bell (9 games) 130 touches, 578 YFS, 4 TDs

Sure it's frustrating to see TDs being spread around the Saints offense after spending a rd 2 pick on Pierre, but it's worse having an earlier pick invested in Marion Barber or having to rely on Felix Jones. The Saints have a more prolific passing game, yet they still get their RBs more touches per game, more yards from scrimmage and more TDs. Maybe my PT anger has subsided a little bit now that I own a piece of Mike Bell, Heath Evans is toast and Reggie Bush has knee issues. All I'm saying is, save some of that playa hating mentality for the coaches who truly deserve it. It's perfectly ok to talk trash on Payton tho. Keep doing that, I love it. Just throw some of those curse words and evil thoughts toward the Cowboys play callers (and Jerry Jones, he sucks too). I'll be over here sticking needles in my Reggie Bush bobblehead and trying to convince Eagles/Giants management to hire Jessica Simpson as a cheerleader. no comments