Another update on this league as I made two more major trades in the last two weeks.

This time, I shipped out MJD (the week just after his break through game), Tony Gonzalez, Braylon Edwards and Kareem Huggins for Jeremy Maclin (prior to the DJax injury), CJ Spiller and a 2011 1st (my 5th). The trade at the time looked awfully lopsided in the other team’s favor, but I liked it then and of course I am liking it more now in hindsight. I think both Maclin and Spiller can be special players. I wrote earlier about trading Maclin for Spiller straight up. I probably would take that back if I had it to do all over again, but either way, its very close. Spiller will come through. Read More...

Quick Background Recap: Per the numerous entries on this league, this team was built specifically to compete in 2011 and beyond with 6 1st round picks and a bunch of young players that I anticipated would increase in value. The goal in Year 1 was to accumulate as much value as possible up and down the roster in order to consolidate that value into stud players, even overpaying where necessary to do it.
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Unfortunately, I haven’t had much opportunity to write lately as things have gotten crazy busy at my day job (lately, a day and night job). That, in addition to managing as many leagues that I do (not to mention having a newborn), has made it difficult to say the least to find the time to write (notice the time stamp).

On a general note, I am having the fantasy season from hell this year (at least on the dynasty front) which honestly hasn’t exactly given me extra motivation to write. Some teams that were really good (or so I thought) are now languishing in the standings. It is still early in the season, so things can change, but I’m not feeling good at all about 2010 and am now having to make some tough strategy choices in those leagues.

The FFPC’s $750 Dynasty League is one of those leagues. I wouldn’t call my team there a dominant team by any means (yet), but I fully expected to at least make the playoffs and compete for a bye. Well, we’re almost a third of the way through the season, and I am tied for second...from the bottom! Worse yet, I don’t own my own 2011 1st rounder (although the picks I do have, if the season were to end today, would be the 1.1, 1.3, 1.4 and 1.9, so not really complaining about that).
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Just traded Maclin for CJ Spiller in a $500 dynasty league (WCOFF scoring/lineups). I really like both players, and Maclin has had a hot start, but couldn’t resist bringing on a player as dynamic as Spiller. Here’s a clip from last week’s game against the Patriots.

http://gamerewind.nfl.com/nflgr/game?id=54900&play=1253&icampaign=GR_Free_Clip_nfl

Buffalo is a mess right now, but I really think Spiller’s going to get it going THIS year, especially if and when Lynch is traded. He’s just too good to save for next year.

Demaryius Thomas made quite a splash last Sunday in his rookie debut. I thought Dez Bryant had a great first game, but Demaryius Thomas’ was even better. The 8/97/1 line says all you need to know, but here are a few other tidbits I learned from watching the game:

(1) Demaryius Thomas is fast, very fast. According to the announcers, Josh McDaniels indicated that he was the fastest player on the team (although a Denver Post article quoted McDaniels as saying that Thomas was “among” the fastest on the team). He supposedly timed an unofficial 4.38 40 during a work out before the foot injury (which if true, might make him the fastest Bronco after all), but I was skeptical about that time as I would be of any unofficial time.

(2) He is quick getting in and out of breaks, especially for a big man. Read More...

With Week 2 in the books, I thought it would be a good time to check in on the FFPC high stakes dynasty leagues.

The real action was in the $1250 where I participated in the first player for player trade in the league (take a guess on which player I acquired). I also splurged during the first BBID period of the season occurring just prior to the first Sunday of the season.

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The season begins, finally! Just got through setting my lineups. With 25 dynasties and 1 regular redraft this year (up from 19 dynasties last year and zero regular redrafts), it took quite a bit longer to get them done (or at least it seemed like it after the long layoff). It took long even after already having set preliminary lineups on Wednesday night, so tonight was only about making minor tweaks and final decisions.

I am really dreading the weekly Sunday morning updates before game time though having this many leagues. With last minute active/inactive news, it will be a challenge first, remembering what players I have on all my starting lineups without having to go through ALL of the them again and second, implementing all of the necessary changes in time for kickoff. This will be even more difficult to impossible some weeks where I can’t be at my computer right before kickoff (although my wife has an i-phone so I’ll have to look into getting MFL Mobile 2010). Screw ups are bound to happen (they do every year for me), so I just hope I don’t make too many of them that end up costing my teams.

For now, I’m going to sit back, relax and enjoy some Total Access at midnight.

Good luck to everyone!

More redraft talk. I just drafted a team for the Footballguys Players Championship, a $350 entry for a shot at a $1600 league championship prize and $100,000 for the overall championship. This is my only regular redraft league of the year, and I decided to enter this one fairly last minute when it was announced that the grand prize would be $100,000.

Anyway, we had some strange draft picks including Ryan Grant at 1.12, Lesean McCoy at 2.3 (ahead of the likes of Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, Antonio Gates and Randy Moss), Cedric Benson at 3.06, Ronnie Brown at 4.10, etc. The apparent theme, RBs were getting drafted early and often. An example of a strange non-RB pick, Mike Williams at 7.1. No, not the TB version, the Seattle one! The TB version went at 7.8 completing the run on Mike Williamses.

I drew the 5 hole and the draft went as follows (FFPC scoring, most notably 1.5 PPR for TE and dual flex): Read More...

I’ll be writing from time to time about a number of my Year 2 fantasy football dynasty leagues (some good situations, some not so good) to see how certain startup strategies played out. Here, I am taking a closer look at my team in the Presidential Suite II Dynasty League, a $150 entry fee dynasty league which was started in 2009 by commish “Kremenull” (as he is known on the FBG forums).

The Presidential Suite II Dynasty League is a developmental dynasty league (i.e., a league that permits the drafting of a limited number of college players) with a few twists. ANY college player is eligible to be drafted, not just those that are eligible for the NFL draft the following year (subject to a maximum cap of 18 college players rostered league-wide at any given time). So owners have the option of really planning ahead by taking college freshmen, some of which are among the best prospects in all of college football (e.g., AJ Green and Julio Jones from last year, Trent Richardson and Dion Lewis from this year). College freshmen in this format are fairly affordable to draft in a startup league (well, at least they were last year – this year, players like Trent Richardson have been taken extremely high in some startups). Read More...

Now that we are well into the preseason, I thought this would be a good time for an update on the FFPC $1,250 Dynasty League. Although there were 31 trades made during the startup draft, no trades have yet been made since, which is not totally unexpected this soon after a high stakes startup. I know I have been more cautious and have spent more time analyzing trade proposals than I normally would as the implications for each trade are greater here. Also, most of the league members are gearing up for the high stakes redraft season, so their focus is elsewhere.

As requested by a reader, I put together my overall assessment and 2010 power rankings for each team in this league. Lots can happen during the season so I highly doubt the year will actually shake out this way. Also, there really aren’t any bad teams for 2010 (well, with the exception of my own) which added to the difficulty of picking out 6 teams to miss the playoffs. Still, I had to rank some combination of teams in the bottom 6 (and the top 6), so here’s my best shot at it. Read More...

Drafts are underway. I’ll update my teams here as picks are made including some commentary.

JP’s High Stakes Draftmasters:

1.01 Adrian Peterson: I struggled here between MJD and Peterson, so I went Peterson here and MJD in DM3 where I again had the choice between the two. With this league being at somewhat higher stakes, I guess I sort of chose ADP.

2.12 Pierre Thomas: The WRs got sucked up fast in this league - I was hoping for Colston here. Drew Brees was available, which almost caused me to abandon the QB strategy and take an elite one here. Decided to go with Pierre, whom I normally would target later in the 3rd round, but at this draft slot (and with all of my WR targets gone), I had to draft guys earlier than Im used to seeing them drafted.

3.01 Antonio Gates: I made a decision here that I would not be loading up on TEs later, so I’d better get one of the top two now while I still can (again, earlier than Im used to seeing him drafted unfortunately). I am overloaded on Clark (my preferred redraft TE) in other leagues, so I went with Gates instead. I have the two basically even anyway.

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Any draftmaster enthusiasts out there?

While I spend almost all of my fantasy football study time on dynasty these days, I really enjoy playing in draftmaster leagues (i.e., best ball scoring format – draft it and forget it leagues). Aside from the low-maintenance aspects of these leagues (no setting lineups, no trades) which allow me to play in the first place, I really like the strategy involved in constructing a team. I also like that scrubs like Jake Delhomme can actually make a difference in this format (ok, maybe thats a bad example). I have three draftmaster leagues to draft starting this weekend (slow draft as in all my leagues) so I thought I would mix things up by throwing in some redraft talk and covering my picks in the three leagues here simultaneously (in subsequent entries).
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I find it useful at times to look back at prior years’ startup drafts to examine what I did wrong in hopes that I could avoid the same mistakes in future drafts. Just as important is examining what I may have done right in order to consider if strategies that worked in the past could be effective again in the future. Barring that, it would at least be entertaining to mull over some of the goofball picks I may have made. Read More...

As promised, here is the draft break down of the most recent high stakes startup draft (that I know of), The Monster Dynasty League, a $250 entry fee dynasty league. I’ll be studying both the overall draft itself (posting here my observations for each round) and studying the teams themselves and the strategies they used (in a follow up blog entry). Read More...

Here is the second installment of the fantasy football dynasty league market value series, this time on my favorite player, Larry Fitzgerald.

LARRY FITZGERALD (ARI)
Dynasty Talk Ranking: WR2 / #6 overall
Market Ranking: WR2 / #6 overall

Overview: Considered by most a year ago as the #1 WR in dynasty and #1 overall in many leagues, Fitzgerald rewarded owners in 2009 with another stellar year (284 points in PPR and the WR5). With Kurt Warner now retired, Fitzgerald’s value takes a small dip (wow, from WR1 to WR2). Read More...

We just got done with the startup draft. Here are the rest of the results (posted through round 16):

11.1 Marshawn Lynch
11.2 Mohammed Massaquoi
11.3 Jerome Harrison
11.4 Dexter McCluster
11.5 Chester Taylor
11.6 Brett Favre
11.7 Derrick Mason
11.8 Chad Henne
11.9 Darren Sproles
11.10 Mike Williams (TB)
11.11 Vince Young
11.12 Matt Cassel
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Speaking of cool league sites, I would be remiss in mentioning The Monster League (which really does have the best design I’ve seen) and not mentioning its sister leagues, The Dynasty League (a $500 Dynasty startup from earlier this year) and Bad Lands (a $250 Dynasty Startup from 2009), which also have great looking sites. These leagues are run by Dave Boutin (BootyShakers) and are a ton of fun. I must say that it does add a lot to the dynasty experience to have graphics like these to look at every time you log on. Thanks Dave and DA Grafix!

The Dynasty League

Bad Lands

A sampling of The Dynasty League mini-banners:





And now Bad Lands:

Hey guys. Check out the design and graphics on this MyFantasyFootball league site for The Monster League by DA Grafix. Probably the best I have seen.

Link.

Here are a few mini-banners as examples.







Of course, my personal favorite:



I’ll be reviewing this draft on the blog once it is complete.

Oh, the things one does to win (or to try to win) in a fantasy football dynasty league, particularly in a $750 dynasty league. Earlier this morning, in the FFPC’s $750 Dynasty League #2, I traded Hakeem Nicks, a player I think will be a super stud in the near future (but not necessarily in 2010), for a player that has been in my doghouse since the offseason leading up to the 2009 season, Marques Colston. Hakeem Nicks, the WR12 in my personal dynasty rankings that I put together in May to prepare for the $1250 FFPC Dynasty League, straight up for Marques Colston, the WR14 on those same rankings. I did write previously that his 4th round selection in the two most recent FFPC dynasty leagues was no fluke (knee) and that I would “be steering clear of Colston in all of my dynasty leagues”. So what gives? Read More...

$500 The Dynasty League (Early May) – 15th round

$750 FFPC Dynasty League #1 (Late May) – 9.09

$1250 FFPC Dynasty League (June) – 9.01

$250 Monster Dynasty League (Ongoing) – 6.11

$750 FFPC Dynasty League #2 (Ongoing) -- 6.05


I took him in the 15th of The Dynasty League in an attempt to lock up the Seattle backfield (excluding Lendale and Julius). I loved him SO much that I waited until the 15th round to take him and only after I had already drafted Leon Washington two rounds prior! There is no way I could I have anticipated this kind of rise in startup value when I took him there, and I would be hesitant in taking him now before the 8th round of a fantasy football dynasty startup draft.

Here are the draft results for Rounds 7 through 10:

7.1 Johnny Knox
7.2 Donald Brown
7.3 Santonio Holmes
7.4 Demaryius Thomas
7.5 Kellen Winslow
7.6 Visanthe Shiancoe
7.7 John Carlson
7.8 Darren McFadden
7.9 Ronnie Brown
7.10 Montario Hardesty
7.11 Ben Tate
7.12 Robert Meachem

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Here are the results for Rounds 5 and 6:

5.1 Vincent Jackson
5.2 Steve Smith (CAR)
5.3 Anquan Boldin
5.4 Philip Rivers
5.5 Percy Harvin
5.6 Cedric Benson
5.7 Jeremy Maclin
5.8 Mike Sims-Walker
5.9 Wes Welker
5.10 Dwayne Bowe Read More...

This was originally looking to be a short entry since I had no 4th rounder, but that changed rather quickly, starting with all the 3rd round trading activity.

First of all, here is how the 3rd and 4th rounds shook out:

3.1 Vernon Davis
3.2 Steven Jackson
3.3 Rashard Mendenhall
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Basic Strategy:

Given the extreme strategy I used in the $1250 league, I planned on mixing it up here and go with a strategy that could win now but without sacrificing the future. Ideally, I would continue to target young players that were ready to produce in 2010 while also acquiring a few additional 2011 first rounders. What would help a ton in my overall goal would be to land one of the top 7 picks. In particular, getting one of the top 4 RBs or Andre Johnson is ideal in this strategy. With one of those players, you could comfortably go for the win in 2010, have a leg up in doing so (due to their great production) and have the advantage of not really sacrificing the future (since all 5 are fairly long-term type players). Contrast this with having a back end pick, lets say pick #10. In order to stay on par with the top 5 picks, the #10 owner would need to take Frank Gore, and I am NOT a big Gore fan for dynasty (although I think he is top 5 in redraft). At pick #2, again in order to keep up with the top 5 slots, you might have to take a Dallas Clark in this format or perhaps Reggie Wayne. Again, superb redraft choices but not attractive second round options for the long term. Read More...

Speaking of Maurice Jones Drew, I just traded for him myself in the startup draft for the FFPC’s $750 Dynasty #2 that just started on Saturday July 17. I drew the 9 hole, and was pretty bummed that again I could not land a top 7. An offer came in when the 1.04 was on the clock. After some countering, we hammered out a trade of the 1.09, 3.09 and 4.04 for the 1.04, 3.04, 9.04 and a 2011 1st. Pretty steep price for MJD and I took a huge gamble that my 7th player on my board (Calvin - not that far off from the #1) wouldn’t make it to 1.09. Of course, he did (due to Gore and Rodgers getting picked in between), so I pretty much got hosed on this trade (or at least I would have been much better off staying put). Anyway, we are now in the mid-3rd and the way things are shaking out and after a few moves and other plans in the works, I think I can recover from the trade (not that hard to do with MJD on the roster). More about my thoughts on the trade (and what I was thinking) later as we get a little further along. I should be starting the writeups on this new league tomorrow. With me drafting in 3 draftmaster leagues and 2 dynasties right now, I’m falling behind a bit.

A very interesting trade went down yesterday in one of my $100 leagues. Anytime a top 4 RB gets traded, it’s a story since it happens so infrequently. In this case, though, a rebuilding team traded FOR MJD from a top 4 contender. Seems a little backwards. Surprisingly, both teams may be the better for it. Read More...

One area that I spend a lot of time on is analyzing market value and studying startup drafts. Also, being in 20+ dynasty leagues makes it easier to stay on top of who is going for what. From time to time, I will be posting my analysis on the current market value of certain players (geared mainly towards PPR dynasty leagues). Up first is numero uno (for WRs at least), Andre Johnson. Read More...

Well, I am VERY happy with my team and this could go down as possibly the best dynasty team I’ve ever drafted (or at least top 3). Still, while the team has received praise from a few (special thanks to Red vs Blue Radio for the kind words in their June 18 episode - love their show by the way), the draft strategy has understandably garnered quite a bit of criticism on the FFPC message boards. Fortunately, I’m not in this to look good now, but instead to DOMINATE in 2011 and beyond.

Here is my team (including where each player was drafted): Read More...

So much for taking two stud WRs with my first two picks. Things didn’t go exactly as planned at the top of my draft, but when that means I can draft Jonathan Stewart near the end of the 2nd round and Rashard Mendenhall as the fourth pick in the 3rd, you won’t hear any complaining from me. Here’s the play by play account of my experience drafting in this extreme high stakes dynasty league.

Day 1: Big part of the overall plan was to acquire 2011 first round picks and lots of them. At my first opportunity, I sent out an offer to the one owner that I knew had been previously shopping around his 2011 1st rounder (via PM on the FFPC message boards). I offered my 1.12 for his 2.10 and his 2011 1st. Trade accepted!
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I am very excited about this newest offering in the high stakes dynasty arena – the Fantasy Football Players Championship’s $1,250 High Stakes Dynasty, the highest stakes dynasty league in the land. The FFPC is offering dynasty leagues for the first time, two at $750 and one at $1,250. I signed up at $1,250 to test myself against some of the top redraft and dynasty fantasy football players around and to see if I could translate my success in other dynasty leagues to success in true high stakes dynasty.
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