September 6th, 2009 at 2:30 am by Howard Chen under Sports
August 26th, 2009 at 11:15 pm by Howard Chen under Sports
August 12th, 2009 at 4:48 pm by Howard Chen under Sports
Decided that Brian Westbrook didn’t warrant being a top-fiver… but his potential for a HUGE year is still there because he is so good catching balls out of the backfield!
August 12th, 2009 at 4:29 pm by Howard Chen under Sports
I promised it, and here it is. I haven’t gone through EVERYBODY yet, and there are defenses to add too.
PLUS… not all these guys are deserving of a top 100 spot. They’re just here for now because I saw their name, first come first serve, and I ranked them compared relatively to other players who were ranked.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:17 am by Howard Chen under Sports
I’ve been procrastinating, I know, but I’ll be working on Mr. Fantasy’s 150 tomorrow (Wednesday) before the first football version of Mr. Fantasy’s Weekly Watch hits the air.
THAT, I PROMISE.
A preliminary copy will be online tomorrow night.
Holla.
August 8th, 2009 at 12:10 am by Howard Chen under Sports
DISCLAIMER: this blog isn’t meant to be a form of self promotion. Instead, it’s just common sense.
Right now, with training camps having started up last week in the NFL, the time is now where you go to the grocery market and see fantasy football draft previews line the magazine racks. Most ordinary football fans playing fantasy have been known to purchase a few of these magazines for the sake of reference.
Don’t waste your money.
I’m not saying the information in those magazines are bad. I’m just saying that, by the time most leagues should hold their drafts, the preseason is just about over, position battles will have just about finished, and you’ll have your fair share of injuries. These are things that those magazines cannot predict. They’d be outdated. Now if you’re like me and you have a subscription to what I believe is the elite of sports magazines – Sports Illustrated – then you’ll automatically receive their fantasy football guide.
I’ve learned over the years that Sports Illustrated is actually very weak in their fantasy evaluations. They’ll occasionally get a sleeper right, but most of the time, that’s not the source to go to. Yahoo Sports, which puts on a GREAT fantasy-sports product, has HORRIBLE fantasy advice because as soon as somebody, regardless the sport, has one good appearance, they jump on the bandwagon. I personally believe in the advice of Fox Sports, and trust me when I say I am looking at this objectively and I am NOT doing any cross promotion.
Another great source of fantasy knowledge is Lance Zierlein, a Houston sports radio personality and the son of NFL assistant Larry Zierlein. Be sure to check out the Z report on the Houston Chronicle’s sports website (http://www.chron.com/sports). LZ knows his stuff, and he’s also a tremendous guy to boot.
As for myself, I create my own unique rankings where I use straight-up common sense. How many carries will a running back get? What team does he play for? If it’s a winning team, that means more value for a running back because he’ll carry the rock more to run out the clock. Is the team primarily a running team or a passing team? What weapons are around the fantasy player in question? What’s the offensive line like, because THAT seriously determines things.
And so I’m very close to beginning work on my fantasy football rankings. This blog will be where I keep you posted as to my thoughts. I’ll tell you this much… I think Pierre Thomas will be this year’s version of Steve Slaton- overlooked for no good reason, and then finish with a tremendous season.
Wow… didn’t mean to rhyme there.
August 5th, 2009 at 1:32 am by Howard Chen under Sports
Joe Mauer was my man.
Now, Gordon Beckham… I love you.
Obviously, this is in the pure fantasy-sports sense of love, but still, Beckham is just ripping the cover off the ball. Remember, in late June, when Beckham finally crossed the .200 mark?
Of course, from that point on, it took him all of two days to jump from .206 to .267 when he went 6-for-his-next-7. In July, he hit .330. In fact, Beckham’s gone hitless in only 1 for his last 11 games. The man is sick. He already has surpassed former BGSU star Nolan Reimold for the American League rookie lead in RBI. Beckham’s numbers, as of Tuesday night, are a .316 average with 6 home runs and 38 RBI. Expect him to have about 75-80 RBI when the year is done.
By the way, fantasy sports aside, Reimold is a tremendous individual. I had the pleasure of going up to Comerica Park when I did my 1-on-1 interview with him (http://tinyurl.com/ltaqxn). He’s a quiet guy, but definitely was well-mannered. His manager, Dave Trembley, was also impressive. Before we started asking Trembley about Reimold, the skipper was gushing about current Mud Hens pitching coach and former Tigers pitcher/UToledo quarterback A.J. Sager, calling him “first-class.” Seriously, talking to Trembley was like talking to a grandfather who had some baseball stories to tell. All that was needed was a campfire. Alas, it was batting practice and not a family get-together.
Finally, all you fantasy fans out there are probably wondering when my fantasy football rankings will start coming out. I just joined my first league, and I’ll be looking at making my unique rankings soon enough. I’ll keep the blog posted with my updates on my Mr. Fantasy 150. I will say that, no matter what, Adrian Peterson is my #1 pick overall. Seriously, if you had the top pick and didn’t take him, you’d be spending the whole season praying for an injury. Granted, he gets hurt, but you shouldn’t have to pray for that to happen to your opponent. A good fantasy player makes sure his or her own team is legitimate enough. No excuses. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if AP went through a year injury-free and I missed out on an opportunity to take him in the draft.
A couple of other things- the top fantasy QB to me is New England’s Tom Brady with his three wideouts of Randy Moss, Wes Welker, and former Buckeye Joey Galloway. Speaking of top wideouts, numero uno is Houston’s Andre Johnson. The guy just keeps on coming down with balls thrown to him, making him unstoppable in your fantasy football league.
Geez, now I’m itching to work on these rankings.