FF: Ken...err Kn... Quit

I just got word from Ken that he will not be participating this year in fantasy football. This is not terribly surprising since he never managed to field a team.

This leaves us with a decision. What do we do with his team.

Here are the choices:

1. Do nothing:
Pros: Easiest
Cons: This ties up players that are stuck on his team and it gives people who play him twice an extra free win.
2. Do an offline draft for his players:
Pros: Could be fun and it would disperse his players. Plus my team really needs a chance at some good players.
Cons: It would still leave the advantage for people who play him twice.
3. Wait until everyone has played him, then let our cats have a team:
Pros: Gets rid of the extra completely free games for some people
Cons: Ties up players that could be on my starting roster.
4. I have the power to delete an entire team:
Pros: Lets FoxSports sort out what to do. Maybe all his players get dropped, maybe not.
Cons: We've seen how well FoxSports handles routine interactions, I don't know if we can trust them to delete a team mid season. It could wind up costing us the league somehow.
5. Someone else convince Kn to play:
Pros: I don't have to do anything.
Cons: I don't think he wants to do it anymore.

Well, those are the options I can think of. If you all could let me know what you think we should do, either in the comments here (recommended) or via email or phone. I'll tally what people think and report back with the groups decision is.

mwz

FF: Results Week 3

Well, after three weeks things are starting to get more interesting as the relative strengths and weaknesses of the teams start to become apparent. Here are the week three results.

USC(1) 114
DRAGO(3) 88

The Game of the week, which pitted the #1 and the #3 teams against each other, was soundly won by USC. With three 20+ point players, they are hard to beat. Dragon Run did have a good game by his TE (15 pts) but it wasn't enough. USC (much like the team they are named after) is looking strong this year.

Expo(5) 128
XII(9) 66

With nearly double the points, Expo demoralized Xillers II. Two of Expo's players broke 30 points (in fact they alone could have beaten Xillers II). The only consolation for XII is that there was no configuration of starters that would have won. Expo's starting lineup scored more than Xillers II's entire team.

POW(10) 0
PADS(2) 89

PADS picked a good time to have a mediocre week.

SPIES(6) 135
KB(7) 61

The Spies came out of nowhere to post the highest weekly point total and destroy KB. She did it with consistent play. Only one player (kicker) scored less than 10 points and only one player scored more than 20 (RB with 38 pts).

SNAP(4) 85
SMASH(8) 94

After all of the tension about Parker, he turned out to be a non-factor this week. He could only put up 5 points against the team he was briefly on. This gives Smash Panic his first win of the year and ties him with KB and Snap it.

Rank  Team  Record Points Streak
1.1   USC   3-0-0  324.00 W3
1.2   PADS  3-0-0  293.00 W3
3.3   Spies 2-1-0  298.00 W2
3.4   Expo  2-1-0  293.00 W1
3.5   Drag  2-1-0  276.00 L1
6.6   Snap  1-2-0  265.00 L2
6.7   Smash 1-2-0  242.00 W1
6.8   Kato  1-2-0  222.00 L1
9.9   XII   0-3-0  193.00 L3
9.10  POW   0-3-0  0.00   L3

Next week:

XII(9.9) vs USC (1.1)

This does not look good for Xillers II.

PADS(1.2) vs DragonRun(3.5)

After facing the top team in the league, DR must now face the other undefeated team. This is an important game for both teams.

The Spies(3.3) vs Expo(3.4) (GOTW)

The two top point getters this week face off, trying to get sole possession of third place. This should be a good game.

Snap It(6.6) vs POW(9.10)

I've run out of clever things to say about POW.

KatoBack(6.8) vs SmashPanic(6.7)

Another good game, as two teams that share the 6 spot play. Each team is looking for it's second win.


Well, that's that. Due to some administration powers that I didn't know I had, we have some choices to make about POW. More on that after I hear back from Kn.

mwz

FF: Results Week 2

Week two has finished and here are the results. The fox page has been working pretty well since Saturday. (Although, the scores are a little screwy right now. I'm going to go with the results that were there earlier which seem to correspond with the wins and losses.)

Results:

USC: 107
Expo: 74

The Game of the Week... turned out not to be so competitive. USC sailed to a win lead by the Chicago defense (and special teams) which had 35 points.


DragonRun: 78
POW: 0

It was a hard fought victory for DragonRun as he managed to score positive points. Some had speculated that Kn would field a team this week. But he let them down.

KatoBack: 97
Xillers: 59

This year isn't shaping up too well for Xillers II and this week he had the low score of the teams with players. KatoBack had a strong week however, within 3 points of the second place point scorer for the week.

SmashPanic: 71
PADS: 100

SmashPanic fell to PADS who is looking strong again this year (even with Manning only scoring 2 points for him he hit 100 points). SmashPanic graciously gave up Parker (attempting to give him back to Snap It although that didn't work). Fortunately, his sense of fair play didn't hurt him this week (although, Parker is apparently quite the catch).

Snap It: 98*
Spies: 99

Poor Snap It. He lost Parker from his roster when they reset the db and we were unable to get him back to the team. Due to Muhammad (the replacement) having a good week, it only cost him 3 points. Unfortunately, those points cost him the game. The Spies put up a good game but this game will forever be marked with an asterisk. Hopefully it won't hurt Snap It's play off chances.

Well, those were the games. Here are the standings:

  Record points  streak
USC   2-0-0  209.00  W2
PADS  2-0-0  204.00  W2
DR    2-0-0  188.00  W2
Snap  1-1-0  180.00  L1
Expo  1-1-0  165.00  L1
Spies 1-1-0  163.00  W1
Kato  1-1-0  161.00  W1
SP    0-2-0  148.00  L2
Xill  0-2-0  127.00  L2
POW   0-2-0  .00     L2

Next weeks games:

USC(1) vs DR(3)
USC is in the game of the week again as he matches up against Dragon Run. Both teams are undefeated and both have been putting big points.

Expo(5) vs Xill(9)
Expo is poised to take the Cross-House Classic this year unless Xillers II can get something going.

POW(10) vs PADS(2)
Will POW score points? Will PADS? The answer to at least one of these questions is "yes".

Spies(6) vs KB(7)
KatoBack is looking to break into one of the playoff positions although she is probably more interested in taking a nap.

Snap(4) vs SP(8)
Will these teams be looking to exact revenge from the Parker debacle? Probably not but we can pretend.

Good luck everyone.

mwz

FF: FoxSports Back up

Well, as you know foxsports has gotten their act together and fixed their site. So you can go back and make your changes.

FYI, W. Parker (RB) got inadvertantly dropped from Snap It because of problems with the site (while I was left in charge of the team). SmashPanic picked him up but has graciously agreed to drop him so Snap It can have him back. So, if you see him on the market today, don't pick him up, please.

If anyone else has a situation like that, post a comment and we'll try to work something out.

Finally, I'm going to plug my blog, Passive Paranoia.

mwz

FF: Important Bug Report

This is important. Those people who were getting a "Player not on roster" error need to check their teams and make sure that player is still on it.

Dad left me instructions to move a RB to the starting position when the site was working again. When I tried to start the guy, apparently it dropped him. I had to pick him back up off of the free agent list.

Now, I have managed to put the RB on the team twice, which means all sorts of other problems.

I'm sorry, when we went with foxsports, I didn't know their programmers were incompetent.

mwz

FF: foxsports sux

A lot of people have been having problems with the football site, me included.

As of this writing, when you try to move a player from your bench to your starting lineup it throwse a "Player not on team roster" error.

Please use this post to gripe about the problems.

mwz

FF: Week 1 Results

Week one has ended and the results are in. We can all be a little happy that none of the losers would have been able to beat any of the winners, so we can avoid the "what ifs".

Results:

POW: 0
USC: 102

This game was an easy victory for USC as Wisconsin discovered that it doesn't have much to be proud of. Kn failed to field his team in time due to the frequent outages that foxsports has been having. It might have been a good game otherwise. Hopefully, POW will be back next week.

Even without competition, USC put up good numbers and was the third highest score this week

Expo: 91
KatoBack: 64

Expo beat KatoBack (who may or may not be run by Mg) which was a relief for Arial. You don't want to lose to the team that may or may not have an owner. Both teams had weak performances by their QBs but Expo's RBs came through for her.

DragonRun: 113
SmashPanic: 79

DragonRun had the high score this week with 113 and he did it by starting his best players at every position. SmashPanic didn't have a chance even though he had the highest score among the losers. I can't really say more about this because the web page for the game is reporting that DragonRun played DragonRun.

Snap It: 84
Xillers: 70

In the closest game of the week (and yet not all that close), Snap It took down Xillers II. Even though Snap it was without a healthy TE, Xillers was no match. Both these teams will have to do some tweaking for next week if they want to stand up to teams the likes of DragonRun, USC and PADS.

PADS: 104
Spies: 64

The spies neglected to start someone at the WR/RB position, most likely because she was cocky. But she forgot she was playing last year's champion. The extra player wouldn't even have mattered as PADS pulled down the second highest score to secure his first win. Payton Manning turned out to be a good number one draft pick.

So that was that for last week. The first week felt a little blind, especially with the server problems. Now we can make some informed decisions about who to start and who to cut from the team.

With that in mind, here are this week's match-ups.

USC vs Expo - Both off of a win, with close scores. This could be the game to watch.

DR vs POW - Will Kn assign his starters? Playing against the high score getter, will it matter?

KB vs XILL - Can Xillers II Get past the team with the nebulous management?

SP vs PADS - Is PADS for real or was it just a one season fluke.

SI vs SPIES - Will having a full roster help the Spies become a cohesive team?

mwz

Draft

The draft has taken place and the season begins. No one I talked to prior to the draft had any confidence in the new system (including me).

Now we can take a look at how the drafting went.

Draft Order

1. Packattackdownsouth (PADS) - Mk
2. Expo - Arial
3. prideofwisconsin (POW)- Kn?
4. Snap It - PJF
5. The Spies - Crl
6. Xillers II - mwz
7. USC 3 Peat!! - sctt
8. Smashpanic - Mrk
9. Dragon Run - Mtt
10. KatoBack - Mg (or house team if she doesn't want to do it)

Let's take a look at each team's draft picks (in draft order). Since I don't have a very deep knowledge of pro players, the commentary may be light on player info.

PADS
Given the first pick of the draft, PADS chose Paton Manning (QB) to head up his team. He will likely be looking for some trades to get a back-ups at QB, TE, (and maybe kicker and defense). He does have some very recognizable names down deep in his bench in the RB and WR positions that may make for some good trade material.

Expo
With the number two spot, Expo picked up Culpepper (QB). She told me that had she known that she was getting such a high pick, she would have set up her list differently. I think that means she wanted a running back (since she was following foxsports' recommended order of RRWWQRWTKD. However, Culpepper will probably do well for her.

She picked up Nugent at kicker (rookie from Ohio St.) (on purpose). It will be interesting to see how that turns out for her. She still needs a backup TE but has three QBs and might be looking for a trade.

POW
With the third pick, POW took Tomlinson (RB) who is questionable for the first game with an elbow injury (although he was still highly sought after and will probably be just fine). It appears that POW also followed the RRWWQRWTKD order and has a quite balanced bench (although missing a backup TE and a little heavy on the RBs).

Snap It
Snap It used the fourth pick to take McAllister (RB) who I don't recognize but I'm sure is wonderful. The theme for Snap It seemed to be "Iowa people" as he picked up Kaeding (K), Clark (TE) and Warner (QB) which earns Jealousy from Xillers and Expo.

This squad has backups for every major position as well as four QBs, which could make him an interesting trade partner with PADS.

The Spies
Entering the league just in time, The Spies grabbed Alexander (RB) with the 5th pick which really seems like a steal that late in the draft. She seems well rounded, although I've never heard of her starting QB (Green from KC). There are a couple names I recognize from the injury list on her team (hopefully nothing serious) such as Portis (RB) and Bettis (RB). But otherwise a fine team.

She is also missing a backup TE, maybe that isn't so important since no one has one.

Xillers II
Although feeling unhappy that they missed getting Alexander by one pick, Xillers II settles for James (RB) (who I've never heard of) and hopes that James does well. Also missing a backup TE. Oh yeah, and Xillers followed the RRWWQRWTKD order.

USC 3 Peat!!
As the 7th pick, USC Sux... I mean USC 3 Peat!! picks up Holmes (RB) who I've heard of (lucky him). He also seemed to follow the RRWWQRWTKD order as well but he has three defenses which might be wasted picks (especially Chicago which was his 10th pick). But he may have a super-secret plan and his team still looks fine.

Smashpanic
Smashpanic picked up McGahee (RB) for the 8th pick. He seemed to follow a modified version of RRWWQRWTKD. He is on the ball today and already has most of his starters chosen. With no backup QB, he is hoping that Brady will do well for him. I'm running out of interesting things to say about random assortments of RBs and WRs.

Dragon Run
Taking Moss (WR) in the first round, Dragon Run assures himself of having at least one jerk on his team (which Arial believes is important in fantasy football). Moss of course, will claim the glory in any Dragon Run wins while placing blame on the other players and management for any losses. DR is secure in the QB department with three and picked up Leftwich (cheap) who has the potential to be good.

KatoBack
KatoBack is Mg's team. She hasn't been asked yet if she wants to manage a team. If she does, she will take over KatoBack. However, if she does not, KatoBack will be a house team. Mrk has volunteered to manage them in that case and only basic functions will be performed (like making sure that it has a full starting roster).

Even with the default draft order though, KatoBack has done pretty well, getting Lewis (RB) and Barber (RB).

Well, that's that. If you want to discuss anything (like the house team), feel free to add comments. Oh, if you have a better way to represent your names (than the current coded system of removing vowels), let me know.

Remember that you still need to assign your players to starting positions before Thursdays games.

mwz