Ahhh, thankfully the football news keeps coming...
The good ol' Smoking Gun comes up with this sex suit against Michael Vick, with a little "gift" left behind as evidence. Yikes. Let's hope we see some "Ron Mexico" Falcons jerseys next season!
And, as you've probably noticed, the baseball season has started… Which means something else to talk about, and a season-long watch on my baseball fantasy teams…
I only have two fantasy teams this season, one which is a year 3 keeper team (which did pretty badly last year, and didn't really have any top tier keepers) which I think I had a decent, though no great draft with. And one is a brand spanking new team. The Keeper league, and 90% of the fantasy baseball leagues I have been in have used "Head-to-Head" scoring. This means every week you go head-to-head (hence the name) against another team in the 10 categories - Pitching: Ws, Ks, Saves, ERA, WHIP; Batting: Rs, HRs, RBIs, SB, Avg. Teams are awarded Wins and Losses in the standing based on how many categories they win each week. Here's the problem - There's no limit on how many pitching starts a team can have in a given week. So, many players have adopted the tactic where they don't bother drafting good starting pitchers, and just rotate in as many possible waiver wire starters during the week. Usually, that's enough to win the Wins and Ks categories by simple brute force. And occasionally, with some luck or a crappy week by the opponent, they can squeeze out wins in ERA and/or WHIP as well. Sadly, this tactic is effective. So effective, I'm shocked that ESPN hasn't changed the rules yet to make a limited number of starts per week. Basically, why draft Randy Johnson who most weeks will give you 1-2 wins and 8-20 strikeouts (depending if he gets one start or two) when you can draft Vlad Guerrero for offensive numbers, then rotate in 6 or 7 scrub pitchers who will likely get you more wins and Ks?
So the second league I joined is old school roto scoring. Where each category is ranked 1-10, and you get points depending on your place in each category. And, for some reason, this category actually DOES have a limit to number of pitching starts (180 for the season... Or about 8 a week... ), so starting pitching matters quite a bit. I think I'm more psyched about that league than my keeper league, where some guy will win the title again by rotating the likes of Scott Kazmir, Ryan Drese, and Gustavo Chacin into their pitching stats. Who?!? Exactly. Those are 3 pitchers who started games this earlier this week who were claimed for the one day pickup in that league. And dropped the following day. It's a pretty cheesy tactic, and a lot of people have voiced their opinions against it. But the rules allow it, and it is effective. So it won't be going away.
Back to football.. Jamie Sharper visited Seattle yesterday, and there's an outside chance he'll sign with Seattle. He was cut by Houston for salary cap purposes, but he's only 30 and has been healthy pretty much his whole career. The guy plays MLB (a position that Seattle has had a glaring hole at for the past… oh.. Like 10 years!), and is a tackle machine. Signing this guy, and I'd give us a solid B+ this offseason going into the draft, with some decent looking defensive players appearing like they will be available late in the first round.
Oh yeah, and my "second chance" Final Four picks were pretty good. Here's what I said:
Here's my "second chance" picks for the Final Four: Illinois over Louisville, UNC over Utah, with UNC beating Illiniois to win it all. Word.
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