Fantasy Football 2004 Discussion and Advice (2 Viewers)

[Philip_T]

I have some questions for those of you in money leagues. I've been thinkning about starting one this year, but not sure aboust some things. 1st off, do you run them on Yahoo! or does the commish do everything from running the draft to setting up schedules and what not? Do you have to pay the league for trades you make? Are you allowed to pick up players from waivers, or is your team locked? I was thinking the easiest way for me to do it would be to have the draft party at my house, then start another Yahoo! league with the offline draft option where I enter the draft results. Then, lock the league. The managers would then email their starters by a pre-determined deadline which I would take care of. It just seems alot easier to let Yahoo! take care of the scoring and scheduling than to do it by hand. Any advice?

 

[Frank Grimes]

We've always had a live draft at a friends house, complete with liquor and BBQ. Everyone signs up on Yahoo, then the commish has the pleasure of attatching the players drafted to the appropriate team. Waivers/starting lineups are then done as any other league, with the commish simply having the job of holding the money and vetoing trades of questionable intent (which we've only had one of in 5 years). I would recommend just letting people edit their starters up to the regular Yahoo deadline as opposed to doing the email/lock thing.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Philip,

Our two money leagues are run on www.rtsports.com . You can completely customize the scoring rules and rosters to whatever the members desire. We run one as a 10-team keeper league with a salary cap, and the other as a 12-team redraft. The site charges per league instead of per team. I think the site fee is around $70 - $80 per league, which is pretty cheap when you divide it up amongst 10-12 teams.

Personally, I would let each owner handle their own transactions instead of you handling everything as commish. Your only job should be to get the site setup, give the other owners access, collect the money and handle any disputes. We do all our drafts online, with each person making his own pick unless he's unable to get to a PC -- then the commish will make picks based on the owners instructions (very rare, but it's been used in emergencies).


I would never suggest locking your rosters. A big part of the fun of fantasy football is the weekly waiver wire process, as well as trading players.

We lock the rosters at the start of each week's first game, and there is a waiver claim process that takes place mid-week, after which all unclaimed players become free agents until the start of the next weekend's games. We have a trade deadline (usually somewhere around Week 12).

The above approach is more fair to the entire league than leaving free agents available at all times. We used to do that at one time, but owners watching the games had a huge advantage over those that couldn't on a particular weekend. I grabbed Shaun Alexander that way the year he took over for an injured Ricky Watters. While I benefitted, it did not put everyone on a level playing field.

We do not pay for transactions in either league, but just an upfront fee to cover site costs and prize money. Some leagues do charge for transactions, though, so that can work, too.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

BTW, we've used both Yahoo and CBS Sportline's free leagues in the past, and they do not come close to the features, live draft functionality, real time scoring and site performance of Realtime Sports.

 

[Philip_T]

Thanks Scott and Frank! I like your idea Frank of the draft party. Sounds like I would be better off doing this on-line, which is what I was leaning towards. Letting people manage their own teams is cool with me as well, I just didn't know if there was some unwritten rule with money leagues that gave the commish some kinda 'all powerful pooba' status or something. Less work for me =

Scott, that site looks pretty good and the price is much better than other sites are charging, but since this is my 1st go at it, I may just stick to Yahoo! free for this year, then upgrade next year if it all works out.

Now, I just need to get 8 suckers friends that want to play. Up to 4 so far.

 

[Mark Murphy]

I just did my money league draft on Friday. 12 teams (some w/2 owners) and we all got together in a small living room and finished the draft in two hours. I drafted #8. We start 1 QB, 2 WR, 2 RB, 1 TE, 1 K and 1 D/ST w/backups at each position.

Here is my squad, the Dropkicked Murphys:

QB C. Pennington, R. Gannon
RB J. Lewis, D. Staley, C. Brown
WR M. Harrison, D. Jackson, J. Porter
TE A. Crumpler, D. Clark
K M. Stover, D. Brien
D/ST Cowboys, Steelers

 

[Brad Porter]

I'm right up the road in Boulder, Philip. Let me know if you have trouble filling out your eight - there might be a few people in my league that could crossover. Also, my league is currently at 10 players (with one alternate) and we'd like to get to 12. Our live draft is this Saturday. If you're interested I could send you the information. Otherwise, you could come watch how we do it. There will be a no-limit hold'em poker tournament afterwards so I can pay my league entry fee.


One backup for each position is a bit silly. You should be allowed a backup for every starting position or be allowed a certain number of roster spots with the option to fill them with whatever players you want. Carrying two kickers is just plain annoying. It's going to be a waiver wire battle all season long. Otherwise, I think you drafted OK, but I'd be real concerned about Lewis' trial. Billick said he would probably miss both of those weeks in November - and then who knows what happens after that.

Brad

 

[Philip_T]

Brad,
Thanks for the invite to your league and the offer for mine. I saw you live just up the turnpike and actually thought about posting you an invite. If I can get a couple more of my friends/co-workers to sign up, I'll give you a PM to get the league up to acceptable numbers. Otherwise, It'll just have to wait until next year as I may have started out on my quest a little too late. I would be trying for a Labor Day draft party at my house just as a heads up, if all works out.

But back to your invite, your soirée sounds like alot of fun and could give a good idea on how to run mine. If you still want to PM the info, I'd appreciate it, as long as its okay with other buddies. BTW, anymore room in your Texas hold-em tourney???? I'd love to try it but would hate taking your entry fee money from you.

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

My money league draft is tomorrow night. 16 teams. I have the first pick. Is there any compelling reason not to draft Priest Holmes? I've been in Canada for the last week on vacation. His legs didn't break off at the knee or anything while I was gone, did they?

 

[Brad Porter]

Philip - I'll forward you the e-mail with all the information tomorrow.


Boerigter's knee injury will impact the passing game somewhat, and there is some scuttlebutt about reducing Priest's carries in favor of Johnson or Blaylock for durability purposes, but neither of those is likely to make him any worse than he was for the last two years. The only real play you have here other than drafting Holmes is trading down.

I have the worse dilemma of drafting second in the HTF II league. I'm not feeling confident in Tomlinson's ability to produce the second highest stats again this year - at least not as confident as I am in Ahman Green. I'll probably decide that one at the last minute.

Brad

 

[Frank Grimes]

Brad, I felt the same way with the #2 pick in my money league. I'm sure Tomlinson will be great this year, possibly top two, but the dropoff between Holmes and Tomlinson is more significant than the dropoff from Tomlinson to Green/Alexander/Deuce/possibly Portis.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Priest is too good to pass up. The owner with the #1 pick in our 12-team money league (draft is tomorrow night) insists he will take LT2, but I think he's nuts to pass on Holmes (this is a redraft league). I have the #4 pick, and plan on taking Alexander if the first three picks go as predicted -- LT2, Holmes and Green. I'm hoping another quality RB falls to me at #21 in the 2nd round. This should happen if a combo of 6 WR/QBs are taken by then. I figure that Moss, Holt, Harrison, Manning and Culpepper will definitely be gone, so I just need someone to bite on McNab, Vick or Terrell Owens.

 

[Mark Murphy]

I have the #1 pick in a ten team league tonite and I tried trading down to 5,4 and 7 but no luck. I guess I'm "stuck" w/Priest Holmes. I just hop I can grab a decent #2 RB and a upper level WR at pick 20 and 21.

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

You all have pretty much affirmed my thinking, that there's no way I can take someone else over Priest Holmes. Heard on the radio today that Johnnie Morton is pretty banged up too, so with their receiving corps in such bad shape KC definitely will focus on running. Looking at the other NFL backs, there's just no one else who stands out as a viable pick other than Holmes.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Receivers should be no problem at that spot. You should be able to get one of the following -- Owens, CJohnson, Ward or Mason. If I go RB/RB, I'm hoping for Ward or Mason to fall to me with the 4th pick in the 3rd round.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Also, my dilemma in the 2nd round will probably be between Rudi Johnson, Brian Westbrook and Stephen Davis. Right now I have them ranked in that order. I'm figuring that Holmes, LT2, Green, Alexander, Portis, Deuce, Lewis, Edge, Taylor, Barlow, DDavis, Dillon, Henry and Faulk will all be gone by then.

Any opinions on Rudi vs. Westbrook vs. SDavis? I would take any of the others I've listed, except maybe Faulk, if they fell to me in the 2nd round.

 

[Brad Porter]

Where do you have Curtis Martin and Tiki Barber ranked? I don't think there's enough data on Rudi or Westbrook to draft them with any supreme confidence at that point, although Westbrook should get more carries since Buckhalter got hurt (again!). Of those two I think Westbrook is a better option since he had a higher per carry average and is working with a more experienced QB. Everyone is down on Stephen Davis, but I still think he can be a major contributor early in the season. Get a few big games out of him when the Panthers emphasize the running game and them package him in a trade when one of your late round sleeper backs becomes a stud. He faces KC, Atlanta, Philly, and San Diego early in the season - all four of which were in the bottom 10 of the rushing defenses last year. If your concerned about Foster getting more of the carries then look elsewhere, but I like the Panthers running game this year.

Brad

 

[Philip_T]

Well, since you asked..... Isn't SDavis injury prone? At least thats the rap Ive heard on him. Rudi may do well, but if Carson Palmer doesn't do the trick, opponents may just stack the line against Rudi forcing Palmer to try and beat em. Is Westbrook going to do special teams this and does your league give points for that? If so, I may lean towards him. You may also want to look at CBrown, although, you might be able to get him in the 3rd. I saw him at CU run all over my Huskers and from Ive seen from this years highights, he looks pretty good.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

We do get points for special teams (not much for yardage, but TD's count the same as rushing/receiving), but I doubt that Westbrook will be returning kicks with Philly's lack of depth at RB now that Buckhalter and Staley are gone.

My logic on Rudi and Westbrook is that they are both young, are now the primary ball carriers with no RBBC threat (I do not consider Chris Perry a threat in Cincy), and both produced when given the opportunity last season.

 

[Brad Porter]

I'm not suggesting you use that pick for them. If they can be had in the third round or fourth round as a value pick, then why not take a top receiver in the second instead? I guess what I'm saying that I don't think you're getting as much value for picking Johnson or Westbrook at that spot in the second round as you would for Martin or Barber in the third or fourth rounds. It all depends on whether you think they will produce similar to the last few years or get worse. It's obvious you think Westbrook and Johnson will produce better. But then I said to pick Stephen Davis in the second round anyway.

Brad