A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
I am skipping an introduction this week because I’m too mad at fantasy football.
In my league of 14 teams, I finished right in the middle of the pack in terms of points…but because I had the third most points scored on me, I missed the playoffs…by a lot.
I finished second to last.
Lame.
Sometimes, fantasy football goes that way. I will spare you my three heart-breaking losses of the year because, quite frankly, we all have them…and nobody else cares.
Week 14 is here.
For some of you, that means you have a team (or hopefully teams) on bye this week. If so, major kudos to you.
For others of you, Week 14 means that it’s the first week of the playoffs. If so, good luck, and hopefully the advice in this post will help you move on.
For others, Week 14 is the last week of your regular season. Maybe you’ve clinched a playoff spot or maybe you’re still scratching and clawing for one. Regardless, hopefully we can do you and your lineup some good with our picks in this week’s start em, sit em.
And for some of you this may be your first week without fantasy football – if your playoffs start this week and you did not make it; but if that’s the case, why would you be reading this?
Alas, if you’re here, you are looking for help in Week 14. And you’re in luck, because that is exactly what you’re about to get.
It’s go time.
The playoffs are dead ahead. Now, more than ever, it is vital that you start the right guys.
We already advised you on the waiver wire. We’ve already outlined who you should start and sit on Thanksgiving. We’ve also told you about a fun Thanksgiving-only fantasy challenge.
Heck, we’ve even outlined the complete history of Thanksgiving Day football for you.
Now it’s time to look at the rest of Week 12.
I’mmm baaaaaaccccckkkkk!
Did you miss me?
Jon has himself a busy schedule this week, so he texted me this morning and asked if I’d be up for reprising my role as the author of our weekly Start/Sit column here at MSF. I have to admit, as soon as I saw his text I was pretty pumped.
Doing these posts every week, week after week, can admittedly be a bit of a grind, as I learned over the last couple of years; so I was happy to let Jon take it over this year and focus my efforts in other areas. But I’ve missed the weekly challenge of poring over matchups and stats and trends to figure out which players to recommend to you as starts and sits.
So it’s good to be back in the saddle.
Anyway, It’s not like I’ve been totally absent. I still offer commentary on Jon’s posts, answer questions in the comment sections, and monitor the @FantasyMSF Twitter account. So I haven’t really given you a chance to miss me even if you wanted to. Now though, for the first time all year, I have to go on record with start and sit picks.
I’m ready. Let’s roll.
With six weeks in the books, you know where you stand and kind of team you have. You are either in coasting mode, maybe trying to find that one more player to complete your lineup, or you are barely breathing as you make every trade offer and waiver wire pickup you can. If you are in the latter group, take heed: there is help. There is still a way to win.
At this point in the season, we have collected enough data and stats to make more sound decisions. Then again, it’s all how you interpret those statistics. Here are a few I find interesting.
Well, that was fast.
As soon as I opened up my big mouth and proclaimed that 2011 was going to be the most prolific fantasy year ever, scoring around the league plummets. No worries.
At least I had a great week on the predictions front, as I was right on nearly 80% of my picks.
As always, here is a quick look back at last week before we move on to week 7.
[Read more...]
Is 2011 going to be the highest scoring fantasy season of all time? All signs indicate that it could be. Last season, seven players finished the season with more than 270 points (ESPN Standard Scoring). After four weeks this season, a staggering 18 players were on pace to beat that mark…and nine of them were QBs.
Like I said at the beginning of the season, gone are the days of fantasy rule by the RBs. Of those 18 players, only 5 are RBs…simply a staggering thought to anyone living in 2006 or before.
Oh byes.
We don’t like them, but the players do need their rest. With the rest periods starting now, there are some crucial decisions that need to be made regarding your roster.
Who is going to fill in for Ray Rice? Issac Redman can’t carry the load for an injured Mendenhall…can he? And so many more.
Now is the time that we want to highlight players who might be on your bench or floating around on waivers waiting to be picked up in hopes that he can provide that stopgap service. Everyone knows that Jason Witten is good for your health but how about Brandon Pettigrew?
There are questions galore to be answered in the Week 5 stock report.
Everyone loves to draft a guy that he thinks is a sleeper. Why? Because it’s our way of proving to everyone else that, “Yes, I know more than you.” Beyond that, it’s simply quite fun to draft a guy that surprises everybody else.
Like I said before, it’s not that fun to draft Ichiro. You know exactly what you’re getting. (Or at least you used to know, before this season.) On the flip side, thinking about Jason Heyward’s upside gives us all visions of glory.
But when it comes to drafting running backs for your fantasy football team this year, save the “sleepers” for other positions.
Well, it all comes down to this.
As I put the finishing touches on this week’s Start ‘em, Sit ‘em post, I currently lead my Week 13 opponent (Brian Bassett of The Jets Blog) 61.22-36.20 in the P&G-sponsored Blogger Fantasy Football League*.
Before you get too excited for me though, take a look at who he still has left to play: QB Mark Sanchez; RB Shonn Greene; WR Danny Woodhead; TE Dustin Keller; D/ST New York Jets. Basically, if those five players average five points a piece, I’m toast.
What will make a loss burn even more is that the team I needed to lose, PUNTE‘s squad, did in fact lose. A win and I am a single game out of the final playoff spot with one week to play. I’ll have a fighting chance. A loss and I’m done, just playing Week 14 for pride.
Needless to say, I will be watching the Monday night game with great intrigue, hoping for a miracle.
Update: I don’t know how the hell it happened, but I won! Still alive baby!
I’ve got a flight to catch at 5:20 — headed to Cleveland for the Sports Media 360 conference — and a full day of work to squeeze in between now and when I leave the office around 2:30. Thus, there is no time to waste.
Let’s get right to our usual Friday Morning Would debate.
Today, we are going to look at two running backs who have had up and down seasons to this point: Dallas battering ram Marion Barber and Panthers second-year scamperer Jonathan Stewart.
A few weeks ago, when Barber was tearing it up and Stewart was on the sidelines nursing what seemed to be an endless array of maladies, this would have been a no-brainer.
But as we know, things can change quickly in the NFL. And as Week 7 approaches, I am suggesting that you start Jonathan Stewart over Marion Barber.
Here’s why:
