Fantasy Football Week 13 Start / Sit Picks

Well friends, I am disappointed to say that I dropped another game in the P&G-sponsored Blogger Fantasy Football League*. The loss drops me to 6-6 on the season and two games out of the final playoff spot. I now need to win out and I need help. That is never a good position to be in.

So what went wrong in Week 12? It would be easy to look at the tight end position, where I chose Vernon Davis over Kevin Boss. Davis proceeded to score three points, and I lost by four. Since Kevin Boss had 70+ yards and a TD, the winning production was sitting on the bench at that one spot.

But, just like the Buffalo Bills’ loss in Week 12 cannot be totally blamed on Stevie Johnson dropping that wide open TD pass, there were other positions that could have picked up the slack. Adrian Peterson was running wild before getting hurt and having to leave the game. Vincent Jackson, who I foolishly started in his first game back*, got hurt after two plays. Neither Mike Wallace nor Mike Thomas came anywhere close to the production they’d been getting recently.

* – One of my most trusted fantasy football principles has always been that I don’t start guys who are playing in their first game back after a long layoff. I prefer to wait for them to prove on the field that they are back, even it takes two or three weeks. I like seeing before I believe. Yet, here we are in Week 12, crunch time for all of us, and I recommend Sidney Rice as my WR start ‘em and then go with Vincent Jackson in the most critical week of my season in the Blogger Fantasy League. I failed myself and I failed you. I’m sorry. This is a great example of why having principles and sticking to them is so important. In Week 12, I was a doofus, and I cost us all.

Add it all up, and most of what could go wrong did go wrong, save for Eli, BenJarvus, and Dan Carpenter coming through huge. The real surprise is that I only lost by three points with this confluence of crap that occurred.

And with that, Week 12 is over. Thanks for letting me vent. It is time to turn our attention towards Week 13, and as I did last week, I will enlist your help later this week in setting my Week 13 roster.

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Chicago White Sox: Don’t Stop Believing

boones-beard

by Jerod Morris

Since July 1st, the Chicago White Sox are basically a .500 team. Look at the numbers. After tonight’s loss to the Red Sox (which dropped us to a half game behind the Twins) we are now 17-16 since the beginning of July. This is not good. And remember earlier in the season when Ozzie Guillen was ripping the offense in the press and our pitching staff was carrying us to respectability? My, my…how the tables have turned.

I remember watching an ESPN game that I am pretty sure was against the Cubs and hearing the oracle of baseball wisdom Joe Morgan (please note the heavy sarcasm) say that our bullpen was one of the best he’d ever seen. Granted, our bullpen was dominating at the time…but the best he’d ever seen? Really Joe? Well, pretty much since that point our pitching staff’s performance, especially the bullpen, has taken a nosedive.

Consider the following statistics, from the last 30 days:

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