Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

Once again I have to apologize for more late posts- I’m blogging from my hotel room in Newton- Rebecca’s getting married this weekend and I’ve been all over the place this weekend.

Well recently we held the draft for my office’s fantasy football league. It was the first one I participated in this season and I am glad I had the chance to prepare a little for it. Here are my thoughts on the draft:

I cringed a little when I saw I drew the turn pick. It’s not totally unfamiliar territory, I got the 12th pick the first year I played in the league and I mock drafted for situations just like this. However it still doesn’t beat how much I don’t like the pick. I was dead set on grabbing one of the top RBs and I know one might not fall to me. So in the first round I was choosing between Larry Johnson and Clinton Portis.

I chose Johnson over Portis.  My logic at the time was that Portis’s injury risk wasn’t worth his possible upside in a new system. I also was thinking Johnson would get the rock more since KC has no passing game. However this pick I’m probably regretting a bit looking at Johnson’s preseason play. Who knows maybe I’ll be right.

I turned around in the 2nd round and immediately picked Tony Romo. I had him last year and loved him- but also in my mock drafts I have seen QB runs occur WAY TO EARLY! I think last year’s performances have made QBs the new black. Also this league all TDs are worth 6pts- which also increases Romo’s value. My theory was validated when I saw six more QBs get drafted after I got Romo. People just wanted to get their hands on a QB- however I think Eli Manning in the 2nd round was a little ridiculous (sorry Clarence I think he would of been there rounds later.) Runs on WR helped me grabbed Brandon Jacobs in the 3rd round.

I won’t bore you with the rest of the draft but I’ll say the pick I am most excited about is Thomas Jones in the 7th round- I am on board with a possible comeback season this year. So here’s my team and some comments:

TMG Sportsline Team (Pho Shizzle)

• QB: Tony Romo (He’ll be a stud- as long Jessica Simpson stays away)
• RB: Larry Johnson (I’m growing more and more worried about this guy, let’s hope Herm doesn’t run him too ragged)
• RB: Brandon Jacobs
• WR: Anquan Boldin (Ya he wants to be traded but so did Chad Johnson. I think Boldin will realize he’ll have to earn his money on the field)
• WR: Santonio Holmes (I am also high on this guy performing better than a WR2)
• WR: Roddy White (For a WR3- I like this guy a lot)
• TE: Heath Miller
• K: Neal Rackers (I didn’t draft him from the video but he’s a kicker- who cares)
• DST: Packers
• WR: Ted Ginn Jr. (Here’s hoping Chad Pennington can still throw)
• WR: Jabar Gaffney (With the Pats who knows who’ll get the TDs)
• RB:Thomas Jones
• RB: Matt Forte (Lottery ticket #1)
• RB: Rashard Mendenhall (Lottery ticket #2)

What do you guys think? Good team? Horrid team?

Tags: anquan boldin, brandon jacobs, chad pennington, clinton portis, eli manning, fantasy football, heath miller, jabar gaffney, larry johnson, matt forte, neal rackers, packers, rashard mendenhall, roddy white, santonio holmes, ted ginn jr, thomas jones, tony romo, work

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

You would think I was playing the game for years, but this fall will only be my third.

I first started Fantasy Football when I was offered a spot on my office league in 2006. After joining some failed leagues in college, I was still interested enough to actually see what Fantasy Football was all about. I have to say that in that magical year I was hooked. I didn’t know anyone in the NFL and it showed in my first ever Fantasy Football draft. Many mistakes were made, whether it was drafting Clinton Portis the day he was injured in training camp or drafting Mark Brunell as my #1 QB (I must of tried to get all the Redskins) who later got benched after nine games of sucking. I ended up close to last place that year but I already caught the bug- I was going to come back next year and not embarrass myself.

Well last year I certainly prepared for the draft- I read everything I could on players and mock drafted until I knew who were the top picks to get. I started off strong last year but then ran until a tough mid-season where I ended up missing the playoffs by a win. I blame last year on first pick Shaun Alexander. I stayed with him too long while keeping an unknown rookie named Adrian Peterson on the bench. My opinions on Alexander are now rather low- I’m not touch him again, I’d rather play LaMont Jordan (which I often did last season- wow no wonder I did bad, I played LaMont Jordnan!?!)

This year is going to be different. With a couple of years of experience under my belt I’m ready to breakout like a third year wide receiver who’s finally mastered the offensive scheme.

The first step is preparation for the draft. I read a lot last year but this year I now have a good idea of how to efficiently and effectively prepare myself for the upcoming season here’s an outline of my draft preparation roadmap:

1. Player Projections - There’s two books I want to review before I rank a single player. The Pro Football Prospectus is an annual preview of the upcoming football season. It includes stats and projections of players and teams using formulas and math similar to Sabermetrics in baseball. I figured I’ll browse through and get myself familiar to different player situations and exceptions. I’ll also use a lot of the knowledge I’ve read from David Dorey’s Fantasy Football The Next Level: How to Build a Championship Team Every Season. Diana bought it for me last year for Christmas and it’s been really helpful in learning how to study and project a player’s future performance. I’ll prolly read up and then find some time to lock myself away for a day and form some opinions.
2. The Fantasy Experts - After forming my own ideas then I’ll be ready to compare them to what the so called “experts” have to say. A lot of sites have tons of draft kits and articles including ESPN, CBS Sportsline, Yahoo! Sports, Fox Sports, Sporting News, The Huddle, FFToolbox, and KFFL- a long list I know but at least it’s comprehensive!
3. The Draft Strategy - One of the things I learned from reading Dorey’s book was the emphasis on drafting based on your league’s scoring system. What types of players excel in your league’s scoring format? I’ll be sure to take a minute before drafting to figure that out using some cool charts and graphs- it wouldn’t be geeky if I didn’t try some math!
4. Mock Draft - It’s nerve wracking when you have 90 seconds or less to make pick a player. Like last year I’ll be participating in a few mock drafts to get a feel for where players are getting taken and to get used to being, “on the clock”. This year a lot of sites are offering free mock drafts including, CBS Sportsline, ESPN, and The Sporting News.

Four steps to the start of another action packed season. It seems simple but I’m curious to see how my new revised preparation schedule will do. I plan on preparing for the draft in August so we’ll see how it goes.

Tags: clinton portis, fantasy football, fantasy sports, mark brunell, redskins

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

My love for football has grown steadily since college. From watching Patriots games freshman year to fantasy football last year. Now I’m in two fantasy football leagues and I’m even enjoying watching college football games. My how love flourishes. I think I may have reached the point where Sundays are just going to be useless.

This past week I drafted my team in my office league, I’m satisfied with my choices. I grabbed Shaun Alexander and Tony Romo and even drafted two players that caused me grief last year, LaMont Jordan and Joey Galloway; however with all the preparation I did this year I made sure I grabbed them later in the draft so I wasn’t wasting my picks. Man I feel like a football dork.
But back to Earth for a minute, I enjoyed Labor Day by watching Superbad with Doug. It is by far one of the best movies I’ve seen since Anchorman. It’s the American Pie for a new generation… which really doesn’t make sense since we are the American Pie generation… oh well.

Wednesday’s kickball match was an utterly disappointing loss but we made it up in flipcup afterwards. Ya I woke up the next day without my contacts, car, and sharpie on my left arm. It was one of those nights.

Friday we all celebrated Emily and Laura’s birthday at, where else, Union Jacks. It was an ok night- I wasn’t feeling the tunes the DJ was pumping out.

I don’t know why but last week was all about not sleeping. After three hours of sleep on Wednesday I got just about the same amount after Union Jacks. Why? Because I was smart enough to schedule to bring my car in for an oil change at 8 AM on a Saturday. Ugh- never again. The state inspector was out so that means I gotta bring my car back- and I have to fix my turn signal light before I can get it inspected… great…

At least last night was fun… kinda. Sarah, LJ and his sister Leigh, and I went to the Red Sox/Oriole’s game. LJ and Leigh are Sox fans and I was excited to get a chance to see Dice-K pitch. However Dice-K kinda blew the game and I had to put up with mocking from Sarah instead.

The times after the baseball game were much better. We all went to Fells Point and met out with Cliff and Eliza at Max’s. It was a pretty cool bar with all kinds of different beer but more importantly, multiple TV’s showing all kinds of NCAA games. LJ and I were engrossed with the SFU/Auburn game. It was an intense game that came down to overtime. If you arn’t familiar with NCAA rules for overtime in football, then you should check them out, it lends for lots of suspense.

Ok enough writing I gotta get back to watching the Redskins game- Portis isn’t doing that bad so far… maybe I should of drafted him again too.

Tags: american pie, anchorman, baltimore, bethesda, blog, camden yards, clinton portis, daisuke matsuzaka, fantasy football, fantasy sports, football, joey galloway, kickball, lamont jordan, orioles, patriots, red sox, redskins, shaun alexander, superbad, tony romo

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

Well September definitely ended with a bang, more like sparks- work this week was full of more late nights and deadlines. The final one on Thursday came complete with work drama that I did not really want to deal with. Well all I can say is that it is over and I have learned and coped and hopefully I will never go through a month like that again.

Big news for my car- it is really mine. Last week I gave up my Massachusetts license, plates, and title, in exchange for all Virginia credentials. To get all of these things involved long lines at the DMV, state inspections, car insurance, and expensive repairs to my car. Of course my window is still broken- it is going to cost another $300 to fix it. I will get it done later- I have spent enough money this month. Between entertaining Kim and Brenna, fixing up my car, and paying for car insurance- I am in the hole $800 + this month. That really really sucks. I guess in October I will be not spending any money.

For more pleasant news- I had a great weekend. Saturday I went out with Tobi to the National Zoo. I had a really great time- we saw Pandas, brown flamingos, and elephants. Today I went to the Redskins game with Chanelle. Dan was nice enough to offer me some tickets with him in a very luxurious suite. We had food served to us and it was an amazing view of the game. The Redskins won in overtime- with both Clinton Portis and Byron Leftwich scoring me major points for my fantasy football team. Chanelle was really intense with her cheering- she even knew the fight song.

Well I have a lot to look forward to in October, company retreat and Halloween at the end of the month, a trip home for Mai’s engagement party next weekend, and a lot of wild times in between. I look forward to it- I know I deserve it after last month.

Tags: blog, byron leftwich, carolla, clinton portis, fantasy sports, girls, massachusetts, national zoo, redskins