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Fantasy Football Advice
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Last week was a solid week for my predictions but it was filled with ups and downs. While my Texans vs Bills and Cowboys vs Seahawks picks were right on the money, I missed badly with my Jaguars vs Titans and Panthers vs Cardinals picks. Hopefully my week 9 picks can me more consistent. Game of the weak: Chiefs vs Jaguars: On a week where neither the Browns or Raiders play, it's hard to find a game for this category but if you have to choose, this would be the one."
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It's not every year that a fantasy football owner can pour over the schedule down the stretch and come up with the perfect trade target. The one time I can remember pulling it off to a rousing success was 2000. Thumbing through an issue of the now-defunct Fantasy Football Weekly magazine at lunchtime, I stumbled upon Fred Taylor's dream schedule from Week 9 through the end of the fantasy playoffs. The light bulb flipped on immediately, and I orchestrated trades for Fragile Fred in all of my leagues. The reward was the best eight-game stretch of Taylor's career, posting 11 touchdowns while averaging 144 yards per week to close out the season. While there isn't a back with that same perfect ..."
November 7
FantasyFootball.com
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The 2009 Fantasy Football Season is showing itself as one that has been extremely stingy with injuries to key RBs. Some owners employed a tactical strategy, on draft day, of waiting until the later rounds to secure high potential backup RBs and/or handcuff RBs in anticipation of the routine rash of RB injuries. In most leagues, these are the owners quickly watching their season dissipate. The result should be that a flock of owners will start to go into red alert desperation mode. Unfortunately, there isn't much new information germinating on overlooked hidden options. The market is backlogged due to the continued health and consistency of the original advertised frontline studs. As an ..."
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Need last-minute help? Look at these emerging players or overlooked veterans to start: QB: David Garrard, Jacksonville: Kansas City ranks as the league's fifth-worst pass defense and has allowed the fourth-most passing scores (13). Garrard has shown he could be very productive against a shaky defense when he threw for 323 yards and three scores at home against Tennessee in Week 4. QB: Matt Cassel, Kansas City: The Jaguars rank in the bottom quarter of pass defenses and have yielded the fourth-most passing scores (13). Cassel travels to Jacksonville aiming for his fourth contest of multiple passing scores. RB: Correll Buckhalter, Denver: Pittsburgh ranks as the top rushing defense, but is ..."
Fantasy Basketball Advice
November 7
CBSSports.com
columnist Sergio Gonzalez
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Week 3 (Nov. 9-15) Teams playing four games: Dallas, Golden State, Houston, L.A. Clippers, Minnesota, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Toronto, Utah Teams playing three games: Atlanta, Boston, Bobcats, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, L.A. Lakers, Memphis, Miami, New Jersey, New York, Orlando, San Antonio Teams playing two games: Indiana, Milwaukee, Sacramento, Washington The Celtics will play three games this week against teams allowing an average of 103.9 points per game. It could be a strong week for Rasheed Wallace from beyond the arc and even Kendrick Perkins could be considered a viable No. 2 center this week ... With so many injuries for the Nets ..."
November 7
ESPN.com
columnist Neil Tardy
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It's never too early to start addressing your needs. This sentence was initially the opener of my upcoming self-help book "How to be Awesome Like Me," but I decided it applied so well to fantasy hoops that I'd start this week's Working the Wire with it. Analyzing team needs is everything, and even though it's way too early to depend completely upon a sample size of four or five games, your team's glaring deficiencies should be evident by now. The best way to make sure you're not climbing out of a hole in December is by making sure the hole isn't dug in November, so don't wait to start compensating for team weaknesses. Unless your league is filled with slow movers, most of the monumental ..."
November 6
SportsGrumblings.com
columnist Adam Schwitters
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Southwest Division San Antonio Spurs: With the profusion of good new talent on this team, expect the scoring numbers from Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli to drop off from their career averages. DeJuan Blair looks to be one of the top waiver pickups out there with a strong combination of rebounding and 8.3 ppg thus far. Also, his owners can breathe a sigh of relief, for Ginobli is rabies negative after his bizarre encounter with a bat on Halloween. Dallas Mavericks: Fantasy owners rejoice! The Matrix, Shawn Marion, is finally back on a real team. He should begin filling up the stat sheets as he adjusts to his new team. Don't expect him to take too many threes, since this team will rely on ..."
November 6
SportsGrumblings.com
columnist Damian Schaab
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So, have you guys missed me? It's been a few months since we've shot the excrement about rotisserie basketball, but since the season's underway, I thought NOW would be an appropriate time to get one of staple articles of SportsGrumblings.com, Hello, ROTO, tipped-off. Many of you followed our bigger and better pre-season draft package and some have already started emailing our crack(ed) staff with myriad questions about who to draft, who to add, and why so-and-so is sucking like a Hoover. Fortunately, we're here to help, and, for the questions we struggle to answer, you can always turn to the mounds of Halloween candy you've hidden from the kiddies, only to consume it ad nausea all by ..."
Fantasy Baseball Advice
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According to MLB.com, the Pittsburgh Pirates have acquired second baseman Akinori Iwamura from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for pitcher Jesse Chavez. Let's take a look at the fantasy impact of the deal. The Pirates Iwamura fills a glaring hole for the team, which was created when they traded Freddy Sanchez to the San Francisco Giants during their 2009 purge. Iwamura, who had lost his starting job to Ben Zobrist when he suffered an ACL tear, will provide a steady bat at the top of the lineup. He's a career .281 hitter and has shown a decreasing strikeout rate as he's grown accustomed to life in the major leagues. 2007: 23.2 percent (491 AB) 2008: 20.9 percent (627 AB) 2009: 19.0 percent ..."
November 3
Foxsports.com
columnist John Halpin
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Welcome to the 2009-10 fantasy baseball offseason, folks! We're all Yankee fans around here, exulting as our team looks toward clinching its first World Series title in nine long years ... right? No? I'd better shut up, then. These positional previews will appear every Tuesday until around Christmas. My initial position-by-position ranking lists should also be ready by mid-December. I'd do them now, but before most of the free agent dominoes have fallen into place, what's the point? Here we go with the catchers. The Man Joe Mauer, Twins — This guy has three batting titles in five big league seasons, and this year he added a serious amount of power to his arsenal (28 HRs after missing ..."
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Matt Wieters was one of the most anticipated players heading into 2009, with fantasy owners waiting with bated breath for him to make his presence felt. Of course, the results fell short of the lofty expectations, as Wieters was kept in the minors until May 29 before being recalled and posting the following line: 354 At-Bats .288 Batting Average (102 Hits) 9 Home Runs 43 RBI 35 Runs 0 Stolen Bases .340 On Base Percentage .412 Slugging Percentage .359 Batting Average on Balls in Play With those numbers in the book and the talent still prevalent, what can we expect from him in 2010? Before I get into my projections, please keep in mind these are extremely preliminary numbers. I'll be ..."
November 2
CBSSports.com
columnist Al Melchior
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Baseball's power trend is sort of like the economy. The numbers tell us that the decline is coming to an end, but things still aren't like they used to be. For the first time since 2006, major leaguers collectively hit more than 5,000 home runs, resulting in a 3.9 percent increase in homers per at-bat. This modest boost did virtually nothing to create a larger pool of power hitters in Fantasy. Last season, 28 batters hit at least 30 home runs, and this year 30 players went deep 30 times or more. Options for mid-level power became more scarce, as there were five fewer players in the 20-plus club this year as compared to last. Though it would have seemed absurd to say this earlier in the ..."
Fantasy Hockey Advice
November 7
FantasyHockey.com
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Is Craig Anderson Vezina Trophy material, or is he nothing more than fool's gold for the rest of the season? Craig Anderson is a deserving winner of the NHL's Player of the Month in October, and he has propelled many a fantasy team to the top of their league. The signs were there for a possible fast start, as Anderson was able to compete with Tomas Vokoun for playing time last season in Florida thanks to a .924 SV%. Anderson will be a solid goalie for the rest of the season, but there are a couple points that I should make that would suggest that his statistics are due for a regression. First, the Avalanche have given up a league-leading 526 shots on goal this season. All the more reason ..."
November 7
Rotoworld.com
columnist Mike Finewax
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Well, it is early November and the Peter Forsberg sweepstakes are heating up. Forsberg is playing for his native Sweden in the Karjala Cup which is a four team tournament that is taking place from November 5-8. Forsberg is looking to stay healthy and if he manages to do so, he would like to sign on with an NHL team, although Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL are also very interested. It has been two seasons since Forsberg last played on this side of the pond, but their is still plenty of interest in the talented, but injury-prone Swede."
November 7
Bucket of Pucks
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The injuries just keep on coming early in this NHL season and there seems to be no end in sight. Luckily, there are a few guys on the mend. Lets jump right in and see who is about to get back on the ice for your squads. Imminent Returns: Jonathan Toews –C – Chicago Blackhawks While Toews is finally back on the ice after getting knocked into next week by Vancouver's Willie Mitchell, he is still a day or two from playing. Give him a couple of days and a game or two to get his feet back under him, but be sure to have him in your lineup for next week. Patrick Elias – LW – New Jersey Devils Still practicing, Elias is only a day or two away and he may even return on Friday against the ..."
November 7
ESPN.com
columnist Pierre LeBrun
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Just about every NHL team has been hampered by injuries this season, with more than 100 players in the medical ward right now around the league. Amazing. But when you're the Nashville Predators, with the 28th-ranked payroll in the NHL, injuries hammer away at your depth just a little more than they do the average team. The frugal Preds don't have the luxury of hiding expensive, one-way contracts in the AHL. They just can't afford it. <>So when top center Jason Arnott misses six games or agitator Jordin Tootoo misses the opening month of the season, yeah, the Preds feel that. But they survived the opening month of the season, winning their last three games in October to get back to the .500 ..."