FF2010: 2010 Fantasy Football catch-all thread

Ok, call me OCD but the fact that that 2009 thread kept popping up was bugging me. Here's a new thread for a new season.

As the title says, it's a catch-all so if you want to talk about GWJFFL, that's fine, but know that I'll be ignoring any and all "sign me up" posts that show up here. Sign-ups will open on or around July 30th and that thread will be the only place where you can claim a team or a spot on the waiting list.

Sign me up!

Maurice Jones-Drew is going to be hosting a fantasy football show on XM Radio.

I've suspected for a while that he's going to be the next player to make the jump to media after he retires. A week ago, he filled in for Peter King at King's SI.com column.

Could be some Jag bias, but I think I'll like him on TV much more than Tiki Barber or Marshall Faulk.

MJD was a real workhorse for me a couple years there.

Scanned through the 09 threads here the other day... you guys have some weird rules. But I'll probably try to join in anyway. As mad as my wife gets with me playing Fantasy, how much madder could she really get if I play in two leagues right?

Do we talk about the next episode of the podcast here too?

garion333 wrote:

Do we talk about the next episode of the podcast here too? :P

DON'T JUDGE ME.

*Legion* wrote:

Could be some Jag bias, but I think I'll like him on TV much more than Tiki Barber or Marshall Faulk.

Point of order: only one of them is employed at the moment.

garion333 wrote:

Do we talk about the next episode of the podcast here too? :P

It's the dead period. Not much to discuss of substance. When training camps open, maybe.

boogle wrote:

DON'T JUDGE ME.

Says the guy who opens a thread all about his alleged sex life for all to see.

Count me in, of course.

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And what weird rules, Stele?

We try to follow the WCOFF standard scoring rules.

Dan Kelly wrote:

Count me in, of course.

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And what weird rules, Stele?

We try to follow the WCOFF standard scoring rules.

I don't recall exactly. Something about waivers and having some kind of fee associated with free agents. And the roster being 20 players seemed like overkill, but I guess that depends on how many teams are in the league.

Background: I've played 4 years in a small 10-man league with 15 roster spots, including an "offensive player" that can even be a 2nd QB. It's actually really cool, especially the OP thing. So many leagues are all about 2-3 RBs plus a flex spot which always ends up being a RB, and then if there's more than 11-12 teams in the league, that leaves a chunk of the teams counting on a backup RB (or 2) for points every week. Praying that a team doesn't score but then puts in the goal line back on 3rd down so you can get some points just doesn't seem much fun to me. I like everyone to have a chance to play some starters, even if that ends up meaning smaller roster size or less teams in the league.

Clearly I'm in the minority though, a lot of my friends are in 15-team Yahoo leagues and they are picking up 4th WR and 3rd string RB off waivers and praying for injuries so they can get some points. Not sure how it's fun but apparently it is.

Purposefully not speaking to the rest of it (because I just don't have the energy right now - I'm just *Legion* or someone will be along to explain/defend roster size), I just want to note that, because it's a PPR league, that flex position is just as often a WR as it is a RB.

Hopefully I can get in on this season.

Grumpicus wrote:

I just want to note that, because it's a PPR league, that flex position is just as often a WR as it is a RB.

That might help I guess. The norm I've seen with so many leagues is whoever has 3 good RBs wins, and the rest of everything doesn't matter points-wise.

Stele wrote:
Grumpicus wrote:

I just want to note that, because it's a PPR league, that flex position is just as often a WR as it is a RB.

That might help I guess. The norm I've seen with so many leagues is whoever has 3 good RBs wins, and the rest of everything doesn't matter points-wise.

Last year I found in the non-PPR leagues that it almost always came down to QB play because running backs were so inconsistent, excepting a few obvious players. My combination of Reggie Wayne and Ray Rice (selected in the 8th round I believe) won me more games than the running backs selected ahead of those players.

Stele wrote:

I don't recall exactly. Something about waivers and having some kind of fee associated with free agents.

You're talking about free agent bidding. It's quickly becoming the standard method of free agency, because it's pretty much the only completely fair one out there.

You bid from your virtual $100, highest bidder gets the free agent. There's no more having to race to your PC the minute free agency opens for the week so you can be the first one to grab someone. And waiver orders don't allow you to set your own priority. Have a high waiver order but just want to pick up someone incidental? Sorry, there goes your high waiver order, back to the end of the line. Plus waiver orders often don't apply to all free agents, making all other free agents the who-gets-their-first land grab.

Bidding lets me set my priority (dollar amount). I save my high priority by not bidding high, not by sitting there and making no waiver transactions at all.

Bidding cuts through all the BS, and allows you to have a life. Get on the PC anytime between Tuesday and Thursday, and you get the same fair attempt at free agents as everyone else.

And the roster being 20 players seemed like overkill, but I guess that depends on how many teams are in the league.

Top level leagues are overwhelmingly 20 player rosters now, as far as I can see.

The point? It rewards knowledge and foresight. Smaller roster leagues flatten out the skill differential between fantasy owners. With 20 roster spots, the smart player spends his late rounds drafting guys he knows have talent and could break out later, while the unskilled players are grabbing random bodies from their cheat sheet. Come week 7, the smart player has breakout guys, the unskilled player has stiffs.

Take away those roster spots, and the smart player is no longer able to exploit that knowledge. Week 7 rolls around, the guy the smart player wishes he had room for breaks out, and any old bozo who has never heard of the guy before then can grab him in free agency.

Too many roster spots, and you stifle free agency completely. But too few, and you leave free agency too rich, taking a sizable chunk of skill out of a game that's already significantly luck-based.

20 roster spots still sees value in the free agency pool, keeping the league accessible and not "too hardcore", but allows everyone to take the fliers on the guys they have "hunches" on. Those later rounds of the draft are easily my favorite. There's a couple of other owners who I love to watch and see who their "hunch" guys are.

So many leagues are all about 2-3 RBs plus a flex spot which always ends up being a RB, and then if there's more than 11-12 teams in the league, that leaves a chunk of the teams counting on a backup RB (or 2) for points every week.

As Grumpy mentioned, this is a PPR league, which dramatically levels the field between RBs and WRs. WRs are an extremely common flex play in this scoring system.

*Legion* wrote:

You're talking about free agent bidding. It's quickly becoming the standard method of free agency, because it's pretty much the only completely fair one out there.

You bid from your virtual $100, highest bidder gets the free agent. There's no more having to race to your PC the minute free agency opens for the week so you can be the first one to grab someone. And waiver orders don't allow you to set your own priority. Have a high waiver order but just want to pick up someone incidental? Sorry, there goes your high waiver order, back to the end of the line. Plus waiver orders often don't apply to all free agents, making all other free agents the who-gets-their-first land grab.

Bidding lets me set my priority (dollar amount). I save my high priority by not bidding high, not by sitting there and making no waiver transactions at all.

Bidding cuts through all the BS, and allows you to have a life. Get on the PC anytime between Tuesday and Thursday, and you get the same fair attempt at free agents as everyone else.

My league just does reverse order of standings for waivers. Guy who is losing gets first crack at improving his team. Seems fair. Never had any problem with getting to people, unless I was already good and don't really need them. ESPN locks the waiver pickups from gametime until Tues. Everyone gets a fair chance to set who they want, in what priority, who to drop, whatever, from Sun-Tues, and it automatically takes care of it at 3am or some ungodly hour.

I guess I had just not heard of bidding. I've heard of money leagues where you pay into the pool every time you pick someone up, or stuff like that. I guess the idea of running out of money and not being able to pick up free agents by mid-season seems odd to me.

*Legion* wrote:

Too many roster spots, and you stifle free agency completely. But too few, and you leave free agency too rich, taking a sizable chunk of skill out of a game that's already significantly luck-based.

Well that's exactly what I was curious about. Our 15-roster 10-man league there were some great guys available on waivers, it keep free agency very active, possibly too active. 15-spots with 12 teams probably would be a sweeter spot.

I guess the 20-man question depends on how many teams. Any more than 10 and it seems like there wouldn't be people worth picking up.

.

I agree with all your reasoning... fairness to everyone, keeping free agency lucrative, but still rewarding the draft. Just surprised at the numbers, if those really work then I guess it'll be fun.

Stele wrote:

I guess I had just not heard of bidding. I've heard of money leagues where you pay into the pool every time you pick someone up, or stuff like that. I guess the idea of running out of money and not being able to pick up free agents by mid-season seems odd to me.

Well, first, one should budget their money.

But beyond that, the way it works in our league, at the start of a week, all free agents have to go through bidding. Bids process on Thursday.

After all the bidding transactions trigger and players are assigned to the winning bidders, all remaining unclaimed free agents are available first-come, first-serve.

It's a waiver process, except all free agents have to re-pass through waivers every week, before becoming available for first-come pick-up again.

So if you're out of money, each week you can still grab free agents, after the bidding process has completed. The "hot" free agents will all go in the bidding cycle, but you are still able to make emergency moves for free based on whomever is left.

The idea is to just make all highly desirable free agents available in a completely fair format. Also, the bid money management adds an additional layer of strategy to the game, and I am all in favor of more strategery.

Hopefully that makes sense, because it's very simple in practice.

Don't we basically copy WCOFF rules? Just go look at their website if you want a breakdown of the rules. They have hundreds of people competing for thousands of dollars so I'm pretty sure they considered fairness when designing their rules.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Don't we basically copy WCOFF rules?

Yes, with some minor revisions given the friendly nature of the league (WCOFF disallows trades, for example, to prevent collusion).

*Legion* wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

Don't we basically copy WCOFF rules?

Yes, with some minor revisions given the friendly nature of the league (WCOFF disallows trades, for example, to prevent collusion).

Oh, we're supposed to trust you people?!?! Well, I guess since it's not my unborn (female) children I might be able to handle that.

garion333 wrote:

Oh, we're supposed to trust you people?!?! Well, I guess since it's not my unborn (female) children I might be able to handle that.

When she's born and hits sophomore year of high school, give her my number.

*Legion* wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Oh, we're supposed to trust you people?!?! Well, I guess since it's not my unborn (female) children I might be able to handle that.

When she's born and hits sophomore year of high school, give her my number.

If she's still available by the summer after her junior year, send her my way.

Rat Boy wrote:
*Legion* wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Oh, we're supposed to trust you people?!?! Well, I guess since it's not my unborn (female) children I might be able to handle that.

When she's born and hits sophomore year of high school, give her my number.

If she's still available by the summer after her junior year, send her my way.

I'm beating you both to the punch, let me know when she graduates middle school...........................................
Don't judge me.

I know God will punish me by giving me 3 daughters one day, which is my worst fear. My father-in-law has 3 daughters, I saw when his other two daughters started dating, and he's aged 30 years since.

Fantasy Football podcasts. Anyone recommend anything besides ESPN's Fantasy Focus Football? I have to admit that now that "the Fourth" is behind me, it's starting to feel like football season.

Grumpicus wrote:

Fantasy Football podcasts. Anyone recommend anything besides ESPN's Fantasy Focus Football? I have to admit that now that "the Fourth" is behind me, it's starting to feel like football season.

There's only one fantasy football podcast that I don't think is total crap.

FantasyGuru.com Radio

It's done by the same guys (John Hansen and Adam Caplan) who do the fantasy football show on SIRIUS/XM.

I don't like ESPN's podcast. Matthew Berry and the other guy really are baseball guys first.

Bumpity-bump. Are y'all dusting off your cheat sheets and making sure your "F5" key is working? GWJFFL and GWJFFL2 signups will start some time this week. I don't know when exactly I'll get my act together but it _won't_ be before my "clock" says 7/28 and _will_ be _before_ said clock reads 7/31. I know there will be at least two teams available in GWJFFL2 but that _may_ be all, so be sure to keep an eye on the "Sports Games and Leagues" forum.
[size=1]It will _probably_ be on Thursday but... no promises.[/size]

For those that are new here, sign-ups are essentially "first-come, first-serve" with the following qualifiers:
* Returning players (veterans) having 7 to 10 days (still TBD) to reclaim their teams for another season.
* Players who tried to join last year but didn't make the cut (let's call them the practice squad) can reclaim their spots at the top of the "expansion" list during the initial "returning players" period. According to my notes, that list has 6 people on it.
* New players (rookies) go on to the expansion list (in the order that they appear in the thread) to be slotted in as spaces open up in.

Finally, if there is enough demand, I _may_ be willing to take on the "paperwork" of setting up a third league, so if you're interested, make your voice heard. "Enough demand" will be defined at my discretion if and when it becomes relevant. I'll say this, though, the number of unique sign-ups necessary to warrant a third league will be >=36 (each league has 11 slots since I need to be in there to commish and stuff) as I need at least a few reserves for the inevitable late scratch.
[size=1]Right now, I'm thinking the magic number is 40 but that's pretty arbitrary.[/size]

For those who were eagerly awaiting the signup thread, hear it is...

FF2010: GWJFFL Signup and Discussion Thread

Is there any interest in a league that doesn't follow the GWJFFL rules?

I wouldn't mind getting involved in a ESPN PPR league with 6pts for passing TD's if anyone else is interested.

I already had my drafts for my money leagues last weekend and wouldn't mind a few competitive free leagues to play in as well but since I work nights and have no interest in a bidding system for free agents I'm looking for something with a weekend or even forum draft with a fairly standard PPR format.

Do we know the date/time for the drafts yet (specifically the 2nd group)?

93_confirmed wrote:

Do we know the date/time for the drafts yet (specifically the 2nd group)?

If we hold to form like last year, whenever boogle is on a date.

Rat Boy wrote:
93_confirmed wrote:

Do we know the date/time for the drafts yet (specifically the 2nd group)?

If we hold to form like last year, whenever boogle is on a date.

I don't think we can wait that long.

Well that means anytime in the future is out of the question, quick somebody make a time machine so we can go back in time and hold our draft.

oldmanscene24 wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:
93_confirmed wrote:

Do we know the date/time for the drafts yet (specifically the 2nd group)?

If we hold to form like last year, whenever boogle is on a date.

I don't think we can wait that long.

BAZINGA!

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I think Grump is going to do the scheduling thing where we all put in when we're available.