Fantasy Football Preview

This year I am in two leagues:  Kevin's league that I was in last and one with a bunch of Pittsburgh fans via twitter.  We shall now take a look at how my teams look. 

Ngewo's Crappy Team
In Kevin's league, I was able to attend the draft because a certain hurricane caused the date to change and instead of being an in-person draft, we just did it online.  Here are my results:

I like this team.  I took a chance on Jones and if he can perform well, I could honestly see some big things from him come mid-season.

I took Antonio Brown very late because I figured, what the heck.  Might as well get him now before someone scarfs him up if he starts putting up big numbers.

I think my biggest problem will be deciding who to start in my flex position each week.  Do I go with Best or Jones? 

Another tough decision is which QB to start.  I guess that is a good thing though.

Their are only eight teams in this league, so it is hard to tell if my team is really good, or if everyone's team is really good.  If that makes sense...

I am a little annoyed that Ryan did not get in the league this year, since he was the one who got me involved.  We had some fun last year with trades and playoff games...well Ryan, if you want to offer advice, feel free.

FinishingInTheRear
This league is a little different:  14 teams, more position players:  3 WR/3 RB/and the flex position includes TE, also there is a defensive player as well.

Unfortunately, since it was decided pretty late to do this league, the draft was set for today and the only time available was 2:00, so I had to let Yahoo auto-draft.  I did a little adjusting to the pre-rankings, but I did not notice the defensive player, so I have no clue how this will turn out.

Auto-draft looks to have done a fairly good job.  I realized when I got to work that when I bumped defenses up in the pre-rankings that I may have pushed them way too high.  I was almost hoping that I would end up with Green Bay and Pittsburgh.  Figured that would be good trade bait.

My WRs look a little week, and I could be in trouble if Stafford gets hurt pretty early on.  I might have to look into making a trade with one of my RBs.

I also could probably upgrade on the defensive player, but I will need to look to see how the scoring works.  When Amanda (the commissioner of the league) tweeted me my roster, it said B. McCann.  My first thought was:  huh, they really did make it a combined baseball/football fantasy league.  I was happy with McCann as my catcher...

On a side-note (I am very hyphen happy tonight), I want someone to invent a year long fantasy sports league that allows you to draft players from all sports.  And I have the perfect day to hold the draft:  the day after the baseball all-star game.  No sports games that day!  You allow the season to run until the next ASG...it would be awesome...

Anyways, let me know what you think of my teams, what could I improve?  Also, I will try to update my weeks just like I do for baseball, but that will have to happen on Tuesday.

Fantasy Baseball Week 22

The final regular week of the season.  Unfortunately, I was winning 12-0 all week, then on Saturday some of my pitchers sucked and Shellie's pitchers decided to take advantage.  She took over ERA on Saturday, and then on Sunday, some asshole named Jeremy Hellickson decided to throw a complete game shutout.  That dropped the final score to 9-2.  I went from sixth place to fifth place, but had I not tied the win category, I would have jumped to third and if I went 12-0, I am pretty sure I would have been in second place.

Congratulations to Ryan for getting the first seed and pretty much dominating all season.  Good luck to everyone in the playoffs.  This week I take on James, who finished in fourth place.  I tied him the first time and beat him 9-3 last time.  Good luck my friend!

My best player this week was Dustin Ackley, he hit .429/.480, had a HR and a SB.  He also racked up six RBIs and three Runs.  Great week for the rookie.

Fantasy Baseball Week 21

I definitely owe Jason a few dozen cookies!  Okay, not like he actually benched everyone, but he could have been a dick and started paying attention this week.  I beat him 7-3, which is great, but there is even better news:  I am now in sixth place!!!

I decided to pick up John Danks and he was a very pleasant surprise.  A win and 10 Ks.  I will take it all day long.  Verlander picked up two wins this week, but Sabathia did not have one.  I tied that category, ugh.

My best hitter was Ortiz, the dude was a beast this week.  Ryan Braun also had another huge week, with four stolen bases.  Unfortunately, he did most of his good work against the Pirates, so he deserves this picture:

Picture via the always awesome Rumbunter...

Fantasy Baseball Week 20

Fuck!  I was winning all week long!  Sorry about the vulgarity, but it is the only way I can express how angry I am after this week.  When I left on Saturday morning for a weekend trip, I was up 7-3.  I came home Sunday night and had lost to Dave, 6-5.  What the hell happened?

Well the first thing I can mention, is that I did not start Jon Lester on Monday.  I came home from work and assumed that he would be on a night game, but no!  He was playing at noon or something ridiculous.  We tied in strikeouts, Lester had at least one that game.  Also, his ERA and WHIP would have driven mine down, although I do not think enough to actually win.

I have two weeks left to go from 8th place to 6th place.  This is actually doable, since 1.0 game behind the sixth place person.  This week I take on Jason/Nick (who is probably not paying attention anymore or if the should at least not start anyone and allow me to sweep them...please.)

Tough to decide who my superstar was, probably because I am so irritated.  I would have to say Ryan Zimmerman, but one could argue for Derek Jeter or Ryan Braun.  Drew Stubbs still eats cock.

Fantasy Baseball Week 19

I beat Dan 6-5.  Unfortunately, it dropped me to 8th place in the league.  Still pretty close to jumping up in the standings though.

I won the pitching categories minus WHIP and the only hitting category I won was OBP.  My team was actually pretty good hitting-wise.  We tied with eight HRs and my team did hit .278 for the week.

My pitching was okay, nothing great.  I really do not even have a player that I want to mention as my superstar this week.  I guess I will go with Josh Tomlin, he had a win and a 1.42 ERA with a nice .79 WHIP.

This week I take on Dave, and I seriously need a victory.  A big one...

Fantasy Baseball Week 18

Another win!  I beat Pat 6-4, bringing my record back over .500.  I am now in seventh place and could jump into sixth with another week or so.  I won the following categories:  runs, average, OBP, holds, ERA, and WHIP.  We tied stolen bases and strikeouts, which is just annoying.  You mean one of my pitchers could not get one more K?

My pitchers were not spectacular this week.  I only mustered two wins.  I also only picked up four saves (three of which were from Drew Storen).  My hitters were okay, but no one really had a mind blowing week.  Ryan Zimmerman scored three runs, had five RBIs, and hit for .429/.500 over the week.  Not too shabby.

Enjoy my photoshopping skills...

I want to point out how much I hate Drew Stubbs.  The days I started him, he would end up being hitless and pretty much useless.  I benched him on Sunday and he hit a homer and stole a base.  Ugh, that has been how he has been all season.  A complete cock-muncher.

This week I take on Dan, who is in dead last.  I should beat him and if I can give him a good beat down, hopefully I will be in sixth place.

Fantasy Baseball Week Seventeen

This was an intense week.  Every time I would check the match-up at work it would flip-flop.  I would be up 6-5, then down 7-4.  It was pretty nerve racking.  I ended the week in a strong way though, cementing a victory over Offord 7-3.  The most impressive thing was coming back to win runs on Sunday.  My team scored nine runs to take the category.  I also won RBIs, AVE, OBP, Ks, Holds, and WHIP.

Allow me to bitch and complain for a second.  I use Fantasy Guru on my phone and I have not had any problems with it before.  Saturday night, I set my team for Sunday including Justin Verlander.  For some reason the stupid thing did not take the change and I had him on the bench.  He had a win, 9 Ks, and 0 earned runs over eight innings!  We tied in the wins category!  I do not feel like doing the math to see if it would much it would have dropped my team ERA.

My big player was definitely Ryan Roberts, granted a bunch of guys on my team had great weeks, but Roberts has been slumping and it was nice to get any kind of production out of my second base position.  He hit .389/.500, 4 Runs, 2 HRs, 3 RBIs.

My pitching was good again, minus Charlie Morton deciding to completely ruin the hard work of Sabathia, Lester, and Verlander (his first start anyway).  Ryan offered me a trade for Jon Lester, I think it was Carlos Pena and Heyward.  I turned it down, at the moment my team is firing on all cylinders.  I do not see a reason to mess with anything, unless a great trade would come along.

My record is now 96-97-11 and I am still in 8th place.  Another win this week and I could quickly be in sixth and then from there, who knows...

Fantasy Baseball Week 16

It was the moment you have all been waiting for:  the rematch between Ngewo's World and Sean's Ramblings.  I won the last match-up and needed a big win to keep myself in the playoff hunt.  Needless I gave Sean a smackdown he will not forget!  Okay, that is not true, I beat him 8-4.

He beat me in Wins, Ks, Holds, and SBs.  How weird is that?  The categories I lost were the ones I usually win...Sadly it was a week where Sabathia and Verlander had only won start each.  Normally they would pile up the strikeouts and get me a bunch of wins.  Also, Drew Stubbs usually gets me stolen bases, but I have not been starting him since he is slumping.  Oh well, you cannot win them all I guess, right?

My team hit 11 HRs, and hit .310/.373, pretty awesome.  My pitching was also great with a 2.16 ERA/1.08 WHIP.  Why can't they do this every week?

I had some major hitters this week:  Ryan Braun, Eric Hosmer, Derek Jeter, and Ryan Zimmerman (amazing that I had seven stolen bases, but still lost that category).  My best hitter was Miguel Montero, well that is a toss-up since Braun was pretty awesome too.  Just take a look at these numbers.

I am still in 8th place with a record of 89-94-9, but I am slowly making my way back up to at least sixth place.  I am taking on Offord this week, he is in 2nd place.  Imler is in 7th place, but he is taking on James this week, so you an imagine who I am rooting for...

Fantasy Baseball Week 15

I love shortened weeks.  I beat James 9-3.  Sadly, my team actually did alright minus Sunday.  I rocked 20 Runs, 4 HRs, 21 RBIs...hell, normally that would be my total for an entire week.  I would have won batting average, but then Sunday pretty much blew.

Not too much to analyze here.  My best player was probably Mike Stanton.  I have already used him before and I figure I should use someone different.  So this week, I chose Koji Uehara.  He picked up the one hold which won that category for me.

My record is now 81-90-9 and I am in 8th place.  This week I take on Sean, who I beat 6-5 back in week five.  Hopefully I can finish the sweep...

Fantasy Baseball Week Fourteen

Oh bloody hell!  I hate you world!  If I would have written this yesterday, I would have said that I beat Ryan 6-5.  Unfortunately, after a stat correction took away a stolen base from Eric Hosmer on Sunday, Ryan ended up winning that category, which means we tied 6-6.  UGH!

Anyways, my team played pretty well.  I finally won batting average and OBP with a .295/.358.  I also won RBIs, Saves, Ks, and ERA.  It was definitely a nice change of pace. 

My best hitter was some guy that collected his 3000th hit.  I would tell you all about his huge week, but most of that was due to his five-hit day against the Rays.  Also, I could tell you that Sabathia was my best pitcher, with two wins and 20 Ks, and 0.00 ERA/.75 WHIP.

Instead though, my player of the week, my big hero was definitely Alex Presley.  He hit .368/.429 and also scored five runs.  Not too bad for a guy just called up because of Tabata's injury.  If there was a category for looking like a 12 year old, Presley would have dominated for me.

Fantasy Baseball Week Thirteen

The winning streak came to an end, although I guess it was not really much of a winning streak.  Imler beat me 8-3, which pretty much blows since a win would have brought me to almost .500 and the win did bring him over .500.

Both of our teams were bad, this was not an epic battle.  My team had a .241/.311 OBP/AVG and those are the categories I won.  I had 10 SBs, but only 14 Runs, in general that should not happen, right?  Also, I failed to start Jon Lester (he and Sabathia had been starting a day apart and when I saw Sabathia/Verlander starting, I assumed Lester was not going to be pitching that day).  I missed out on a win from Lester, which would have given me one more category, plus the drop in ERA could have given me the lead there as well.  I am too lazy to figure it out.  Also if Brian Wilson did not suck, my ERA/WHIP would have been pretty good.

Speaking of good players, Ryan Braun should have had a great week:  he hit .529/.600, but had no Runs or HRs and only 3 RBIs.  I guess my best player was Mike Moustakas, he scored two runs and had one RBI, with a line of .421/.476.

I am glad that interleague play is over so that David Ortiz can return to the lineup.  He is not much of a pinch hitter and having him on my bench seemed to kill any of my chances for RBIs.  I am still offering any of my pitchers for hitters.  Imler, I do not want another starter, sorry.

Fantasy Baseball Week Twelve

Well, Gideon and I had a pretty good battle.  We tied 6-6.  That did not help me gain any ground in the standings.  I also continue to lose the same categories every week:  HRs, AVE, OBP, ERA, WHIP.  I need to make a trade to change that, I need someone elite.  I have the pitching if anyone wants it.

My most dominant player was Verlander again, but since I posted a picture of him last week and I do not like to double post pictures.  Sabathia was pretty good as well, getting a win, 9 Ks, and a 1.13 ERA.  My big hitter was, wait for it...Erick Aybar.  He hit a HR with 6 Runs scored, 3 RBIs, 1 SB, .391/.417.  Not bad for a light hitting shortstop. 

Next week, I plan on taking a look at how my season totals are doing in comparison to my actual head-to-head stats.

Fantasy Baseball Week Eleven

I won another week!  7-5 over ShellieShellyShelleyMichelleJason'sGirlfriend Jason's Female Companion (I do not want to say girlfriend because that might be some kind of anti-feminist jargon).  Anyways, the impressive thing to me is that during my preview of the season, I had her team as dominating pitching stats, but I pretty much dominated her.  She beat me in K's and WHIP (her WHIP was .97, hard to beat that, mine was 1.05).  I racked up 8 wins and 4 saves with a 2.77 ERA, very nice!

Hitting was not a strong suit for me.  They hit .235/.285 with four HRs.  Ugh.  I did manage to win RBIs and SBs.  I had some terrible hitting from some guys, especially Stubbs, Brantley, and Stanton.  I did get Ryan Zimmerman back, so that was a positive.  My big hitter was Ryan Braun.

The player I want to focus on though was Justin Verlander.  He was absolutely dominant:  2 Wins, 17 Ks, .50 ERA, .39 WHIP.  He almost threw a no-hitter.  That trade definitely worked out for me.

I am still in 10th place and I need to win a few more weeks by more than two.  Hopefully things can continue to go my way for a bit.  I take on Gideon this week.  I hope I can win.

Fantasy Baseball Week Ten

Holy shit!  I finally won, the first time since week five.  Granted, I only won 7-5, but a win is a win.  I beat Jason/Nick's team.  I realize this does not mean my team is ready to start knocking down the door for first place, but it just feels good.

My hitting was good, 46 Runs, 14 HRs, 45 RBIs, 5 SB.  My AVG/OBP were low though, .263/.348.  I had some very good players this week:  Ryan Braun, Michael Brantley, Drew Stubbs, and the amazing David Ortiz (8 Runs, 4 HRs, 13 RBIs, .320/.414).  This week though, the honor goes out to Mike Moustakas, the newly promoted Kansas City Royal 3B, who also hit his first HR this week.  Oh, and i picked him up.

My pitching was decent, I took wins, saves, and WHIP.  I should have taken ERA, but my weekend was kind of scary.  Drew Storen and Justin Verlander were my pitching studs (okay, Jon Lester was pretty good too).  Storen had 4 saves and a 0.00 ERA/.80 WHIP.  Verlander had 1 Win, 10 Ks, 1.13/.75.

I need two good weeks and I could make my way back to .500.  It is a slow process, but I know this team is good enough to do it.  The bastards just need to get their heads out of their asses.

Fantasy Baseball Week Nine and My Thoughts on Gerrit Cole

I hate fantasy baseball!  Okay, that is not true, but I hate when my team plays better, but still loses badly.  I lost 8-3, but the worst part about that is on Sunday it was 7-5 and I was very close to tying or overtaking in a bunch of categories.  Sadly, my team played crappy on Sunday.  I was winning ERA, and then Drew Storen decided to give up three runs in a 1/3 of an inning.  That did not help my team, nor did Jon Rauch or Wade Davis, bunch of jerks.

Also, I noticed something all week:  Drew Stubbs is very good at starting a game with this line:  1/1, 2 Runs, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 SB and then he will go hitless the rest of the game.  That irritates me.  I can only give credit to one of my players:  David Ortiz.  Everyone else was either a .300 hitter or a .190 hitter, but Ortiz (Hosmer hit .400) hit .545 with 2 HR, 5 Runs, 6 RBIs, and a .583 OBP.  NICE!

In the other league, Offord and I continue to battle for last place.  My team has been plagued by injuries.  I keep offering some of my pitching to guys for some hitting, but no one will respond to a trade.  Actually, that is one of the many things I dislike about this league.  Trades take way too long to process (and the only way people will trade is if it is staggeringly in their favor).  The commissioner says it is three days, but Ryan and I have traded twice and it feels like about a week to process.  It took so long on our last one that one of my players went on the DL, which caused the trade to be canceled.  We did the trade over minus some players and it ended up being over two weeks.  One of those guys I was getting rid of was Adam Dunn, in that time he hit .125 with one HR.  I could have done without that shit.  I honestly doubt I will play in the league next year, which people will think that I am just upset about not doing well, but that is not it.

Gerrit Cole

The Pirates drafted Gerrit Cole from UCLA with first overall pick of the draft.  I know many people wanted Anthony Rendon, but after watching how he dropped, I am guessing teams were weary of his injury problems.

After watching video of Cole pitch for Team USA, I am very happy with this pick.  He apparently used a different delivery and his fastball had some nasty movement.  I am sure the Pirates will work with him to throw more that way (more like Charlie Morton).  I love the idea of having more power pitchers in the system.  We now have Tallion, Allie, Heredia, and Cole (as long as he signs) to work with.  It makes sense to go with the power arm, if something happens to one of the others, you still have someone to work with. 

Also, read Kristy Robinson's article about his chat with media.

Fantasy Baseball Weeks Seven and Eight

My team blows.  Well, I do not really think that, they are pretty good, but they just do not play well together.  Bunch of freakin' dickbags.  I am not going to give a huge recap about my weeks, but I will say that I cannot believe I lost 9-2 to Pat back in week seven.  If I remember correctly, the score was either tied or 6-5 (Pat) going into Sunday and then his team decided to be amazing.  Ugh.

I tied Dan 5-5 for week eight.  I do not think he even pays attention.  He has a guy on the DL starting, he never moved his pitchers around.  Ugh.  My pitching was atrocious.  Actually it has been pretty bad the last two weeks.

The only pitcher that I think was any good for me was Charlie Morton.  He had a win and a great ERA/WHIP.  My big hitter was Ryan Braun (Mike Stanton was huge in week seven).  Anyways, I am getting frustrated.

Picture via WHYGAVS.

Fantasy Baseball Week Six

The week of the trade.  I finally got some sucker to take Adam Dunn off my hands.  Actually, I traded Adam Dunn, Troy Tulowitzki, and Trevor Cahill for Ryan Braun and Wade Davis.  I realize that I probably lost something in the power department, but Braun brings me consistency.  He has been one of the most consistent hitters from week to week for a few seasons now.  I made another trade, Justin Masterson for Derek Jeter.  After the Braun trade, I picked up Erik Aybar who is killing it.  So now, I have two shortstops...hmm

Offord beat me this week 7-5.  It was a pretty good battle, we were tied 6-6 going into Sunday and he picked up a stolen base to break the tie.  I knew I should have started Jose Tabata...only a freakin' moron leaves a speedster off their lineup when all they need is a SB.  I deserved to lose.

My pitching was pretty unfantastic this week.  Allow me to rephrase that:  my starting pitching blew.  My relievers were excellent, but the play crappy teams so they picked up some wins for me, but only three saves.  Lester/Sabathia/Davis all had ERAs over 6.00 this week.  Not a recipe for success.

My player of the week was definitely the newly acquired Ryan Braun (who most Pirate fans loathe).  He hit .375/.474, 5 Runs, 2 HRs, 9 RBIs, and 2 SBs.  I will take that all week long.

This week I take on Pat, who is in 9th place.  I stayed in 7th place.  Everyone had pretty even series last week, so even though I did not win, there is still not a ton of ground to make up.  Just need a dominant week.

Fantasy Baseball Week Five

This week I took on Sean (from Sean's Ramblings) and we had a pretty good battle.  Well it was a good battle if you consider one team having .193/.271 batting average/OBP.  I beat Sean 6-5-1, which brought me back to .500 (I am just like the Pirates!) and proved to me yet again that I can remain competitive even with crappy hitting.  Just look at these hitting stats.

Look at how ugly some of those numbers are.  At least My Savior decided to make a good start.  Adam Dunn actually had a good game the day I put him on the bench.  My big hitter for the week was David Ortiz.  I won stolen bases and we tied in home runs.

Over on the pitching side, well I dominated.  The only category he won was WHIP and that was because of an amazing pitching line on Sunday:  19.2 IP/2 Wins/21 Ks/1.37 ERA/1.22 WHIP.  That brought his down enough (and mine went up just enough) to win the category.

My best player was probably Brian Wilson (and his disgusting beard):  2 Wins/3 Saves/7 Ks/0.00 ERA/0.80 WHIP.  He had more saves than Sean's entire team and almost as many wins.

This week I take on Offord, who is a half game ahead of me.  I could use a big win, but I will settle for another close one.

My Savior!

Dear Eric Hosmer,
Please save my fantasy baseball team.  All you have to do is hit .225 and hit more than three homers in 85 at-bats.  I AM LOOKING AT YOU ADAM DUNN!!!  You better step up, your replacement is on my bench and will probably start over the weekend!  I am disgusted.
Your friend,
Ngewo

Fantasy Baseball Week Four

Remember how I said that James had the best projected team?  Well at the start of the week, it seemed like he was going to destroy me.  I think at one point it was 8-2.  I was happy with ending at a tie of 6-6.  In fact, my pitching dominated at the end of the week and finally evened it up on Sunday by bringing my WHIP down.  The only hitting category I won was stolen bases and the only pitching category I lost was holds.

Do not get me wrong, I am not too pleased with how poorly my team has hit this season.  Adam Dunn is killing me (in both leagues), I just keep hoping that he will heat up and start hitting home runs soon.  I had two big hitters this week:  Drew Stubbs (6 Runs, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 4 SB .296/.367) and Ryan Roberts (4 Runs, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 1 SB, .353/.421).  Keep up the great work guys!

I think I may have too many closers.  I have great starters in Lester and Sabathia, and a few of the better mid-level guys, but I ended up with 10 saves.  If anyone is in need of a closer, well you know where to find me.  Hell, I even picked up Kuo when he came off the DL, he could get me holds, but with Broxton sucking it up, he could also pick up some saves...

You might be wondering why I have a picture of the injured Ryan Zimmerman.  Well...he is not back from his injury.  He also had surgery and will miss at least six weeks.  My life sucks...