Early High-Stakes League Recap « FFT's Blog O' Fantasy Football

Early High-Stakes League Recap

By: Mike MacGregor — October 4, 2010 @ 4:58 pm

With the late pre-season rush to keep projections updated, breaking news flowing and help people using the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy to prep for their most important fantasy football drafts, my plan for a series of articles on playing high-stakes fantasy football went on the back burner.

As we hit Week Four of the season, I’ve told you the high-stakes contest options I compared and which two I finally decided to play in. Of course there is a lot to report since then – the draft, waiver moves, results through three weeks, current standings and future outlook for my teams.

In the interest of speeding things back up to the present, I’ll show you my drafted team and changes to get to the current roster, plus write a short blurb on each team with the results so far.

Overall, the competition in both leagues is TOUGH. Neither draft went very close to what I had hoped or planned. Either I was in leagues where I wrongly estimated where my top targeted players would fall, or I just happened to be in leagues with some like-minded owners.

In the Footballguys Players Championship (FPC), I snagged the third pick in the draft. Great! I’m all locked and loaded for Ray Rice, which I’m happy about. However, no WR I was excited for fell to me in the second round. Miles Austin miraculously fell all the way to 2.09 as the ultimate tease I might land him. When he went, I defaulted back to Ryan Mathews for a RB-RB start.

The third round, again, no WR available after I expected DeSean Jackson to get there. He didn’t. Okay, Jamaal Charles it is, for a RB-RB-RB start. For someone who preaches RB-WR balance to start your fantasy drafts, especially in a PPR league, this was not even close to the start I wanted.

Similarly in the NFFC Online Championship (NFFC), I had the ninth pick in the draft. With how far Austin fell in the other draft I was thinking a Miles Austin-Roddy White start was possible from nine. For whatever reason, I balked on Austin and took Reggie Wayne in the first round. Then the unexpected happened, in that the team drafting twelfth took Austin-White. Hey, that is my team! Ha.

At any rate in the first league someone could have had the choice of Austin or White at 2.04, and in this draft, neither one. I took Brandon Marshall instead, which is working out well, but again, not what I expected and it caused some fluster in my draft from there on out.

Okay, without further adieu, here are the cards I dealt myself and what I’ve exchanged them for, with my current record and brief outlook:

Footballguys Players Championship
Pos	Drafted	Added	Dropped
QB	Kevin Kolb Matt Cassel Alex Smith	Michael Vick (Wk 2)	Matt Cassel
RB	Ray Rice Ryan Mathews Jamaal Charles Cadillac Williams Rashad Jennings	Mike Tolbert (Wk 3)
WR	Hines Ward Santana Moss Mohamed Massaquoi James Jones Mike Thomas		Kenny Britt Sammie Stroughter
TE	Brent Celek Aaron Hernandez Daniel Fells	Tony Moeaki (Wk 3)	Daniel Fells
K	Dan Carpenter
DEF	Green Bay Packers	Kansas City Chiefs (Wk 2)

I started Kolb and he was a complete train wreck, even before the Clay Matthews induced concussion. Kolb was only part of the problem though, as none of my players seemingly knew where to find the end zone to start the season. Not a single starting RB, WR or TE scored a touchdown through the first two weeks except Charles in Week One against the Chargers.

Not surprisingly, I started 0-2. I since rebounded with a win thanks to adding Vick in Week Two plus Tolbert and Moeaki in Week Three, starting all of them last week along with Hernandez and benching Celek.

At 1-2 this team is going to need to keep clawing to earn the wins as I wait and hope for the Rice-Mathews-Charles trio to breakout. Santana Moss has been great but I am going to need some WR help from one of the prospect receivers Massaquoi, Jones and Thomas sooner or later.

NFFC Online Championship
Pos	Drafted	Added	Dropped
QB	Eli Manning Josh Freeman
RB	Ahmad Bradshaw Marion Barber Cadillac Williams Kareem Huggins Tashard Choice Bernard Scott
WR	Reggie Wayne Brandon Marshall Dwayne Bowe Bernard Berrian Mike Thomas Nate Washington Anthony Gonzalez Brandon LaFell	Brandon Lloyd (Wk 2)	Anthony Gonzalez
TE	Antonio Gates John Carlson
K	Joe Nedney	John Kasay (Wk 2) Nick Folk (Wk 3)	Joe Nedney John Kasay
DEF	New Orleans Saints

This team is doing better than the FPC team, which goes to show why the label fantasy football expert can be a farce sometimes, as I thought this draft went somewhat worse than the first one. Gates has been superb though, as have Wayne and Marshall to a lesser degree. Thankfully Barber and the Cowboys running game showed some life last week, as did Dwayne Bowe, not that I started Bowe of course.

I’m 2-1 but I’m “kicking” myself for not being 3-0 right now. The first two weeks there are no head-to-head matchups, but rather the top six scoring teams get a win. In Week Two I finished seventh in scoring by under three points. The “kicker” (see where this is going)? The 49ers looked so bad Week One I dropped Nedney for Kasay, who scored a grand total of one point in Week Two. Now we know how bad the Panthers are, and really how the Giants aren’t that good either, which disguised the fact the Panthers were this bad after Week One. It goes without saying I hate kickers.

QB is sketchy on this team but as long as Bradshaw can keep it going and Barber comes through more consistently, the team looks in pretty good shape to compete in the league.

If any other FF Today members are competing in the FPC, NFFC or other high-stakes contest like WCOFF, let us know how you are doing. Right now I want to send props out to FF Today forums member madd futher mucker who is off to a great start in the FPC currently in the top 70 overall. Nice job mfm!

Keep it going and maybe we’ll change your team name to “FF Today” and mine to … uh … “Joe Fantasy Website.com”.

Comments (4)

Tim Holloran

Mike I am playing in the $125 14 team satellite NFFC. I like the league but unfortunately struggling. Never had soo many injuries. It’s the 19 team roster with waiver wire. Here’s my issue. I have burnt up alot of FA money due to injuries. A guy who drafted Ray Rice at #4 pick DROPPED HIM Last week. He will be available this week on waiver wire. I do not have enough FA money get him. I know til this week Rice struggled but to drop the #4 pick??? To be honest I am pissed off because having been a commish in league thru work. Dropping Rice by this team was not an idiot move but a DICK move in my opinion. Maybe more sinister a collusion move. Farfetched but what if he made deal with team listed with most FA money. Whether it was that or just honest mistake dropping Rice. FACT is by dropping Rice the guy has compromised integrity of league. Having paid $125 it pisses me off. Course Rice scored 30 pts sunday and it was just a screwed up move. Yeah if I could get him might be singing different song. But guy’s nickname is “IF IT BLEEDS, KILL IT” which make’s me wonder what kinda goofy person this is? Anyway do you think I should write the NFFC about it? I think next year I will switch to the 14 team 27 roster league with no waiver wire and top 4 teams make playoff’s by points scored.
Mike MacGregor

Hi Tim. That is a DICK move. I never use that term but it is a perfect description for it. No reason he should be dropped and available as a free agent. If I were you I would contact Greg and Tom who run the NFFC and see what they say about it. Perhaps it should be reversed and the team that dropped him get taken over by management. Tough situation for them, but I’m sure you aren’t the only one who is frustrated with it, and it certainly falls into the category of highly questionable.

There is something to be said for the best-ball/draft masters format leagues. No starting lineup decisions, no waivers, just draft and go. Of course, it is easier to lose interest in this type of league if you fall out of it early, rather than fighting like you are doing to stay in the running.

I wish you the best of luck the rest of the way in your league, and I hope that issue gets resolved properly. Even if someone ends up with Rice, keep at it. Still no guarantee that team will walk to the league championship. Any given Sunday.
Tim Holloran

Hey Mike. First if John the owner from above post see’s my post. I apologize having not known til now what happened regarding Ray Rice being dropped. ANYWAY Mike an UPDATE: I think it’s important to post considering you are in NFFC too. John eventually posted on site that he DID NOT DROP RAY RICE. He dropped another player and for some reason the NFFC waiver wire erroneously dropped Ray Rice from his team. John said the waiver drop list would show this. It was too late last week get issue resolved so he lost Rice for week 5. Rice of course had big game. However NFFC did put Ray Rice back on his team going forward. So I guess the site did screwup as John the owner said it did. Taking John at his word and fact NFFC gave him back Rice. That’s a huge site mistake. Now maybe John may have accidentally dropped Rice and mistake’s are made. Site gave him back Rice and John paid price losing Rice for week 5. But that’s not what John say’s happened. I have seen what I believe are mistake’ss by waiver wire. In fact 2 week’s ago a message from site said due to error. Entire waiver wire was rerun by site.

Mike I had issue’s trying figure that waiver wire out. I get it now that it’s run by order list of worst team on bids. That if you get a player from your 1st preference. Even if you outbid for a 2nd preferential player. If that player is on the first bidder’s preferential list. That player goes to that bidder. I played in FFOC last 2 year’s. For all it’s complaint’s. I did like their FA system which was also run by fanball. Seem’s to me if I outbid everyone for a player I should get that player regardless of where player is on preference list. In fact last night I bid on several player’s and lost almost every bid. But I did get one player listed on preferential list. However the last player which was seventh on my list was not bid for by anyone. Yet I did not get that player. He was marginal but I did list dropping another player so I should have gotten him. I wondered if the waiver wire list is only run soo many time’s. ANYWAY I am not doing well and my first year in satellite league for $125. I like the NFFC game. I was considering playing in higher pay NFFC league. As this season was a “GET FEEL for NFFC season.” But with higher stake’s. My concern about waiver wire run on NFFC put’s that in doubt. If you know guys run NFFC Mike. You might wanna pass off these concern’s.

My original concern’s were legit and other’s posted similar concern’s. In NFFC you can e-mail owner’s individually. So theortically say in week 11 owner drops Ray Rice. A team that will likely be in playoff’s has most FA money available. These 2 owner’s collude together and the playoff owner outbid’s everyone for Ray Rice using all his FA money committing collusion. So updateed the story and John now has ay Rice back with isssue settled.

BTW Mike I realize NFL been erratic this year. But I have been disappointed with Footballguys info this year since it’s a pay site. I question whether they have lost focus on providing fantasy info and became too distracted with money side of site. Running fantasy game’s etc… fotballguys useed be the bet fantasy info site online. I think FFTODAY and fantasy toolbox areboth great mostly free site’s. Thanks for letting me comment.————————————————Tim
Mike MacGregor

Hey again Tim. Thanks for posting back about the Ray Rice situation. Whatever actually transpired – gaffe with the waiver system or the owner selected the wrong player to drop – good to know the NFFC was on top of it and tried to resolve it as best they could.

I do find the waiver system a little confusing myself. Interesting that you found the FFOC system easier (and different) when both contests were/are run by the same company, and presumably the same software.

Here are some tips on using the current waiver system:

– the first bid they look at in each of your bid groups is the player with the highest dollar bid, so I always try to order each bid group from highest dollar to lowest

– in most cases I try to just put one player drop per bid group, so if you have a list of say, five players, and want to get two of them, make two bid groups with the same player adds and a different player to drop in each

– I think – don’t quote me on this – you can prioritize the bid groups, so if I’d actually prefer to bid just $5 on Rashad Jennings as my first priority (drop Brandon LaFell) and bid $10 on Deji Karim as my second priority (drop Brandon LaFell), then I would have to put these in two separate bid groups with the Jennings one ranked higher

I hope that helps. Thanks for the kind words about FF Today!

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