Fantasy Surge In Standings

The past two weeks the fantasy gods have been quite kind to me. Not only have I cut the lead Gopher had on me to a mere 15 points, (explanation coming on how this is nothing) but I have rocketed up the standings to second place. If the playoffs in our league started today I would have a first round bye, which after how this season has gone, would be a massive accomplishment.

For those of you who are not well versed in fantasy sports here is how I set up our league. We have 17 statistical categories up for grabs every week in a head to head format. Each week you play someone different in the league. There's 23 weeks in the regular season, top six make the quest for glory (a.k.a. playoffs.) Top two seeds get a bye in the first round thus guaranteeing at least a fourth place finish.

You earn two points for every category you win each week and earn one point for every category you end up tied in, so as you can see one big week for me and one bad week for Gopher could propel me back to the top of the mountain where I belong. Keep in mind; I did set this league up.

Anyway, two weeks ago Gopher and I faced off in what could quite possibly be a preview of the league finals and a rematch of last year's finals. As would be expected, this was a hotly contested battle between two of the best teams in the league. Heading into that Sunday's action, Gopher had a slim 8-7 lead on me. However, I had a full roster of players going to his measly two and as would be expected (borrowing from Mike Lange here) I ended up beating him like a rented mule 9-4.

The main reason I can tell for this recent surge is the play of Evgeni Malkin and Brian Rolston waking up finally and putting the puck in the net like we all know he can. If you're reading this Brendan Shanahan, you're dangerously close to being dropped or traded so step up and start putting points on the board.

Once the week was over I messaged Gopher to announce and gloat about my demoralizing victory. As would be expected he retorted with, "Whatever, I'm still in first place by a lot. I've been on top all season and will be at the end anyway."

Granted he may be correct in assuming I'll get to the finals of our league for a third straight season only to watch my team (quoting Larry the Cable Guy here) act like a retard in a room full of bouncy balls and see Cheech or Gopher rip the title away from me again.

Moving on to last week's match-up which was another barn burner. Mr. Tully who has been in and out of the playoff picture needs to put a big run together to sneak into the playoffs as the 6-seed. After last week, I'd be shocked if he gets in considering he played the 2-seed in me and is now playing numero uno Gopher.

Once again Gopher is cleaning up and soaking in the rewards of my domination. Tully had a slim 7-6 lead on me heading into Sunday and once again I made a big stand and walked away up 9-5 and with a four point lead over Cheech in the standings. Now Gopher is driving the stake into Tully's chances where he will now battle to defend his consolation bracket title from last season.

Last year Tully was the low man on the totem pole, but put an impressive run together in the consolation bracket to prove to the world that his team was the bad luck team of the century. He was actually looking like a lock for the playoffs this season, but a big slump due to some injuries, namely Sidney Crosby have sunk any hopes of that happening. On the bright side, he'll most likely have the 1-seed in the consolation bracket. As was the saying in Boston for 86 years, "There's always next year."

This week I am locked in another mid-week battle with Army pal "The Mick" who is currently the 9-seed. His team isn't all that bad, but due to him being in Iraq defending our freedom back here in the States and allowing me to be able to entertain you with these random thought processes that run through my head, don't allow him to check his team very often.

In any event, the NHL trade deadline is fast approaching and in the next post I'll try to make some predictions on where some stars could be heading.

Fantasy Team In Shambles

The title on this should be self explanatory, but let me explain.

This isn't my first go around in fantasy sports or even in this competitive league with friends. This is the third season of our league on Yahoo because we're too cheap to pay for a keeper league.

(Note: I took a poll of the 10 owners before the season about changing sites and getting a keeper league going. Three decided it was a great idea and me being the commissioner stupidly decided to go with the majority vote and stay on Yahoo rather than build a fantasy dynasty and squash the hopes and dreams of the other 9 owners for years to come.)

Draft day approached and I sat in front of my computer talking smack and going over my 35 pages of info from the sites listed on the right of this blog. Yes, 35. I had more information in front of me than I knew what to do with.

As usual I landed, what is in my humble opinion, what I affectionately refer to as the Black Hole pick at No. 6 overall. Before the draft, I was hoping for a 1-3 pick or an 8-10 pick so I could utilize the wrap-around effect of the draft.

For the last three seasons I've been in the Black Hole of picks from 4-7 and at least twice in every draft have let someone slip one round too far only to see them comeback and bite me in the rear at some point during the season.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing about this is because I took a look at the list of people I drafted and who is currently on my team right now and wondered if any of you experienced such a dramatic change of personnel by the mid-point of any given season.

2007/2008 Draft Class For Runner Up Superstar

Quick explanation of team name. Year 1 of league I head into the playoffs as the No. 1 seed and lost in the finals to Greg who was the No. 2 seed. Wasn't even close. My team went into a state of funk unseen since the 70's.

Last season I head into the playoffs as the 4-seed and pull off a miracle comeback on Sunday in the semi-finals with a game winning goal by Milan Hejduk in overtime to break the tie in my match up with J.O.

Things seemed great going into the final day of the championship round against Gopher. At the conclusion of the final game of the NHL regular season I had earned a tie with Gopher and what would have been a win due to my superior numbers on offense. We even exchanged good ol’ fashioned scathing remarks back and forth online for a good 30 minutes, only to see a scoring change in the Avalanche's final game that saw a critical assist be taken off the board from Hejduk and handed to John-Michael Liles, who Gopher just happened to have on his team. It was the unheard of two-assist fantasy championship deciding swing that nearly left me in need of a new computer.

So to do the math, two years with these guys and two second place finishes. Hence, Runner Up Superstar. Now onto the opening day roster.

1. Jaromir Jagr RW
2. Marc-Andre Fleury G
3. Pavel Datsyuk C
4. Ray Emery G
5. Ryan Smyth LW
6. Michel Ouellet RW - Had him as a sleeper pick and somehow hit the wrong button taking him obviously way too early.
7. Henrik Sedin C
8. Brendan Shanahan LW
9. Brian Rolston LW,RW
10. Ryan Getzlaf C
11. Vesa Toskala G
12. John-Michael Liles D
13. Roman Hamrlik D
14. Marc-Andre Bergeron D
15. Ladislav Nagy LW
16. Patrik Elias C,LW

Now let's take a look at the roster at the All-Star Break.

Evgeni Malkin C,LW
Ryan Getzlaf C
Brian Rolston LW,RW
Brendan Shanahan LW
Jaromir Jagr RW
Daniel Alfredsson RW
Tobias Enstrom D
Mike Green D
Marek Zidlicky D
Dan Boyle D
Pavel Datsyuk C
Henrik Sedin C
Mike Knuble RW
Jean-Sebastien Giguere G
Ty Conklin G
Ray Emery G
Marc-Andre Fleury G (Currently on the IR with an expected return sometime around half-past never.)

With that roster someone please explain to me how as of this second I'm unofficially in 5th place? I trail first-place Gopher of all people by 50 points! I don't get it. I've made trades and stud waiver moves like Enstrom and Conklin and nothing is helping me get out of a dogfight with 5 other teams for a playoff spot.

Our league only allows 6 teams into the quest for glory and right now 8 teams are alive and kicking while the other two have been dead since before the draft even started. You know who these guys are, every league has at least 1 guy who says he's wicked excited to be in the league and may even talk some trash, but really you just allow him to participate because if gives the rest of the league a bye week every time they play him. Of course this sets everyone up for the ugly law of averages' face to show up and lay an embarrassing defeat on some poor soul. Fun for everyone else and yes I'm the guy who goes into every week thinking "Can I possibly avoid contact with everyone in the league for a month if I lose to this guy?"

In theory I should be able to gain some ground in the first couple of weeks after the break as I'm playing one of the aforementioned owners this week. If you don't hear from me until June, you'll know why.