Fantasy Football for free

[Jedi Master Carr]

We did this last year. Is there any interest in doing it again? We could do Yahoo again, unless there is somewhere else we can go for free. Also I remember there was some grumblings about the rules and I say we can change them. I will make a list of every possible rule and we can fix that right here. I know jjwr said there were some we could have done different and it would have changed things. Also this is open to everyone, even if you don't know the NFL it isn't that hard I can help you novices on how to set up the draft etc so you can get a good team together. So what does everyone think?

[Ryan Pode]

I am hyped for Fantasy Football.

[jjwr]

I'll definetly do it again, I'm in a friends league and I always enjoy doing this one as well.

As far as rules changes, I really can't recall what they were....I know the big one I like and I think we did differently was choosing a defensive team rather than individual defensive players as players can skew things unfairly as certain teams get carried away with tackle totals(i.e the Ravens & Mr. Lewis).

We should definetly do a live draft is possible, those are so much fun, the random ones can be ok but its also very easy for you to get all crap players and someone have 2 or 3 studs on their team.

[Jedi Master Carr]

We would have to see about a live draft, but I defintely agree with doing teams instead, can you do that with yahoo? I am going to check that now and see what other rules there are.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Here are the default rules
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/football/frules/frules-08.html

It looks like that under default you select a team maybe it is better to go with them, I can adjust them slightly this tells you some of the changes you can do
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/football/frules/frules-09.html
what is the difference in rule scoring, is head-to head best or points? What do you all think? I can do either way. I can't create the league now because of the fact I have to set up the draft when I do which would be impossible unless I went with auto, if we want a live draft we would have to agree on a day and time. That is the only problem with doing that, IMO because its tough for everybody I would say a Saturday or Sunday morning because that would be best for me or we could it some afternoon. If not we go with auto.

[Sarr Koon]

I love fantasy football. i will definatly do it.

[jjwr]

Head to head or poinst? I"m guessing head to head is say jjwr vs JMC, my guys score 110 you score 120 so your team wins and goes to 1-0.

Points is cumulative, your matched up but its the overall points total which comes into play?

Hmmm....I like head 2 head, as far as actual scoring I don't care too much how it goes as long as its reasonable, I've been in some which give ridiculous points for yardage and others where yards are good but its all about scoring points, which can be a bit tighter.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I will keep the actual point stuff default I don't like messing around with that stuff, I rather do Head to Head, I know it was strange last season I think Fig's team had scored the most points and he had trouble winning I have no clue how that happened. Maybe the defensive team will help him there or maybe it was because head to head, I don't know. I know some weeks my players had great week and I still lost so it harder that way but at the same time it gives everybody a chance in head to head.

[Nathanial K'cansce]

I'm in again. Maybe I can do better this year. :p

[jjwr]

We gotta do a pick'em contest as well, should we do it here on the board like the past few or try a online one? Well it is online but you know what I mean.....

[Jedi Master Carr]

We will do one, I think Fig has been running it the last two years but I will start it if he doesn't. Also once we get enough people, we need to vote on the live draft thing, to see if it is even possible.

[Figrin D'an]

I can run the picks contest again, if that is alright with everyone.

As for fantasy football, I'm all for doing it again, so long as we change to team defense instead of individual drafting of defensive players. Head-to-head is fine (even though I would have won last year on points... :mneh). I'd also rather do an auto-draft or a custom offline draft than a live draft. The live draft might be kinda fun, but getting everyone online at once is going to be a huge hassle, methinks.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think you are right Fig, it be great but the odds everybody could make it is probably extremly slim and if somebody can't be in here we would be in a mess, how about a custom offline that sounds different than the auto one and is close to live as we will probably get. Also I agree with team defense I am not sure if this is a new feature for Yahoo (I don't recall it being on there last year) or I just missed it but it is a much better solution. Head to Head scoring does sound best, yeah I know you even beat me last year in points and I had an unbelievable team (the odds of me getting Manning, Holmes, Harrison and Gonzalez again is slim to none) I might go ahead and set this up then and see if we can do some kind of offline draft that sounds like the perfect solution.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Ok here is the league here

http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/253686

it is swfansnet if that link doesn't work the password is bobafett
As for the offline draft I say we agree on rules and do it here, if that doesn't work out I will change it before and go to autodraft.

[Nathanial K'cansce]

Registered - crunchy critters. w00tw00t.

Oh, and when signing up, the league name is a no go. you need to use the league ID number, which is 253686

[Ryan Pode]

The Frisky Imperials are back.

[Salvestro]

Just signed up....Krispy Creame.

[Figrin D'an]

Also returning are the Lightsabres.

I wish I could keep my team from last year. :p

[Jedi Master Carr]

LOL same here. I just hope I get Holmes and Gonzalez those are the only two from last year I want back.

[Ryan Pode]

I just Ravens defense and J. Lewis. And Matt Stover.

[Jedi Master Carr]

We will have to figure out the way to do draft order when we get enough teams come up with some fair away to pick it.

[jjwr]

One more note on the live draft, what you could do, though some may not want the disadvantage....

If you can't make the live draft but still pre-rank your players you will still pick them in the same order, just the rest of the players will be doing live picks.

Again it may be a disadvantage for some.

I gotta think up a good name, I usually suffer from really bad Fantasy luck so I gotta make sure my new name reflects hopefully my new found strategies!

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well we could so something of a live draft here maybe do it over a period of two days or something, I think we can work something out.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Just to update anybody else interested? I've got to start thinking about the draft, we have three options, live (which might be tough), offline (which is basically live although I am not sure how exactly it will work out) or automatic. It is set for an offline one. I guess if we do it that we hold it here and you pick your players in some kind of order. But we can still change it if people want to do a live one or we rather go the automatic approach.

[Ryan Pode]

A link to this topic should be posted in the OOC forum.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Yeah that is probably a good idea.

[Ryan Pode]

We usually get three or four from there.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Just did it, I posted it as spam, I guess it is, hardly every post it over there heh. We got 6 playing now, Jedieb just joined and I know jjwr will be next. Last year Reaper and Dizzy played not sure if Reaper will want to play this year and no comment on Dizzy. Reaper if you want to play, let one of us advise you on your picks at least, I hated seeing you in last place getting beat like that every week, I just found that sad.

[Ryan Pode]

He picked people that had his name in their name. I enjoyed my matches against him. . . I could always put up a link at TRF. It would probably draw two or three people.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Thats cool the more the better :)

[jjwr]

I'm in!

The Cloners will be whooping some butt this year!

[Transil Gantar]

The Imperial Thunder has arrived. Anyways, I prefer live drafts. They're quite fun.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Okay we have to decide on the draft issue. First off I let Dizzy from CC-Net join. He pmed me over there and wanted to join and I let him, we need the tenth member to make it even so I am letting him join. Now the problem there is the offline draft issue. He can't post here for reasons I won't mention and besides I am not sure how to do that fairly. How do we determine order etc? What if somebody is away and can't do it. So we either decided on doing a live draft which I think will be hard or just do an auto one. We need to decide on this by Friday, if I don't get enough response I am just going to switch it to auto.

[Figrin D'an]

Why by Friday? The regular season doesn't start for few weeks, and I'd rather not hold a draft until after the last pre-season weekend, to avoid people getting screwed by injuries.

As much as I would like to do a live or offline draft, auto-draft is the only legit option with so many varying schedules among everyone involved.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Oh no you misunderstood me, I meant decide by Friday. If we did it another way we could set a date for later. I just want to decide before I forget heh. I am afraid if I don't decide now I might put that off. The season begins Sept 9 we could set it the auto draft/ live draft for the week before or something, that is my opinion right now. I am leaning towards auto myself. I can't see how we could do a live one unless we are all certain we will be on a certain day and time.

[Jedieb]

I vote for auto. I don't see how we could swing a live draft.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Yeah it be too tough, and offline I can't see how we can do it fairly.

[Jedi Master Carr]

After thinking about it I set the league to Autopick I am going to change the draft to Draft ready on September 3rd. Should give you guys plenty of time to edit your draft rankings. I would edit them, you might not get guys you want otherwise.

[jjwr]

Is our draft date still september 3rd? Just checking. I haven't done my pre-rankings yet and want to make sure I don't miss the boat.

[Master Yoghurt]

Id love to play, but I am confused to how it all works :huh

Oh well, maybe I will just do the pickems

[Darth_Sauron]

I'm in too! I clicked on the link, but it wouldn't let me view the page. :mad

[Jedi Master Carr]

Try this link
http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/253686
also might need to type the id # 253686 and the password is bobafett. If that don't work let me know. Yoghurt you could give it a try you could just let yahoo pick your team for you and go from there, if you need any help I can assist you :) And yeah the draft is set for Friday right now I could push it to sunday or something we will see how things go.

[Master Yoghurt]

Had some initial problems, but I think I fixed it now. My team is "Lunatic Hamsters"

So how do I compose the team?

[Jedi Master Carr]

Click where it says my team, there is a tab that said edit my predraft player rankings. If you click on that you can edit your team or you can keep the rankings as is and you will still get a team either way it is up to you. Any questions go ahead and ask :)

[Darth_Sauron]

Nazgul_9 is now in.
>D

[Master Yoghurt]

It seems there is a limited selection of players for the draft, this is normal right? And every team got the same selection of players?

[jjwr]

Nope....odds are your seeing just the top 25 at each position when you do your ranking, I think there is a tab to expand it. Or it may be the top 25 overall and you have to go into each position and rank them.

Some keys.....RB always gets taken first, they pile up too many Yards and TDs and you need at least one good one on your team. So say in a 10 team draft, make sure your top 10 players are RB's so you get at least one of them.

Certain types of players like WR's, DB's can be found later in the draft or through Free Agency if you don't nail one of the studs like Moss, Harrison, etc. Plenty of good WR's can be found, teams 2nd WR or when a injury pops up a player will step up, heck most teams starters can be found in FA so no rush there.

QB's.....are pretty similar to WR's, you can always find a solid QB later in the draft so don't pass up a stud WR or very good RB for one early unless its someone like Manning, Culpepper, Green, maybe McNair.

As far as RBs go, plenty to choose from....

1. Priest Holmes
2. Ladanian Tomlinson
3. Ahman Green
4. Clinton Portis
5. Shaun Alexander
6. Jamal Lewis
7. Deuce McCalister
8. Corey Dillon
9. Travis Henry
10. Edgerrin James

Plenty of choices, plenty of good Backs.

I had a draft last night, Live and ended up with the #1 Pick so I grabbed Priest Holmes, oddly enough I was able to get Payton Manning with my #2 pick so I did pretty well.

[Jedi Master Carr]

That happened to me last year :p I doubt I will have the same luck, I be happy just to get Holmes.

[jjwr]

This was a live draft too, I nailed Holmes first and the next 5 picks were just about instantaneous, all the top RB's....only 10 people so I had pick #1 and then Pick #20 so I can't believe Manning lasted that long. 2-3 other QB's went, including Tom Brady to a Pats fan, a few WR's and mostly RB's.

Now I'm a huge Pats fan but I know the Pats do not put up good fantasy Numbers, Brady will have something like 3,800yds passing - 24TD's - 10 INT's....solid but not gamebreaking fantasy wise.

So I lucked out. Course with the way these work I had pick #21 as well and was seriously scrambling trying to decide who to draft, all the good RB's were gone, no stud WR's.....so I panicked and picked Kellen Winslow....this guy better be as good as he looks!

[Ryan Pode]

I snagged Domanick Davis and Jamal Lewis in one league I'm in. As well as Marc Buldger and Rich Gannon.

Kellen Winslow will do only as good as Jeff Garcia does. So, nada. Kellen Winslow will be like Todd Heap. A great TE, pro-bowl material, but suck at Fantasy because he's the only good thing down field.

[Jedi Master Carr]

It is hard to say Fantasy wise Gonzalez, Heap and Shockey are at the top the rest of the TE's who knows. Winslow is no worse than any of the others.

[Ryan Pode]

Fantasy Wise Heap sucks. He can never find the endzone, he makes great plays but he just doesn't get Fantasy points.

[Cyrel Annat]

Fantasy wise, all TEs suck. And when you consider that there are perhaps a half-dozen in the entire league that are worth picking up, TE in many cases ends up being a throw-away position. In all the leagues I've played, last year was the only year that the TE position got me any points and that was because I had Shannon Sharpe.

Your running backs look solid. Davis and Lewis should both have pretty good years, though it's doubtful that Lewis will put up 2k yards again. As far as Bulger and Gannon for you, I strongly suggest shopping around. Bulger is already partially banged up just from practice against his own team and I have doubts to his durability throughout the year with the line that the Rams have, or lack of line for that matter. Gannon won't last the season and I've heard rumors that Kerry Collins is starting in Oakland this year. Regardless, it wouldn't hurt to shop around. Hell, I picked up Carson Palmer as a third QB in one league just on the off-chance that he breaks out. David Carr is another QB that's looking quite promising thus far. Granted, this is preseason but it does give at least some indication of how the player will perform throughout the season.

In other news, Mike Anderson for the Broncos is done for the year with a serious groin injury. With Garrison Hearst still recovering, it bumps up Rookie Tatum Bell into the #2 spot behind Quentin Griffin. Just some food for thought.

Keep an eye on Anquan Boldin for when he's fully healthy. The surgery that he underwent was not major and I think it's more along the lines of how long they want him to recover before tossing him into the mix again. He was a solid receiver last year on a very suspect team, and the same is true for this year as well. I don't foresee the Cardinals winning more than 3 or 4 games this year, simply due to their massive injuries. Last I heard, their top three WRs and Freddie Jones were all hurt to some extent, though this could have changed by now. McCown is going to get a crash-course this year, but he may do decently. Once those WRs are healthy, consider one of them as a free agent pick-up. Boldin is the most durable of the lot and played injured a fair amount last year.

[Ryan Pode]

It's been decided that Gannon will be the starter for Oakland, and he is two years removed from MVP. I think he and Marc Bulger will do fine at QB considering Bulger has a few good WRs and Backs to throw to.

[Cyrel Annat]

Originally posted by Ryan Pode
It's been decided that Gannon will be the starter for Oakland, and he is two years removed from MVP.

The same could be said for Kurt Warner the past couple seasons being removed from Super Bowl MVP and look how he played. Now, I'm not trying to argue anything, I was merely making a suggestion. No one can predict how the season will play out so those two have just as good a chance at having great seasons as anyone else. I was merely stating my opinion and that it's not very high on either of those two QBs to carry my team.

[Ryan Pode]

Gannon is in a much better situation than Warner is in, now last year, Warner played the game with a concussion, what more do you expect?
Right now, in New York he is playing fairly well with a fairly crappy offensive line. In St. Louis, Bulger has a weaker line but a lot more experience under his belt. I think my QB situation is as good as anyones.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well I disagree about all TE's, Gonzalez puts up great Fantasy numbers, some games his numbers are better than WR's. Of course he is a very very special case.

[Jedi Master Carr]

The Lightsabers ownere, not sure who that is offhand, brought this up on the Yahoo board. We could do a live draft. Just set your team to auto pick if you can't show up and it will work. How does everybody feel about that? If we do that we should hold it either Friday afternoon or Saturday afternoon, I am usually free then.

[Ryan Pode]

Lightsabres is reaperfett, I believe.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think its Fig's team, Reaper isn't playing this time.

[jjwr]

If I recall I brought this up initially and some people didn't like this idea. Personally I hate auto-drafts, usually once the draft is done the person who can go in and dump all the scrubs they get and raid the FA market does the best.

We should setup a live draft if possible, if people can't make it they still get their auto-picks so they don't lose out on anything.

[jjwr]

And TE's aren't bad if you get the right ones, on some teams TE's are the main receiver so they put up huge numbers(ala Gonzalez).

[Ryan Pode]

Todd Heap led the Ravens with receptions and he didn't put up great numbers. TEs are really useless.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Gonzalez isn't but of course he is almost a WR he is so athletic and he scores a lot of TD's As for the draft, I can arrange one for Friday afternoon or Saturday afternoon lets vote on it, on here. Everybody who is participating say something I am going to do the same thing on yahoo I think I might pm all league members and let them know.

[Ryan Pode]

I guess a do a live draft. If it starts early friday (EST), and we all make an effort, I bet we could get it to end by saturday.

[Jedi Master Carr]

True I think we could do it in one day if we had to. Also whose team is the Orion Pirates?? I can't find out. I figure its either Sarr Koon or Cyrel Annat, they are the only other two people to post to this thread. If this is your team speak up. Just want to know who is who that is all :)

[Ryan Pode]

I believe that is Gue. From TRF. Formerly of SWFans.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Could you let him know so he can post in here his opinions. I want to figure this out if it fails I still have it on auto can just leave it, if we can't do it.

[Ryan Pode]

He can't post here.

[Figrin D'an]

I'd prefer a late Friday afternoon start for a live draft, but I could probably swing Saturday evening if necessary.


And Pode is right. Gue has been banned for a while now.

Not that I really mind, but how exactly did he find out about and get into our league anyway?

[Jedieb]

I could probably swing a late afternoon Friday draft. Something after 6PM EST.

[Ryan Pode]

TRF. I posted an ad there, on the league, cos we had a few from there last year. Amish Rake Fight, the guy who won, was from TRF.

[jjwr]

Todd Heap led the Ravens with receptions and he didn't put up great numbers. TEs are really useless.

And Deion Sanders is fast.....

I think I'm thinking of a different sort of Live Draft......

I had one on Monday, it started at 7:30PM, all the teams showed up, random draft order was assigned and you had 1min 30sec per pick, if you missed your pick then it would take the highest remaining guy on your rankings list.

So is this along those lines or more something that is spread out over a few days with each pick coming at some point after the guy in front of them picked?

If its the latter that could take forever.....we're looking at what 150ish+ picks, depending on how often people check...

If we're gonna go live then great, pick a night before next Thursday, let people know ahead of time and we'll get the whole thing done in about a hour. If they can't make it then they auto-pick, no big deal.

[Ryan Pode]

Originally posted by jjwr
And Deion Sanders is fast.....


I got served. :(

[Jedi Master Carr]

LOL yeah I am saying Friday afternoon, two people can make it, if we start about 6 EST, we could probably get it done by 8 maybe sooner. I am putting off changing it depending on the Hurricane if it bears towards me I am not sure if could make it. My power could be out or something. I will know tomorrow for sure though. As for Gue, you sure its him? Just wondering I know two other people expressed intrested in this thread of course they could be alias people here have. If its Gue let him know I guess we are stuck with him like Dizzy who found out somehow as well.

[Ryan Pode]

I haven't seen Gue online in a while, but I'll pass the memo along.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well I set the draft for 6PM EST on the dot. Everybody will need to be about 10 minutes before and log into their yahoo accounts to get the ball rolling. Now if you can't be there it will just auto pick it anyway so really this isn't that much different than an auto pick draft.

[jjwr]

Sweet! So 6PM tomorrow night? Awesome!

[Nathanial K'cansce]

Good deal. The crew normally goes for dinner around then, but I could just as easily stop by the dining hall earlier and grab my dinner before. That, and Friday is one of two days I don't have a late afternoon/night class!

[Darth_Sauron]

Damn. i guess I will be doing an auto draft, since I work from 1500-2300 (that's 3pm to 11pm, for you non-military types...) ;)

[Jedi Master Carr]

Sorry about that man. As for the draft you guys got about one hour. We need to log on to the site early. I am not sure how that will all work maybe something will come up to let us enter the draft room.

[Figrin D'an]

We should find out draft positions in a few minutes. I'm guessing that we'll be able to enter a draft room or something at that time.

[Jedi Master Carr]

yeah I think you are right.

[Jedi Master Carr]

We can enter it now :) We can even chat in there :)

[Figrin D'an]

Draft Room is open.

[Jedi Master Carr]

You have two minutes before we start better get in the draft room now. Ryan you are first up hurry.

[Jedi Master Carr]

That sure went fast.
Anybody be interested in any trades? Post them here?

[Figrin D'an]

No trades to propose on my end, but I'm willing to listen if someone wants to make me an offer.

[Jedi Master Carr]

LOL I would love Gonzalez not sure if I have anything you want though that would get him for me :p

[Figrin D'an]

That all depends. What would you be willing to give up to get him?

[jjwr]

I'm happy with my team so far.

I posted in the League Page but I'll post it here too. Please don't increase the benches, 18 players per team is still a lot of players tied up for a 12 team league.

We need some FA's out there, otherwise everyone will just sit on all the players and there will be almost no activity.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
That all depends. What would you be willing to give up to get him?


Probably anybody but Vick, since I am not going to stick with just Garcia. I would give you Franks for sure since you would need a replacement. If there is a RB or WR on my team you like or or something else let me know :)

[Ryan Pode]

I have sick recieving corps. I need another quality RB though. Anyone want a trade, I'm Frisky Imperials by the way.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I increased it to 20, right after the draft. Maybe I should have discussed it here. I thought it was a compromise. I think there is time to change it back because there can't be any player movement until Monday. So what is everybody else's opinion on this?

[Master Yoghurt]

Is there going to be a thread for NFL pickems? And what do you all think of my team?

The live draft was a little overhwelming at first, but I am starting to get the hang of it. Quite fun to pick the team that way. Like you probably know, I had no clue about about NFL players or how the team should be composed, so luckily I got some help and advise from Jedi Master Carr. Much appreciated :)

Oh, and are there sites out there with stats of the players and advise for what players to pick?

[Ryan Pode]

NFL.Com just about every analyst gives some insight to fantasy football. Yahoo does too. SI.com's Peter King is like the god on the subject.

[Nathanial K'cansce]

I posted my thoughts on the number of benched players at the yahoo league post thingymajig.

[Master Yoghurt]

Originally posted by Ryan Pode
NFL.Com just about every analyst gives some insight to fantasy football. Yahoo does too. SI.com's Peter King is like the god on the subject.

Thank you, those links were most helpful :)

[Figrin D'an]

There are better fantasy football analysts than Peter King. The guy knows football, but knowing football and knowing fantasy football are two different things.

To be honest, it's best to just look at the stats and make educated guesses based upon your own intuition. It's not that far removed from gambling, in that luck is essentially equal in importance as knowledge.

[jjwr]

Peter King knows his football but he admits he's not great at Fantasy Football, he's fairly new to it.

Like Figrin says, check the stats, see who's hot, see who's injured, check out if one of your guys is playing the top defense, etc.

As for the Picks, bring them on! I gotta defend my title!

[Jedi Master Carr]

Just to let you know, if you don't follow the group, you might want to check it out and add one more starter. I added that WR/RB thing that was suggested by Nathanial. I should posted this on Monday when I did it not think that everybody doesn't check there. So you might want to add a player. You still have time since as long as you don't want to add a Colt or Patriot you have until Sunday at 1.

[jjwr]

Thanks for the add JMC, gives us a bit more flexability and lets me try some of my rookies without feeling too bad :)

[Master Yoghurt]

So what did you all think of first week? Im pretty happy with my result, concidering Im all new to this :)

[Jedieb]

Who's my next victim? C'mon ladies, come get your beatdown! :shootin

[Nathanial K'cansce]

Iffy on the points system. Other than that, least I'm not in last. :D