Fantasy Sports 2010, Week 36: Winning One League, Starting Three More

This is the time of year when I'm going nuts fantasy-wise with a bunch of overlap. Baseball and Major League Soccer are winding down, but UEFA Champions League, the NFL, Euro Qualifiers, and the Premiere League are just getting started. The result? Really really long fantasy sports posts for several weeks. Scrolling skills will be needed.

ESPN Fantasy Baseball - Premiere League Baseball 2010: Stamford Hitmen (18-3)

The pennant came down to myself versus one of my biggest rivals the St Louis Wolves (17-4) owned by Charlie Hoffman, this year's two best teams in our league. I was 2-0 against Charlie over the year, which is a nice turnaround since he has pretty much owned our rivalry most seasons. But I had a feeling it was going to be tough going 3-0 and my gut feeling turned out to be right.

I knew it was going to be a long week anyway when I officially lost Nolasco for the season, Hamilton for an undetermined time (I kept him active expecting him back), and now Josh Johnson. That's two of the best pitchers in the NL (Nolasco, Johnson) and the current AL batting leader and MVP candidate (Hamilton). But then Buchholz turned in a rare one inning, five-earned run performance, King Felix was sub-par against Anaheim, Zobrist racked up 30+ points sitting on my bench, and my opponent got a CG shut-out from Oswalt.

Despite these marks of bad luck, it was something of a foregone conclusion I would take the pennant because the best the Wolves could do was tie my record--and I own the tie-breaker category (Runs Scored) by 35+.

The playoffs are different beast being single-elimination. I own a bye week, but nothing is certain after that with both Nolasco and Johnson--two of my four most reliable starters all season--done due to injuries. Hopefully I get Hamilton back, Gio continues to pitch well, and Dan Haren can continue rediscovering his ace-like form (as he has the last four starts).

Primary starters for the week ending: Montero (C-Arz), Gonzalez (1B-SD), Prado (2B-Atl), Gonzalez (SS-Atl), Longoria (3B-TB), Gonzalez (LF-Col), Hamilton (CF-Tex), Cuddyer (RF-Min), Ortiz (Util-Bos), Buchholz (SP-Bos), Haren (SP-LAA), Hernandez (SP-Sea), Garcia (SP-StL), Hamels (SP-Phi), Gonzalez (SP-Oak), Papelbon (CL-Bos)

ESPN Fantasy Football - Crush League 2010/11: Metropolis Sharks (1-0)

So begins another season for the Metropolis Sharks with the feeling I am boldly going where no other team has gone before. As usual, all the other teams swooped up players--rookies or "has beens"--in the draft that I had discovered on the scrap heap over the years (e.g. Chris Johnson, Matt Forte, Greg Jennings, DeAngelo Williams, Favre, Warner) leaving me to once again try and discover new breakouts or "past their primes". Not that I am complaining per se.. it is fun to do this and then see the players blossom as I smile to myself.

Fortunately I am not being left completely in the cold. I managed to snag another five-star set of Tight Ends in Owen Daniels, Heath Miller, and Antonio Gates--the first two of which are returnees from last year (but Daniels is starting the season hurt). I've got Rivers at QB (first time ever on my team) and a nice pair of RBs in Rice (first time) and Ronnie Brown (returnee). Other than my "keeper" pick, Johnson (Houston), my WR corps is made up of a rookie (Breaston-Arz) and "first time on my team" vet (Colston-NO). My "Gang Green" is once again back as my defense and I expect lots of points form them this year.

Sitting on my bench are potential sleepers McFadden (RB-Oak), Edwards (WR-NYJ), and Henne (QB-Mia). I've got Henderson from the Saints on there in case one of the other starting WRs goes down to injury and Thomas Jones, who I wanted on my team last year and I just can't believe he's done as a productive fantasy option.

All this considered, thanks to a stellar (and expected) performance from the Jets D, I was able to eek out a Monday night comeback to top the Florida Blast (aka, my Sis) by four points. I shouldn't have had to comeback though with superstars like Johnson and Rice. Hopefully they bounce back next week (and McGahee stops cannibalizing Rice's goal line TDs).

Primary starters for the week ending: Rivers (QB-SD), Rice (RB-Bal), Brown (RB-Mia), Johnson (WR-Hou), Colston (WR-NO), Breaston (WR-Arz), Miller (TE-Pit), Gates (TE-SD), Kaeding (K-SD), NY Jets (DEF)

ESPN Fantasy Soccer - Premiere League 2010/11: Osgiliath City (ranked in top 36%)

After getting utterly spoiled the week before, I'm back down to earth this week with an average performance. Rooney was benched by Ferguson because United was in Goodison Park, where he is utterly loathed by supporters, and he is dealing with some personal scandal. Plus I lost both Walcott (M-Ars), Defoe (S-Tot), and Vermaelen (D-Ars) to injuries sustained during Euro qualifying. Vermaelen's not expected to be out long, but Walcott is out at least four weeks and maybe more (he was my leading scorer) and Defoe is out at least that long as well. In reality--that's a major blow to England as Defoe scored a hat trick before his injury and Walcott figured to finally be getting consistent national team caps.

To pick up the points I'll be losing, as well as pick up the slack that Gerrard/Liverpool is leaving me, I've had to drop the English captain for Arsenal's Arshavin and taken a flyer on the good form that Gardner has been showing with Birmingham. Along that line of thinking, I've dumped Dempsey (which wasn't easy because I like him a lot) for Wales 21-year old prodigy, Gareth Bale. He'll be a fixture on my bench while Tottenham finds their legs and I'll plug him in the moment Birmingham get an unfavourable match-up. Blackburn youngster, Phil Jones, isn't quite working out for me, and since Birmingham's defence is picking upright  where they left off last year I've picked up Scotland's goal-scoring defender, Roger Johnson, for next week.

One other joyful pick-up this week is keeper, Joe Hart. He's been officially given the starting nod for Man City and he figures to feature prominently in Cappello's search for a reliable GK for the Three Lions; he earned a clean sheet against Bulgaria under the scrutiny of Wembley in his first competitive senior cap, and held the Swiss to one goal in Basel. I had Hart last year while he was on loan to Birmingham, but didn't use him much simply because Friedel was stellar for Aston Villa all season. I have the same pair this year, but Friedel is aging and Villa is never predictable on form early on. Regardless, I expect Hart to cut into Friedel's starts.

Primary starters for the week ending (* was my "Captain"): Friedel (GK-Ast), Ferreira (D-Che), Dunne (D-Ast), Muhammadi (D-Sun), Jones (D-Blk), Gerrard (M-Liv), Barry (M-MnC), Dempsey (M-Ful), Gardner (M-Bir), *Bent (F-Sun), Carroll (F-New)

ESPN Fantasy Soccer - Major League Soccer 2010: Seacouver FC (ranked in top 11%)

An average week, but an enlightening one. From now on I am finding a way to get Le Toux into my line-up. Despite that he is on Philly's new expansion team, this guy is scoring goal after goal and sits at 104 points from 20 matches this year. LA's drubbing of Columbus did me no favours either. This is why I hate starting a defender and GK from the same team, especially in MLS where the defense is not the same consistent quality as in Euro leagues.

Primary starters for the week ending (* was my "Captain"): Hesmer (GK-Col), Gonzalez (D-LA), Stammler (D-NY), Iro (D-Col), Schelotto (M-Col), Shea (M-Dal), De Rosario (M-Tor), Zakuani (M-Sea), Henry (*F-NY), Buddle (F-LA), Saborio (F-RSL)

ESPN Fantasy Soccer - UEFA Champions League 2010/11: Osgiliath City (ranked NA)

Another year of Champions League Awesome-ness. Another year smarter I'd like to think as well. The first couple matchdays are always the hardest to select teams for, but this year I've taken the time to do more research. Since ESPN limits its transactions I can't really apply the same strategy that I will be using with the UEFA fantasy leagues. In ESPN's format you have to build a team within the context of the whole group stage. The player values tend to scale higher as well. This translates to a team that's 60% carbon copy of each other, less that I can't take as many personal favourites in the ESPN version and that the bench isn't nearly as quality as UEFA's version (although I can afford two solid keepers).

Thus my expected full line-up in the opening matches of the group stage will be:

GK I. Casillas (Real Madrid)
GK M. Almunia (Arsenal)
DF P. Lahm (Bayern Munich)
DF G. Piqué (Barcelona)
DF B. Sagna (Arsenal)
DF P. Ferreira (Chelsea)
DF Y. Kaboul (Tottenham)
DF Y. Rakitskiy (Shakhtar Donetsk)
MF T. Müller (Bayern Munich)
MF A. Arshavin (Arsenal)
MF D. Fletcher (Manchester United)
MF B. Huggel (FC Basel)
FW M. Klose (Bayern Munich)
FW K. Benzema (Real Madrid)
FW D. Cissé (Panathinaikos)

I'll be using a 5-4-1 set-up to start. If Benzema gets going, or Basel is in an unfavourable tie, I'll switch it to a 5-3-2.

UEFA Fantasy Soccer - UEFA Champions League 2010/11: Osgiliath City (ranked NA)

UEFA.com's edition of fantasy Champions League has a different flavor about it. The idea is to field the best team from week to week with the allotted €100m. You can't use more than two players from a team and you have to choose 2GKs, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders, and three forwards. Matchups are big time key to this format and requires a bit of knowledge of all ties. In other words, you can really cash in some nice points by picking players from average teams (by Euro League standards) like FC Basel, Spartak Moskva, and Shakhtar Donetsk. How?

Players from average teams (such as those listed above) tend to be pretty cheap, freeing up valuable €€€ to invest in star players that are more likely to get your team points. The best place to do this is the GK and backline where you can take advantage of average teams paired up with real minnows (like Bursapoor, MSK Zilina, and CFR Cluj-Napoca)--teams unlikely to score goals even against average squads.

I got this idea while considering how to vastly improve my team for the Euro Qualifier fantasy league, so it will be interesting to see how it works. This is the first year I thought of this; in past years I've had a real hard time figuring out how other team owners were racking up so many points with just €100m, and believe me you can't just select stars and solid talent to build a team.

So heading into Matchday 1, my full squad looks something similar to my ESPN squad, but with better options on the bench:

GK R. Khudzhamov (Shakhtar Donetsk)
GK S. Ryzhikov (FK Rubin Kazan)
DF P. Lahm (Bayern Munich)
DF B. Sagna (Arsenal)
DF J. Terry (Chelsea)
DF Y. Kaboul (Tottenham)
DF Y. Rakitskiy (Shakhtar Donetsk)
MF Xavi (Barcelona)
MF A. Arshavin (Arsenal)
MF D. Fletcher (Manchester United)
MF B. Huggel (FC Basel)
MF Y. Gourcuff (Lyon)
FW M. Klose (Bayern Munich)
FW W. Rooney (Manchester United)
FW A. Frei (FC Basel)

I will be using the 5-3-2 formation for this league given my better options, this likely for the duration of the group stage. I will probably have to go to a 4-4-2 one the knockout rounds start and clean sheets will be far less a given.

UEFA Fantasy Soccer - UEFA European Championship 2012: Gondor (ranked in lower 2%)

UEFA is the only site that offers a fantasy league that extends from the qualifying stages through the tournament in 2012. I love it because the format an excellent opportunity to learn about European football and to use players from storied teams that haven't exactly had a lot of overall success on the continent e.g. Scotland, Ireland, Israel.

The atmosphere is pretty much the same as their Champions League fantasy, save that all the player values from a team are the same. This provides a real interesting aspect to the game, and thus this format is really where the strategy of filling up the backline with players from Slovenia, Macedonia, Belarus, Albania, and Georgia become a real valuable option.

I missed the first matchday because I didn't realize the qualifying had started yet. And when I did realize it, I had only hours to put a team together without any real strategy once I'd used up my €100m and still had three players to select. The result wasn't pretty as I was forced to use a player from San Marino(?!) and Georgia (in an unfavourable match-up). But a "dream team" performance from Klose, and a strong game from Rooney and Gerrars at least gave me a respectable result.

Matchday 3 will be interesting because a lot of the big name national sides don't have matches--namely no England or Sweden, teams I like to take players from. So we'll see how my strategy works out next month.

Primary starters for the week ending (* was my "Captain"): Given (GK-Irl), Lahm (D-Ger), Dunne (D-Irl), Brečko (D-Svn), Mellberg (D-Swe), Gerrard (M-Eng), Kobiashvili (M-Geo), Benayoun (M-Isr), Berretti (M-SM), *Klose (F-Ger), Rooney (F-Eng)

Comments

[Dawn]

I think we've been trying to beat each other to Favre & Warner for years. They have been two if my favorites for a long time now. I was thrilled when I scored Wes Welker; I scooped him up before anyone knew who he was, back in Miami when having him in NE was only a wish. Is Breaston still considered a rookie? I know he had him on a couple of my teams last year, but I don't know if he picked up enough playing time to not qualify as a rookie this season. I thought about him this year, but with Warner retired & the QB situation in AZ a little uncertain, I was too afraid to try risking him this season. My "big risk" was for the DET RB, Best. I hope the rest of his season goes like Week One did.

I feel your Fantasy Baseball pain. I had both Nolasco & JJ on my other team, and now I am scrambling. Especially because JJ isn't listed on the DL yet & there is no way I am dropping him all together!

[Josh]

I'd moved on from Favre and Warner last year, also because I knew you are a big fan.

Wes is a great pick and a genuine creature in the sports community. I truly though he had sunk my week with his performance (and Johnson's lack thereof). Kas really likes him as well. You both seems to run to the same player types (lol) since she is a big Pedroia fan as well ;-D

But in general, this was a tough NFL fantasy week.. I know how it feels to lose a close game in the wee hours like that. Maybe if it had been one of the other teams (especially Charlie) I would have been dancing around. But since it was you I went outside to do my rather bad interpretation of the "Willie Mays Hayes footwork" :-)

I had to laugh too at the way we are so parallel in our drafting habits. You snagged Schaub, Jennings, and Forte just as I was going to lol (and then Charlie made it worse by taking Meachcum just before me in one of those same rounds, heh).

Re: Baseball

Absolutely make sure you hold onto Josh AND Ricky--even if it means losing in the playoffs. They are one of baseball's best pitching tag teams. Nolasco can be inconsistent before the All-Star break, but he always turns it on in big time the second half. I learned this lesson last year.

[Dawn]

I just wish that the Marlins would make his )JJ's) finished season official by DL-ing him so I can get another pitcher. They took FOR. EV. ER. to make the move with Nolasco. Thank God for Brett Myers & Daniel Hudson who are carrying my team right now.

[Dawn]

Oh & if it makes you feel any better, you snagged Rice & Brown when they were my next slated pick too. Of course. =P

[ROSS]

Josh AND Ricky are one of baseball's best pitching tag teams.Wes is a great pick and a genuine creature in the sports community.