My Fantasy Season, pre-championship edition

Year in Review

My auction team, as already mentioned, is playing for the championship.

My pick 'em team at work is playing for third as I feared it would, having indeed lost to the guy who stole LT and Westbrook, the first and second backs on Yahoo. Yahoo, by the way, just happens to host this league.

The Redskins team finished with about three wins. I could doublecheck, but who cares. What a failed experiment. That said though, it is conceivable that someone really could have picked the Patriots in a pick 'em by going Maroney, Brady, Moss and whoever else in that order. Remember that the top ranked QBs in most leagues were Manning, Palmer, Brees. If you drafted 7th or 8th in the first, Brady most likely would have been there for you in the second and Moss probably would have been there in the third.

My Manning-led QB in the first round team failed to make the playoffs(finished 9 of 12) while the Brady-led QB first team is in the championship. Brady made a difference, obviously, but also I was able to get better waiver wire picks on the Brady team. There were just more people paying more attention than I was in the Manning league.

I also have a championship team on NFL.com, which was drafted as a Stud RB Theory team.

I lost my login for the CBS.com team, but I don't think it was competitive anyway - at least not how it was drafted. It was autodraft.

My Fox autodraft team finished the season third and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

A Yahoo team drafted RB and then best available is also in the championship.

What Went Right

I have four out of nine teams in the championship game. W00T!! I really believe I was so successful this year not because I nailed my first round draft choice (I often did not, taking Jackson and Gore so frequently) but because:

1) I found value in the mid rounds, particularly Brandon Jacobs and Jon Kitna. Even though they weren't the studs I hoped for, they were available late for me while I took shots at players like TO and Reggie Wayne in the second and third round while others were looking for their second RB and starting QB;

2) I also got a little lucky along the way, with players like Braylon Edwards and Marshawn Lynch outperforming my expectations;

3) I nailed my picks at TE (Witten and Cooley) and defense (NE, GB and Minn.). Oftentimes I am tempted to rank the RBs and QBs and just rely on a combination of gut feeling and magazines for ranking the other positions. That rarely works. I'm not ready to declare I know how to pick a good TE and a good defense consistently, yet, however, I did look a little deeper than fantasy points from last year in picking a defense. GB and Minn. were lights out in the pre-season with GB particularly having added to their defensive unit via free agency and the draft the last few years. New England has a very good offense, the core of their defense returned and they picked up a stud or two in free agency. I figured they were bound to be better;

4) I picked pretty good kickers. Find a good offense and whatever the kicker's name is, draft him. Gostkoswki of New England, someone not high on any pre-season ranking lists that I can recall other than mine, is 5th in Yahoo default scoring - 22 fantasy points behind first place Crosby of Green Bay, or less than 2 points per game. Beckett's pre-season top 5 - Kaeding, Vinatieri, Rackers, Graham and Wilkins all suffered with their team's offense this year. Graham is ranked 7th (only 2 points behind Gostkowski) and Vinatieri is 15th. The others are lower. That said, Vinatieri was outscored by Crosby by less three points per game;

4) I watched the waiver wire. People forget there are players other than RB and WR on the waiver wire and even at those positions, they rush to get the pick de jour. When I first picked up Fargas, someone said I was pretty desperate. Seems like that worked out well for me.

Lessons Learned

1) Luck is huge in fantasy football. You finish the season third and lose in the first round of a six team playoff or you can back into the playoffs and win it all because the other guy's players are mailing in the remainder of the season. The injury bug is also luck unless your players have a history of injury, then it's your fault.

2) Nine teams is at least six, if not seven, too many teams to manage. I was busier than usual this year but let's face it - I forgot a login. I also lost a lot of good waiver wire picks by not checking some teams until Saturday or Sunday. You even lose the ability to focus on certain players - wanting Brady to do well in one league, but not in another, for one example. For another example, when someone asks if you have a player on your team, your response is "I think so."

3) Only one of my championship teams was drafted Stud RB (RB first and second round). On the Brady-led QB first team, I believe I waited until the fourth take a running back. So I proved that at least it is possible to win by picking QB, WR, TE while others fall all over the RBs.

Tips For Next Year

1) Don't take a kicker until you're satisfied with your roster.
2) Pay attention to TE and defensive rankings so you don't pick a big name too early and, particularly in an auction format, you can keep your cool while others are paying too much for Gates, Gonzalez and Heap again.
3) Do not force yourself to take a questionable running back in the second round while top talent at other positions is available.
4) Consider taking a top QB in the first if the only options left at running back are muddled mess of uncertainty, which will probably be the case until the NFL decides again that having a stud running back really is necessary.
5) Find the value plays at each position. In a pick 'em if you do go QB, WR, WR, you need to know who is worth a gamble at RB in the fourth and fifth rounds.