Fantasy Update

As if you care.

Baseball

My ESPN team, the Cubby Bears, goes into the second week of the first round of the playoffs (confused yet?) solidly in the lead. No worries here. I expect to move onto the finals, and I expect to win.

My Shamrocks, in BIG WILLY'S BASEBALL LEAGUE (yes, he made the title screaming)on Yahoo! were bounced after the first round of the playoffs by a team named *gulp* Sally Palin Fan! . I really, really hope this isn't a sign of things to come. I can't decide if I'm more pissed off by losing to someone who is not only a Republican but also actually likes and finds credibility in Sarah Palin (pictured), or if I'm angrier that the Shamrocks squandered what was at one point a 12 - 1 lead only to lose 6 - 8. Whatever. Fuck that league.

My Yahoo! Public league teams, Let's Pet Puppies and The Rentals, are in their first week of playoffs after resting on a bye all last week. At midweek, the Puppies are up 5 - 4 and The Rentals are down 3 - 7 (and it's not looking good). Here's hoping those two teams pull it out.

My lone roto team this year, The Shams, are vying for 2nd place in the NL Only league. Currently, I sit in third place, 2 points out of second and 14.5 points out of first. Winning this league is looking more and more like an impossibility. And to think I led the league for 3/4 of the season. Blast!

Football

An up and down first week.

My ESPN teams split, with the Chicago Shamecocks of the ACL I League losing (badly) and posting the lowest score of any team in the league (just 44 points). Putting McGahee in proved to be foolish as he didn't touch the field all day. Also, Dallas Clark and Vince Young both came up lame during their respective games. I made some moves in the first week, including trading away McGahee and Reggie Bush for Aaron Rodgers (pictured) and Ryan Grant. Rodgers looked solid in his debut and I needed a safe bet QB with Young injured and Schaub playing for the Texans. I also sold high on Bush, betting that he will continue to be streaky this year and Grant will be the more solid option. I could care less about McGahee. My ace in the hole in this league is my number one waiver position, which I have (I believe) brilliantly spent on getting Matt Cassel, Brady's replacement, this week. Either he or Schaub will be great trade bait to shore up my RB or WR positions. My moves this week have given me hope that this team could turn out ok.

(EDIT: Just found out that my waiver claim was denied due to position limits. So if I had just dropped Vince Young instead of Devin Thomas, I would have Cassel on my team. Instead, my number one waiver position remains and I don't have the valuable trading commodity I wanted (and needed) so badly. Fucking lame.)

My Let's Pet Puppies team in the ESPN public league pulled off an impressive 107 - 79 victory in week one, good for second best in the league. The win is mostly attributable to the outstanding play of Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook, but almost my entire team contributed double digits, including Robbie Gould, the Eagles' D/ST, Thomas Jones, and of course, Reggie Wayne. Jake Delhomme had a solid game on my bench, and Chris Johnson totally lived up to the hype and I can't believe I snatched him off the FA wire after the draft. He made the starting lineup this week. I cut ties with Alge Crumpler because he looks like the #2 TE in Tennessee after last week. I replaced him with Dante Rosario, the Panthers' surprising young TE who caaught the game winning TD last week in one of his 7 receptions for 96 yards. I'm feeling good about this team. This league seems very inactive though. No one has made any trades and only a few people made waiver claims after week one. I'm worried that a good chunk of the other owners will give up after week 4, making the fantasy game a lot less fun to play.

In my Yahoo! leagues, I won 2 matchups and lost the third.

In BIG WILLY'S FOOTBALL LEAGUE (yes, he screams for football too) my Shamrocks posted 174 points, good for 5th best in the league, in their victory over the Humpin' Monkeys. I was an underdog last week, and the stellar play of Phillip Rivers and the surprising production by Antwaan Randle El led me to the win. I still need to grab another RB. Steven Jackson and Jamal Lewis are not enough to last me all season, especially in a league where I can play up to 4 RBs at one time. I don't have all that much worth trading either.

The Shamecocks in Taylor Christiano's league were my other losing team this week, falling 108.90 - 138.64 to CrazyCarl (He's crazy). In my defense, Carl had both McNabb and Willie Parker this week and it's pretty hard to compete with that production. Those two alone outscored my Chicago Shamecocks of ESPN. I still like this team a lot. I'll have Chris Johnson in there this week, and I replaced Crumpler with Rosario in this league as well. I can't really see any glaring need that this team has.

My final team, The Shams, in a Yahoo! public league won 111 - 89 on the back of Jay Cutler's great game on MNF against the sorry looking Raiders. I was one point down heading into Monday because my top playmakers Brian Westbrook and Willie Parker were eclipsed by his top scorers Drew Brees and Reggie Bush. But Cutler's terrific performance (and the fact that he had Oakland's D) pushed me over the top. I like my chances in this league because the other owners all appear to be inept. I was able to pick up rookie heartthrobs Eddie Royal and Chris Johnson (dropping Donald Driver and Ray Rice, for better or for worse) and replace the ailing Todd Heap with last week's standout TE (once again, a round of applause for) Dante Rosario. I also kicked Seattle's D/ST to the curb after last week's dreadful performance in exchange for Buffalo's D/ST (featuring my GF's high school classmate Paul Posluszny). Again,I can't see any improvements I need to make to this team.

Key Matchups

Ryan Grant (pictured) at Detroit
The Lions got torched by Michael Turner (The Burner) and Co. last week to the tune of 318 yards on the ground alone.

Jay Cutler vs. San Diego
San Diego's prized defense just got a little less scary with Shawne Merriman gone "Lights Out" for the season. Jake Delhomme had a great return to football last week against the Chargers while Cutler carved up the Raiders for 300 yards and 2 TDs.

Minnesota at Indianapolis
After last week's disappointing starts for both teams, it will be interesting to see which team wants their first win more. Matt Forte ran all over the Colts' D last week; will Purple Jesus do the same? Will Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, Joseph Addai, and the rest of the Colt's drool-worthy offense be able to get anything done against the Vikings' highly-touted D when they were shut down by the apparently underrated Bears last week?

Game of the Week

Philadelphia at Dallas
In what could be a preview of the NFC title game, the Eagles come off last week's high flying win over the Rams to play against an all around great Cowboys team that was equally impressive on the road in a win over Cleveland. Donovan McNabb (pictured) will not be able to throw on the 'Boys the way he did against the Rams. Will Philly have an answer for Tony Romo and his favorite targets, T.O. and Jason Witten? This'un should be a good'un.