Thursday, July 3, 2008

Alternate Fantasy Football Rules

Once thought to be a game for only the nerdiest of sports enthusiasts, fantasy football has reached such main stream popularity that anyone who does not manage at least one team is often considered a second rate fan.

In an effort to market to fantasy owners who might not have the starting line-up of every team memorized, vast amounts of information has been made accessible for the casual player. Free access to online league tools at sites such as Yahoo and ESPN makes it easy for all ages and levels of football knowledge. If you don't know who the best running backs are, just take a look at the vanilla scouting reports provided by Yahoo's football experts. Not sure if you should take a rookie QB in your draft? See what they have to say on ESPN.com.

This easy knowledge, to some degree, has removed an advantage from people who don't need Yahoo's suggestions on who to start, who know to draft back-ups based on bye-weeks, and who actually understand the risks of taking a Denver running-back in the draft without being told. Information is power, and there's a ton of it out there these days. To make playing fantasy football more difficult, many leagues have become larger, instituted keeper rules, or have alternative scoring.

So what else can be done? What's next on the horizon? A problem I've had is that no matter how well you build and manage your team, there is no way for you to stop your head-to-head opponent from having a fluke week and beating you. As it is now, you just kind of have to accept that you can't stop other teams from scoring points. But what if you were able to "play defense" against your opposition?

I've thought about giving an idea of mine a test run. Every week each owner would get to choose one player to "defend" against. "Defending" would basically entail making a prediction about the production of that player in terms of yards or touchdowns. This can be kind of confusing, so I'll use an example featuring two fictional teams: MikeVicsDawgz and the Belicheaterz.

This week the owner of MikeVicsDawgz is playing the owner of Belicheaterz. MikeVicsDawgz sees that Belicheaterz has Ladainian Tomlinson, and he wants to defend against him. Before Saturday at noon (Wednesday at noon for weeks that start on Thursday), MikeVicsDawgz must post his prediction on the league message board.

Let's say his is prediction is 111 yards for LDT. If Tomlinson runs for 111 yards or more, Belicheaterz will only score points for every yard past the 111th (so a 130 yard game would be scored as a 19 yard game). If LDT runs for less than 111 yards, then MikeVicsDawgz will lose points equal to the difference between the prediction and the performance (so a 79 yard game would lose MikeVicsDawgz 32 yards worth of points). The same process would be applied if MikeVicsDawgz chose to predict touchdowns instead of yards. Obviously this works best if fractional scoring is used.


If Belicheaterz thought that the prediction was very accurate, and could damage his chance of winning, he could choose to sit Tomlinson before his game began. MikeVicsDawgz would NOT get to make another prediction.

Since there is no way to officially apply changes like this on a site like Yahoo, the standings would not reflect the modified scoring. The league commissioner would be forced to keep track of point totals and records and post updates about both on the message board. This would effectively create two competitions in the same league: the regular Yahoo Championship, and the Advanced Championship.


Playoffs, unfortunately, would be complicated as the match-ups would likely differ between competitions. However, Yahoo still tracks team point totals even if you do not make the post-season, so it would not be impossible.

This is an untested idea. If you've got any additions or criticisms to make, feel free to post a comment.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Okay Brett, seriously, let it go...

I would hate to be Aaron Rogers right now. Sure, he's gotten paid millions of dollars to be a glorified mannequin for the past three years, but when Brett Favre finally "retired" from the NFL back in March things didn't exactly appear to be set in stone. Even on that day, there were still rumblings that there was a chance Favre would come back for one more year. There were rumors that his locker hadn't been packed up (pun!) yet. He was a staple in Green Bay for so long (and let's face it, what the hell do people in Wisconsin have to hold onto?) that fans had a tough time letting go.

But time moved on. Many assumed he'd get a gig in front of the camera as an analyst on one of the 6,497 football shows on tv. The Packers even drafted Briam Brohm to make sure Rodgers still had the fire in him and to let him know the job wasn't just going to be handed to him. And if something happened to Rogers, Brohm could step up. Hell, it was announced that Favre was going to be on the cover of Madden '09 because it wouldn't matter if the curse hit him or not, because he was out of the game.

Now word has come out today that he has an "itch" to come back and play.

I don't need to go over the guy's career stats with you. Yes, I know, he was a very, very good quarterback and will have a spot shined and ready for him in the Hall of Fame. But dude, enough is enough. How is the franchise ever going to succeed if there are lingering sentiments of a Favre return? Coach Mike McCarthy even admitted he tried to talk Number 4 out of retirement. He has played it down for the most part saying it's just a rumor. That really isn't doing it for me. If you aren't going to come back, be clear about it. Espn.com is reporting that a Packer source has told them:

"Favre has communicated his potential desire to coach Mike McCarthy but talks have not advanced to a substantive stage."

I don't even want to know their definition of substantive. The thing is, Brett might really be done with playing the game of football. But you know ESPN is going to jump at every tidbit of info regarding some Ali-like return. Fueling the flames as it were. When he gave his retirement speech, there just wasn't an air of finalty to the whole thing. Training camp starts in roughly a month. If Rogers (or Brohm) and the Packers want to make anything out of this season, they need to do it without Favre looming in the shadows like some old creep with popsicles in his basement. He made his mark on the game, but now, he needs to do the right thing and reassure everyone-the fans, the organization, the coach and his former teammates-that he is 100% retired. Those two years remaining on his contract will go untouched. He wll even call Ben Stiller looking for work if that's what it takes. I am not a Packers fan by any stretch of the imagination, but c'mon Brett. Let ESPN blow up some other story. Let Aaron Rodgers at least have the chance to win Packers fans over. Let the past be the past.

Gee, all this talk about the NFL is getting me pumped for the season. I can't wait for the first Monday Night Game. Wonder who's playing...

Allow me to reintroduce myself...

Hi,

My name is William, but since we are close friends now, you can call me Billy. I am from scenic Staten Island, New York. As a result, I am a Jets*, Mets** and Knicks*** fan, pretty much in that order. I am also a Rangers**** fan, in the sense that I own one of those nice alternate jerseys with the Statue of Liberty on it, and I will happily watch any of their Stanley Cup Finals appearances as long as it is at least game 4, period 2.

It is a pretty bad time to be a fan of any of those teams! (wait, are the Rangers good?).

However, I'm not here to be a homer (you've already met Adam, right?), and I'm not here to jam statistics down your throat, even while worshiping at the altar of Moneyball. I'm pretty sure I'm here to provide a pleasing palate cleanser between talk of OPS+ and pictures of Rick Ross (boss). Think of me as your delightful lemon sorbet between dinner courses, except way hetero.

You can expect from me: Dispatches from enemy territory (Boston), Ruminations on all things construda, Rusty Kuntz, Detlef Schrempf, and Mookie Wilson/Blaylock ("The Sporting Mookies") references, and as a fan of the previously mentioned teams, the occasional poorly reasoned, inarticulate outburst of white hot rage.

I think Scrob will exercise more editorial control on my future posts!


* They earned every one of their 4 wins last season. No illicit taping or secret robot cheerleaders (look it up) or nothin'.

** I think the Mets might be surprising later on this season, as they often are (like last year!). Hopefully this year's surprise isn't how surprisingly bad they are at baseball.

*** Nobody ever laughs at my "28 seconds or less" jokes about the D'Antoni era in New York. Does no one read Phoenix based sports memoirs anymore? - Also I think the aforementioned D'Antoni era is going to have more to do with wacky Polaroids of Mike and his kid wearing foam Statue of Liberty headbands at the Guggenheim than, you know, actual quality basketball.

****
no, I seriously know absolutely nothing about the New York Football Rangers.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Cali Hoops

Lost in the "Chris Paul-Deron Williams-Tony Parker-Steve Nash" shuffle in the Western Conference this year was Baron Davis. Coming off a ginormous upset in the 2007 playoffs, Davis and the rest of the Warriors failed to make the playoffs this year. A few days ago, he surprised the Bay Area when he opted out of his contract with Golden State. Well now Warrior fans are more shocked than the Wachowski Brothers at Speed Racer's first weekend box office. Not only did he sign a 5 year, $65 million deal with a new team, but that team is the Los Angeles Clippers.


Davis dropped 22 and 7.5 this year but he and the rest of the team just ran out of gas down the stretch. He started every game for Don Nelson but bolted when he saw a team that probably wasn't going to gain much ground. Now if the Clip can convince Elton Brand to resign for less dough and dump Corey Maggette, they'll have a Davis-Brand-Kaman-Thornton-Mobley lineup that, if healthy, could make waves in a crowded Western Conference. I could see Davis fitting in nicely and having a great year. After what happened to poor Shaun Livingston, Clippers fans (all 8 of them) deserve to watch a guy who can control the rock and get to the basket.


He is only 29 years old (which I suppose makes him ancient compared to Paul and Williams) but he grew up outside of Los Angeles and went to college at UCLA. He got a bad rap at the end of his tenure with the Hornets but really seemed to pick things up in the 06-07 season. The thing is, after last year's insane player-swapping/deal-making, this move by the Clippers might not seem like a huge deal. And with their Staples Center roommates making the Finals, the pressure will be off them more than usual.

If that's even possible.


Still, I could have seen Davis in a Heat jersey. But I guess they will just have to settle for Davis' big brother from Miami.






BOSS.

Six names on the first place Rays

We're at the half way mark and the surprise team of the year is the first place Tampa Bay Rays.


Wow. They're not even fooling around like the NL West where the division leading D-Backs are hovering at .500. We're talking the real deal, leading the league in winning percentage, World Series contender, Tampa. Bay. Rays. Just wow.

This is like that year when the Nets transformed from perennial losers to the Jason Kidd show featuring the Nets. No one was comfortable with the idea that the Nets were good at basketball. Not even Nets fans. Likewise, the AL East is slowly coming to grips with the fact that there is a real tangible possibility that neither the Yankees nor the Red Sox will win the division. That hasn't happened since 1997 when the Orioles edged New York by two games for the title.

So how are they doing it, you ask? What is the difference between this Rays team and the Devil Rays of last season? I've got six names for you: three hitters and three pitchers that are keeping Tampa Bay on Top.

Your first instinct would be to say, "Oh, their big names must be having killer seasons." Wrong. In fact the opposite is true. The Rays big three (B.J. Upton, Carl Crawford, and Carlos Pena) are all having much worse years than they did in 2007. When looking at OPS, the best quick and dirty measure of hitting performance, Upton is down from .894 last year to .818 this year, Crawford down from .820 to .724, and Pena a woeful drop down from 1.037 to .769.


In 2007, the Rays as a team finished eighth in the AL in Runs Scored (782, 4.8 per game) and fifth in OPS (.769). The team numbers this year actually don't differ all that much. At the end of June, Tampa Bay ranked sixth in the AL in both Runs Scored (387, 4.7 per game) and OPS (.759). If their big three have fallen off that much from last season, who's picked up the slack?

Here we start with the six key names for the Rays. The first guy on the list is former Rookie of the Year, Eric Hinske. He leads the Rays in OPS (.880) and is second in home runs (13). Oh yeah, his 2008 salary? $800,000! Talk about a good pick up for GM Andrew Friedman.

The next guy filling the holes is 24 year old catcher Dioner Navarro. He was originally a Yankees prospect before being dealt to the Dodgers in the three way trade in which New York acquired Randy Johnson. In 2006 the Rays traded catcher Toby Hall and pitcher Mark Hendrickson for Navarro, Pitcher Jae Seo, and outfielder Justin Ruggiano. After an unimpressive year and a half in a Rays uniform, Navarro seems to be living up to his potential. This year he ranks second on the team in OBP (.366) and has driven in 31 runs in 59 games. That’s certainly an improvement from his .286 OBP and 44 RBIs in 119 games in 2007.

The last hitter I will mention here is considered to be the future of the franchise. Evan Longoria is making an excellent case for RoY honors. He leads his team in home runs (15), RBI's (47), and is second on the team in OPS (.864). Also, his eminent ascent to the role of starting third-basemen moved Akinori Iwamura to second which allowed the Rays the freedom to deal Ty Wigginton to the Astros in return for...

Dan Wheeler: our first pitcher on the list of six. Wheeler was originally a Tampa Bay draft pick in 1996, but played his best years in a Houston uniform. In both 2005 and 2006 he pitched over 70 innings out of the bullpen and posted ERA's of 2.21 and 2.52 respectively. He had an awful start to the season in 2007 before joining the Rays where he had an awful end to it as well. His ERA between the two teams over 74.2 innings was 5.30.

The most telling number from that campaign was the 11 homers he gave up (my rule of thumb for a good amount of home runs allowed is 10 innings per HR). This year he is has only given up 4 home runs in 38.1 innings (much better), and that along with his usual low walk total and some good defense has him sporting an ERA of 1.88. Wheeler should be considered one of the premier set up men in the game and he is the key reliever bridging the gap from the starters to...

Troy Percival. OLD! Here we have a 38 year old flame throwing corpse of a closer who probably thought it would be cool to pull a Wade Boggs, go into semi-retirement, and sign with the Rays. Little did he know he'd be notching saves for the best team in the game. He's not the young man he used to be, but I'll take his 3.54 ERA, and 30 K's in 28 innings any day of the week. Especially when you consider that Al Reyes was closing for the Devil Rays last year with his 4.90 ERA and 13 HR's allowed in 60.2 innings!

The last piece of the puzzle for Tampa Bay is a starting pitcher. No, not Kazmir. He's always been lights out. Shields is about where he was last year as well. Not even Edwin Jackson and Andy Sonnanstine are doing remarkably better if you compare home runs, walks, and strikeouts. The big difference in the rotation is in what they're getting out of Matt Garza.


Garza was acquired from the Twins in the offseason with Jason Bartlett and Eduardo Morin for Delmon Young, Jason Pridie, and Brendan Harris. Garza completes the picture. He gives the Rays a serious upgrade over the collective trash of Jason Hammel, Casey Fosum, Jae Seo, and J.P. Howell that served as their fifth starter in 2007. Now with five pitchers who can go seven deep most times out, they can save their key relievers for only the most crucial spots. A tired bullpen is always a recipe for disaster.

This is the real key to the difference between the 2007 Devil Rays and the 2008 Rays (aside from the overly PC name change): the pitching, particularly the relief pitching. In 2007, the Rays had a bullpen ERA of 6.16! All they had to do was get that down to 5.00 and they would see a dramatic improvement in their winning percentage, but they've done better than that. This year their bullpen ERA is at 3.21. Opponents are hitting a measly .213 against Tampa Bay after the starters leave.

Barring any major injuries, this team is bound for the post season. The scary part is that they are built for the playoffs: three good starters, a lights out bullpen, good speed, and solid defense. The only thing they are lacking is that game changing bat, but if Crawford, Upton, and Pena start playing the way they were last year, we could be looking at a true World Series contender.

At least they've still got a WNBA team...

As a three year old attending my first professional basketball game, I spent most of my time downing soda, hopping up and down the stairs of the Kingdome, and napping in my chair. Go Sonics! It seems Clay Bennett is just as thrilled to own my beloved Supersonics, and he's intent on bringing the party to Oklahoma City. A judge will rule on the case of the City of Seattle v. the Sonics ownership late tomorrow afternoon, but no matter what is decided, David Stern has made it abundantly clear that Seattle will lose their team.


The minutiae involved in the case could fill more buckets than Leon Powe, so I won't get too detailed. However, a couple key points:

  • Clay Bennett and his ownership group (all Oklahoma City-based “philanthropists”) never intended to keep the Sonics in Seattle when they purchased the team back in 2006. It’s been well documented over the last few months that days after the sale of the Sonics, owners were exchanging e-mails about how soon they could move the team to Oklahoma City, and lamenting that they would need to stay in Seattle for a “lame duck” 2007-2008 season. Thanks for trading away all those second round draft picks this year, guys. Additionally, Stern and other NBA higher-ups knew that Bennett and company were planning the OKC move. They even fined one of the co-owners for stating publicly that the owners had always planned to move the team. However, Stern continues to blame the City of Seattle for failed negotiations over a new arena, and knocks the local government for a “lack of support” as the reason Seattle won’t be getting (or keeping) an NBA team. Yep.
  • Memo to David Stern: Seattle taxpayers financed over three-quarters of the cost for full renovations to Key Arena in 1994, ponying up nearly $75 million. In 1997, Washington State approved the construction of Qwest Field, costing the public a maximum of $300 million. In 1999, King County funded $340 million (nearly 65% of the total cost) towards Safeco Field. Now, I don’t agree with Senator Arlen Spector on much, but this is a lot of money for the public to be spending on stadiums, and public financing should warrant a lot more government oversight.

So here we are. If Judge Marsha Pechman rules that the Sonics can buy out the remainder of the Key Arena lease, they’re gone now. If she rules that the Sonics must stay, they’ll ride out the next two years as “lame ducks” and be gone in 2010 when the lease is up. Maybe David Stern will let the city hold onto the Supersonics name and a local investor will buy the Grizzlies (seriously, how does Chris Wallace still have a job!?) Even if Seattle gets another team, it’s shameful that the league has stood by while a long-standing franchise is stolen from the city that has invested decades of support and millions of dollars.



P.S. Mark Cuban was one of just two owners to veto the move to Oklahoma. Give that man the Cubs, already!


P.P.S. Long live Detlef Schrempf.

Who's the new guy?

Hello out there to all 5 of you who have accidentally come to this blog while trying to find that 2 Girls, 1 Cup video on this crazy system of tubes! As announced earlier, there are some new contributors to this blog, and I want to give a big thanks to Scrob for including us. We were all big supporters of his original cause to get more playing time for The Show and I’m excited to help this blog grow going forward.


Who the hell am I you ask? Well I’ll be going by the thinly veiled moniker of Adam Man,” which is a reference to the Super Hero alter-ego I turn into after downing enough Stellas (always crisp). As such, I assure you all of my posts will be written while drunk enough to actually BECOME Adam Man. Since I’m planning to add my commentary mostly while at my day job… this could get a bit awkward. All told I’m a born-and-bred Boston sports fan that prides himself on not chanting “Yankees Suck,” wearing my sports caps generally front-facing, and being actually knowledgeable about sports outside of what I hear screamed on local sports radio.


So I’ve put a lot of thought into what my contribution to field of Blogometrics should be… I’ve read the Deadspins, the FireJoeMorgans, the occasional BostonDirtDogs(es?), et al., and I’ve even listened to what Buzz Bissinger has to say. One thing that’s become painfully clear is that if I don’t have something interesting to say with an original perspective, I shouldn’t bother saying it at all. This will probably be seen as a departure from my normal course of action to my friends, but hey… if I’m going to make an attempt at this, I might as well do it right.


I hope you guys enjoy what I add to the site. My content will bring a Boston hometown-fan perspective, which seems to have transitioned from whiny to defensive in recent years. I'll regularly provide NFL and NCAA football analysis, though you can expect me to chime in on other topics when I have something to say. I'm also slightly obsessed with the whole LOL genre, so expect to be annoyed with the likes of what you see below.

Monday, June 30, 2008

SITE NEWS

In an attempt to expand SPLP, four new writers have agreed to start contributing. You might be thinking, wow, five people writing about Leon Powe, that's impressive. Well, while that would be kind of awesome in its own way, the site will now be a full fledged sports blog covering the four major leagues and beyond. (Maybe even Arena Football? Maybe...) I am going to keep the name however, seeing as it will still be a struggle starting in October to get Leon more playing time. But until then, enjoy the new and expansive content. Feel free to leave comments and junk! And oh yeah, we got all sorts of an email account. Shockingly, it is startplayingleonpowe@gmail.com. Hit us up!