Anyone have advice for Fantasy Football / Hockey leagues?

[DJ Jackalope]

Anyone have advice for Fantasy Football / Hockey leagues?

There, I went out and said it! On the defcon forums, even.

Has anyone played in FF or FH leagues before?

Aside from picking awesome players who do well IRL, does anyone have any advice for rocking out in a fantasy league?

One of my friends conned me into doing football (espn league) which I can't stand and know nothing about, so I will be the chaos team in that league. The other is hockey (yahoo leagues), which I know my way around pretty decently, so that one will be okish.

[theprez98]

Re: Anyone have advice for Fantasy Football / Hockey leagues?

Anyone have advice for Fantasy Football / Hockey leagues?

There, I went out and said it! On the defcon forums, even.

Has anyone played in FF or FH leagues before?

Aside from picking awesome players who do well IRL, does anyone have any advice for rocking out in a fantasy league?

One of my friends conned me into doing football (espn league) which I can't stand and know nothing about, so I will be the chaos team in that league. The other is hockey (yahoo leagues), which I know my way around pretty decently, so that one will be okish.

I've played in Fantasy Baseball, Football, NASCAR, pretty much anything you can think of (in fact I just drafted my football team last night), for the better part of 15 years. I even ran leagues manually before it was "easy" to do so online. Mostly I play in Yahoo leagues now because they are free and work pretty well, and I don't care about winning money or prizes. I have also played in CBS Sportsline leagues.

Have you seen the movie Fever Pitch with Jimmy Fallon? His addiction with the Red Sox is about the same as my addiction to Sports, Football, Fantasy Sports, having bought many books and spent many hours pouring over statistics spreadsheets that I designed specifically for that league.

Not much experience with Hockey, so I'll confine my responses based on the many football leagues I've played in.

Research definitely helps, especially in online public leagues like Yahoo. Many people sign up and draft without doing anything else. Preparation *can* help, as the results of the draft could have as much as 50% of the total impact of deciding who will win the league.

Also, you need to rate your players based on the scoring system of the league. For example, Michael Vick is a pretty good quarterback but a lousy fantasy player because he doesn't consistently put up big numbers. Peyton Manning, on the other hand, is a Fantasy owner's dream at QB.

Some people give up on their teams early on if things aren't going well. So sticking to your team and making sure to update things every week also helps. Making sure you're not starting players during their bye week, for example. Or starting players who are injured. Yes, some people miss this stuff.

My experience has been that the results you get out of a fantasy sports league will roughly mirror how much time you put into it. This only works to a point. You can put all of your time into a team and sometimes things just won't work out for you. Sometimes the guy who auto-drafts a team and doesn't trade or otherwise touch his team for the rest of the year wins. Sometimes it just happens that way. But on the whole I have had more fun with putting everything I could into making my team better.

Let me know if you have more questions.

[jur1st]

Re: Anyone have advice for Fantasy Football / Hockey leagues?

I tend to be that guy who picks the defense too early, but it's paid off for the last couple years. The Bears are the only team that I would pick early.

Another strategy which I have used in the past which worked was to get two players from the same team who put up huge numbers. The best combination I used was Dante Cullpeper and Randy Moss. This year, I've combined Dante with Chris Chambers.

I also like picking one player who I like to watch...when I'm in a league where you pick a defensive player I always go with Ray Lewis because he eats people. This year I took Reggie Bush because of his potential. He also has potential to totally suck, much like Larry Johnson did during his first few years in the pros.

I always try to have a team which is strong overall. While most people are snatching up second or third tier running backs, I'm taking the best receivers, tight ends, and QB's for trade bait later in the season.

The top pick has to be Larry Johnson. The dude is quite simply the Man and I love watching him demolish people every weekend. Tony Gonzolez is a perennial high tight end pick, but it is unclear how much he will factor in to the KC offence under Mike Solari. Trent hasn't thrown in his direction too much at this point in the pre-season. Speaking of Trent, he's also a risky pick at QB because Larry Johnson will be getting so many carries that Trent won't be opening up the field as much as he did in the past.

I suppose it's clear which team I have season tickets for....if anyone will be in town be sure to let me know so we can get some tailgating in.

(oh...the only thing I know about hockey is that it is played on ice by guys with really long names. Sorry I can't be of any more help in this area)

[DJ Jackalope]

Re: Anyone have advice for Fantasy Football / Hockey leagues?

thanks guys for the advice! now at least I know some names of some football players! I can name you all kinds of djs and peope who draw/write comics in return if you want :P

[theprez98]

Re: Anyone have advice for Fantasy Football / Hockey leagues?

thanks guys for the advice! now at least I know some names of some football players! I can name you all kinds of djs and peope who draw/write comics in return if you want :P

And good luck to you. Just remember having fun is the number one goal. If you can pwn your opponents in the process, it's all the better.