Thoughts About Fantasy Football

Normally, I would be playing poker at this time of day. The weather outside is typical Seattle, and it's still an hour or two before Happy Hour. I guess I'll blog some more.

I made my first trade of the year, in Skidoo's league. Normally, when I make trades, I try to do the following:

1. Trade from depth. I'll give up more value in trade if it means I'm giving up a backup & a starter for a better starter. This usually works better in conjunction with...
2. Focus on bad teams. Most teams don't want to give up their best player, but bad teams have to consider giving up a top notch starter if it means getting two starters in return. Example: If a team is weak at WR, and they are offered Matt Forte & Santonio Holmes for Westbrook, it's at least tempting.
3. Stay away from top teams. Unless I think I can fleece someone with a good team, I don't look at them as trade partners. I don't want to do anything that's going to help their team.
4. Make quality offers. The quickest way to kill any trade chances in Fantasy Football is to make a shitty offer. I may lowball someone to start with but I'm not going to offer them Ike Hilliard, my kicker & Seattle's D for Anquan Boldin, even if the net points is in their favor. I honestly try to make mutually beneficial offers that just happen to be more beneficial for me.

Unfortunately, in Skidoo's league, I had to throw out most of those rules. In a 12 team league, depth is hard to come by. Plus, as I mentioned last week, it's a strict 3 WR, 2 RB league. Without that flex option, WRs are a commodity, and I wasn't confident with a rotation of Ike Hilliard, Steve Breaston or whoever else I find on waivers as my 3rd WR. So I traded Edgerrin James to MattyEbs (who I don't believe has a blog but I wanna say I recognize the name from Jordan's posts for some reason) for Matt Jones. It wasn't the trade I wanted to make but it came down to this:

1. MattyEbs has depth at WR (Roy Williams, Burress, Cotchery as well)
2. I shot for Cotchery first but was declined
3. I was willing to give up on James because I don't think his value will be any higher
4. I have Addai & Parker as starters, and was able to pick up Warrick Dunn & Justin Fargas off waivers to give me a bit more depth.
5. Jones isn't a stud, but he's the Jags top WR this year and has a great schedule ahead (DEN, CLE, CIN, DET).

So although I overpaid points-wise for a No. 3 WR, and I traded my No 3. RB at a time when my No 2. back is injured, I felt this was a necessary trade. I wasn't going to start James this week against Buffalo, and I'm more confident with a future lineup of Romo, Addai, Parker, Jennings, Holmes & Jones than rotating that 3rd WR and keeping James on my bench permanently. I'm 2-2 in the league, just one game out of 1st, but I'm also 4\12 in total points. I've got a good squad but I needed that last starter to round out my lineup. I wouldn't mind tweaking my roster a bit more if the opportunity presents itself but I feel much better about my team now.

In my $100 league, I'm tied for first at 3-1 but could've been 4-0. My only loss was a 54-53 game, the same week that Westbrook went down with his annual injury. It sucks to lose such a winnable game but I'll survive. This league has been much more competitive than in years past, with most of the teams at least making active waiver wire claims. My trade attempts have not worked as well; I tried offering Chris Perry for Marques Colston to a last place team with only 3 RB (Grant, James, F. Jones...ugh) but he didn't bite. This week will be interesting as I go up against another 1st place team & the top scorer thus far. The good news is that it sounds like Westbrook will play against a banged up Redskins defense. Suffice to say this is a pretty big game despite the fact it's only Week 5.

That's all for now. I don't want to turn off all my readers with an overflow of FF content. I'll try to return to more inane poker ramblings ASAP.