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Winning in real life beats losing in fantasy

When I made the decision to be in 7 leagues this year, I never really thought that I could have a week where I lost in EVERY single league, right? Right. But then Week 3 happened. It's not over yet and I still have a glimmer of hope but I think I need to confess to you all that I will go 3-4 if luck is on my side and 0-7 if it's not. It hurts. Seriously just typing that was a struggle. Who goes 0-7?! And who loses to a team that is apparently spearheaded by LeRon McClain (Yes, congratulations Sam, unless Rivers goes for 0 or negative tonight, you beat me with McClain, Hilliard and the rest of your crew of ruffians)?? Though for what it's worth, I did lose to Jamey Eisenberg from CBS who had Ronnie Brown piling up the points on me - I mean the dude even threw for a TD (though the sad truth is that even without Ronnie's massive numbers, I still would have lost).

Most of all though, I'm concerned that I'm paying a little fantasy karma this week because I actually traded away LaDainian Tomlinson. Yes, I traded LT, my #1 pick, the fantasy god that we've all come to know and love. But listen to the deal I got - Reggie Wayne, Wes Welker, Edgerrin James and Sammy Morris for LT and Mark Clayton. I was in desperate need of WR help and still have some decent RBs on my team...so we'll see what happens. But I'm pretty sure I just offended the heart and soul of fantasy football by trading away LT and here I am struggling to avoid 0-7.

But the light at the end of the tunnel is that I witnessed a fantastic Broncos win over the Saints (The Hazean's guest blog about the awesomeness of the Broncos offense is coming) to make my Broncos 3-0. And Northwestern, my alma mater and true football love, is 4-0 for the first time since 1962. Pretty sweet, huh? So I'm stuck in this quandary of where I think it's better for my real life teams to be kicking butt while my fantasy teams all put up abysmal performances...but I'm not 100% convinced of that quite yet. And add to that the fact that I'm somehow becoming more concerned about the performances of the players I recommend to you all than my own fantasy players, well it's just a crazy world.

Anyway, enough on my fantasy teams. Let's get to some links and advice.
  • The Goat has some waiver wire advice up already in Bye-Ready Fantasy Football Sleeper and Waiver Wire Watch Week 4.
  • The FootballDocs also have their Fantasy Football Waiver Wire article up - I guess I should say kudos to my McClain-owning buddy for already grabbing a guy that the Docs are calling "no longer a fluke" but the loss from this week still hurts...
  • FantasyPlayers.com has just been added to my radar - you've probably seen a bunch of their member sites before (they're adorned with a Fantasy Players Network banner at the top) and this link will take you to their NFL info. Fantasyplayers.com searches their many member sites for daily info, much like I try to do, and there's a whole bunch of new sites on here that I haven't seen before. This might sound exceedingly nerdly to some of you, but I couldn't be more excited. It's like a fantasy birthday of sorts to suddenly have my eyes opened to all these new resources.
  • NoOffseason.com's Week 4 Stock Market Report Westbrook could be falling, McGahee returns lists some of the more notable player changes from this week. It even includes a few IDPs (individual defensive players), which I love to see.
  • CreativeSports.com has a Week 3 Sizzle and Fizzle article - I'm glad to see they didn't jump wholeheartedly on the Ronnie Brown train and are calling him just "a matchup guy" for now.
  • The first bye week is approaching and LestersLegends has a helpful Bye Week Alternatives article with thoughts on players you might want to plug in for Week 4. They also have a Get 'em or Don't Sweat 'em article for those in need of some additions to your lineup.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Oof... that LT trade is gonna hurt. I understand the temptation when you need WR help, but he's L-friggin-T, and just wait til his toe's better and he takes advantage of the awesome Chargers o-line the way Sproles did in week 2...
Unknown said…
at the beginning of the season that trade for LT would have looked awesome in my eyes... however sammie has disappointed, peyton looks shaky for whatever reason and by contact affects wayne, welker actually has more points in my league than moss right now, but both definitely hurt by the loss of brady, and edge hasn't had any adversity this season other than being his sub par self. if these guys bounce back into 3/4 of what i thought they would be at the beginning of the season, i think you're good to go. for some reason after that LT siting on the bench thing last year and the toe now... (i think he might be declining! )
Tones said…
Real life?

I was at the Pats game and it was painful at first then somewhat comical. Not sure it was real at first. BB was out coached by the former OC of Arkansas (currently QB coach of Miami) and the Wild Hog. Apparently, he didn’t have time to check out that tape but will be today… But that D just didn’t show up! Cassel nothing special but I don’t think Brady could have won that one. The D was just #$%^! 2-2 in fantasy land this week after being 4-0 last week with a loss to someone that started Brown. Oh well, I’ll take the FF loss any day… - in the non-$ leagues at least!

Tones

Hey perfect wedding gift for your sis – his and hers #16 Cassel jerseys? Sure to get a laugh!
Anonymous said…
I know the pain involved when you lose to a team headed by the fantasy heavy known as Le'ron McClain. My opponent also had Ronnie Brown ON THE BENCH.

My team: Brees, W. Parker, Westbrook, Chris Johnson, Hines and Eddie Royal.

Opponent: Pittman and McClain as his starting RBs.

How does something like this happen? Oh and to add further insult, my team was the #1 team in the league, his was the last place team.
Thanks for the LT trade commentary...I'm not quite as down on my trade as some of you guys are. The Pats abandoned the run (and maybe abandoned Morris for Jordan?) so I have hope that Morris has some brighter matchups in his future. I will also always be a believer in Reggie Wayne - the Colts struggle against Jax and always have. Wayne has put up decent numbers in Weeks 1 & 2 despite a shaky Peyton. The Edge was not a great gain there but he's a warm body that will be fine some weeks. And Welker, heck, he's a great WR3 still in my mind. But you guys might be right, that might have been a disastrous trade for me...time will tell.

Tony, I love the idea of his & hers Cassel jerseys for my sister and future bro-in-law. Amusing. :)

Frontrow, I'm glad you can feel my pain over McClain. Here's to winning handily the next time we face these opponents...
Anonymous said…
I think you got good value for LT.
bigboid said…
Last year, I had first overall pick, which I (of course!) used on Tomlinson. Then, after about week 4, when I was convinced -- absolutely convinced! -- that Norv Turner was ruining LT's fantasy production value, I traded him for Randy Moss. Overall, it wasn't a bad trade, but LT did end the season with a few more points than Moss did last year. It's just awfully tough to get the right value back on a trade.

This year, I traded away Wee Willie Parker (my third RB anyway) after a monster week 1 for Joseph Addai, effectively trading my 6th rounder (62nd overall) for a top-six pick. Not a bad way to upgrade based on promise, I thought. I also swapped Greg Olsen TE CHI (my #2 TE and pick 134 overall) for Jeremy Shockey (pick 54), but with the Shockey injury, it was basically Wee Willie for Addai.

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