Week 8 consensus start/sit list

Here is your list of Week 8 consensus start/sit suggestions. For those new to this feature, each week I go through the start/sit articles that are linked here on the blog and tally up the number of start or sit votes that each player gets. Take a look at this list to help aid in some last minute lineup decisions - note that players are listed in no particular order.

Good luck this week!

QB
Start: Ryan Fitzpatrick, Matt Cassel, Jon Kitna, Matt Stafford
Sit: Vince Young, Matt Hasselbeck, Brett Favre

RB
Start: LeGarrette Blount, Beanie Wells, Thomas Jones, Ryan Torain
Sit: Ryan Mathews, Brandon Jackson, Chris Ivory, Cedric Benson

WR
Start: Dez Bryant, Dwayne Bowe, Pierre Garcon, Mike Williams (SEA)
Sit: Mike Sims-Walker, Donald Driver, Michael Crabtree, Danny Amendola, Marques Colston, Wes Welker

TE
Start: Kellen Winslow, Tony Moeaki, Jason Witten
Sit: Marcedes Lewis, Jeremy Shockey, Owen Daniels

DSTs
Start: Seahawks, Bucs
Sit: Saints, Vikings

Kickers
Start: Ryan Succop, Nick Folk, Kris Brown, Josh Scobee
Sit: Garrett Hartley

My little football

I think it's written into baby law somewhere that all newborns shall be dressed up in costume for Halloween, so of course there has been some discussion in our household about the best Halloween costume for our little dude. We went with a prefab football costume (what could be more appropriate, right?) that arrived recently and appears to be made for a freaking 4-year-old not an infant as marketed. We'll see if we can get our dude into it without looking like the droopiest little football, but hey, it's good to know that we now have a costume for him for years to come.

I hope you all have fun plans in store for Halloween, though could anything be better than spending the day watching Week 8 games? Didn't think so. So let's get to today's start/sit links and other articles...

• Start/sit linkage:
• CBSSports.com's Week 8 Start 'em and Sit 'em
• Razzball.com's Schmidt, Schmart: Week 8
• Fifth Down's Week 8 in Fantasy Football: Matchups and Q&A
• The Hazean's Start & Sit Extravaganza, Week 8: Still a Lot of Banged Up Colts
• Matthew Berry's Love/Hate for Week 8
• The Football Girl's Week 8 Start 'em/Sit 'em Quarterback and Running Back Edition and Wide Receiver and Tight End Edition
• FantasyFanPlay's Play 'em and Lay 'em Week 8
• The Sports Outlaw's Week 8 Start 'em/Sit 'em
• FFNerd's Week 8 Where to Put 'em
• FFArmory.com's Start 'em - Sit 'em - Week 8: 2010
• Week 8 Rankings:
• Razzball.com's Week 8 Positional Rankings
• FantasyPros911.com's Week 8 Rankings and Projections - link goes to RBs
• More expert accuracy assessment - this one from FantasyPros.com as they look at The Most Accurate Fantasy Football Experts...After 7 Weeks.
• RotoExperts.com's Week 8 NFL Game Previews look at the Week 8 matchups from a fantasy angle including notes on players you'll want to start and bench from each game.
• FOX Sports' Week 8 lineup calls: Running backs looks at their top 10 backs for the week plus sleepers and flops.

I'll be back by tomorrow with the Week 8 consensus start/sit list!

Getting close to Week 8 decision time

Last year during the month of November I conducted a FFLibrarian Readers poll to figure out which websites were your favorites - favorite waiver wire articles, favorite rankings, favorite start/sit, etc. The results from last year are located here. Is this something that you all would be interested in participating in again? Do you find it interesting or useful to see which sites FFLibrarian readers like best?

In the meantime, plenty of links for you tonight to help with Week 8 decisions:

• Start/sit suggestions:
• NFL.com's Start 'em, Sit 'em: Torain, Roethlisberger should be fantasy treats in Week 8
• LestersLegends.com's 2010 Fantasy Football Start/Sit Week 8
• Ask The Commish's Sit or Start for Week 8
• Roto Arcade's Lames: Brees' nightmare on Bourbon Street to continue vs Steelers
• Week 8 Rankings/Projections
• FFToday.com's Quarterback projections: 2010 Week 8
• Mr. Fantasy's Week 8 2010 Running Back Rankings
• Dr U Fantasy Football Guru's Rankings - Week 8 Wide Receivers
• Roto Arcade's Early Position Ranks, Week 8
• Other interesting reads:
• ProFootballWeekly.com's Ten most interesting players of Week Eight
• ProFootballFocus.com's Fantasy: Market Value Trade Chart - Week 8 for those of you in the trading market. And based on my monster FFLibrarian League, now seems to be the trading time!
• There are at least two sites that have been analyzing experts' weekly accuracy this season - I've linked to FantasyPros.com several times but probably haven't given the same amount of linkage to FFSpin who has been posting their results on USA Today's Fantasy Joe site each week. I'll be honest, I haven't paid close enough attention to their methodology to see why their results are different (could just be a matter of different expert pools to some extent) but it's interesting to scope out these results.

Wednesday linkage for Week 8

Greetings and happy mid-week prep for Week 8. Sorry for the quick (and late!) post today - still getting a handle on this whole how-a-newborn-rocks-my-world thing.

• If you still have some waiver wire needs, no problemo, I've still got more waiver articles for you:
• Matthew Berry's Replacing Romo and other tragic tales
• IDP Guru's Week 8 IDP Waiver Wire Pickups
• CBSSports.com's Waiver Wire: Not enough to go around
• Start/sit links:
• FFToolbox.com's Start 'Em and Sit 'Em
• Roto Arcade's Flames: Frightening Beanie stiff arms await Bucs on Halloween
• FantasySharks.com's Start/Bench List Week 8
• Rankings and Projections for Week 8:
• Bruno Boys' Week 8 Fantasy Football Rankings: Running Backs
• NFL.com's 2010 player rankings: Quarterbacks - Week 8
• FantasySharks.com's Player Projections - Week 8
• Football Outsiders' Mike Tanier has a solid article up on Rotoworld that looks at wide receivers who are in a slump and what to do about them. So if you own dudes like Fitz, Sims-Walker, and Welker (among others!) see what Tanier suggests you do in Wideouts to worry about.
• Roto Arcade's rankings for the remainder of the season are up for the week at Shuffle Up & Deal: Has the name brand expired on Tom Brady?

Oh no, Romo...get your replacement advice here!

I feel for you, Tony Romo owners. If you missed the news that Romo broke his left collarbone and could possibly be out for the season, then scope out the injury summary here. Now Romo owners I'd like to tell you a tale of my Week 7 quarterbacks. With Peyton Manning and Matt Schaub on bye and my backup (Vince Young) injured, I had some serious holes at QB this past week. I admitted on here a few days ago that I was starting Josh Freeman in one league but what I didn't admit was that I was starting Ryan Fitzpatrick in another league...against the Ravens. By all accounts, a horrific idea. And yet! Freeman and Fitzpatrick both led me to victory (the latter putting up tremendous stats) and while this might have just been a lucky week for me, I would encourage you to be a little bold and play the QB roulette each week. A little stressful but you never know when a free agent will surprise. As Matt Schauf notes in his RapidReactions article, Fitzpatrick is the only QB to throw for more than 1 TD in each game this season. Not too shabby, my friends, not too shabby.

• Roto Arcade lists a ranking of some possible QBs that might be available in your league in Fantasy disaster: Tony Romo breaks left collarbone.
• Or see who Razzball suggests both for Romo replacements as well as other positions in Waivering Wire: Romo Edition.
• Other waiver wire links:
• Pigskin Addiction's Waiver Wire Work
• Fantasy Football Jungle's Waiver Wire: Week 8
• KFFL.com's Waiver Wire - link goes to RB but other positions linked off this page
• FantasyPros911.com's Week Eight Waiver Wire Pickups
• Monk's IDP Week 8 Waiver Wire Pick Ups for those in IDP leagues
• The Sports Outlaw's Waiver Wire Week 8 - side note, Jeremy of The Sports Outlaw is dominating in the Buffalo Wild Wings league that we're both playing in again this year - he's undefeated and I like to think of him as following in my footsteps (perhaps I'm just trying to remind myself of my great 2009 season to make up for my lame 2010 season...) - good work, Jeremy, keep it rolling!
• Sports Grumblings' The Fire Sale talks vicious hits as well as players whose value is either going up or headed down.
• Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Week 8 rankings are already up - they're listed by position and updated throughout the week.

Recaps and research for Week 8

Ugh. Make that a triple ugh, thanks to the total disaster in Denver last night. I mean the Raiders? 59 points? What's worse: the Broncos losing that massively to the Raiders or leaving Kenny Britt on your bench this past weekend? Fortunately I was never lucky enough to acquire Britt in the first place, so I can at least say I'm safe from that situation. But there's always next week when it come to fantasy football (and now how many of you Britt owners will be sitting him against the Chargers, whose pass defense has been leading the league and giving up only 158.6 YPG?) and to help you focus on what it might take to make your fantasy team awesome in Week 8, read on for the latest links:

• In case you missed any of the games or are just looking for a nice wrap-up from Week 7, take a look at some of the following good reads:
• Football Outsiders' Audibles at the Line: Week 7
• Monday Morning Quarterback - Week 7 storylines include Favre-Childress feud, Pittsburgh fumble
• Roto Arcade's Sunday Scene, Week 7
• Waiver wire suggestions:
• FootballDocs' Waiver Wire
• FFGeekBlog's The Wire - Week 8 pick-ups 
• The Hazean's Early Week 8 Waiver Wire Thoughts
• ProFootballWeekly.com's Fantasy Ticker: Week Eight
• Bruno Boys' Week 8 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire - Pick Them Up
• While Week 7 was far less brutal on the injury front than the previous week, you'll still want to scope out KFFL.com's Post-game injury report for the latest injury news.
• FantasyPros.com has surveyed a bunch of experts (including sites like Football Guys, ProFootballWeekly.com, Ultimate FF Strategy, and Game of Inches among others) to find out what they see happening to the Colts, Patriots and Saints for the remainder of the season.

Week 7 consensus start/sit

Here's your consensus start/sit list for Week 7 - I've tallied up the votes for start and sit recommendations from the experts that I've linked to throughout the week and those players with the most votes are listed below (in no particular order):

QB
Start: Joe Flacco, Matt Cassel, Kyle Orton, Brett Favre, Jay Cutler
Sit: Donovan McNabb, Carson Palmer, Chad Henne

RB
Start: Marshawn Lynch, Knowshon Moreno, Chris Ivory, Jamaal Charles
Sit: Maurice Jones-Drew, Ronnie Brown, Fred Jackson, Brandon Jackson

WR
Start: Patrick Crayton, Jeremy Maclin, Johnny Knox, Dwayne Bowe, Terrell Owens
Sit: Mike Sims-Walker, Deion Branch

TE
Start: Todd Heap, Aaron Hernandex, Heath Miller, Ben Watson
Sit: Marcedes Lewis, Visanthe Shiancoe

DSTs
Start: Seahawks, Chiefs, Broncos
Sit: Chargers

Kickers
Start: Billy Cundiff
Sit: no consensus

Good luck!

Start/sit for a Friday afternoon

Tomorrow my Northwestern Wildcats take on undefeated Michigan State, which could be a major coup for the Cats if they can pull out a win. For years Northwestern has been giving me a great deal of heartache - losing games they should have won, or barely squeaking out a big win in OT. They aren't the most impressive team at all but they certainly play to the level of their competitor and I have high hopes for tomorrow's matchup.

I must admit though that I don't have the same high hopes for my fantasy teams this weekend, several of which have either been decimated by injuries or botched by bye weeks. Fingers crossed that somehow starting Josh Freeman while Peyton is on bye won't be fantasy suicide. Now that I've admitted such fantasy craziness, I hope you'll still trust that I know a good link when I see one. So read on for today's Week 7 advice...

• The start/sit suggestions continue (my consensus list will be up by tomorrow):
• Razzball.com's Schmidt, Schmart, Week 7
• Roto Arcade's Lames: Don't expect Jones-Drew to rediscover MoJo in KC
• Matthew Berry's Love/Hate: The 10 Fantasy Commandments
• Fifth Down's Week 7 in Fantasy Football: Matchups and Q&A
• CBSSports.com's Week 7 Start 'Em and Sit 'Em 
• FFNerd.com's Where to Put 'Em 
• The Sports Outlaw's Week 7 Start 'Em/Sit 'Em 
• The Football Girl's Week 7 Start 'Em/Sit 'Em: Quarterbacks and Running Backs Edition and Wide Receivers and Tight Ends Edition
• ProFootballWeekly.com's Start or sit: week seven
• The Hazean's Start & Sit Extravaganza
• Mac Bros have their positional rankings start/sit list up - the link here goes to QBs.
• I'm trying to decide whether to play MJD or Ahmad Bradshaw this weekend - MJD has just not been the guy we all expected when we drafted him and I'm starting to doubt his value as one of my starting RBs. See what ProFootballWeekly.com thinks though in Fantasy Doc: Is it time to sit MJD?
• Take a look at FantasySharks.com's 2011 QB Keepers through Week Six for thoughts on the top 15 QBs that you'll want on your squad down the road. 

Helpful links for success in 2nd half of fantasy season

I've never been a great napper - there was a year in college when I embraced the nap lifestyle for a quarter but for the most part I'm more of a power-through-it kind of chick who can live on limited sleep when needed. But this baby thing, whole different ball game my friends. I realize I was told this by countless people (including many of you!) but there's no way to understand until you're experiencing it: the sleep deprivation is truly phenomenal and I'm learning how to take a nap in most any situation. I had family in town yesterday and between the family and the sleep loss, yesterday's post got lost in the shuffle. But I'm back at it today, going fast and furious while I can sneak some reading/posting time in:

• Start/sit:
• FFToolbox.com's Start 'Em and Sit 'Em
• FantasySharks.com's Start/Bench List
• Roto Arcade's Flames: Lights, camera, action! Favre to shine in primetime
• FootballDocs' Start Sit
• NFL.com's Start 'em, Sit 'em: Orton, Flacco should produce strong numbers in Week 7
• FFManiaxs' Week Seven Start/Sit
• FFArmory.com's Start 'Em - Sit 'Em 
• FantasyFootballXtreme.com's Start and Bench Advice: Week 7
• I love seeing some of my favorite experts listed in FantasyPros.com's Week 6 Accuracy Scores report - take a look to see which experts have been the most spot on with their weekly rankings this season. 
• Your weekly rest-of-the-season rankings are up on Roto Arcade - Shuffle Up & Deal rankings. Particularly helpful if you're trying to determine whether or not a trade is in your best interest. Or you could also scope out ProFootballFocus.com's Market Value Trade Chart - Week 7.
• And on a similar note, if you're wondering which players are primed for a strong second half of the fantasy season, you'll want to read FantasyOmatic.com's Second Half Breakout Players - it's long but includes tons of helpful details like schedule perks, graphs for those visual learners, and warnings on players who might not be the fantasy hotshots we're hoping for in the regular season and fantasy playoffs.
• Week 7 rankings:
• Roto Arcade's Early Position Ranks, Week 7
• Bruno Boys' position rankings - click here for WRs, other positions are linked on site
• Pyromaniac.com's Player Rankings for Week 7 - link goes to QBs, other links on site
• With injuries to Finley, Clark, and Gates all bringing a great deal of grief to fantasy owners, Rotoworld has wisely put together an article with suggestions on TEs to target if your stud TE is injured: Trainwreck at Tight End.
• Meanwhile it's never a bad idea to have a little heads up on this week's busts - turn to KFFL's fantasy football busts (listed by position) for reasons to keep expectations low for Woodhead and others.

Advice for lucky number 7

Both a good friend from college and my sister are coming over to our place tonight for a little face time with our kiddo, which will be the icing on a pretty solid day. I've got several Week 7 prep links for you tonight - check out the additional waiver wire links as well as rankings and prep tools. Enjoy!

• Waiver wire suggestions:
• Talented Mr. Roto's Free Agent Madden-ness! (yes, Matthew Berry and other ESPNers really are in Madden '11)
• Rotoworld's Waiver Wired: The Danario Scenario (includes a ranking of waiver wire options, which I find particularly helpful)
• ProFootballFocus.com's Waiver Wire - what do you guys think, while James Starks be the next big thing in Green Bay or is it going to evolve into a classic handcuff situation there between Jackson, Kuhn and Starks? 
• FFToday.com's Through the Wire (I should be linking to FFToday more often - great site)
• I've been using IDP Guru's Waiver Wire Pickup advice for the past few weeks now and have yet to be disappointed; good stuff if you're in need of a new individual defender.
• Razzball.com's It's Toraining TDs has a bunch of tidbits from last weekend's games that you'll want to know about while preparing for Week 7. 
• Awhile ago I linked to some tools that CBSSports.com is providing this year and thought I'd send you back to their Interactive Running Back Selector tool, which gives you projected fantasy points (including rushes and receptions) for RBs in a manner that allows for easy comparison between players.
• FFToolbox.com's Week 7: Who to Start Rankings/Projections are up along with their Week 7: Super Sleepers.

Waiver Link Mania

Yesterday's games were pretty phenomenal with so many going down to the wire...and speaking of wires, I've got lots of waiver wire links for you all today. It's been a bit of a crazy day so my apologies for the quick links below without a ton of commentary.

• Before we get to the waiver recommendations for this week, let's take a look at some of the summaries of Week 6 games in case you missed any - or just want a review of the finer points from each matchup:
• RapidDraft.com's RapidReactions Week 6
• Football Outsiders' Audibles at the Line: Week 6
• KFFL.com's Post-game Injury Report - Week 6
• Rotoworld's injury analysis from this past weekend's chaos - Blaze of Glory
• Waiver wire suggestions for Week 7:
• FantasyPros911.com's Week Seven Waiver Wire Pickups
• ProFootballWeekly.com's Fantasy Ticker: Week Seven
• The Sports Outlaw's Waiver Wire Week 7
• The Hazean's Early Week 7 Waiver Wire Thoughts
• Razzball.com's Waivering Wire
• FootballDocs' Fantasy Football Waiver Wire
• Roto Arcade lists "10 basement bargain buys" for the remainder of the season in First Down: Fitzgerald leads midseason buyer's guide to redemption.
• LestersLegends.com already has some positional rankings up and rolling for this weekend's games - scope out their Week 7 QB rankings.

Consensus start/sit Week 6

Today would have been my grandpa's 92nd birthday - he passed away earlier this year after having been ill for awhile - and also just a day or so after hearing that my husband and I were expecting a baby. As he got older and a bit more frail, my grandpa became far more sentimental than the man I knew growing up and a year or two ago he not-so-jokingly asked if I would please provide him with a great-grandson as he was surrounded by a sister, daughters, and granddaughters all his life. Our son's middle name, Wilson, is my grandpa's name and today in particular, we honor you, grandpa.

Here's this week's consensus start/sit list - for those new to the site, this list represents the players with the most start or sit votes from the expert articles that I linked to earlier this week. Hope this helps with any tough decisions!


QBs
Start: Vince Young, Joe Flacco, Jay Cutler, Ben Roethlisberger
Sit: Shaun Hill, Sam Bradford, Matt Schaub

RBs
Start: Ryan Torain, Michael Bush, Ahmad Bradshaw
Sit: Peyton Hillis, Jahvid Best, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Knowshon Moreno

WRs
Start: Hines Ward, Kenny Britt, Malcolm Floyd, Percy Harvin
Sit: DeSean Jackson, Greg Jennings, Deion Branch

TEs
Start: Tony Moeaki, Kellen Winslow, Aaron Hernandez
Sit: Owen Daniels, Visanthe Shiancoe, Tony Scheffler, Chris Cooley (update: thanks to the reader who noticed this area wasn't correctly noted at first - names have been updated!)

Defenses
Start: Bears, Giants
Sit: Ravens, Cowboys

Kickers
Start: Josh Scobee, Ryan Longwell
Sit: Matt Prater

The start/sit links continue!

Happy Friday, the weekend is almost here! Before I put myself and an infant down for a much needed afternoon nap, I've got a bunch of Week 6 articles and advice in case you haven't had enough yet this week. There are several more start/sit links here for you but also some other helpful materials as well. I'll be back by tomorrow with the weekly consensus start/sit list - enjoy!

• Start/sit links:
• Fifth Down's Week 6 in Fantasy Football: Matchups and Q & A
• The Hazean's Start & Sit Extravaganza: Brandon Tate, Anyone?
• RotoExperts' Lineup Lieutenant
• FFArmory.com's Start 'em - Sit 'em - Week 6
• FFNerd's Where to Put 'em
• Week 6 rankings:
• FantasyPros911.com's Week 6 Rankings and Projections
• Mac Bros' Start/Sit rankings by position
• Pyromaniac.com's Player Rankings - Week 6
• For those trying to decide between an RB, WR, and TE for a flex spot, see CBSSports.com's Top 150 flex rankings.
• If you're in the market for a broader level look at this weekend's games, head on over to FantasySharks.com for Tony Holm's Prognosticator for a game-by-game review of the fantasy scene. 
• Meanwhile, those of you in the mood for a podcast will enjoy FantasyGuru.com's Week Six Matchup Podcast - one of the few items on FantasyGuru.com that's freely available and definitely worth the listen. 
• Need some sleeper suggestions? See why NFL.com is liking up and coming TEs Hernandez and Moeaki among others in Cassel, Britt have sleeper appeal for fantasy owners.
• Finally, FantasyPros.com is still rolling with their accuracy assessment for expert weekly rankings and have the results of the most accurate experts to date for the 2010 season.

Week 6 Lineup Help

Sorry for posting so late in the day - I've been busy mastering how to walk with a stroller and an umbrella at the same time (I swear my life really is this exciting now; don't get too jealous). So let's jump right into today's links:

• Start/sit suggestions:
• Razzball.com's Schmidt, Schmart, Week 6
• CBSSports.com's Week 6 Start 'em and Sit 'em
• NFL.com's Bradshaw, Sanchez have favorable matchups in Week 6
• The Talented Mr. Roto's Love/Hate for Week 6
• Bruno Boys' Week 6 Start 'Ems
• Roto Arcade's Lames: Owners shouldn't put five on Jahvid Best
• Other helpful links:
• The Hazean's Sleeper Watch: Josh Freeman leads the sleeper pack in Week 6
• ProFootballFocus.com's Fantasy: IDP Rankings (top 40 DLs, LBs, and DBs)
• For offensive player rankings and projections, see FFToday.com's weekly projections (link goes to QBs).
• Roto Arcade's Shuffle Up and Deal Rankings - helpful for those looking for rest-of-the-season rankings. I'm in the market for more season rankings so if you have any you like in particular, let me know in the comments.
• Always an insightful read, scope out Stephania Bell's injury blog on ESPN with an injury recap by position in this week's article Bad news, good news for pair of Packers.

Week 6 smorgasbord

This morning I realized once again that I'm living in some bizarro baby world bubble - I rolled on out of our apartment building with crying baby in tow, hoping that a bumpy stroller walk would silence the little guy, and as soon as I walked out the door it was incredibly obvious that my flip flops and lack of a jacket were a bit light for today's fall weather. Instead of scoping out my uber-helpful Accuweather app on the ol' iphone, I had just skipped on out assuming sun = warmth. False. It's becoming apparent that I might be managing some of my fantasy teams similarly: essentially forgetting about the world of players outside my teams; I need to expand my horizons a bit. I've been focusing a bit too much on making my own players fit for each week while not really expanding my scope or getting the bigger picture of which guys have potential down the stretch. I feel a little nuts but I'm starting the Falcons D this week to fix a bye situation. They've been surprisingly strong this season when you look at the fantasy stats but somehow that had completely escaped my attention - so I encourage everyone to just take a look at who is sitting out there on your waiver wire just in case that player/team might be a step up from the guys already on your team.

Moving on to today's links:

• The start/sit advice is starting to appear at these fine spots:
• Roto Arcade's Flames: the bell finally tolls for Big Ben (their Lames will be up later in the week)
• FantasyFootballXtreme's Start and Bench Advice: Week 6
• FFToolbox.com's Start 'Em and Sit 'Em
• FantasySharks.com's Start/Bench List
• FootballDocs' Start Sit
• FFManiaxs' Week Six Start/Sit
• Rotoprofessor's Start 'Em or Sit 'Em: Week 6
• Check out NBC's Fantasy Fix video for some thoughts on a plug-in for Rodgers if he can't play and other good pickups for the week. 
• Or for other waiver wire ideas, see Matthew Berry's Hot dog! Week 6 pickups!
• Ultimate Fantasy Football Strategy's Understanding Defenses after Week 5 looks at how defenses have done against each of the offensive skill positions plus kickers and Ds. Interesting stuff if you haven't looked at this sort of info in the past. 
• The Sports Outlaw's weekly cheatsheet is up for your review - note that they update the cheatsheet until game time.

More Week 6 linkage

We got a solid hail storm here in Brooklyn last night around Monday Night Football game time - kudos to those fans who stuck it out at the stadium since it seemed rather intense out there. Also intense? Some of the injuries that are plaguing fantasy teams - 2010 has felt like a particularly tricky year just in the lack of serious fantasy consistency and health from the usual suspects. So let's take a look at some waiver wire suggestions and other links for this Tuesday.

Waiver wire lovin':

• FantasyPros911.com's Week Six Waiver Wire Pickups
• NFL.com's Lynch, Amendola will be hot names on fantasy's waiver wire
• Pigskin Addiction's Waiver Wire Work (they mention Week 4 in one spot but rest assured, this is Week 6 advice)
• IDP Guru has waiver advice for those in IDP leagues
• ProFootballFocus.com's Fantasy: Week 5 Waiver Wire

Or try a few early Week 6 positional rankings, either from CBSSports.com or LestersLegends.com (the latter goes to RBs but other positions are linked off that page).

Week 5 recaps and waiver wire advice

Happy long weekend for those of you with Columbus Day off. Nothing tops off a nice, long weekend like a Monday Night Football game full of Brett Favre-eries and stories of Brady vs Moss hair showdowns. To tide you over until tonight's game though, take a look at the following recaps and waiver wire articles...

• Football Outsiders' Audibles at the Line: Week 5 is always one of my favorite summaries from game day and now that I'm a bit distracted by the presence of a baby, I find it even more helpful and entertaining of an article to hit up on Mondays.  
• FantasyFanPlay.com's review of this week's games remain incredibly thorough - worth a look for sure.
• Whenever someone is described as having "Gumby flexibility" well then you've got my attention. Even better when it's a Bronco. Roto Arcade takes a look at a surprise gem at receiver in First Down: Is now the time for Brandon Lloyd owners to cash in?
• FantasyPros.com talked to 5 experts about their thoughts on sleepers and busts for the remainder of the season, as well as which part of a teammate tandem they'd rather own (ex: LT versus Shonn Greene or OchoCinco vs TO) in Featured Pros: Rest of Season Sleepers and Duds.
• If you're looking for advice on guys that you might want to buy low or sell high on, see FFArmory.com's Stock Report - Week 6.
• Now for the waiver talk:
• Razzball.com's Waiver the Wire
• ProFootballWeekly.com's Fantasy Ticker: Week Six
• FFGeekBlog's The Wire - Week 6 pick-ups
• The Hazean's Early Week 6 Waiver Wire Thoughts
• IDPers, take a look at Monk's IDP Week 6 Waiver Wire Pick Ups
• Finally, there were several injuries you'll want to be aware of - check out KFFL.com's Post-game injury report - Week 5.

Week 5 Consensus Start/Sit

Greetings from early morning baby feeding land. My husband is passed out horizontally along the bed right now in what I'll call the I'm-awake-if-you-need-me stance of total new parent exhaustion. I'm adjusting to this cat nap lifestyle though, I think, and have been able to pull together this week's consensus start/sit list. As a reminder I use the expert start/sit links I posted yesterday to tally up the number of players with the most start or sit votes. Names are listed below in no particular order and are hopefully helpful in making some tough decisions this weekend.

Here are your Week 5 Consensus Start/Sits:

QBs
Start: Matt Ryan, Eli Manning, Sam Bradford, Joe Flacco
Sit: Donovan McNabb, Kyle Orton

RBs
Start: Jamaal Charles, Ryan Mathews (also a lot of votes for Tolbert instead), Fred Jackson
Sit: Marion Barber, Ray Rice, Cadillac Williams

WRs
Start: Hakeem Nicks, Donald Driver, Mark Clayton
Sit: Larry Fitzgerald, Malcolm Floyd

TEs
Start: Zach Miller, Marcedes Lewis
Sit: Tony Moeaki

Defenses
Start: Bears, Falcons
Sit: Titans

Kickers
Start: Carney, Buehler, Gould
Sit: no consensus

Oh happy day!

It's a beautiful day here in New York, I've got a healthy, happy baby boy, and I'm back on the FFLibrarian link scene! Must say I missed you all. So I've got a bunch of links for you and will be back with the consensus start/sit list by tomorrow...

Start/sit linkage:

• FantasySharks.com's Start/Bench List Week 5
• Razzball's Schmidt, Schmart: Week 5
• ESPN/Talented Mr. Roto's Love/Hate for Week 5. Really.
• CBSSports.com's Week 5 Start 'Em and Sit 'Em
• NFL.com's Start 'em, Sit 'em: Manning, Nicks both solid fantasy options in Week 5
• The Hazean's Start & Sit Extravaganza, Week 5
• Roto Arcade's Flames: Kevin Kolb to taste supersweet in San Francisco and Lames: Say What?! Adrian Peterson a Flame? Blasphemy! (keep in mind these are really sort of an against the grain kind of start/sit list)
• FFToolbox.com's Week 5: Start 'Em and Sit 'Em
• Fifth Down's Week 5 Fantasy Football Matchups
• FantasyFootballXtreme's Start and Bench Advice: Week 5
• Bruno Boys' Fantasy Football Start 'ems

Other links:

• Yahoo/Roto Arcade's Shuffle Up & Deal rankings that address positional rankings from a here-to-the-end-of-the-season perspective are up - I know a ton of you are interested in these pups.
• FantasySharks.com's Stashing a Gem For the Stretch
• Pyromaniac.com's Player Rankings - Week 5 (goes to QBs but all other positions are linked to off that page as well)
• Need a bye week replacement for your D/ST? See who ProFootballFocus.com recommends this week in Fantasy: D/ST Wins Championships - Week 5.

Guest Post: Week 5 prep

We've got one more guest post for you before I return to the land of the fantasy living. Our son, Nicholas Wilson Holladay (adorable dude on the left), thanks you all for being patient. Ryan from LestersLegends.com brings us another guest post today full of links with Week 5 links - enjoy and if you've seen some new resources here that you like, be sure to let me know as I'm always open to scoping out new links.

Guest post
Greetings fantasy football world. I'm back for another guest spot while Sara is teaching her baby boy the intricacies of the West Coast Offense. 

• We're a quarter of the way through the season and it's a buyers' market. I'm here to navigate the players you should be targeting like Joe Flacco, whose fantasy playoffs schedule is ultra soft, as well as which ones to avoid.
• The Fantasy Football Armory won't be making fans with the Librarian recommending selling Brandon Lloyd and Eddie Royal, but with a quartet of capable WRs and the return of Knowshon Moreno, I can see the logic. 
• FF Toolbox has a list of players to downgrade for Week 5 including Marques Colston. 
• No-Offseason.com discusses the Marshawn Lynch traded in this week's risers and fallers article. 
• FFToday looks at who's Moving Up and Who's Moving Down. Darren McFadden's latest injury has Michael Bush signing The Jeffersons theme. 
• The Bruno Boys take a look at which players, like Alex Smith, should go straight to the waiver wire without passing go or collecting $200.
• Ryan Torain is one of this week's teacher's pets in the Rotoprofessor Week 5 Start/Sit article. 
• KFFL has Sam Bradford and others among their Week 5 Sleepers.
• If IDP is your thing, check out Hatty's Week 5 IDP Waiver Wire Pickups.

Guest post #2: Numbers never lie?

Greetings my fantasy football friends! I'm slowly adjusting to life with a baby and am coming back to the land of fantasy football (I don't even know how I did in my leagues last week, how insane is that?!) and should have the consensus start/sit up for you by this weekend, but in the meantime I've got one or two more guest posts for you. Today's guest post is from my friend Matt Schauf at RapidDraft.com who is talking something near and dear to my heart: stats and knowing how to read/assess them correctly. For those looking for the standard links, they're coming soon but I really like Matt's post today...and of course should reiterate how much I appreciate his help as well as the help I've had from Ryan at LestersLegends.com.

Oh and I promise to post a baby update for those who are actually interested with my next post!

Guest post

I’m not a fool. I know that you folks visit Sara’s site for two things: 1) semi-regular baby updates, and 2) links fantasy football stuff in various other places.

Well, you’re going to be disappointed today. My two girls are old enough to walk, fight and answer their father in a sarcastic tone (and the second isn’t even 2), and Ms. Holladay’s gone dark, so I have no idea how her family unit is operating. As for the links, I’m illiterate. Sorry. It’s not something I’m proud of.

Instead, though, I’d like to speak to you about clichés, actually one cliché in particular: “Numbers never lie.”

It’s true, obviously. Numbers don’t lie because they have to either be based on something that they’re counting or have been made up by some lying person. Even in that second scenario, they can’t really take the blame.

The problem, however, is that numbers don’t analyze themselves (though I wouldn’t judge them if they did). People take real numbers and draw their own conclusions from them, too often explaining away points with, “The numbers don’t lie.” They might not, but they sure can be misleading if you don’t look at them the right way.

One really easy place to be misled by numbers is when studying fantasy football matchups. The season is already so short that it presents small-sample issues for statheads, and that’s only amplified when you look at a segment of the short season. It becomes foolish, then, to rely on the overall view of that small, small segment, and I’ve picked out a few examples to try to illustrate why.

Washington – 4^th most fantasy points allowed to QBs (based on RapidDraft scoring)

My favorite resource for fantasy points allowed and other similar stats is FFToday.com – which is very user-friendly and easy to customize. After entering my own scoring particulars, a quick check of the rankings shows that Washington has been the fourth most generous defense to opposing passers so far.

That would make Washington seem like a no-brainer matchup to exploit for any fantasy quarterback, but it also ignores the inflation from the Houston game. Take out Matt Schaub’s 497-yard, three-touchdown day, and you remove half of the scoring passes that Washington has allowed this year. You’ll also get a scoring average that drops to 16^th in the league. This defense may still prove vulnerable against the pass, but only one of four opposing quarterbacks has produced multiple scores so far.

Oakland – 8^th fewest fantasy points allowed to QBs

The Raiders have faced just 97 pass attempts through the first four weeks. That doesn’t make up the league’s lowest total, but the three teams behind Oakland already had their byes. With that in mind, low passing totals seem pretty logical. Of course, each of the quarterbacks who logged so few attempts also put up two touchdown passes on the Raiders.

Miami – 5^th fewest fantasy points allowed to QBs

I’m a bit more willing to believe in the Dolphins than the Raiders here, but Miami’s ranking also doesn’t reveal the full picture. For starters, each of the three interceptions Miami has grabbed so far came from Brett Favre. That means the team played Trent Edwards (Week 1) and failed to pick him off. That should count for points against them. Otherwise, Miami allowed Mark Sanchez to throw for 256 yards and three touchdowns and held Tom Brady to meager numbers on a mere 24 attempts on a night where he didn’t have to do much. I like CB Vontae Davis and OLB Cameron Wake, but there seems to be vulnerability elsewhere. We’ll see how much when the Dolphins return from bye to face Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco.

N.Y. Giants – 8^th fewest points (PPR) to RBs

The biggest thing that stands out here is that the Giants have yielded just eight receptions to running backs. Perhaps they’ll just prove to be good at defending against that, but we don’t know yet because they haven’t faced that many targets. What they have done is allow 125 yards and two touchdowns to Chris Johnson (who hasn’t?), 92 yards to Joseph Addai and 69 yards on 16 carries (4.3) to Donald Brown. Those aren’t terrible numbers for a defense to give up, but they also aren’t stellar. The Giants did limit Carolina’s runners, but we’ll see what Arian Foster does to them this week.

Houston – 10^th most points to RBs

The Texans probably still carry a stigma for many a fantasy player of being generous to opposing runners, and the current ranking in points allowed will only feed that. However, whereas the Giants haven’t had to contend with much passing to backs, Houston has seen the fourth most running back completions in the league. It has also seen four rushing scores, a collection that includes three touchdowns from the 1-yard line and one from the 2. The biggest yardage game has come from Marion Barber, a whopping 55 yards on 17 carries, and Houston has yielded the seventh lowest rushing average – a fraction of a yard lower than the Vikings so far. Ahmad Bradshaw remains a decent play because of the work he’s getting and the likelihood that his team’s passing game will get close enough for several scores, but his matchup isn’t terrific this week.

San Francisco – 9^th most points to RBs

You know who’s even more fun to run against than Houston? The Niners. Then again, if you take out the 192 yards amassed by Thomas Jones and Jamaal Charles, San Francisco has yielded just a 2.9-yard rushing average. The Saints accounted for many other PPR points with just the eight catches of Pierre Thomas (plus four from Reggie Bush before he broke a leg). Of course, taking away one game from a set of four only worsens the small sample size problem, so let’s just say the jury’s out on this run defense. I’m tempted to believe that a defense that has been tough to run on for the past several years will prove so again this season, especially after it held Michael Turner to 50 yards on 16 carries last week, but I’m willing to consider the alternative.

So there you go. Numbers abound these days, and the folks interpreting them will assure you that numbers don’t lie. Just make sure you figure out exactly what you’re looking at before you follow, though, because people aren’t always as smart as numbers.

Guest Post with Week 4 advice

Greetings from new baby land. Many thanks for all of your kind words and congrats; I'm floored by your thoughtfulness. Now as promised, a guest post from the generous and helpful Ryan of LestersLegends.com. Good luck in Week 4 games!

Guest post:

Fear not loyal Fantasy Football Librarian readers the show will go on. Everybody's favorite fantasy football researcher is spending some time with her husband and new baby, but she has you covered with Week 4 sit-start advice.

Before I get started I'd like to congratulate Sara and her husband on the new addition to their family. Now the major question is will he be raised a Broncos fan or a Colts fan. 

Now, let's get to the links that will help you crush the competition this week:

• LestersLegends likes McNabb in the Eagles-Redskins Grudge Match.
• The Rotoprofessor is giving extra credit to Kyle Orton.
• Bruno Boys are backing DeAngelo Williams among others.
• Fantasy Pros 911 are standing by with their help.
• Fantasy Knuckleheads are serious business with their Sam Bradford endorsement.
• Walter Football has advice for every game.

If you're still looking for Week 4 Rankings:

• See what Paul Charchian thinks at Fantasy Victory.
• See what you can dig up at Junkyard Jake's.
• Fantasy Pros offers the consensus pick of 30+ industry experts.
• Fantasy Football Trader Weekly Special.