Wrapping up June

It's a gorgeous day here in NYC for the last day of the month, and I've got a full agenda of hitting up the playground, taking long walks, and generally staying within a few feet of our newly mobile and extremely adventurous baby. Good times but it will be an even better day to start things off with some fantasy football linkage...

• Ah, offensive line rankings. I love them. And love the time of year when they start to appear. This year is of course a bit unusual since free agency will undoubtedly make some major alterations to these rankings, but for now scope out FFToolbox.com's Offensive Line Rankings - they take  a look back at 2010 for each team plus note the key changes over the offseason...so far.
• ProFootballFocus.com's Fantasy: The Unheralded focuses in on rookies that might not be the flashiest rookies names, but could end up making a difference for your squad. Keep these names in the back of your mind as the season approaches. 
• 2 Mugs Fantasy Football posted their We Don't Need No Stinkin' Free Agency: Early PPR RB Ranks, divided up in three tiers: heavyweights, middleweights, and the more questionable welterweights. 
• Get some draft strategy advice from FantasySharks.com in Don't be a square - Draft a stud tight end early. Ideally I'd like to see more than just 2010 data incorporated here but it's worth the read for sure.
• The KFFL.com staff gathers round a virtual table and debates the pros and cons of players that are vying for that number one overall fantasy draft pick - Fantasy football roundtable: No. 1 running back.

Tourist in my own town

With our departure date from NYC in less than a month, we're trying to spend a little time living it up like a classic NYC tourist. So tomorrow my husband and I are taking a vacation day and visiting the Statue of Liberty (which of course makes me think of this - sorry, Sooner fans). Many moons ago we bought tickets for access to the crown, which apparently has to be requested months in advance. Seems kind of fitting to join in the throngs of hot, chatty, and sometimes surly (oh wait, that's just me) tourists to visit our lady liberty just before the Fourth of July. Should be a good time and honestly, it's one of a very small number of times over the past 9 months that my husband and I have been out together without our little dude...so here's to a little alone time. With the tourists.

Let's head on over to today's football links:

• Fantasy Douche is offering words of warning about snagging Chris Johnson too early in your draft. Read up on reasons why the Titans running game should probably make you a wee bit nervous - Chris Johnson Suffered from a Poor Tennessee Running Game.
• Meanwhile if you're looking for suggestions on guys to target rather than avoid, see why LestersLegends.com thinks Romo could be a great value grab after elite QBs are gobbled up.
• Athlon Sports has their 2011 Early Fantasy Football Ranks up - this link will take you to WRs with other positions available off that link. Their scoring system is clearly delineated at the top and the ranks go pretty deep. Good stuff.
• I'm gonna be honest here - I haven't even finished this article from CBSSports.com yet since it's so chock full of data and details that I want to slowly digest...but I know many of you will enjoy this as much as I do: Deciphering targets, touches and red zone data.
• The Fifth Down's early look at the top 10 players at each position continues with RBs - 2011 First Take: Running Backs.
• Fantasy Fanplay brings us a quick review of a handful of guys who had a down year in 2010 but are poised for 2011 success in Don't Call it a Comeback.
• Last but certainly not least, one of my favorite fantasy football writers - Chet from Razzball.com - brings us his thoughts on WR sleepers in Solid Late Round Receivers on Fan Duel.com.

Dose of Manning and Brady in the offseason

In a mere 5 weeks I will be on the road with 2 cats, a 10-month-old baby, a husband, a litter box, and a few suitcases all crammed into a rental car as we move from Brooklyn (our home for the past 2 years) down to Knoxville, Tennessee (our home of the future). Those of you who have been around the blog for a few years know that we've moved somewhat frequently, so you can imagine my delight upon hearing that my husband's future employer will cover the cost of not just our move, but the packing of our possessions. Packing?! Tremendous! I can't quite imagine how it will feel a few days before the move to have absolutely nothing boxed up and for all of our many baby-related items to remain strewn about the house. To celebrate the awesomeness of that, let's enjoy the Manning Brothers' "Football Cops" trailer.

Or perhaps I should celebrate with wings from good ol' Buffalo Wild Wings (who sent me to the Super Bowl in 2010, so they have my eternal love). If the NFL lockout ends on or before July 20 (when players begin reporting to training camp), BWW will celebrate by giving away 6 free wings to those who sign its “Save our Season” petition on Facebook. So jump on it!

On that same note of football things that aren't really about football, I got several good laughs out of Big Lead Sports' pictorial review of Tom Brady's offseason. Ahh, good stuff in there, particularly the water slide pic and dancing video.

Now onto the real goods:

• A couple of good items from FFToolbox.com:
• First up, a look at their June Experts Mock Draft - they do a monthly draft every year so stay tuned for their July and August mocks, too.  Good group of experts here.
• Or read up on 2011's running back situations where they alphabetically review a RB from each team and spell out what kind of pick that player should be. It's not quite a RBBC review as advertised, more of a mish-mash look at RBs, but I'll take it.
• Joe Flacco is an interesting case and if you're wondering what to do with him this year (or in a dynasty league), take a look at ProFootballFocus.com's Fantasy: Dynasty Duel - Joe Flacco. You'll get both pros and cons for Flacco and a final conclusion on whether he's a QB1 or QB2.
• If you enjoy a little draft strategy, take a look at GoAheadScore.com's Math and Theories Behind Snake Fantasy Drafting - includes some good food for thought and really not a whole lot of math.
• FantasyOmatic.com's Free Agent Preview: Secondary reviews some key defenders who will be entering free agency (one of these days...) and it's not so much a piece for those in IDP leagues, but rather a look at how those guys impact overall team defenses.

R.I.P. Oh Google

One common question in our household over the past week or so: why didn't the DVR grab this week's Sports Show with Norm MacDonald? Gregg Rosenthal of Rotoworld/Pro Football Talk fame answered this for us in a recent tweet, noting that the show has been cancelled (invoking sad Bill Cosby now...), and I must say I'm sad to see it go. I didn't really envision myself looking forward to it each week as much as I did, but I'm not gonna lie, there were some really funny nuggets in there. If you haven't seen the show, I'll leave you with a clip (a nod to my husband since I know he loves this one...) though I think my favorite segments were inevitably What the H? and Oh Google.

On to football:

• Read up on why KFFL.com's Cory Bonini isn't loving Adrian Peterson in Why I'm not down with All Day.
• Are you in a keeper league and faced with some decisions about which players to keep this season? Turn to FFToolbox.com's Who Not to Keep for some thoughts on players you might be hemming and hawing over. 
• The Sablich Brothers are back on the Times' Fifth Down blog with their Fantasy First Take: Quarterbacks with a ranking of the 2011 top 10 QBs. 
• For more rankings, turn to FantasyFootballTrader's re-draft rankings for 2011, which includes auction values.
• CBSSports.com has a team-by-team breakdown of how the 2011 schedule (assuming it's a standard year) will affect each team's fantasy option - What you need to know about the 2011 schedule.
• Fantasy Douche's Running Backs and Advanced Red Zone Stats takes a look at 2010's RBs to see who was productive at the goal line and who was not. Includes a few write ups and a nice, juicy chart. Update: so sorry, the article is under a paywall now; register to read or skip ahead to the next link here. Update on the update: nevermind, the Fantasy Douche is awesome enough to give us all access again!
• Speaking of charts, this isn't fantasy-focused at all but I found Chartball.com's play-by-play look at NFL games for the past several years rather visually interesting; thought you all might enjoy poking around.
• Finally, this is also neither here nor there but I've had several friends and family members refer me to the SI article on the Alabama tornado, noting that it's one of the best articles they've read in a long, long time. I'm off to finally check it out while our tiny tot is taking his morning nap, and wanted to make sure you've all seen it, too.

Standard fantasy fare + college fantasy rankings

Congrats to the good people of Boston on the Bruins' win last night. My sister is a Boston transplant and she has been there for about a year now, and I'm wondering if the game - or hockey season in general - was even on her radar. Granted, she's 8 months pregnant and probably not thinking about much else, but I'm definitely not seeing the standard New England enthusiasm from my northerner friends that I normally see for the Pats, Red Sox and even Celtics. Though considering I personally have barely seen a hockey game in full, perhaps this is more of a reflection of my own preferences and choice of friends...nonetheless, here's to you, Bruins fans!

Moving on to football, the king of all sports...

• FFToday.com released an analysis on their latest mock draft - you can also check out the results of the entire mock here.
• There are a few fairly new sites out there that do a pretty solid job at scouring the web to bring you all sorts of fantasy goodness. On days that I don't post, or when you're looking for an extra fantasy football pick-me-up, head on over to either Fantasy Intersection or Fantasy News Network.
• Rotoworld is continuing their series of positional rankings for 2011, this time with Jermichael Finley leading the pack in Preliminary 2011 Re-Draft Ranks: TEs.
• Keep an eye on NFL.com's fantasy blog - some of the latest posts include reasons why you might want to keep an eye on guys like Ahmad Bradshaw, Matt Stafford, and Steven Jackson among others.
• Scope out KFFL.com's sleeper series - this link will take you to RBs, and includes player ADP. Keep in mind that once KFFL names someone as a sleeper, their ADP is likely to jump a bit with what I'll call sleeper inflation.
• Finally, if the lockout has you thinking about college fantasy football, you might want to see what Athlon Sports is putting together - check out their Preseason CFB Fantasy RB Rankings.

Wisdom from the experts

The semi-annual Fantasy Sports Trade Association meeting is going on today in San Francisco and while I'm unfortunately not able to be there, I did just retweet a link to the results from the FSTA Experts' Fantasy Football Draft that occurred last night. Take a look on my Twitter page and you might as well start following me since this fall I'll also be tweeting a bonus article every time I get a post up here on FFLibrarian.

Onto the rest of today's reads:

• FFManiaxs reviews their Top 15 Third-Year Wide Receivers to Watch in 2011. Whether you buy into the third-year breakout phenomenon or not, it's got some good food for thought.
• For more on WRs, Fantasy Knuckleheads have posted their top 20 receivers in An Early Look at Wide Receivers.
• FFToday.com has posted their 2011 player projections, which includes individual defenders. All in, I think we're talking about 650+ players here. Amazing. One of the reasons I love FFToday.com, too, is the ease of registering and entering your own league's scoring rules to adjust the projections, rankings, etc. 
• As the season gets closer, if you find yourself drafting from the 4th overall spot, you might want to keep FantasySharks.com's advice in mind in their Take Your Pick: Fourth Overall article. Take a look and see if they recommend taking Ray Rice, Jamaal Charles, or Andre Johnson. 
• ProFootballFocus.com summarizes which fullbacks have some fantasy value in the 2011 season in Fantasy: Kuhn & Friends. Find out who is worth a late-round draft pick, who has handcuff potential, and who you might want to pass on this year.
• FantasyFootballXtreme.com's 2011 Fantasy Football Stock Market Watch (vol 2) takes a look at sleeper candidates and bust candidates based on the most recent ADPs.

Rankings, Plax, and more

It's sultry, steamy and saucy out there, my friends. Lucky for our little dude, it's socially acceptable for a baby to roll around pantsless on a day like today. If only we were all so lucky, eh? I could also get down with an adult-sized kiddie pool today on our rooftop, but don't think that's in the cards either. For now I'll just hunker down in the blessed AC and get a few links up for you all. Stay cool.

• It's a rankings kind of day it seems:
• We've got some re-draft rankings from Rotoworld - Preliminary 2011 Re-Draft Ranks: RBs and QBs
• Or roll on over to Razzball.com for their 2011 Dynasty Running Back Rankings
• Jamey Eisenberg at CBSSports.com makes The case for Foster first overall - note the link on that page to a podcast with fantasy football musings including very early sleepers and busts.
• RotoWire users might be pleased to see that they're offering lockout protection - with your money for the 2011 season being put towards the 2012 season instead if there is indeed a lockout. Good to see!
• The Plax prognostications are starting to appear:
• The Football Girl's What team takes a shot on new free man and free agent, Plaxico Burress?
• Dynasty League Football's Free as a bird?

Good reads during the lockout doldrums

I celebrated my birthday this past weekend and in today's Facebook-happy world, FB birthday greetings add a whole new dimension to birthdays. And I must say the fantasy football writers community impressed me with their birthday love. Like most of you, I've got Facebook friends from different realms of my life - friends from childhood, friends from college, friends from work, family members, and then this group of fantasy sports writer friends. Perhaps it's the lockout leaving everyone with a little more time or perhaps it's just the high quality personalities behind all these articles I link to, but a big thanks to my FF friends for the birthday sentiments.

Speaking of the fantasy sports industry, the semi-annual Fantasy Sports Trade Association meeting is next week in San Francisco and I'm so sad to be missing it. I'm sure there will be some good tweets and notes from the conference for those who are interested in following the business end of the fantasy world. 

Now onto the content that you're all really here for:

• Last week two different Peyton Hillis articles came out - he truly is one of the more interesting players this year in my opinion:
• ProFootballFocus.com's Peyton Hillis: Emerging Force
• Fantasy Shrink's The curious case of Peyton Hillis
• We also have two articles about how the lockout will affect fantasy football:
• CBSSports.com's What the lockout means for fantasy - looks at teams with new head coaches, offensive coordinators, injury issues, rookie issues, etc. Good overview.
• Or head over to FantasySharks.com who give advice on how to treat your draft and season with this funktified season that's evolving in How The Lockout Affects Us, The Fantasy Football Faithful.
• More from the Fantasy Shrink as he breaks down his first mock of the season with industry experts. Gotta say I really like the grid format for laying out the results despite the teeny tiny font - that's a warning to pull your screen a smidge closer.
• I've seen plenty of talk about the free agent market on the offensive side of the ball, but far less when it comes to defenders. Turn to Rotoworld's The 2011 Defense Market for a solid overview.
• Speaking of free agency, check this out for the latest pre-free agency top 200 rankings from ESPN.
• Finally, I can't sing the praises of ProFootballFocus.com enough for the non-stop content they've been rolling out all offseason. For another interesting stats analysis from them, take a look at Fantasy: Targets per Snap for a look at receivers that are really crucial to the passing game, and perhaps a few names of guys that you might be able to get at a great value. 

Can't help but end with a link to Peter King's MMQB article that includes his annual Father's Day reading list. Makes my librarian's heart sing!