Fantasy Football Librarian

Four months from today is the due date for my FFL Junior and while I'll spare you all the details of my increasing fascination with this whole something-alive-is-growing-inside-of-me process, I will say that I'm startled by just how quickly we've reached the end of May. This holds true when we talk about the 2010 football season, too. Before you know it, fantasy football draft magazines will be hitting the stands at your favorite bookstore and our talk of starters and superstars will be more than just mere speculation. I'm in the process of narrowing down the number of leagues that I'll play in this year since I imagine I might have less time this year to devote to FF team management what with a whole new tiny person in my life, but one thing that I plan on maintaining is the monster FFLibrarian League . Many of you participated last year in the inaugural season (it was a 96-team league!) and I'm looking to you for feedback on how to make this nex...

I've been a bit quiet here on the blog (as well as the blog I'm working on for the FSTA Summer Conference ) for the past several days - I've had a friend from college in town and had a weekend of hostessing duties, including trips to the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island, the Top of the Rock, and of course the main branch of the NY Public Library. Good stuff and as always, it was wonderful to be with an old friend. So thanks for bearing with my silence here - the good news is that for the first time in a very long time I have next to nothing on my agenda...until I leave for the FSTA conference in Chicago on June 8th...so that means plenty of time for blogging! Yahoo's mock PPR draft on Roto Arcade rolls on -we've got Rounds 3 , 4 , and 5-7 . FantasyFootballXtreme.com presents their consensus dynasty rankings both here and via their radio show on 5/22 - pick your FFX rankings poison from this link . I feel I owe it to Matt Forte to offer up some positive thoughts on ...

My friends, mock draft season has arrived. Several of my favorite fantasy football sites are rolling out their first real mock drafts of the season and I'm loving it. Guessing you will, too, or why the heck else would you be perusing a fantasy football blog in May?? Very quickly before we jump into today's links I just wanted to let you all know that I have a FSTA Summer Conference Blog . I'll probably update it a few times a week before the conference gets here (June 9-10), but you all might be most interested in my coverage of the expert fantasy football draft at the conference - as well as some of the sessions that pertain to trends in fantasy football. I'll get a reminder up here when it's conference time of course, but just something to keep on your radar. Okay now back to mock drafts and other fun FF links: When Yahoo's Roto Arcade blog starts talking football again, I know the season is getting close. Exciting times. They're unveiling ...

Well I'm back from a fantastic weekend visiting friends in Colorado and have a few different things going on that I wanted to let you all know about. In a few weeks I'll be attending the Fantasy Sports Trade Association's spring conference in Chicago and I'm going to be a tweeter and blogger for the event. I'm in the process of setting up the blog now and will link to it from here, so if you can't make it but you're wondering what happens during the various sessions and such, well then tune in to the conference blog. I've also already started tweeting from the official FSTA twitter account and plan to tweet throughout the conference with the relevant and interesting things that happen there. If you're in the biz and planning to attend the FSTA meeting, keep your eyes out for me (likely the only pregnant lady there) as I'd love to meet or catch up with you. The other thing I've been doing these days is taking a stab at fantasy...

We're headed out of town for a long weekend to visit friends back in Boulder, Colorado - I'll be back in the land of my Broncos! - so I've been running around like crazy this week and have been slacking on the blog front. My apologies for the small number of posts this week. Let's get right to today's links: Yahoo!'s Stock Watch: NFL Draft fallout has a great look at players whose value is on the upswing, downturn, and holding steady. Good read to get your mind focused on the 2010 season, especially if you're just now getting back into fantasy football mode. This time of year, half the fantasy battle is knowing who the starters are going to be. CBSSports.com takes a look at QB stories: Five most intriguing signal-caller situations . Now call me crazy but I actually think Delhomme might be the man in Cleveland for most, if not all, of the year - and I don't think he'll suck. At least not like he did in '09. I love what Brian Burke over at Adv...

This is the time of year when dormant fantasy football sites start to come alive again - love it. So let's get right to today's links as I feel like there's a lot to cover this morning... FantasyFanPlay.com takes a look at nearly 20 second-year players in their Sophomore Breakouts article - take a look to see which players they think are set for a solid 2010. If it's really rookies that you're interested in, no problem - most sites have some ideas on which rooks to pay attention to this season, including Fantasy Phenoms with 2 different articles - a dissection of AFC teams and NFC teams . Staying with the theme of rookie analysis, Razzball is brings us some thoughts on the Top 10 IDP Rookie Linebackers . FFToolbox is taking a look at something very near and dear to my heart: Offensive Line Research and Analysis . You can play around with their spreadsheet for whatever your o-line needs might be or click on a team name for more details. I'll be writing up so...

This upcoming mother's day weekend is kind of a special one for me. Turns out, my fine FF friends, that my husband and I have a baby boy due at the end of September, so as a mom-to-be, this is kind of a fun time. Our son should be making his appearance in the world right around Week 3 of the NFL season, which interestingly enough is when my Broncos play my husband's Colts. Now never fear, the blog will carry on as usual this fall...or close to normal. I'll likely be blogging at odd times of the day/night (probably with some sleep deprived ramblings) and may make a few tweaks or get some additional help on the blog, but you can count on FFLibrarian as a go-to spot this fall! September though is several months off, plenty of fantasy football to discuss now: Matt Schauf, who many of you know is one of my favorite IDP writers, has finally pulled together his analysis of IDPers drafted in the NFL Draft's second round in Draft reaction: Second round holds IDP potential . ...

Well my morning is already off to a great start after this amusing article from Yahoo's Shutdown Corner noting that the Browns just signed a guy they found off a YouTube video . Oh yeeeeah. And? He has a handlebar mustache. That seems like an amazing feat in and of itself. My husband had a handlebar mustache for roughly 6 hours once a few years ago (he was shaving down a beard and delightfully stopped at the handlebar stage) before I believe I begged him to finish the job and just remove the damn thing. If you'd like a glimpse at this o-lineman's video montage (including a shot of the 'stache), then I recommend scoping out the link above. And yes, the fact that I'm including that link should be a sign that it's a rather slow day in fantasy football world. I have a few more articles for you but savor them each slowly... While Fantasyfootball.com has 5 Players to Avoid Like the Plague for the 2010 season, Hatty Waiver Wire Guru has Rookies to Target in 2010 .....

This weekend it felt like summer had arrived in NYC as temperatures soared to near record degrees - my husband and I haven't yet installed our A/C unit for the summer so last night as I got in bed, and the temp in our apartment was over 80 degrees, all I could think of was, please please let football season's cool autumnal weather get here faster. Of course I might always feel that way about the start of the NFL season; often at say Week 7 of the season I suddenly long for it to start all over again, rather than just being of the moment and enjoying the season. So let's be of the moment here and enjoy a bunch up injury news (though seems like bad karma to enjoy injury news...) and updates from across the league. Not a ton of fantasy analysis going on right now, but don't worry, I have it on good authority that a lot of my favorite experts are working on some really good material for their summer draft mags and websites. Let's just start with what feels...

My in-laws are coming to visit tomorrow for a few days so I might be a bit quiet as the week wraps up: I'll be busy being a tourist with them. Having family visit is always a great excuse to jump on an uber-touristy bus, boat, or Empire State Building queue for the sake of showing your fam a good time...in reality though, who doesn't love a boat ride around Manhattan on a beautiful day? Plus I have an odd desire to ride one of those double-decker tourist buses. I'm convinced it's going to be really fun...don't tell me if it's not! Ugh...the Broncos need everything to go just right what with the pressure of the Tebow draft pick and the loss of all our major offensive playmakers...and Ryan Clady's knee surgery (courtesy of a basketball game injury) isn't what we need. FFToolbox has adjusted their 2010 Strength of Schedule - love tools like this. While not the final word on any draft choices of course, it's a nice addition to all that other player r...

The 2010 draft is complete...as is my trip to Boston. So thanks for being patient with my blog silence over the weekend - hope you found some other awesome resources to answer all your fantasy football needs. There are of course a ton of links to get to today so I'm just going to fly through them: I'm seeing a ton of rookie rankings and analysis of course - here are some top reads on that front: Razzball's NFL Draft Fantasy Fallout FFXtreme's 2010 Fantasy Football Rookie Rankings FantasyFanPlay's 2010 Impact Rookies Though before you get too gung ho about any of these guys, swing by a great read by CBSSports.com's Dave Richard (ooh, I love an article that includes a scatter plot) that looks at historically how valuable rookies are in fantasyland: The impact of rookies in fantasy . IDP leagues seem to be growing in popularity each year so I can only imagine how many of you are going to be psyched to read RapidDraft's Draft reaction: First-round IDPs , w...

I woke this morning to a gorgeous day here in New York City - the birds were chirping (yes, we have birds other than pigeons here) and the sun was streaming in the windows. Happy Earth Day indeed - and it seems the Earth is quite happy to be celebrating NFL Draft Day. Just a few quick links for you today: One of the primary things you can do today/tonight is seek out great live blogging during the draft as well as seek out pre-draft chats. One spot to stop this afternoon? Matthew Berry's chat on all things fantasy at 3 PM eastern - this will of course not just focus on the NFL but Berry's got some great thoughts and well worth the chat time.   Or chat, blog it up, etc with Fantasyfootball.com - take a look here for the details but they'll be starting up their chat just before the draft starts tonight. Similarly, there are some great tweets being cranked out today - see what Rotoworld's Evan Silva and Gregg Rosenthal have to say, as well as Scott Engel of RotoEx...

Such a big NFL week! First the 2010 schedule was released last night and now we're just a day away from the NFL Draft...it's like an extended birthday celebration where the fun never seems to end with treats around every corner. Love it. Now if you missed the big NFL schedule party last night, have no fear, I did too (I had book club; I know, I know, I'm still only partially excited about participating each month...it's really just an excuse to hang out with my sister) but I caught up with some of the major schedule news with many thanks to the entertaining Fifth Down post - Live Blogging the N.F.L. Schedule Show with Football Outsiders' Mike Tanier. The NFL has made their Big Ben decision: Roethlisberger is to be suspended for 6 games . Scope out some of the language in Goodell's letter to Roethlisberger as quoted in that link from CBSSports.com - pretty strong words there. Not only will this cost Big Ben nearly $3 million but also some serious ...

Well my favorite Bronco is no longer a Bronco. Goodbye, Tony Scheffler, you'll be missed. Now if I want to watch you I'll have to watch the Lions...my friend Sam back in Boulder (a Lions fan...perhaps the only one in Colorado?) is probably chuckling over that one. But Scheff went to college at Western Michigan and grew up in the great mitten state, so perhaps this is a bit of a homecoming for Scheff. Let's start off today's links with some Scheffler thoughts: Anyone paying attention to how poorly McDaniels and Scheffler got along towards the end of the 2009 season is not surprised to see that Scheffler is gone. It's just crazy to think that Scheff, Cutler, and Marshall have all left Colorado now...so what to think about the impact of Scheffler and Ernie Sims heading to new pastures? Turn to Rotoworld's Trade Fallout: Scheffler is a Lion for the fantasy details. For some other highlights on news around the league and of course Peter King commentary, take a ...

Well it has been a great (albeit chilly) weekend here in Brooklyn - lots of time relaxing, the highlight being a brunch date with friends including our buddy Bart, a NY Post journalist who broke the Santonio Holmes news last weekend. Gotta love having friends in the biz. And this weekend's relaxation was particularly nice since I'll either be traveling or have visitors in town for 7 of the next 9 weekends...starting with a library conference in Boston during next weekend's NFL Draft. I know, I know, what am I doing focusing on anything other than football next weekend?! I'll be watching the Thursday prime time activity but will likely have to catch up on everything else via the ol' iPhone. Since this is how most sane people take in the draft (or do they just wait until the week after for a brief update?), I think it will be a refreshing approach to the weekend...yes, I'm desperately seeking the silver lining here. To take my mind off the fact that I'll be...

Greetings fantasy football fans. Happy tax-day-is-behind-us-for-another-364-days. I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about the future - finances, our apartment situation, our jobs, family stuff...and of course fantasy football! There's no better time than NFL Draft season for thinking about future, be it how your favorite team is prepping for the long term or how you can prep for the 2010 fantasy season. But brace yourselves - this post is heavy on draft prep and other real world NFL issues. That of course translates to fantasy football, but the number of straight up fantasy analysis articles here are few and far between. That's just the way the cookie crumbles during NFL Draft time... So let's get to the linkage on this cloudy Friday in NYC: If you're drafting it up in prime time next Thursday night but are hoping to get a little extra commentary as the draft picks tick by, take a look at the various places you'll find the Football Outsiders ch...

This morning as I emerged from the subway (and cursed beautiful Central Park for driving my allergies absolutely bananas) my phone absolutely blew up over the big Brandon Marshall news : my husband texted me the details and I had 3 e-mails waiting for me with the juicy news that my Broncos have (unofficially) traded away Marshall to the Dolphins for a second round pick this year and likely a second rounder in 2011 as well. As a Broncos fan I have mixed feelings on all of the wheeling and dealing since McDaniels arrived, but in the end I think what it comes down to is that we had incredible talent in guys like BMarsh and Cutler, but we certainly weren't going very far with it. So kudos to the boy genius (or so I hope) for grabbing some great picks and here's hoping we up the ante in Denver. In case you're looking for some of the fantasy fallout from all of this, have no fear, that analysis will soon be up all over the place. Read on for Marshall thoughts and m...

What a start to the week - had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I saw the headlines about Santonio Holmes being traded to the Jets. I knew he was on a short leash but I guess I just did not see this move to the Jets for a 5th round pick coming at all...and there are of course fantasy implications galore. So read on, my friends. Last night I was at the Knicks game and far, far below me, sitting courtside were Mark Sanchez and Dustin Keller. Think they knew of the trade in the works? The Sanchize must be pleased to have a little extra talent to toss to - while Keller is likely wondering what this will mean for his targets. Rotoworld has done a great job of summarizing the change on the fantasy scene in Trade fallout: Santonio Holmes is Jet . Meanwhile now ex-teammate Ben Roethlisberger has troubles of his own - scope out the details in Despite DA's decision, Roethlisberger may not escape punishment . MMQB takes a good look at the Holmes move and other rumors on the NFL scen...

This weekend we're heading to a Knicks game - they'll be playing the Heat (one of the few professional sports team names that does not end in S...now you're wondering about the rest right? Make that a fun diversion for a Friday afternoon!) and somehow it took us basically the entire NBA season to make it to a game. Better late than never! I'm sure I'll have football on my mind this weekend though, I mean the draft is now less than 2 weeks away. So onto today's links... FantasyFootball.com has a spectacular 2010 NFL Draft info page - they have all sorts of rumors and notes but also links out to mock drafts and rankings, scouting reports, team needs, and even a handful of interviews. Lots of good stuff here. Also on the draft front, Rotoworld's Evan Silva (one of my favorite draft dudes) reviews some of the big names on the defensive side in Draft 2010: On the Defensive - he notes that Maycock sees roughly 20 of the top 32 picks going to defenders, makin...

This is probably going to get lost in the shuffle of the other links I post below so I'm just going to pull it out and give it a little spotlight here: Brett Favre is a grandfather . He's merely a decade older than I am (he's 40) but I'm just working on baby numero uno. Favre's 21-year-old daughter meanwhile just welcomed a little boy to the world. Gotta say I'm impressed. Middle name? Brett. Moving onto things that are far more relevant to the world of fantasy football... Read Nudge ? If not, I recommend it - and if you need another reason beyond a librarian's endorsement, then check out what one of the authors wrote about the NFL draft in the NY Times: When a First Choice May Not Be the Best Choice . The article includes a link to more insight if you're feeling academic - see the abstract for The Loser's Curse: Overconfidence vs. Market Efficiency in the NFL Draft . When The Hazean's Monday Morning Rehab starts to include some real injury ...