Fantasy Football Librarian

My brother-in-law is coming to visit this weekend - should be fun, we always have a good time when he's around. He's in town to hit up the Duke vs Gonzaga game at Madison Square Garden on Saturday - he went to law school at Duke and is quite the Duke fan. I'm psyched for the game and to see his fandom in action live and in person. Here's hoping that upcoming snowstorm doesn't trap him here, though it looks like my native Virginia might get the brunt of the storm with much of the northeast missing out on a pre-Christmas blanketing of snow.   Meanwhile today I am huddled over a cup of coffee trying to stay warm and caffeinated - prepping for my shopping excursion this afternoon. And tonight we'll be looking for a sports bar in which to watch the Colts vs Jags game. All in all, a nice day ahead. So let's get to today's links without further ado: I've got a couple of fflibrarian-in-other-places links for you - first up, read the NY Times' Fifth D...

Oh boy, oh boy, do I have a ton of links for you guys today. My laptop is getting ready to burst with all of these awesome articles, so prepare yourself. Meanwhile, tonight I'll be living it up with friends, family, and readers at the Brooklyn Buffalo Wild Wings starting around 8 PM - any last minute takers? Let me know ! It should be particularly interesting since my opponent in the BWW league this week is Scott Engel, who will be there watching the game with us. I'm pulling for good things from Santonio Holmes despite the crappy weather forecast in Cleveland. We'll start things off with places you can find my other articles/links throughout the web. First up, my article for the Bruno Boys, looking at up and coming RBs over the past few weeks and whether or not they'll continue trending up over the playoffs - Projecting RBs in the Fantasy Playoffs . Or scope out the Fifth Down's Week 14 in Fantasy Football Matchups which has great start/sit advice from the Sabli...

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of family, friends, and football. Yesterday morning we woke up kind of early to see the Thanksgiving Day parade - despite the crowds it was still a pretty good time and definitely something I think we had to do as NYCers. I was digging the Snoopy balloon the most, I think, though Kermit was a classic. Meanwhile the children near us didn't recognize the smurf balloon. What kind of generation are we raising that doesn't know what a smurf is? Amazing. Anyway, we ran home to get the turkey in the oven and all the other tasty treats going. We had just one friend join us and thankfully she did put up with the copious amounts of football we watched. Which of course leads me to my Broncos winning against the Giants last night - the Broncos defense was looking tremendous again, particularly the secondary, and I'm psyched to see how the rest of the season plays out. With so much going on yesterday, I took a break from all things FFL...

My grandfather has always been one to immediately ask about the weather when we talk on the phone. I used to chalk this up as an endearing old man question but turns out, I think he really wants to know - and strangely enough, so do I. Yes, I actually want to hear about his weather in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I think he might have passed along an odd weather gene, which regular readers here might have picked up on long ago. I talk about my weather with some regularity, which might just make me an old lady weather librarian type but hey, I eventually get to the fantasy football, right? And today is no exception...time for my weather rant. When I started telling people that I was moving from Boulder to NYC one of the first things I inevitably heard was, oh you are going to miss the sunshine. I laughed and thought, sure but I've lived through fun weather before like the cold, frosty winds of Chicago and the oppressive humidity of Washington, DC. Lack of sunshine? That will be a piece...

Congrats Yankees fans! I'll be honest, I was pulling for the Phillies since I was hoping for another championship for my sister's friend Eric Bruntlett , but I can put that aside and be happy for my new hometown team. You guys all know my heart is really with football anyway... So speaking of which, let's jaunt on over to today's football articles: My weekly article with the Bruno Boys is up - I'm looking at some players who have sweet playoffs matchups, but not the top guys, more like your borderline/bubble players. But to be honest, wait an hour or so to check it out. One of the graphics/charts was accidentally left out so there's going to be some tweaking needed... In the meantime, check out my recommended reading in the Fifth Down's Week 9 in Fantasy Football Matchups - lots of good advice from the Sablich Bros, too, so definitely swing by the comments section if you've got a question about your lineup. I don't know what it is but I love r...

I love my neighborhood - I think it's just beautiful. I felt this way as soon as laid eyes on it when we were apartment hunting this summer. There's just such an abundance of character between the brownstones, old apartment buildings, churches, banks, and even the court buildings. Now I'll be the first to admit that I didn't think anything in New York City could possibly top my Boulder foothills, and while Boulder still takes the cake, my Brooklyn 'hood is awesome in a totally different way. I was walking around in the cool drizzle here yesterday thinking about how absolutely lovely the changing leaves are, even on a soggy day...and it occurred to me: this is it. This is how autumn was meant to be. And what makes autumn even better? Football. So let's get to today's links: In yesterday's comments, reader Brian reminded me that I've been neglecting FantasyPros911 - and what an oversight! Thanks for the nudge, Brian, since it's definitely worth ...

Those of you who have been following along with the Five Game Parlay I've been participating in with Fighting Chance Fantasy know that I got a bit too sure of myself (and the Eagles) last week and set myself up for a brussels sprouts extravaganza - I promised to provide photo documentation of me eating a sprout if the Eagles didn't cover against the Raiders last week and trust me, I do not want to eat a sprout. But you fine people have given me several sprout recipes, and I'm a woman of my word, so tonight we'll be fixing up several sprout dishes. Should be an interesting dinner. So let's get to some start/sit links and other good stuff... The Fifth Down's Week 7 in Fantasy Football is up with my weekly batch of best links and lots of matchup advice from the Sablich brothers.   Good stuff from the KFFL blog - this week's roundtable discussion between a bunch of my favorite bloggers is "Which two players are you stashing for the second half? Why?...

In a few hours I'll be hanging with college buddies and sipping cocktails at a Northwestern alum event here in NYC, but until then I still have several more links for you, my loyal readers. First up, my weekly column with the Bruno Boys: Top 10 Receivers After Week 3 . This week I look at top receivers by yardage and receptions and the types of pass defenses they've faced so far - and then who they will meet in the next several weeks. The Lead Pipe Lock has something along the same vein - the easiest matchups for each skill position through Week 3 . He then also lists players that you'd want to target. Nice stuff! Want to play against a celebrity? Try Richard Petty this week in Best Buy's Weekly Football Challenge .  A few start and sit links for you: Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit - Week 4   WalterFootball.com's Start Em, Sit Em: Week 4 FantasySharks.com's Start/Bench List Week 4 FFToolbox's Week 4: Start 'Em Finall...

I caved. I joined twitter. Fear not, I won't be an uber frequent tweeter but feel free to follow along with the occasional FF-related tweets - or just check out the latest tweets on the right side of the blog. I also wanted to get a link up to my latest Bruno Boys column - Riskiest Picks from the Top 100 . I came up with this list based off of the standard deviations I ran on the Average Rankings Position I posted last week. Those players with the highest standard deviation were the ones whom experts had the least amount of consensus on in their rankings. In some ways that makes them not only the risky picks of the Top 100 but also potentially the best values...so take a look!

I was walking down a beautiful tree-lined street in a nearby Brooklyn neighborhood yesterday afternoon (in search of a new coffee shop; it's now clear to me that nothing gets me exploring like a good cup of coffee) when it happened: I smelled fall. Some of the leaves must have been giving off that wonderful fall-is-here scent and I was reminded yet again that I adore fall. I'm one of those nerds that actually looked forward to going back to school every year, and the scent of late summer grass always makes me think of the fall sports I played. And of course, my football friends, fall means football! I've heard from so many of you about the average ranking position spreadsheet I posted about yesterday - I'll be adding to it and pulling out positional rankings. Hopefully I'll have the updated sheet up by the end of the weekend. I've put up the first page of the spreadsheet (with the averages) on google docs now in addition to Scribd (or you're still welcome ...

Right now my husband is at a conference in San Francisco, gearing up to spend the next four days going to nearly 20 different interviews - can you imagine many things more painful than being "on" for that long and being able to talk about 20 different schools/companies? I'm sending all sorts of good thoughts his way and think it's appropriate that his interviews coincide with the first weekend of the NFL playoffs. See, I kind of envision this first round of interviews as his first weekend of job playoffs if you will. There are second round interviews, fly-outs and job offers to be had down the line much like there are late round playoffs and the Super Bowl for NFL teams. But as always, it doesn't take much for me to relate my personal life to football in some way... Now to today's links: The Hazean has kept the Start & Sit suggestions rolling through the New Year. Check our Start & Sit: Fantasy playoffs - I'm strongly considering using LeRon McCla...

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone - I've found it really hard to carve out time for a blog update while visiting with family so my apologies for going off the radar for a few days! I've now transitioned from visiting with my family in Virginia down to my husband's family in Tennessee. One of the best parts about being in Tennessee is my unbelievable ability to sleep late here - at least 10 AM every morning. It's glorious. But now we're off to visit grandmothers and such, so I'm hoping to get a quick start/sit list up that I'll try to add to (though a lot of sites have shut down for the season) and do a consensus start/sit for by tomorrow. Also, I am doing another FFLibrarian's Challenge with NFL.com's Playoff Challenge for the postseason. Stay tuned on that front if you're interested - I should have a group set up by the end of this weekend. NFL.com's Start 'em Sit 'em Bruno Boys' Start em & Sit em - Week 17 The Talented M...

Good morning from cold and snowy Boulder - thanks to the Colorado sunshine, soon this half foot of snow will be long gone. And I'm sure Oakland is hoping their game last night will soon be a distant memory. Man, that was an ugly game. I was playing against Darren McFadden in one of my leagues and one of my individual defenders, Eric Weddle , outscored McFadden. Good for me, sad for Oakland. But moving on - with the playoffs coming up I know a lot of you have start/sit questions. Take a look at the list of start/sit links below and keep in mind that I'll be posting my consensus start/sits later this afternoon. SI FanNation's Start 'em, Sit 'em Bruno Boys' Start em & Sit em - Week 14 Sports Outlaw's Week 14 Start 'em Sit 'em Junkyard Jake's Bench/Start The Mac Bros' Start or Sit Week 14 Rankings Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit - Week 14 CBS' Week 14 Start 'em Sit 'em The Fantasy Football Report...

Wow, I haven't done very much this morning yet - I can hardly believe we're creeping up on noon here and I'm still in my pajamas, enjoying my morning coffee. I love long weekends. So here's today's start/sit links list. I'm guessing I'll get the consensus start/sit compilation up by tomorrow morning at the latest, so stay tuned for that. SI FanNation's Start 'em, Sit 'em Bruno Boys' Start em & Sit em - Week 13 Ask the Commish's Sit or Start Sports Outlaw's Week 13 Start 'em Sit 'em Junkyard Jake's Bench/Start The Mac Bros' Start or Sit Week 13 Rankings The Talented Mr. Roto's Love/Hate for Week 13 Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit - Week 13 RotoExperts ' Start and Sit: Week Thirteen CBS' Week 13 Start 'em Sit 'em The Fantasy Football Report's Start'm Sit'm - Week 13 NFL. com's Start 'em Sit 'em And a few other links for this holiday Friday - my ...

It is 40 degrees colder in Boulder today than it was on Tuesday - I love the wacky weather here but there was a thick layer of ice on our car this morning. Normally this is not a big deal since we take the bus to work but my husband was off to the airport for a conference, so there was some serious ice scrapping going on to get him on the road on time. I'm just glad he's not trying to fly into the Cleveland or Buffalo areas - looks like you guys are getting hit by a pretty big storm today. Anyway, enough talk about weather (though I could certainly keep it up for a long time) - there are lots of links to get to today... First, thanks to Chris for sending this link my way - check out TeamRankings . com's NFL Stats section for some helpful stats details. I particularly like the rushing and passing yards allowed per game options - and being able to compare the season vs the past three games as well as home vs away. Very helpful. Some of you might be seeing the sad end of you...

Hi fantasy friends - I'm about to head off to my bowling league for the night where I swear I play better when the jukebox is rocking out some Whitesnake , but first I wanted to post a couple of FFLibrarian-related afternoon links for you. My daily blog with FantasyPlayers.com is up, No Bull From the Fantasy Librarian , where I discuss my crazy sister and of course more football links with advice on sleepers, busts and who's hot for Week 6. And my weekly A Librarian's Touch column with the Bruno Boys is up - Which Top 10 Running Backs will remain strong in 2008? I looked at the top 10 RBs at this point one year ago compared to the top ten at the end of the 2007 season - 7 of the 10 were already set at this point last year. While I'm sure that number varies year to year, I looked at which 3 RBs I don't think will make the top 10 cut come January. Also, while I won't have a blog up here until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest, my blog on FantasyPlayers.com wil...

As promised, I'm back with more links for the afternoon. First, I mentioned this earlier in the week but I am going to be blogging on the Fantasy Players Network on a daily basis for a little while. I'll have completely different content and almost entirely different links up there, so if you want another serving of the FFLibrarian , check out my blog on that site, too. Here's a link for today's post . And then because I apparently can't get enough of writing columns and posts, you can also find my new Bruno Boys' A Librarian's Touch article up now - Shop em Don't drop em , where I look at some of the big name players that aren't producing at the level we expected from them. If you're looking for more wavier wire advice, check out FFToday's Through the Wire - what if with a new coach, Bulger suddenly looks pretty decent? Is that possible or is the o-line in shambles still? Antonio points out that the Rams' schedule looks mighty sweet ...

Just a quick post to say that my latest column with the Bruno Boys is up - Bye-ing into a Team D/ST . I take a look at schedules for Weeks 4-6 to see which defensive/special teams units you might want to grab in case you have a D/ST on bye during that time.

...when blogging is on the line. Okay, so that was kind of a crappy repurposing of the Princess Bride quote , but I must confess that The Hazean and I have made a bit of a wager on who will win the Broncos v. Saints game here in Denver this weekend. The Hazean has written all about it so let's just say I plan to have The Hazean guest blogging here on the FFLibrarian about how awesome the Broncos offense is. That will be the first time I've ever had a guest blogger on the site and I can't think of a better reason than this. Let's hope I'm not getting too cocky here... And in other afternoon news: Thigpen (seriously, I know this guys has probably heard this all his life but all I think of is Pigpen from Peanuts ) will be the Chiefs' starting QB this week while Gus Frerotte will be the Vikings' starting QB for the rest of the season. Frerotte was already in 3rd grade when I was born so while I find this perhaps an upgrade from Jackson, it's hardly someth...

I am headed out of town today - I'm off to D.C. for the weekend and it occurred to me this morning that flying on September 11 th might require a little extra time at security (or maybe no one wants to fly today?) so this is going to be a pretty brief post as I get ready to roll out to the airport. My column for the Bruno Boys' A Librarian's Touch is up - Hindsight from Week 1 . I take a look back at some of the players I started and sat from Week 1 and the outcome of those decisions. And for those who are curious, I ended Week 1 going 5-2 in my 7 leagues - fairly successful. I've received a lot of contest entries from you all for Matt Forte and Randy Moss' yardage for Week 2 - thank you. If you're still interested in submitting a guess (and winning a subscription to FFXtreme or Fantasy Football Starters ), please keep in mind that a lot of common guesses might be gone, so be creative. Guesses must be e-mailed in by Sunday at 1:00 eastern. I'll be back t...