Tag: fantasysports

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FANTASY

Sports Fanatics play Fantasy SF-4 Doug Baldwin

The Top 100 highlights

My second selection for the Top 100 highlight series from the 90-81 group is

Doug Baldwin

After clearly establishing himself as the number 1 Wide Receiver in Seattle in 2015.  Baldwin didn’t have the kind of season Fantasy owners were hoping for last year.  By no means was it an off year for Baldwin.  He still had a career best 94 receptions, and 1128 receiving yards.  So how was that a let down to his Fantasy Football owners?  What I failed to mention was that he scored half as many touchdowns as he did in 2015.  A decrease from 14 touchdowns to 7.  That’s 42 Fantasy points in most formats, for those of you that are keeping track.  Imagine a full roster of players that lost 42 points worth of touchdowns from the previous season.  Chances are you wouldn’t even be sniffing the playoffs.

Doug Baldwin’s lack of touchdown production wasn’t all his fault.  For most of the season Russell Wilson wasn’t playing at 100%.  After slowly increasing Wilson’s pass production year after year, and giving him the go ahead to throw the deep ball.  Seattle chose to reign him in a little last year to protect their franchise quarterback.  If it wasn’t for their lack of a quality running game.  Seattle would have probably dialed the passing game back even more.  So even though Wilson actually threw quite a lot of passes.  The majority of those were short to intermediate length routes.  That’s why Baldwin despite having a career year in receptions, didn’t find the end zone nearly as often.

Am I expecting a further decline this season?  No I am not.  The opposite actually.  This could very well be the year that Baldwin is considered among the elite Wide Receivers in the NFL.  What I am actually expecting is a mixture of his 2015 & 2016 seasons.  A stat line of something like 95 catches for 1100 yards, and 11 touchdowns is highly probable.  I believe that he could actually exceed those numbers.  It will depend on the production of recently acquired Running Back Eddy Lacy though.

Without question Doug Baldwin is a WR1.  I would draft him over Fantasy favourites like DeAndre Hopkins, T.Y. Hilton, and Demaryius Thomas.  With a healthy Russell Wilson back in the huddle.  Look for Doug Baldwin to find lots of room on the outside, and down field.  Another year in the Seattle Seahawks system has Jimmy Graham keeping defences honest so Baldwin won’t have to face too many double coverages.

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FANTASY

Sports Fanatics play Fantasy SF-3 Adrian Peterson

The top 100 Fantasy highlights

This is my first entry of the Top 100 Fantasy takeaways.  Each entry will include a single Player selected from each group of 10.  Beginning with my first selection from the 100-91 group.

Adrian Peterson

This will be his first season representing a team other then the Minnesota Vikings.  At 32 years of age it seems like a strange time to be adjusting to a new system.  A Sean Payton New Orleans system which has traditionally been a drop back and throw first game.  Doesn’t sound like somewhere All Day Peterson could thrive does it.  Now wait a minute.  We are talking about Adrian Peterson here.  The same guy that came back after what should have been a Career ending injury for anyone.  Then just imposed his will to the tune of 1700+ all purpose yards with 11 touchdowns.  Considering his average draft position that year, he probably single handedly carried his owners to their Fantasy league playoffs.  Doubt this guy, and it could mean your Downfall.

Well you know what, I’m going to doubt him this year.  Unless he sets himself apart during the preseason, I’m taking a hard pass on Peterson.  It’s not that I don’t believe in his ability.  On the contrary, I believe Adrian Peterson is still a powerful Running Back that deserves respect.  What I don’t believe in is his situation.  Sean Payton is still one of the most brilliant offensive minds in Football.  He has had great success with a number of Running Backs.  The issue is that the majority of these Running Backs succeeded because they were great pass catching Backs.  Darren Sproles, Pierre Thomas, and Mark Ingram were all successful in part to their pass catching ability.  Adrian Peterson is not a pass catching Back.  You are seriously delusional if you think otherwise.  The next issue is that Mark Ingram is still there, and has proven that he can be the lead back.  10 touchdowns last season (a 7-9 Season)  illustrates the point. They also drafted Alvin Kamara in the third round.  Have you seen the tape on this guy.  He’s just too talented to not be utilized by Sean Payton.  Another word of caution about Payton.  He really likes to spread the ball around.  Even if Adrian Peterson ends up as the number 1 Running Back on the depth chart.  There’s no guarantee that he will receive more than 15 touches a game.  For a Running Back that traditionally gets stronger as the game goes on the more touches he gets.  That’s something that you should worry about.  Then there is the question of age.  Most Running Backs begin breaking down at the age of 30.  As I mentioned before, Adrian Peterson is by no means like most Backs.  Still a few injuries have caused concern, and if The Saints find themselves in the hunt for a playoff spot by mid Season.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they further limit his touches in order to keep him fresh for the playoffs.  Great if you are a New Orleans Saints fan.  Terrible if you are relying on him to help you in your Fantasy league.  The last issue, and by no means the least is the Saints brutally horrible Defence.  Last year, and the year before that, and the year before that they couldn’t stop anyone from scoring.  They were so bad in fact, that I’d play bench players over my starters if they were playing against the Saints.  When playing from behind the clock becomes your enemy.  The last thing you want to do is run the ball.  Unless the Saints get their Defence figured out.  Drew Brees will probably finish in the Top 3 in passing yards, and first in attempts again.  Not a great situation for Adrian Peterson.

So am I telling you to totally avoid Adrian Peterson?  No I’m not.  Draft him as your RB3 if you want.  You can start him in a pinch, or as your flex if he has a favourable matchup.  Will I draft him as my RB3?  Probably not.  I’d rather try my luck on a young pass catching Back.  Of course I play PPR (point per reception) leagues so Adrian Peterson’s value is further diminished.

Tomorrow I will highlight another Player from the Top 100 in the 90-81 group.

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FANTASY

Sports Fanatics play Fantasy SF-2

Is it all about winning?

When you think about Fantasy Sports generally one of two things come to mind.  You are either looking forward to winning your league championship, or looking forward to winning some cold hard cash.

Gambling has always had it’s place in Fantasy Sports.   At it’s heart playing Fantasy Sports is gambling.  Each player you pick needs to not only play well, but also avoid injury, and be given ample opportunity to succeed.

I absolutely love Fantasy Football.  When drafting a team it isn’t about just picking the best statistical player.  What you are really attempting to do is draft Players who will exceed their previous couple of years performance.  In the case of rookies you are speculating on their immediate impact.  That’s what it takes to win your league.  Analyzing each Player’s peak potential, and then selecting the right combination of players that actually come close to reaching, or better yet exceeding it.  I’ve been doing exactly that quite successfully for years.

Fantasy Golf is still quite new to me.  I haven’t played a seasonal format yet but will in 2018.  Currently I just play individual PGA tour events.  I factor in each Player’s previous performance at the course, their recent form, the overall strength of the field, and key statistical areas depending on the course layout.  When choosing a roster of Golfers based on salary cap, such as on Draft Kings.  I usually avoid the highest value players. Instead I assemble a core group of second, and third tier players I expect will make the cut.  The only exception to this strategy is events with a particularly weak field.  In that case I’ll invest in one of the favourites.  I’ve had minimal success so far, but learning while playing has definitely been fun.  If you’ve had some success playing Fantasy Golf?  I’d like to hear about it, and what deciding factor led to your selections.

It’s still a couple of months before I begin drafting my Fantasy Football teams.  In the meantime I’ll be discussing Fantasy Golf each week.  It’s actually Sunday of the U.S. Open as I’m writing this.  My balanced roster is performing quite well.  I have Matt Kuchar, Tommy Fleetwood, Brendan Steele, Martin Laird, and Satoshi Kodaira still playing.  D.J., Rory, and Day all missing the cut was probably terrible for the networks, but it probably guaranteed me a win in my pool.  Quite a few of my friends asked me who I thought had the best chance of winning the Open.  I told them either D.J., or Sergio Garcia.  Day hasn’t truly been in top form this year, and I didn’t think Rory was fully recovered from injury.  I still expected all of them to make the cut though.  Well all of them except Day.  Just goes to show you how unpredictable Golf can be.

So how about we try to develop a system that actually does predict Golf?

Fantasy Sports is all about winning after all!

Categories
FANTASY

Sports Fanatics play Fantasy SF-1

It started in high school.

A friend of mine organized a Pick the weekly winners league for NFL football.  He’d print out a list of all the week’s games, and make a copy for each person playing.  It cost $10 to play each week.  You picked whoever you thought would win each game, and as a tie breaker you predicted what the Monday night game score would be.  There was enough of us playing that if you won just once during the season. Then you were covered for the whole season and then some.  I played for three years in his League and my worst Season I won twice.  High school ended and I really missed that league.  I was able to start a few leagues of my own at different places I worked but never had enough players to make it worthwhile.

Then organized Fantasy Sports came and I was hooked.  The NFL weekly structure is King when it comes to Fantasy.  Every other Sport is seriously hindered by their schedules.  As an addicted Golfer I play Fantasy Golf as well.  Although It doesn’t lend itself well to seasonal leagues. It is great for weekly one off tournaments though.  Thankfully Golf only has a one month off season so there will be plenty to discuss year round.  During football season though be ready to hear my opinion on absolutely everything.  I’ve been running a Keeper league on NFL.com for quite a few years now, and it’s as competitive as any league I’ve ever played in including Champions leagues.  I plan on running a second league specifically for Blog subscribers so if you think you know Fantasy football.  I challenge you to step up.  Sign up as a VIP subscriber on my Home page entering Fantasy in the subject line.  Then message me through my Contact us page with FF2017 in the subject line, and tell me why you should be selected to compete in the Fantasy football Cobelife league.  The League will be Free to enter, but there will be prizes.

If you have a passion for Fantasy football or Golf then you are going to love the articles, and open debates I’ll have on Cobe Life.  I’m also an avid Soccer fan but will limit my articles to World Cup, or Euro Cup events.