Halfway through the season ...

Being on a vacation, I did not post anything last week. Consider week 6 as my "bye week"

Time flies and we are already more than halfway through the regular season of Fantasy Football. So many heartaches. So many triumphs. It's been a very interesting first half of the season. If I had to describe the 2009 FF season so far in 2 words, I'd have to say "Just Ridiculous!"

Some of the highlights of the season so far -

1) If you count the playoffs from the last season, Saumil has won the last 10 weeks of Fantasy Football! Last 10 weeks. Thanks Niral for pointing it out to me. Just ridiculous.

2) Seven weeks into the season, and each week, we have had a different team as the highest scorer of the week.
Starting from week 1, the top scorers are as follows: Darshini, Devashree, Murtaza, Shilpi/Jimit, Vishal, Ali, Prashant.

3) Combine the 2 facts above and what you get is the fact that Saumil who is 7-0 this season and who has atleast a 2 game lead over the closest team has never been the highest scorer. Just ridiculous! Other than Saumil, the 4 teams who are yet to be the highest scorers -- Meghna, Valmik, Shirin & Niral. Who out of these is going to be the top scorer next week?

4) Prashant scored 13 in week 5 despite having all 8 of players in the starting lineup for their teams. Very unlikely.
Prashant also 2 weeks later scored 160. That has been the highest score so far in both seasons of NJ Rookies. That's an average of 20 points per starting player.

5) In week 6, every player for Vishal scored in double digits. Never happened before. Not even for Prashant's 160 scoring team.

6) Saumil still remains the only team who hasnt had even 1 player score 0 or negative. None of us can claim that.

7) Comparing the 3 regular weeks and 4 weeks with various teams on bye, we have been scoring MORE on an average during bye weeks than regular weeks. Just ridiculous.

8) Niral who has a 1-6 records scores above the league average at all 6 positions except TE. Even at TE, his average is 7.14 as opposed to a 7.16 average for the league. Despite that he is 1-6. The rest of us are below average in atleast 2 positions. Just Ridiculous. Albeit Niral also averages within 1 point of all league averages. So he has not performed exceptionally well at any position nor exceptionally poor at any position.

9) Prashant should have decent numbers because he balanced out the 13 point week with a 160 point week. However, he is the only one who is below average in all positions except WR. The rest of us are above average in atleast 2 positions. Well ... not completely ridiculous ... just interesting!

Here are the midseason awards:
Offensive Player till date in terms of numbers: Matt Schaub QB with 177 points in 7 weeks. Owned by Ali
Offensive Player till date in terms of average: Peyton Manning QB with 173 points in 6 weeks. Owned by Shilpi/Jimit

Best QB: Peyton Manning (177) (Ali) 4th QB to be picked in the draft
Matt Schaub (173) (Shilpi/Jimit) 12th QB to be picked in draft and autodrafted :)
Best RB: Adrian Peterson (129) (Shirin) Overall first pick of the draft
Best WR: DeSean Jackson (101) (Prashant) 21st WR to be picked
Best TE: Owen Daniels (79 in 7 weeks) (Devashree) 6th TE to be picked
Dallas Clark (69 in 6 weeks) (Murtaza) 5th TE to be picked
Best DE: Eagles (80 in 6 weeks) (Shilpi/Jimit) 7th DE to be picked
Best K: Lawrence Tynes (66 in 7 weeks) (Valmik) Tynes was not picked in the draft
Nate Kaeding (61 in 6 weeks) (Darshini/Vishal) Kaeding was the first kicker to be picked. Kaeding has split time in Darshini & Vishal's team.

Single Game Performance Awards
Best QB: Tom Brady in week 6 for Valmik with 54 points
Best RB: Chris Johnson in week 2 for Devashree with 56 points
Best WR: Roddy White in week 5 for Vishal with 39 points
Best TE: Dallas Clark in week 2 for Murtaza with 29 points
Best DE: 49ers D/ST in week 4 for Shilpi/Jimit with 39 points
Best K: Ryan Longwell in week 6 for Niral with 16 points


Here are how the first round drafts have done through the first half of the season:
Tony Romo: 140
Adrian Peterson: 129
Maurice Jones-Drew: 109
Andre Johnson: 93
De Angelo Williams: 87
Michael Turner: 79
Steven Jackson: 76
Larry Fitzgerald: 74
Matt Forte: 48
Brian Westbrook: 41
Calvin Johnson: 41

So Darshini actually has done very well for herself despite going against the traditional wisdom of not picking a QB in the first round. Kudos!

The highest Low score and the lowest High Score
Vishal has the highest low score through the first 7 weeks. He has never scored less than 74. We all have.
The lowest high scorer is Shirin with 100. Which also means that all of us, in some week or the other have scored in the 3 digits. Even Ali. To that effect, Shirin is the only one who lost during the week in which she scored her highest points. (She lost to Devashree who had her highest score that week with 135)

And finally, the overall standings after week 7 are:

ShilpiJimit 50 27 0
Saumil 48 28 1
Vishal 47 30 0
Valmik 40 35 2
Niral 38 37 2
Meghna 36 39 2
Darshini 36 40 1
Murtaza 35 42 0
Prashant 35 42 0
Shirin 34 42 1
Devashree 32 45 0
Ali 26 50 1

I was going to write about something very interesting this week but I did not get the time to finish it. I am going to write as it next week's article.

Until next week, happy football!

Headlines of the Week!

Headlines of the Week

Matchup of the Undefeateds!
While the whole world (er … I mean the US) is talking about the 5-0 Giants taking on the 4-0 New Orleans, we at rookieland have our own little matchup of the undefeateds.

Here's how the two teams stack up against each other:
In head-to-head matchups from week1 to week5, Saumil has outscored Murtaza 3 out of the 5 weeks.
Both Saumil & Murtaza have 2 scores of above 100.
Saumil has only 1 score below the league average out of the 5 weeks while Murtaza has 2.
Only ShilpiJimit (at this point, the strongest looking team) & Ali (at this point, the weakest team) havent played with either Saumil or Murtaza.
Everyone else has played against atleast one of the 2 teams.
So in the comments section, why don’t the readers sound off on who they think will win. So far we know that Niral’s vote is for Murtaza.

How bad can it be!
Seriously! How bad can it get for Prashant? What we saw in week 5 was an abomination. It only proves one thing. No matter how well you draft and how strong your lineup is, Fantasy Football is extremely fickle. Two years in a row now the team that most of thought had the best drafts ended up having wretched seasons.
But what happened to Prashant is unprecented! It may never happen again. It has certainly never happened before. In fact I challenge someone to activate 8 players in their team who are starters for their team and end up with such a low score.
How bad can it be? Consider this:
> As Prashant so elegantly puts it, 3 of his offensive players combined for 3 total yards this week.
> 5 out of the 8 players scored less than or equal to 0.
> His kicker scored 0!
> As many as 27 players in week 5 in our league scored MORE than Prashant’s team!
> Forget other players, Prashant had Ricky Williams on his bench who in turn scored as much as his entire team!
> None of the 5 players who scored less than or equal to 0 had a 0 point game in the starting 4 weeks of the season!

The only solace for Prashant is that they all decided to have a horrible day at the same time and that too in a week where his main man Philip Rivers was on a bye. Things should get back to normal in the coming week.

All is not lost!
For all the heartaches and bad weeks that most of us have had, here is the good news! 8 of the 12 teams in our league have a record of 2-3 or worse. That means if the playoffs were to start today, 2 teams with a 2-3 record would still make it. In that sense, no one is out of the race.
If you are one of those 8, you need to realize that if you have a decent couple of weeks going forward, you will be in mighty good shape.
So don’t give up on your season yet. There are lots of chances to do well from here on forward and get into the playoffs. All the best!

One more advice. Forget Sundays. Be active on Tuesdays. On Sunday, all you can be is a mere spectator … Tuesdays are where the action is and with injuries, bye weeks and resurgence of new players, there are must have pickups every week.

Really? Random Details.

ESPN-STILL-DOESN’T-LOVE-ME AWARD
Giants D/ST (Darshini … are you listening!)
Ben Roethlisberger (Niral … guess who else doesn’t believe in Big Ben J)
These two guys have outscored their ESPN predictions every single week for the past 5 weeks!

I-DESERVE-TO-BE-5-0 AWARD
Saumil should take a bow! 5 weeks. 8 players per week. 40 players. All 40 players for Saumil have scored positive points for him. None of his players have scored 0 or less. None of us can claim that. (Before this week’s disaster, Prashant had just 1).


As always, I leave you with the updated head-to-head standings after week 5
TEAM WINS LOSSES TIE
ShilpiJimit 39 16 0
Saumil 37 17 1
Murtaza 33 22 0
Vishal 31 24 0
Shirin 29 25 1
Niral 25 28 2
Darshini 25 29 1
Valmik 24 29 2
Meghna 24 29 2
Prashant 24 31 0
Devashree 22 33 0
Ali 12 42 1

All the Best to Everyone for the coming week!
Cheers,
Murtaza

The battle of 5-0

Ok. So I had time to muse over the ramblings and predictions we have been doing. And its report card time. Here is how the predictions have gone so far

Kaam Dev Baba prediction of which team will win: 17-13 (wins-loss)

Airy Fairy Hawa Hawaii Prediction : 12- 7 (wins-loss)

Humm…not as bad as I thought. About 57% success or 43 % failure in. Take it which ever way you would like.

So I decided to see who is getting my predictions wrong. In other words, which team I predict to win week after week and they don’t. Guess who the culprit is.

Niral- 3

Shilpi /Jimit-2

Devashree -2

Meghna - 2

Shirin - 2

Darshini -1

Valmik -1

I lead the pack in getting my predictions wrong. Damn its always about me. Well that explains the 1-4 record. Doesn’t it! After me its followed by whole bunch of people at 2. Come on people help me help you.

Before I go in deeper on this weeks picks I wanted to take a moment and delve on the battle of the heavy weights. The battle of 5-0. One of you guys will know the pain of 1 in the Loss column. Ask us..Actually don’t ask us …after a few losses we are immune to it and don’t feel the pain of the loss any more……….Unless if you are Passa (13 points!) or Disorderly’s (losing to Ali with his 3 players not playing) then all you say is What the <bleep> !!

The battle of 5-0

Its Sanchez vs. Flacco…MJD vs. Turner …….rising star “other” Steve Smith vs. Old knock Hines Ward…..consistent Ravens D vs opportune Washington D.

BTW check out this interesting link for Washington Redskins

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Redskins-are-first-in-history-to-play-six-straig?urn=nfl,195479

So here goes the week 6 winners pick.

* Red indicates Kaam Dev’s pick to win

	ESPN PROJECTED PTS		ESPN PROJECTED PTS	If I were you …….
Sleeping with the ENEMY	106	Team Puntars	115	I would not start Dennis Northcutt?? Who Northcutt. Look him up. I'd stick with hester or Jones
DEVISH THE SMASHERS	96	Rainbow Catchers	107	I would look into this match up. This way to close than it appears on projections. Your rosters are set. Rainbow… I would start Packers D. No matter how tempting Jacksonville D might sound. Q: Why do Jacksonville D never wear Halloween costume? A: Because they scare no one.
Godric Griffindor	87	End zone diva	88	I would not think its too ridiculous when I say I would start David Garrard in place of Brees. Kerry Collins as starting QB. OMG! Don’t even want to go there.
The TryThrowCatch!	83	my AYYARS	92	I would watch out for Star matchups. The battle of 5-0. I wouldn’t want to comment on this one and be the pretext of 5-1. Gentlemen, good luck and fight hard. I just have a feeling the underdog is going to out smart the heavy luck
Team Chipolopolo	79	.... Disorderlys...	83	Humm…Greg Jennings on bench. I am sure you are just resting him. I know Peyton Manning is good but come on a bye week Manning in starting roster will still get you 0 points.
Knock... UDown	90	Terra Cotta Blitzerz	76	Ah..KUD vs the Bye week team. Come on if you cant beat a guy who is not active fantasy player who will you beat (yes….you can still feel ashamed …Disorderlys)

Presenting the Future....

Looking into the future

The stat guru (Mr.Azad) and the Baba’s (Mr.Jhaveri) give you insight every week on how you have done and what you should do going ahead. With bye week and injuries coming in a hurry we look the babas take a break and look at the match ups ….I look into the future to see how the match ups are shaping up against teams who donate fantasy points to WR/RB/QB.

A good part of fantasy I have learnt is to play the schedule. I love to look at the match ups ahead and pick players accordingly. Schedule is the crystal ball for the baba’s on which predictions are made. For every Mendenhall prediction there is always a “start Derrick Ward” forecast. Ah well… And no the schedule strategy is not the reason for my 0-3 start J

Here is a look into teams who give most fantasy points to RB’s, WR’s and QB’s and evaluated their schedule to see who they are playing in the next few weeks.

Running backs

For example Cleveland Clowns (a.k.a Browns) give average of 28.3 points to RB’s and an average of 176 yards PER GAME. This means if your RB is playing against them. Jack pot time!!

Same goes with Carolina Popats (a.k.a. Panthers). They give up 23.5 points to opposing RB’s and give 180 yards per game. Now what’s common in them?

Buffalo Chills play both of them over the next 3 weeks. So if you have a Lynch or Fred Jackson play them or pick them up from waiver. Also Arizona has a good schedule where they play two of the Carolina and Houston in the next two weeks. So if there Beanie wells or Hightower around pick em up for your bye week.

Points to RB's		Schedule
Team	Avg points to RB's *	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8
Cle	28.3	Buffalo	Pit	GB	Chi
SD	28	Bye	Denver	KC	OAK
Buffalo	27.5	Cle	NYJ	Car	Houston
Houston	27.5	Arizona	Cin	SF	Indy
Carolina	23.5	Washington	TB	Buffalo	Arizona

* Average points is calculated by standard EPSN scoring which slightly differs than ours.

Wide Receivers

Here is a look into which team gives most points to WR’s. Some new names here. Jacksonville Jokers give 280 yards passing per game. They play St Louis Hams in week 6 so it might not be a bad idea to pick Donnie Avery since the St Louis Hams play Jokers and Detroit over the next 3 weeks. This will help in the bye week and injury days.

Points to WR's		Schedule
Team	Avg points to WR's *	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8
Tennessee	29.5	Indy	NE	BYE	Jacksonville
Jacksonville	26.5	Seattle	STL	BYE	Tennessee
TB	26.3	Philly	Carolina	NE	BYE
Detroit	23.8	Pitt	GB	BYE	STL
GB	23	BYE	Detroit	Cle	Minnesota

* Average points is calculated by standard EPSN scoring which slightly differs than ours.

Quarter Backs

Most of the rosters are set in QB but here are the teams which give most points to QB’s. David Garrard suddenly looks like a great option. Just saying…..

Points to QB's
Team	Avg points to QB’s *	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8
Detroit	22.5	Pitt	GB	BYE	STL
Titans	21.5	Indy	NE	BYE	Jacksonville
Arizona	18.7	Houston	Seattle	NYG	Carolina
STL	18.3	Minnesota	Jacksonville	Indy	Detroit
KC	17.8	Dallas	Washington	SD	BYE

* Average points is calculated by standard EPSN scoring which slightly differs than ours.

Doctor-doctor- Dil ka Doctor

How does the recent notable injuries impact your teams for this week.

Matt Hasselbeck- Is still doubutful.

Impact: TJ Housh and Nate Burleson will face a hit in the fantasy value. This also might be a good chance for Jacksonville D if you need it for this week.

Eli Manning- May play

Impact: All Giants WR’s but Steve Smith will have a big hit. Carr who is the back up QB is the most sacked QB (almost equivalent to RothShitBerger) and not a reliable one. But it’s not all bad news. This means Jacobs and Bradshaw will run all over Oak D which is giving 146 yards per game.

Barber and Cowboy RB’s-

Impact- With Felix Jones out already and Barber is not 100% yet. This is a good chance for Choice who is facing KC 128 yards per game.

Matthew Stafford-

Impact- Calvin Johnson owner should monitor this very carefully. If I were you…I wouldn’t start Johnson if Stafford is not playing especially when they are playing Pitt. You get the rest of picture.

Jamal Lewis- Doubtful to play

Impact- Jack pot time for Jerome Harrison. Look at the RB table above.

Willie “the fast” Parker – Doubtful to play

Impact- Jack pot time for Mendenhall. Look at the RB table above.

Roy Willams- Doubtful to play

Impact- Anyone wanna experiment with Miles Austin or Sam Hurd!!…Just Saying

*Red indicates winners predicted by Baba’s.

	PROJECTED PTS		PROJECTED PTS	If I were you….
my AYYARS	108	Sleeping with the ENEMY	85	Sleeping….I would pray and pray hard.
.... Disorderlys...	89	DEVISH THE SMASHERS	100	DTS….I would start D.Mason in place of Harvin
End zone diva	92	Team Puntars	86	Puntars….I would start B.Celek
Team Chipolopolo	87	The TryThrowCatch!	71	TTC… I would still start the "other Steve Smith. In Steve we trust. Chipop… I would not start Stokley. In D.Brown we trust
Terra Cotta Blitzerz	59	Godric Griffindor	93	TCB… I would login…that’s all
Rainbow Catchers	87	Knock... UDown	88	KUD… I wouldn’t start Tenn against the inform Manning.