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!