j2v

You make a good point, that writeup was poorly worded and/or incomplete. Something more like "new season, new faces, but at least this week similar results" makes more sense. Still not sure a rookie and a never-played-the-position safety are the solution, but the writeup should at least acknowledge efforts made to upgrade. 2V

You know you need one more league, and here's the perfect opportunity. On Kickoff Eve, I'll be participating in a SafeLeagues auction and last I checked there are still openings in the league. 12 teams, performance scoring, run through MFL (though I believe the auction will run through ESPN and the info transferred to MFL), with I believe a $650 prize for first place. All the pertinent details are here: http://www.safeleagu...ail/?id=2865955. Full disclosure, SafeLeagues is an offshoot of LeagueSafe, both of which were started by Paul Charchian. He is the host of Fantasy Football Weekly on KFAN in Minneapolis/St. Paul, the radio show/podcast of which I am a co-host. So why not take a run at me with one more league before the season starts? Heck, you already know how I feel about most players, my auction strategy is well known... I should be an easy mark. Then you just have to worry about the other 10 teams! Hope you can join me for this auction Wednesday evening. 2V

Impressive, Henry! Just don't listen to Charch and you'll be fine! 2V

Heh-heh... you said "rub harder". 2V

I wouldn't say that statement is false, necessarily; it's just that the way the process works out, player names come into the sort in the same order as they appear in the P&P rankings and, once they're broken out into tiers, aren't much changed from that. It wasn't even necessarily by intent, just kind of worked out that way, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I don't know that it's conformed to uniformly enough to be a stated "order", though, which probably takes us back to where we started. If the bottom line is you want to be able to find your players on the SBL, finding a way to tie the SBL to MyHuddle becomes the priority--and probably should be the priority anyway. 2V

I'll let you in on a little secret: the SBL list is in fact in something of an order. After I do all the writeups and assign each player a grade (it's no longer listed on the site like it used to be, but it essentially correlates to Best Bet, Great Play, Solid Start, etc.), I then copy DMD's list of rankings with projections. I load that into Excel, add a column and insert my grades. Then I sort by my grades. So for the most part the Best Bets are in order from top DMD projection to bottom; then the Great Plays, in similar order; then the Solid Starts in similar order; etc. There are a few tweaks along the way as I look at the list and decide if a guy needs to move up or down between groups, but for the most part that's the non-order order that they're in. The problem with alphabetizing from that list would be that they'd sort by first name, as the field contains first and last name. And since I then have to re-key all those names into the SBL, adding another step to parse out the last name and do a sort isn't an enticing add to my plate. That said, there are definitely ways to improve the way the SBL ties to MyHuddle and such. It's something that can certainly be discussed in the offseason. And if there's a way to make the SBL so users can sort the names alphabetically or by projection or by height or whatever makes it easier for you guys, or even print out a personalized SBL for your MyHuddle players, I'm all for that as well. Hope that helps! 2V

Short answer, this attempts to be a cheat sheet for the rest of the season if you were drafting today. It's generally based on Huddle Performance scoring. There are so many factors and scoring systems that come into play that there's no way I can craft this list to make everyone happy; for example, some people put a ton of credence on strength of schedule while others almost none at all. But it attempts to be more forward looking than a ranking of what guys have done so far. So in the example above, Beckham is ranked highly not because he's been so great in his two games but rather that he'll pick up Victor Cruz's numbers as well as whatever role he had in the Giants' offense. Sanu, on the other hand, has been solid for sure--but if AJ Green is back and Marvin Jones is back and the Bengals continue to be a run-heavy offense his numbers are bound to be lesser the rest of the way. Hope that helps. 2V

General, you missed a great show. First two hours are podcastable at KFAN.com, but that doesn't give you the cheerleader pictures from the O-line presentation or the mock draft, in which apparently the Charchlodytes don't like a team that starts Demaryius, Peyton, Gronk (my mock team that received the lowest amount of fan support) and in which we saw Brian Oake (local radio DJ and the non-"expert" on the panel) pull off something I've never seen before in my 27 years of fantasy football: he drafted Toby Gerhart in the 4th round--with the 4.10, mind you--and then with the 5.1 he drafted... Toby Gerhart. Yes, he misspoke and yes, there was whiskey involved but still... A good time was had by all. Tuesday's sure-to-be-lightly attended KFAN/Bud Light event is at Champps Richfield, if that's in your wheelhouse. Wednesday's similar event is at the VFW in Uptown. Color me dubious that we're hitting target market there, but you never know. 2V

With Darin leaving the Great State of Minnesota for parts unknown, my circle of Huddle drinking buddies is dwindling. In an effort to boost the numbers I'll be touring various bars around the Minneapolis-St. Paul area over the next couple of weeks, answering your fantasy football questions and quaffing beer. The fun begins Tuesday, August 12 at The Mermaid in Mounds View. Christian Peterson, a fellow co-host of the Fantasy Football Weekly radio show on KFAN, and I will be at The Mermaid from 6 to 8 pm to answer questions, talk fantasy football, and drink beer--all courtesy of the good folks at KFAN and Bud Light. We're so optimistic we'll like it we've already scheduled a redux on Wednesday, August 13 at Two Stooges (I think it's in New Brighton; have to check my mapquest to be sure). Same bat time, same bat channel, same fantasy football brain trust, same gracious sponsors. We're also slated to do Bud Light/KFAN shows next Tuesday and Wednesday (the 19th and 20th), but the locations have yet to be revealed to us. And we didn't want to pry. Saturday, August 16 is a big event if you're into fantasy football and stuff, as we'll do a live broadcast of Fantasy Football Weekly from the Pourhouse in downtown Minneapolis, followed by the two-hour fantasy football training camp with extended discussions on topics like the offensive line, complete with my annual cheerleader pictures (I don't want to say they're JUM-worthy, but really... what has JUM done for you lately?). We'll also have an experts mock draft; you won't want to miss me going on in detail about how I crushed these so-called fellow experts in last year's mock. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that my all-play winning percentage for the season was north of 90 percent. But wait, there's more... Monday, August 18 I'll be hosting the fifth annual Tailgating with 2V at Tommy Chicago's in Mendota Heights. Fun begins at 6 pm. This is traditionally an alumni function for those of us who matriculated at St. John's University, but we've had interlopers before. If you're a Tommie, let us know so I can limit the number of big words I use. Tuesday, August 26 I'll head north to St. Cloud for the annual Fantasy Football Forum, a live broadcast on 1390 The Fan. Again this year we'll be at the Boulder Tap. Beer and live radio... what could possibly go wrong? Finally, on Saturday August 30 we'll be broadcasting Fantasy Football Weekly live from the Minnesota State Fair beginning at 10 am. They'll actually be doing the show live from the Fair on August 23, too, but I'm not scheduled for that show so why would you want to listen? If you're a Huddler and you make it out to one of these events, please come up and introduce yourself. If I have access to any Huddle (or Bud or KFAN) swag, I will bequeath it to you. I do have a stash of USA Today fantasy football magazines to hand out; don't be afraid to ask. And I'll have ADP sheets with some of my overvalued/undervalued guys highlighted, so there's that as well. Last year I believe Darin showed up at a couple of these gatherings, and Huddle beer guru Harley Shultz showed up for a couple as well. He's slated to be at the Pourhouse, so if you want to know everything there is to know about beer that's the event to hit. Case in point: Leinenkugel discontinued my all-time favorite beer, Autumn Gold, several years ago. I mentioned that to Harley, and off the top of his head he gave me three current beers that have a similar flavor. Dude is a beer savant, worth the price of admission all by himself. Hope to see you out and about! 2V

Nolan Nawrocki wrote the PFW guide the past few seasons. He is doing the book again sans PFW; as a former buyer I just had the link emailed to me, so I thought I'd pass it along: Link Also worth checking out: Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio Matt does a bunch of rookie stuff for Football Outsiders and Football Guys, and his book is as thorough as you'll find. Pretty sure it's available printed as well as electronically, and a portion of his proceeds go to charity. And a new one on the horizon (at least new to me) is the one Bryan Perez at First Round Grade puts out. I've enjoyed his stuff and followed him on Twitter, but this will be my first year with the book. 2V

Done. Sigh. RIP, "Terriers". You were gone too soon. 2V

Any time you can sample six different types of beer (each broken down Gruden-like by Harley) and eat a rattlesnake rabbit brat while swapping playoff fantasy football tips with the barkeeps, Harley, and Darin... life is good. I'd definitely love to organize some sort of preseason event at New Bohemia; love the beer hall long table feel. And the fried jalapenos. Those who weren't able to attend are still welcome to show up at Tiffany's in St. Paul on any of the next three Thursdays for the Bud Light/KFAN events. After that I go into offseason hibernation. 2V

You mean like we've been doing every Tuesday at midnight Eastern (ninish Left Coast time, well before your bed time) for the past two months? You get your playoff prep early, as tonight marks the last 2V After Hours Tuesday night chat. So if you don't show up, we'll burn Jonathan Stewart in effigy and make fun of Pierce Brosnan as the worst Bond ever. Your call. 2V

Tuesday, December 3, 6 pm at New Bohemia in nordeast Minneapolis Due to a scheduling conflict earlier this season I was unable to make my KFAN appearance at New Bohemia. So the bar manager (a Huddler and FFW listener) and I came up with this event. I'll be live and in person at New Bohemia from 6:00 pm until all your fantasy football questions are answered, or at least until I've tried the Rattlesnake Rabbit Jalapeno Sausage. We can talk playoff strategies, dynasty plans, league improvement ideas, Huddle improvement suggestions, your favorite episode of "The League", how Ampipe could possibly lose to Walnut Heights with all that D-1 talent... you name it, we can talk it. And I would be derelict in my duties if I failed to point out that arriving before 5:00 pm would be advisable, as from 5 to 5:30 it's 10 cent Tuesdays. Bring a sock full of change, sample some fine German bier, and my words of wisdom will seem that much more amazing! I'll also dig into my bag o' Huddle swag and see if I have anything to give away. At minimum, any Huddler in attendance will get a commemorative The Huddle draft day weapon pen, with an ink pen on one side and a highlighter on the other. "I gave her my heart, and she gave me... a pen." Hope you can join us! 2V

Must have been lost in a cut & paste debacle. Error has been fixed. As for the Bears, if 4 defensive TDs (most in the NFL), 10 INTs (3rd in NFL) and the constant threat of Devin Hester in the return game don't warrant a high ranking, your defensive scoring must be pretty unique. 2V