unfortunately, due to a prior commitment that completely slipped my mind until this weekend, I will not be able to be online during our draft tonight. I have PM'ed Swiss to see if he will be willing to have commish power transferred to his franchise for the draft (I went to him first because he's been in this leage as long as anyone, and I am pretty sure he has lots of experience commishing leagues through MFL). If I don't hear back from him in the next few hours, Thews has also offered to take the commish reigns for the draft, so I will transfer the power to his franchise. I am in the process of finding someone to enter proxy picks for me. I will pre-select the first couple of rounds, then prepare what will hopefully be a thorough, yet concise set or rankings and guidelines so that the team I end up with will very much be MY team, rather than someone else's.

I apologize for springing this on everybody, and for being somewhat derelict in my duties as commish and league-mate by not recognizing this conflict sooner. but I hope it doesn't affect anyone else much, and I am confident everything will go smoothly (or at least as smoothly as it would have if I had been around).

Major bummer. I'm sure we'll make do in getting the draft done without you, but it would suck if you don't quite get the team that you would have otherwise.

You suck, Az...

So long as the replacement Commish knows how to reverse the picks my mouse makes, I'll live.


In your e-mail, you indicated toronator can pick now. Has the draft been started? I see we can get into the room, but the main page says "your draft will start shortly."



ETA - the emoticon...don't want my brashness to be misunderstood...

It's on like Donkey Kong... almost showtime... I can't wait.

It's all good -- I'm ready and willing.

Now, let's see how I can abuse my temporary power...


P.S. Weird -- I just realized we didn't have a supplemental draft. I think that's the first time that's happened.

My confidence in our proxy-Commish is overflowing...

we did, it was just two picks and they did it quick in the keepers thread.

Ahh...I see it now.

In other commish news, Master of Their Domain has been suspended for the first 8 games of the season.

MFL has a draft feature where you can draft outside of the live draft room, so yes, toronator could pick.

what time is the official start? 8:30 EST?

Yes indeed.

Note to self: When I win it again this year, trade the 15.12 pick away.

good job, guys. thanks to jake and everyone else for stepping up.

+1. It'll be a fun year.

No problem at all. I hope you scored a few wifey points for going to the Lamaze class.

So THAT's where he was?

Aren't there a few classes? Couldn't she have gone to this one alone? It was THE DRAFT, man!!

HEE, HEE, HEE, HOOOOOooooooooo.....

Did you do the hand in ice water for 10 minutes thing? That was just a blast.

Of course, it's "optional" for guys to do it, but not a single man in the room refused...

In other draft news, has anyone figured out Thews' cunning plan yet?

Sounds like the makings of the next NFL network commercial.

If service members stationed overseas can see the birth of their baby as it happens, then surely Az could have set something up to be there with her between picks.

A laptop, webcam and headset should do the trick...

I was gonna take the Ravens D... that was the plan... then Huddy nabs them. Those two picks of Romo and the Ravens were spot on. So here comes my turn, and Leinart was the only decent QB left. Instinct took over, and I went with my gut based on VBD. This was the perfect draft, and here’s why… I lost last year because I went with WR’s not knowing the scoring system that well. This league should IMO change to a PPR next year, and there’s a major hole in the scoring system… actually two. I know it’s a keeper league, but it’s the right thing to do. Factoids…

RB
LT is a freak (430) and scored 100 points more than the #2 LJ (331). The top 9 RB’s were above 200 points, and the top 6 were over 250. After the top 9 (which is fairly steep) about 50 points separates the rest of the 11 – 30 (it’s very flat).

WR
Marvin Harrison was the leading WR and scored 207. When you plot the very linear decline in WR, the #15 WR Plaxico was 159. Following the decline further, the #36 WR B. Berrian, was at 113. The difference between the top three WR’s (about 600 points total) and the #34-36 WR’s (350) is 250 points total for the year.

TE
This is sad, Gates scores a grand total of 146 points. He was outscored by Coles (147) and the #24 RB in Dunn (161). The top 8 TE’s are far better than the rest of them, but still… no big deal. I made the trade offer on Gates because of my manlove for him in PPR leagues, but once I crunched the numbers a TE is really hit/miss and only scores big with TD’s. This was the dumbest trade I’ve ever offered, but I don’t usually make trades that don’t make both teams better. Note to self, if you want one of my QB’s don’t low ball me too much. I wanted Foster to go with DW in the Huddler’s Ladder league, and the guy countered with Colston (my #3 pick) and Fred Taylor (my #8) for Foster, his #9 pick. You think this was a weird draft, I went WR/WR/WR/RB in that one (PPR).

QB
The major hole… the top QB in Manning (381) outscored his brother Eli (245), but when you look at the slope it is the steepest. Outside the top three RB’s and top three QB’s, QB’s outscore the rest of the RB’s by about 50 points. Vick scored 318 points #6 overall. Think Gore is the shiznat? Gore (266) Rex Grossman (240). By picking the right weeks to play them, I can have Peyton Manning or better. I don’t have an ASYS issue, because I’ll always hove one, especially in the playoffs. I don’t plan on trading any of these QB’s unless I have to, and right now I don’t have to.

D
Top two Ravens (223) and Bears (216) were far and away better than the rest, and the rest is very flat. Chargers were #3 at 155, and the #19 defense in the Rams was 123… that’s 30 points from #3 and 100 points from #1.

So, with this scoring system, if I was going to win I needed a good defense, two good RB’s and a damn good QB. What I need my receivers to do is score touchdowns… that’s pretty much it. Without PPR, 154 yards on 12 receptions is 15.4 points. 75 yards an a TD from a RB is about the same thing. One catch for 30 and a TD is 9 points… 6 away from 12 Re 154 yards. Your wide receivers will break your heart unless they score TD’s… good luck with that, cause Harrison scored less than the Bears did.

So what say yee of a scoring change? If I’m wrong, I’ll lose… I won’t unless injury strikes my RB’s, which is way up in the air right now. I’ll pick up a TD vulture in the bye week (Henry and Addai both have the same byes), and go with Turner and whatever waiver wire RB may be out there… I’ll still have a sweet QB match-up that week… any week. I want all my QB's, and the :vulture: part of playing this game is that I take those points off the board. Two teams that would have started Leinart and Bulger won't be facing me. My odds of winning just went up, and while I may be wrong, I really don't think so, but in a high points league I wouldn't be.

If I’m right, I fdon't fear the following: any team that doesn’t have a great QB. Pretty much any team that invested in WR.

Teams I fear

4 Bolts – Alex Smith could pan out, and picking between A. Smith and Rivers could be a nice option. Tatum Bell is the wildcard.

Sharks – Kitna has to pan out, SA has to stay healthy, and with the Cowboys D this team could kick.

Hudy – You are the team I fear the most. Romo was money last year. Romo didn’t start until week #6, and still finished #16 overall (that’s every player in the league) with 228 points… ahead of Roethlisberger (245). You picked the two most sought after player and D I wanted… nice picks.

In summation, if I’m right in my assessment of the scoring system, mine or one of the above teams will win the SB. I have built the best team I’ve ever had… a monster. If injury strikes, I can always deal one of the QB’s and Turner if I absolutely have to. Turner was on the block with his 6+ YPC average and the bids weren’t high enough to move him this year. He waits one more year for the contract to run out, and next year he calls the shots. Think of any team he could wind up on and where he’ll be placed on the cheatsheets. What if it’s a good one? What if he winds up in NE? Sweet… He was the golden goose and not just because he backs up LT… but that’s kinda cool.

The teams that benefiedt from this draft were the ones with stud QB’s that were kept… I just hope you didn’t invest too heavily in WR’s… they’ll break your heart. Let’s go PPR (even in a graduated scale) to make the top TE golden, and the top WR’s count next year? I talked to a friend of mine today that said in one league he’s in a TE gets a point for every first down… even if it’s a 3 yard pass. I thought that was kinda cool. It’s the right thing to do. If you don’t, the “in” thing next year will be to keep two stud QB’s and no WR’s. Why bias it so much? Spice up the defense a little and up WR/TE/D to make them count. If not, you can just play the statistical game and hope you get lucky. I talk a lot of smack, but I’m being serious. Let’s agree right now to change the scoring for next year. I know it's a keeper league, but we need to tweak it IMO. What say yee?

greg, i think you make the classic mistake of mistaking overall points for fantasy value.

another way of looking at it...

the #1 WR (harrison) last year scored 207, 104 points more than the #36 WR. harrison scored 2.03x more fantasy points.

tomlinson had a freakish year, and he was the only player at any position who really did. you can't really count him if you're trying to make any sort of reasonable statistical analysis. so let's just use LJ instead, who scored 331 points, 170 more than the #24 RB. LJ scored 2.06x more fantasy points than the #24 RB

gates scored 142, 61 more than the #12 TE. gates scored 1.75x more points than the #12 TE.

manning scored 381, 136 more than the #12 QB. that is 1.55x as many points as the #12 QB.

all of that reflects a pretty typical fantasy value balance, IMO.

also, i think you're not giving your WRs enough credit. you had 2 good ones, and aside from vick they were the only remarkable performers on your team. your RBs were crap, vick was pretty good for you, but basically it was wayne and TO carrying you to a 8-6 record and 5th in points. LT single-handedly won MOTD the points title, and there's no fantasy scoring system that can prevent that from happening when a dude is busting records like that. but look at the team that won (bobbleheads). they had the #6 and #7 RBs. the #5 QB. the #1 and #18 WRs. the #3 TE. the #1 K. balance is what won. strongest team top to bottom. focusing too much on any one position in this league, and almost any other, is what will burn you.

Agree on LT being a freak and this isn’t last year. Vick was hit/miss all year, so I needed two QB’s to pick the best match-up and increase the odds of a QB hit. I realize you need some decent WR’s because you play three of them, but there isn’t a big difference from the 20-30 and the 10-20 range. After playing TO and Wayne last year, you just can’t count on them for uber points. They’ll hit a few times, but for the most part they won’t carry you. Lee Evans was the #10 WR, but only went over 15 points 3 times, and chimed it at less than 10 8 times. Harrison was <10 7 times.

Don’t get me wrong, any team can beat any team on a given week, but I believe the luck factor can be reduced with two strong QB’s. When team A’s QB hits with 30+ and team B’s QB comes in a 10, there’s 20 points that have to be made up somewhere. In relative terms the #1 TE may be far better than the #10, but they have to score touchdowns to do it. Gates had one game over 15 at 22, and five games of 10 to 15, and 8 games were less than 9 points total. You can hit, but it’s very rare to have a hugh impact.

I may be wrong, but I’d still like to see a few tweaks. You know what would be kinda cool, we could adopt the WCOFF scoring system. That way, we adopt a universal scoring system the big guns are using.

Thanks for volunteering for this scientific experiment. I suggest we use this thread to document how many times a QB on your bench out scores your starting QB. Should be an interesting experiment. I anticipate many emoticons in your posts this year.

I expect my bench to outscore some teams on a few weeks. We'll see...

No argument here. Enjoy the W's that high-scoring bench provides.

None of that made any sense to me.

ahh, the best laid plans of mice and men....

Brees, Drew NOS QB 5.38
Wayne, Reggie IND WR 22.50

I chose poorly... this week. Smack after the numbers come in just don't sting that much.

Starting with week 1?

Bingo. The trade for Westbrook (trading away Palmer, which according to the Thews theory is insane) gave me a team with real balance but no positional dominance (except kicker ). I was even able to trade away my #3 WR, Cotchery, for Jacobs in a move aimed solely at 2007.

You'd think, according to the Thews doctrine, a team with both LT2 and LJ would walk it. Not the case - this league really does require a balance across positions, more so than most.

Look at the bright side of my logic... Manning was hugh. I really wanted to start Leinart against SF, but since this was the first game emotion took over. I did expect much more from Brees... but in other FF news, Colston looks like he'll be great again this year.