Fantasy football thoughts.

Don't worry Mr Rivers, as fantasy
football owners of you, we understand
your pain.

It is hard to enjoy fantasy football this season. Not once do I go into a Sunday looking forward to seeing my fantasy football team perform. I am always nervous that my players will lay a dud, or one of them will be scratched before the game, or they will be victim of a horrendous performance by the teams QB. I am talking about CJ2K’s and Julio Jones’s horrific inconsistencies, Philip Rivers giving me headaches all season (who thankfully I was able to flip last week trading Alfred Morris/Rivers/S.Smith for Peyton Manning), and playing waiver wire with the TE position all season thanks to Aaron Hernandez’s continuing injury problems!

For all my problems, I am thankful for getting Alfred Morris off the waiver wire to save me from CJ2K’s early season woes. I am thankful that one of my opponent’s internet cut off during the live draft subjecting him to a horrible auto-draft. I am thankful that one of my opponent's first two picks was Eli Manning and Shonn Greene. I am thankful that I have been outscored overall throughout the season, but I hold a stellar 6-3 record.

I am sure many of you have similar stories. For those of you who picked up Maurice Jones-Drew in the second round thinking you have a steal when he takes the field in game two then racks up 150+ yards against the Colts in week 3, only to see him injured already. For every person who took a gamble on Michael Vick there is also the lucky buggers who took a gamble on Peyton Manning. For those of you who gambled taking RG3 in the sixth round are just hoping he holds up to steer you through the fantasy playoffs or for those of you who were wondering if you took the Bears defence far too early in the 7^th round are now in..Uh...7^th heaven.

Hopefully RG3 is aware of the Madden curse and lets
Andrew Luck take the honous for Madden '14

Just be thankful you paid attention to the dreaded Madden curse and avoided Mr Calvin ‘Megatron’ Johnson (maybe just Supertron or Goodtron this year?). Halfway through the season Megatron has been the biggest bust – with the person drafting them passing on the likes of Drew Brees, Tom Brady, and Ray Rice in some drafts.

P.s. Dear John Madden,

As a Washington Redskins fan, I beg you not to put RG3 on the cover of Madden ’14.

NBA Betting Predictions for the 2012/13 Season

The Heat are on a scoring spree to start the season while
forgetting to defend so take the overs before the betting
lines start to catch up.

It looks as though we could be in for a profitable year in the NBA. There are a couple of elite teams who will score a ton of points (Heat and Spurs (once Ginobili come back)) so we can look at those games to frequently go over the points total. A couple of the other elite teams (Celtics and Thunder) are pretty strong defensive teams so if the total is floating around 190/191 total points and these teams are playing at home, it is a strong play to go under the total.

Looking at the mid-tier teams in the East such as Atlanta, Philly, both NY teams and Chicago in the East, none of these stand out offensively. If they are going against a like-minded team or another weak team offensively (Toronto, Washington, Charlotte, Detroit) look for the under total. If this is floating around 190, lock it in.

In the West, defense seems to be a lot stronger. Teams such as the Grizzlies, Clippers, Lakers, and Hornets will all be strong defensive units this year. If you have two of these mid-tiers defensive teams going against one another, look for the total to be in the 183-187 range.

If you have a mid-tier team going against a Heat/Spurs/ or the Nuggets/Suns/Bobcats (who can’t stop anyone on the defensive end) and the total is around 198-200, take the over. The Heat and Spurs are so strong offensively and like to score fast break points, meaning more possessions for both teams.

If a team has a young point guard who likes to attack, such as the Cleveland Cavs (Kyrie Irving) or the Portland Trailblazers (Damian Lillard), if the over is looking enticing (anything that is under 190 DEFINITELY take the over, and anything more than that, take the other teams strengths into consideration), take it. Both of these guards like to play a high tempo offense meaning lots of possessions and lots of fast break points.

3 tips to use as a nice guideline over the opening weeks.

Until Wall is back in uniform, take
the Wizards under totals.

• Until John Wall comes back for the Wizards, never take the over in a game they are involved in.

• Until James Harden slows down, always look at the over in games that he is involved in (on a side note – how exciting do the Rockets look this year?!).

• Until the Heat takes the time to care about defending, take the over in their games.

Is England really the best Test team in the World?

A familiar site of late. Expect to
see more of this in the near future.

No. Of course not. They may be ranked the number one side in the world for the time being but they are not a very good side. Until you beat a good side away from home, you can’t say you are the best. Yes, they beat Australia in the Ashes but Australia put out their worst team in more than two decades. I would bet that the return Ashes in England next year are a lot closer. They just lost 3-0 against Pakistan at a neutral venue. They have yet to travel to India/South Africa, where these are the other two best sides in the world.

I will agree that England is better than India. India is at a crossroads, similar to where Australia were two years ago. They have a lot of aging stars and it is difficult to drop anyone of that stature (Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman). India is a woeful travelling side and seems more intent on T20 cricket than their test team. I still do not think that England would win a test series in India but if they played on neutral ground, I think England would have the better chance of winning.

It is impossible to say that England is better than South Africa though. South Africa have a much superior batting line-up to that of England, their captain is not named Andrew Strauss (why he is still the Test captain only Andy Flower knows), and their bowling is just as good as the England team. When they tour England later this year, I think they will at least draw the series. They bat really well in all conditions, their ground fielding is fantastic, and they are a very competitive team.

The South African team celebrating. A preview of the
2012 English summer perhaps.

I would like to see the current England team take a tour of New Zealand. I would be surprised if they would win that series. I think their batsmen would struggle mightily and the pitches in NZ would nullify the threat of Graeme Swann. If England are really the best team in the world, they must travel overseas to these difficult places (not West Indies/Sri Lanka/UAE), and beat teams in their own backyard.

I think in two years’ time that England will be lucky to be in the top three teams in the world. Expect mediocrity to hit the England test team...again.

Is Tiger Woods Back?

Is it only a matter of time before this becomes a
familiar site again?

I’m sure you’ve heard enough of people slanging Tiger Woods over the last few years. He has given us enough ammunition to last a lifetime but with all this behind him (we assume so anyway), is it time that Tiger will get back on the winners podium? His last five tournaments have seen him finish 3^rd (Australian Open), 1^st (won the Presidents Cup with USA), 1^st (Chevron World Challenge), T3 (Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship), and T15 (Pebble Beach Pro-am).

Sure, many of you will look at those last five tournaments and say, well the Australian Open isn’t a quality field, the Presidents Cup is a team event and the Chevron World Challenge is Tigers own event. So the only really good result is the T3 in Abu Dhabi. There were many top players in those fields, and Tiger only controls his own destiny (bar the Presidents Cup obviously!), so to have a snipe about his opposition is completely unfair.

Tigers next tournament is the WGC Accenture World Match Play. Unfortunately, with his inconsistency over the last couple of tournaments (especially when it counts), I can’t see him winning this tournament. All it takes to lose is one bad round, or coming up against a 64, which Tiger hasn’t shown he has a full 18 holes of quality yet. In saying this though, I do think he’ll progress to the last eight/four and this will only spur him on with the Masters in sight.

Is this man going to do this decade what Tiger did at the
beginning of the last decade? i.e. go berserk.

Although the depth of world golf may be at its peak over the last five years, apart from Rory McIlroy, it is hard to see someone going head-to-head with Tiger, when Tiger does start to show some consistency. I can see Tiger winning at least three tournaments this year (assuming he stays healthy), including a major along the way. If he continues to find himself amongst the lead on Saturday night, expect Tiger to rediscover some of his winning mentality, and that may be all it takes to break the shackles.

Fantasy Football update.

Although this may be the most sporadically written blog in blogging history, I now have a fully functioning laptop that lets me type faster than 5 words per minute (even if I can only manage double that…)

Dempsey on fire again this year.

The last blog I wrote was a Premier League Fantasy Football preview, giving an outlook for all the teams. Taking a look back at those predictions leaves me a touch proud, as a few of my sleepers have come to become prominent scorers this season (Grant Holt, Stephane Sessegnon, and Peter Odenwingie). There are also a few players who have been obviously dominant (Sergio Aguero, Wayne Rooney, and David Silva), while a couple have been huge value for their contributions (Demba Ba and Clint Dempsey – again).

It has all been about one man though, Robin Van Persie. For those unfortunate (or stubborn) to not have RVP in your fantasy teams, c’est la vie (yes, I come into the stubborn category). He has been simply sensational scoring at a goal a game and chipping in with assists. No other forward has come close to RVP’s production, and you can probably ride him until the finish as he does not look like slowing down.

Drogba letting Torres know that to score a goal, the ball
has to find the back of the net.

Looking ahead to the final stretch of figures in the Barclays Premier League, we try to predict who will be strong players down the stretch to get you to the top of your fantasy league. Looking at the table, you will think that of all the teams at the top, it is Chelsea who is due for a good run down the stretch and the team to fall away will probably be Tottenham. Players that I would be thinking about from Chelsea (especially with Bolton up next at Stamford Bridge), would be Didier Drogba, a resurgence from Juan Mata after a festive slump, and perhaps Jose Bosingwa if you are looking for a scoring fullback.

I would be considering dropping Gareth Bale for a cheaper option (such as Dempsey or Sessegnon), but there are really no other Spurs players that you should have in your team that are too expensive to drop. If you still have Adebayor you are extremely lucky after his farcical performance last week against Newcastle.