Howdy Fantasy Lovers, Fantasy Novices, and Fantasy Creatures! Welcome to Fantasy Football 101, where I, Kyle Bazin, will be sharing my opinions, experiences, and advice on Fantasy Football to you all.
Has anyone ever read the title of this besides the 1st blog that they've read? I've purposely put it there to create almost a formal intro for these blogs. Like a podcast intro or video intro if you will. Once the season ends after week 17 I'm not really sure my plans for the blog to be completely honest. I'm just hoping that I will end up convincing myself to continue the blog until the end of the year. As some of you may know, I really enjoy this blog but it is for a class and after a few more weeks I will be done for the semester. Sorry for that weird introductory paragraph. I just wanted to give you an update of what was going on.
So there are few holidays I actually enjoy for what they are worth and their purpose. Christmas to me is a gift-giving holiday to most of the United States so I like it but not for the gifts, for the family that I'm surrounding by. The reason Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday is because at the core it is about being with family. It's the 4 F's: Family, Friends, Food, and most importantly Football. I'm just kidding they're all equally important. Nothing better than all day football that you can watch and enjoy with the most important people in your life, surrounded by some of the greatest food that has graced this Earth (my grandad is a great cook). So if you're reading this the day it goes up, make sure you enjoy this great day and if you go out Black Friday shopping be safe!
Guys, since I really don't know what to write about I'd like to leave this blog open to ANY questions you may have. Especially fantasy football questions but I guess if you have questions about other things than I can try to answer them. Please try not to be vulgar in your questions. As I mentioned this is for a class, so my professor likely will read comments. So there it is, I've gotten one comment all year so let's try to quadruple that at the very least. Have a good Thanksgiving everyone!
As always, thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be about my Week 12 Reflections and looking forward to week 13.
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Week 11 Reflections
Howdy Fantasy Lovers, Fantasy Novices, and Fantasy Creatures! Welcome to Fantasy Football 101, where I, Kyle Bazin, will be sharing my opinions, experiences, and advice on Fantasy Football to you all.
I don't mean to frighten anyone but, playoffs are in two weeks. That's right... For some of us we only have two weeks left of this magnificent game for another 8 months... I always commemorate my Sunday's in the spring by looking at a wall for 8 hours because a Sunday without football, isn't a Sunday I want to be a part of. Thankfully for me I should have all of my teams at above the .500 mark (all should be 6-5 pending the MNF game), so I look good to make the playoffs in all my leagues. Truly I just wanna get some money from my big money league... I mean winning the other leagues would be great, but it's my first year in this league and I wanna make a name for myself that I'm not just some 21-year old that joined the league that has no idea what they're doing. I'm one of the big players in this league and you better respect me as one.
Alright enough of me. Hopefully, you all are successful in your fantasy endeavors. You have a couple more weeks until playoffs so I wish you the best. Let's do some reflecting.
Marshawn... What the hell happened to your Skittle diet? Because last time I checked, when you were on it last year you were a stud. This year you have like 19 different injuries a week and you let some undrafted rookie named Thomas Rawls take your job. I believe that the Seahawks are going to cut Lynch after the year and go ahead with Rawls. He is running strong just like Lynch and also has a burst of speed that we haven't seen out of Lynch since the Saints playoff game oh so long ago. Thomas Rawls is a top 15 RB at the worst as long as he gets the start. However, if Lynch gets on the field, Rawls isn't startable and Lynch is barely startable. You still have to trust him, but you should probably be happy with 8 points.
Devonta Freeman, Justin Forsett, Chris Ivory, Alfred Morris, Marshawn Lynch, Carlos Hyde and a few more that I'm forgetting all have 1 thing in common. They either didn't play because of injury in Week 11 or they got hurt in week 11. Devonta got a concussion (really not good sign for the rest of the year), Justin is out with a broken left arm, Ivory came back to the game but wasn't effective because the Jets were losing, Morris is doing bad anyway so don't worry about it, I already mentioned Marshawn, and Carlos Hyde hasn't been productive since week 2. My point is that RBs are really getting banged up. Treasure the healthy ones you have but if your league a rule where you can't pick up during the playoffs, be wary that you will need backups that have upside.
Waiver wire:
Because of injury there a few guys you will want to target either as a handcuff or because you're a jerk and are going to steal them away from the guy who has the hurt player. Tevin Coleman (RB, Atlanta) didn't look amazing in limited time before his injury earlier in the year, but I still believe this guy has the stuff. He won't do what Devonta did earlier in the year, but he can easily produce 10 a game because the Falcons love handing it off down inside the 10. Thomas Rawls (RB, Seattle) already mentioned him above so go read that if you skipped it. Bilal Powell (RB, New York Jets) is a back that has a ton of potential the rest of the year. The Jets have been figured out and have dropped a few games here. They're going to need to throw the ball, and Bilal is a great back catching the ball. He won't likely get the rushes you require for a good back but think of more like a Danny Woodhead for his guy. I expect top 20 performances if Ivory misses any time. Matt Jones (RB, Washington) was probably on someone's team in your league at some point and should be again. When the Redskins are winning (which isn't often), they love pounding the ball on the ground. Jones is that guy the rest of the year. Javorious Allen (RB, Baltimore), sorry if I spelled your name wrong man its a tough one. He will be replacing Forsett the rest of the year. Forsett was having a mighty fine season and the Ravens are actually winning some games now for some reason. With Flacco out the rest of the year, I expect a big push to run the ball more often. Allen should do great.
As always, thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be up tomorrow!
I don't mean to frighten anyone but, playoffs are in two weeks. That's right... For some of us we only have two weeks left of this magnificent game for another 8 months... I always commemorate my Sunday's in the spring by looking at a wall for 8 hours because a Sunday without football, isn't a Sunday I want to be a part of. Thankfully for me I should have all of my teams at above the .500 mark (all should be 6-5 pending the MNF game), so I look good to make the playoffs in all my leagues. Truly I just wanna get some money from my big money league... I mean winning the other leagues would be great, but it's my first year in this league and I wanna make a name for myself that I'm not just some 21-year old that joined the league that has no idea what they're doing. I'm one of the big players in this league and you better respect me as one.
Alright enough of me. Hopefully, you all are successful in your fantasy endeavors. You have a couple more weeks until playoffs so I wish you the best. Let's do some reflecting.
Marshawn... What the hell happened to your Skittle diet? Because last time I checked, when you were on it last year you were a stud. This year you have like 19 different injuries a week and you let some undrafted rookie named Thomas Rawls take your job. I believe that the Seahawks are going to cut Lynch after the year and go ahead with Rawls. He is running strong just like Lynch and also has a burst of speed that we haven't seen out of Lynch since the Saints playoff game oh so long ago. Thomas Rawls is a top 15 RB at the worst as long as he gets the start. However, if Lynch gets on the field, Rawls isn't startable and Lynch is barely startable. You still have to trust him, but you should probably be happy with 8 points.
Devonta Freeman, Justin Forsett, Chris Ivory, Alfred Morris, Marshawn Lynch, Carlos Hyde and a few more that I'm forgetting all have 1 thing in common. They either didn't play because of injury in Week 11 or they got hurt in week 11. Devonta got a concussion (really not good sign for the rest of the year), Justin is out with a broken left arm, Ivory came back to the game but wasn't effective because the Jets were losing, Morris is doing bad anyway so don't worry about it, I already mentioned Marshawn, and Carlos Hyde hasn't been productive since week 2. My point is that RBs are really getting banged up. Treasure the healthy ones you have but if your league a rule where you can't pick up during the playoffs, be wary that you will need backups that have upside.
Waiver wire:
Because of injury there a few guys you will want to target either as a handcuff or because you're a jerk and are going to steal them away from the guy who has the hurt player. Tevin Coleman (RB, Atlanta) didn't look amazing in limited time before his injury earlier in the year, but I still believe this guy has the stuff. He won't do what Devonta did earlier in the year, but he can easily produce 10 a game because the Falcons love handing it off down inside the 10. Thomas Rawls (RB, Seattle) already mentioned him above so go read that if you skipped it. Bilal Powell (RB, New York Jets) is a back that has a ton of potential the rest of the year. The Jets have been figured out and have dropped a few games here. They're going to need to throw the ball, and Bilal is a great back catching the ball. He won't likely get the rushes you require for a good back but think of more like a Danny Woodhead for his guy. I expect top 20 performances if Ivory misses any time. Matt Jones (RB, Washington) was probably on someone's team in your league at some point and should be again. When the Redskins are winning (which isn't often), they love pounding the ball on the ground. Jones is that guy the rest of the year. Javorious Allen (RB, Baltimore), sorry if I spelled your name wrong man its a tough one. He will be replacing Forsett the rest of the year. Forsett was having a mighty fine season and the Ravens are actually winning some games now for some reason. With Flacco out the rest of the year, I expect a big push to run the ball more often. Allen should do great.
As always, thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be up tomorrow!
Monday, November 23, 2015
Fantasy vs Football
Howdy Fantasy Lovers, Fantasy Novices, and Fantasy Creatures! Welcome to Fantasy Football 101, where I, Kyle Bazin, will be sharing my opinions, experiences, and advice on Fantasy Football to you all.
This an immensely important topic because one of the biggest criticisms of fantasy sports is that it takes away from liking your team or whatever. Simply put, fantasy sports is a way to enjoy sports through a new lens. You no longer only care about your singular team/favorite player. You need to know be able to pay attention to a lot of the lesser known players and teams. For some people, it's too much work, and that's why they don't play. Fine. I'm not going to waste my breath on those people because they're too stubborn to listen to me anyways.
In my opinion, there are two options for people that play fantasy sports that also have a favorite team: don't have any players that are for division rival teams or be a smart/good fantasy player and take your love for your team out of the question. As you all know, I am a HUGE dolphins fan. In one league this year, I have Brady, Gronk, and James White (all Patriots players). I drafted Brady in the 6th round and Gronk in the 2nd. Let me tell you that I am still loving both of those picks. I had a strong feeling that they would do great so I picked them. I'm not trying to be all high and mighty here because I want my dolphins to have a chance this year for the division. I knew they wouldn't get that crown at the beginning of the year and no matter if I picked them or not, they're gonna do what they're gonna do. You picking them has no decision on how well a team does, even though sometimes we think it does...
If you can't separate your love for your team, that's fine. Not all of us can. My dad has hard-pressed to pick Victor Cruz as the only division rival of his Eagles this year (Cruz didn't play a game all year though). Actually, most of the league has a problem with picking against their team and it is kind of funny because most of them are Eagles fans so Giants/Cowboys/Redskins fall farther than they probably should. Regardless, it works for some of them. When it is draft time, no one really knows what is going to happen during the year so it is truly all up to luck. Don't pick a guy if you don't want to. Just don't complain when Odell Beckham does Odell Beckham things against your precious Eagles because I tell the Patriots that if they're going to score it better be through the air. I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but they had four passing touchdowns against the Dolphins in the game they played... Coincidence??
As always, thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be about my Week 11 reflections and looking forward to week 12. THAT WILL COME OUT TOMORROW!
This an immensely important topic because one of the biggest criticisms of fantasy sports is that it takes away from liking your team or whatever. Simply put, fantasy sports is a way to enjoy sports through a new lens. You no longer only care about your singular team/favorite player. You need to know be able to pay attention to a lot of the lesser known players and teams. For some people, it's too much work, and that's why they don't play. Fine. I'm not going to waste my breath on those people because they're too stubborn to listen to me anyways.
In my opinion, there are two options for people that play fantasy sports that also have a favorite team: don't have any players that are for division rival teams or be a smart/good fantasy player and take your love for your team out of the question. As you all know, I am a HUGE dolphins fan. In one league this year, I have Brady, Gronk, and James White (all Patriots players). I drafted Brady in the 6th round and Gronk in the 2nd. Let me tell you that I am still loving both of those picks. I had a strong feeling that they would do great so I picked them. I'm not trying to be all high and mighty here because I want my dolphins to have a chance this year for the division. I knew they wouldn't get that crown at the beginning of the year and no matter if I picked them or not, they're gonna do what they're gonna do. You picking them has no decision on how well a team does, even though sometimes we think it does...
If you can't separate your love for your team, that's fine. Not all of us can. My dad has hard-pressed to pick Victor Cruz as the only division rival of his Eagles this year (Cruz didn't play a game all year though). Actually, most of the league has a problem with picking against their team and it is kind of funny because most of them are Eagles fans so Giants/Cowboys/Redskins fall farther than they probably should. Regardless, it works for some of them. When it is draft time, no one really knows what is going to happen during the year so it is truly all up to luck. Don't pick a guy if you don't want to. Just don't complain when Odell Beckham does Odell Beckham things against your precious Eagles because I tell the Patriots that if they're going to score it better be through the air. I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but they had four passing touchdowns against the Dolphins in the game they played... Coincidence??
As always, thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be about my Week 11 reflections and looking forward to week 12. THAT WILL COME OUT TOMORROW!
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Playing Hooky
Hey guys, I apologize about this, but I am really swamped right now with all of my classes having projects and tests due right before Thanksgiving break. I am going to play hooky for this blog, however, I will be making it up.
Next Weeks Blog Schedule:
Monday: Random topic (afternoon)
Tuesday: Normal reflections (11 am or whenever I wake up)
Wednesday: Random topic (afternoon
So you will not miss any blogs because I will be making today's missed one on Monday. I apologize to any of the avid readers out there (if there are any). Have a good weekend.
Next Weeks Blog Schedule:
Monday: Random topic (afternoon)
Tuesday: Normal reflections (11 am or whenever I wake up)
Wednesday: Random topic (afternoon
So you will not miss any blogs because I will be making today's missed one on Monday. I apologize to any of the avid readers out there (if there are any). Have a good weekend.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Week 10 Reflections
Howdy Fantasy Lovers, Fantasy Novices, and Fantasy Creatures! Welcome to Fantasy Football 101, where I, Kyle Bazin, will be sharing my opinions, experiences, and advice on Fantasy Football to you all.
As always, thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be about my Week 10 reflections and looking forward to week 11.
Sorry, I'm late everyone. I got stuck in an airport yesterday without my laptop, so I couldn't get my blog in on time at 11 am this morning. So I'm an hour or so late. Sue me. Wait don't actually do that. I'm in college and that will cripple me. Well, I continue to be inconsistent in every single league I have. Fantasy is generally inconsistent, but I have three leagues in total. I am 5-5, 5-5, and 6-4. Oh yea look your teams aren't bad! You're right where you're right in contention. Well, where I want to be is 1st place so WRONG SIR! I can't win when I'm not in 1st. In the great words of Ricky Bobby, "if you're not 1st, you're last!"
Reflections:
This week was quite boring... With the exception of one or two teams in most leagues, everyone was under 130 and most under 120. I didn't score 120 in any of my leagues and won in one of my three leagues. So if you played against one of these guys you probably lost this week.
Jeremy Langford.... Well, Matt Forte you can nurse your injury for as long as you like because if Langford can play this way against a pretty good Rams D (they play great at home usually), Forte is not needed. Of course, Forte is a stud, but if I'm Chicago don't suit him up unless you somehow get in contention then trade him because he has value.
Antonio Brown needs to stop being mentioned in this blog and thankfully this upcoming week he has a bye so he will stop for at least one week. The Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin.... What a guy... Yea no Ben will be out for at least a couple of weeks he says on Monday. Landry Jones is the starter. Oh, Landry you got hurt? OK, Ben go in there and score 37 fantasy points for me, thanks. I wish this was a joke. With Ben on the field, AB is the best WR in football.
Charcandrick West is another guy I told you to pick up a few weeks ago, but you didn't listen now did you? Oh, you did? Well, you're welcome then! He has produced some really good performances after his dud in his first NFL start. No matter he should be super solid the rest of the way although I don't see the Chiefs doing as well as they did against Denver the rest of the year. He probably won't consistently score 20 is all I'm trying to say.
Waiver pickups:
No one exciting this week for waivers. So I really won't give suggestions besides streaming people for defense/kicker/tight end or whatever.
The only guy worth anything is if you're struggling at QB. Tony Romo (QB, Dallas) finally comes back this week and while I'm not sure if he is going to do amazing things right away, he is playing the Dolphins and has supposedly been ready for a few weeks now. Maybe not startable but worth a stash if you need someone.
As always, thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be about my Week 10 reflections and looking forward to week 11.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Daily Fantasy Sports Illegal???
Howdy Fantasy Lovers, Fantasy Novices, and Fantasy Creatures! Welcome to Fantasy Football 101, where I, Kyle Bazin, will be sharing my opinions, experiences, and advice on Fantasy Football to you all.
Before I start this blog, I have to shout out #TheBeachBoys. Love you guys. Hope we all get together again soon.
Change of plans people. I know I said I would be talking about overcoming season-ending injuries and busts, but that can wait for another week where I can't think of anything to write.
Huge news out of the state of New York's Attorney General;s office this week. If you want to read everything that happened you can read this ESPN article here. If not, I'm going to tell you a quick synopsis. Basically, the Attorney General said that Daily Fantasy Sport sites (specifically DraftKings and FanDuel) accept wagers from their players and that the games they offer are not games of skill. The original argument these fantasy sites were making was that it required skill to win at Fantasy Sports... That's a bit of a stretch, but I do agree to a point. You most likely can't just be a random person that doesn't know anything about sports, go on and win a ton of money. It just doesn't work like that. But there is a threshold of "skill" and once you hit that area, everyone has a pretty equal chance of winning.
FanDuel and DraftKings are particularly upset about this decision because of the billion dollar corporations they have made, New York holds about 10% of their users. That may not seem like a lot but a huge decision like this taking away that many users could lead to other states doing the same. The sites are afraid of a domino effect and if I was them, I would be as well. On Tuesday, the Attorney General gave them five days to comply with the cease-and-desist motion sent from the Attorney General.
Very soon I expect the sites to come together and fight to win this by any means necessary. I do not think that anything will happen to these sites in New York or any state, but I have been wrong before. Not often, but it has happened. There are a few states already that don't allow fantasy sports in general or just specifically daily fantasy but losing a big player such as New York could put them in the deep end. I'm not sure they would be able to swim if they are thrown down there.
Another big thing this affects if these sites somehow go under is how much FanDuel and DraftKings have done in advertising not only on TV but with professional sports teams. Especially the New York teams, many professional teams are affiliated some way with one of these sites whether it be a jersey sponsor, a facility sponsorship (as in advertising inside the stadium), and I'm sure it wasn't that far out of the realm of possibility that one day some facility would be called FanDuel Arena or DraftKings Park.
We will end up seeing what happens very soon with a decision required by these sites by Saturday but as of now, if you play daily fantasy on either of these sites, don't worry yet. The sites most likely will not go down and even with a decision saying they are illegal means almost nothing. The money you put into these sites will be safe.
As always, thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be about my Week 10 reflections and looking forward to week 11.
Before I start this blog, I have to shout out #TheBeachBoys. Love you guys. Hope we all get together again soon.
Change of plans people. I know I said I would be talking about overcoming season-ending injuries and busts, but that can wait for another week where I can't think of anything to write.
Huge news out of the state of New York's Attorney General;s office this week. If you want to read everything that happened you can read this ESPN article here. If not, I'm going to tell you a quick synopsis. Basically, the Attorney General said that Daily Fantasy Sport sites (specifically DraftKings and FanDuel) accept wagers from their players and that the games they offer are not games of skill. The original argument these fantasy sites were making was that it required skill to win at Fantasy Sports... That's a bit of a stretch, but I do agree to a point. You most likely can't just be a random person that doesn't know anything about sports, go on and win a ton of money. It just doesn't work like that. But there is a threshold of "skill" and once you hit that area, everyone has a pretty equal chance of winning.
FanDuel and DraftKings are particularly upset about this decision because of the billion dollar corporations they have made, New York holds about 10% of their users. That may not seem like a lot but a huge decision like this taking away that many users could lead to other states doing the same. The sites are afraid of a domino effect and if I was them, I would be as well. On Tuesday, the Attorney General gave them five days to comply with the cease-and-desist motion sent from the Attorney General.
Very soon I expect the sites to come together and fight to win this by any means necessary. I do not think that anything will happen to these sites in New York or any state, but I have been wrong before. Not often, but it has happened. There are a few states already that don't allow fantasy sports in general or just specifically daily fantasy but losing a big player such as New York could put them in the deep end. I'm not sure they would be able to swim if they are thrown down there.
Another big thing this affects if these sites somehow go under is how much FanDuel and DraftKings have done in advertising not only on TV but with professional sports teams. Especially the New York teams, many professional teams are affiliated some way with one of these sites whether it be a jersey sponsor, a facility sponsorship (as in advertising inside the stadium), and I'm sure it wasn't that far out of the realm of possibility that one day some facility would be called FanDuel Arena or DraftKings Park.
We will end up seeing what happens very soon with a decision required by these sites by Saturday but as of now, if you play daily fantasy on either of these sites, don't worry yet. The sites most likely will not go down and even with a decision saying they are illegal means almost nothing. The money you put into these sites will be safe.
As always, thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be about my Week 10 reflections and looking forward to week 11.
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