Farewell loyal readers of Game Of Inches.
Unlike the joke podcast The "Bright" One and I did when Rex Grossman left Chicago to play in Houston when we said Sexy Rexy is leaving, I am actually leaving GOI.
I loved my time working on GOI and I am glad that I got to work on something I love with three great friends of mind, but I feel that this is my time to leave.
I have started a new website entitled The Cover 3 that you can visit at www.thecover3.com in which I will discuss all things sports and pop culture. Please check it out.
Thank you everyone for making my time here at Game Of Inches great and I hope you will continue to read me at my new site.
Sincerely,
Adam Kaplan
aka Sexy Rexy
Showing posts with label Sports: A Game Of Inches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sports: A Game Of Inches. Show all posts
2011 GOI Draft Write Up
EDITOR’S NOTE: Cubsfan4evr1's opinion was not originally in this post but it is currently in it now. I am still waiting on The 'Bright' One's opinion (although I might be waiting for a while)
This is a 14 team, PPR, auction league. The rosters look like this: 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 RB/WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF, 6 BN.
SEXY REXY
My goal in the draft was to get a top 3 RB, a top 5 QB, two top 15 WR, a one dollar TE, K, and DEF, and two middle of the pack guys for my RB and flex with a bunch of scrubs and nothings and dollar bids for my bench. Like all my drafts, I have a sheet of how much I wanted to spend per position. But after a half an hour into the draft, after I had not picked up anybody yet, and after the one RB left that I wanted- Philly’s LeSean McCoy- went for WAY too much money (DME and I got into a bidding war where he paid $68 for McCoy and as much as I love McCoy and needed a #1 RB there was in way in hell I was going to spend at least $69 on him, McCoy ended up being the second highest paid player in the draft behind AD). At that point I literally crumpled up my draft prep sheet and threw it out the window (OK, I didn’t throw it out the window but I did throw it behind me and just started paying for talent and value as opposed to my original plan). While I always recommend having a plan going into an auction drafts, this is just a perfect example of how you need to do your homework in order to be able to adapt to your draft.
The running backs I did end up getting were Michael Turner ($51) and Matt Forte ($33). Before I got these two guys I had no backs and Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson, Ray Rice, Jamaal Charles, Rashard Mendenhall, Arian Foster, Darren McFadden, Maurice Jones-Drew, and now LeSean McCoy were all off the board. I had both Forte and Turner in my top ten- not necessarily because I think they will end up being top guys but because I think they come with significantly less risk that about half the guys mentioned in the previous sentence. My quarterback, and actually my first pick in this draft was Tom Brady ($23). I think this was the best value in the draft and I have no idea how Brady came to me for this low. Brady came cheaper than both Matt Ryan ($26) and Philip Rivers ($28). I originally allocated $33 for a quarterback and I was targeting my man crush Rivers but I have Brady higher on my draft board and come on, for that price, how could I pass it up? My main wide receivers are Mike Wallace ($34) and Santonio Holmes ($21). I never really had a plan for my wide outs but I love Wallace and I don’t care that this is a PPR league. I was originally targeting Mario Manningham as my second receiver but when Santonio Holmes got thrown out there were plenty of other teams who still needed a second wide out, I knew people liked Manningham, I didn’t want to get into another bidding war and I felt like $21 was a really good price for Holmes. Manningham ended up going for $18 but what are you going to do. My other main starters are Reggie Bush ($8) and Ryan Grant ($16). I really like Bush and I think he’ll be this year’s Darren McFadden (this is based off of nothing but a gut feeling) and I like Grant. Truthfully, I drafted Grant before I realized Green Bay thought he was herpes but this guy had been too good in the league for too long that I refuse he won’t exceed the sixteen bucks I paid for him.
I spent most of my money at this point and that’s fine with me. Out of the 14 teams in this league only four had no money left over (three being GOI authors and one of them was not Cubsfan) and I prefer to use up all my money- that means I spent efficiently. My view of the bench is that you don’t need them until a bye- and even then chances are there’s a better guy that week to play on the waiver wire than the guy on your team. For me, I probably should have cared because three out of my four running backs (Forte, Turner, and Grant) and one of my receivers (Holmes) have a bye on Wee8 but whatever. I’ll lose one week and win every other. The rest of my team that I drafted was Colt McCoy ($2), Stevan Ridley ($1), Randy Moss ($1), Denario Alexander ($1), Alex Hendry ($1), and San Diego Defense ($1). I have already drooped Ridley, Moss, and Alexander for Isaac Redman, Greg Little, and Mark Clayton. The depth for wide receiver was barren and all the trendy sleepers like Emmanuel Sanders and Deion Branch went for more than a dollar because the rest of the league was dumb and didn’t spend their money at the front end of their draft like you should. That’s fine with me. I’ll sacrifice getting good starters than getting trendy sleepers.
Lastly, we get to my tight ends. I drafted Aaron Hernandez ($6) and Dustin Keller ($1). My philosophy was that I was only going to spend a dollar on a TE. I threw out my boy Rob Gronkowski early hoping no one else liked him. A team bid two dollars in him and I stupidly didn’t go three. In hindsight I really should have. Two hours later Aaron Hernandez got thrown out and even though I like Gronk better I started bidding up Hernandez just to price enforce. I also stupidly didn’t realize how little money my price opponent had. The max amount he could have spend was five dollars so once I went six I was stuck with him because he wasn’t able to bid seven. This was my biggest mistake of the draft because after this I was relegated to one dollar players. If I didn’t spend that much on a TE like I wanted maybe I could have gotten my wide out sleepers like Sanders and Branch. Oh well. C’est Le Vie. I still am super pumped at the way my team turned out and if my TE and bench guys are the worst part of my team then so be it.
Here are a few notes I have on this draft as a whole:
- Quarterbacks went severely undervalued. I have no idea why considering this is a 14 team league where having a quarterback is extremely important. Friend-of-the-site D.B. originally bought Matt Ryan early and then spent $21 on Matt Schaub just because he saw Schaub for $20 and couldn’t let that stand. My friend Ted, another person I was drafting with, bought Tony Romo ($14), Kevin Kolb ($7), and Ben Roethlisberger ($17) just because the prices were too good. This means that the top 10 quarterbacks are on eight teams.
- The one quarterback that apparently everyone wanted was Josh Freeman as two owners got in a bidding war for him. He went for $16. One less than Peyton Manning. Two dollars more than Tony Romo.
- Even though I wanted McCoy, the fact that he went for $68, the second highest drafted player, was the worst value in the draft. I’m super pumped I didn’t end up getting him.
- Arian Foster went for $58 and was the second person drafted behind Michael Vick. I was so dumb. I knew he would be a great value and I was willing to spend $65+ on him yet I have no idea why I didn’t. Even knowing what I know now I think that’s the best value in the draft. (Well, behind Tom Brady).
- One team spent $71 on Adrian Peterson and $63 on Jamaal Charles. I’m sure he spent the rest of the draft bored out of his mind. His QB is Sam Bradford and TE is Gronk . That’s a damn fine core. Now his wide receivers are pretty bad (Danny Amendola, Mike Thomas, Davone Bess, Jacoby Jones, and AJ Green) but with Peterson and Charles he might win every week. He also drafted James Starks. Drafting two top 3 running backs is not a strategy I recommend or would ever do, but it’s very interesting.
CUBSFAN4EVR1
Going into the Game of Inches fantasy football draft I had a strategy that I was going to follow to the T; I thought I was going to be golden. It was the same strategy I used last year which would have been dominating if two of my key players would have played the entire season and I didn’t have a really bad week in the first week of the playoffs, which was just really bad luck. So I believed in this strategy as long as I could follow it………………………………
My original plan was to draft a top 5 running back, two mid tier wide receivers (from my target list), two mid tier running backs, and an average quarterback. As you will learn I did not follow this strategy at all and altered my strategy completely during the draft that TBO could see from the frustration on my face. I was not going to give into the over valuing of these elite RB though!
My plan was to draft a marquee running back to anchor my team. My first choice was Jamaal Charles who I think is going to have a monster season and could be the number one running back at the end of the season. I was willing to pay $60 for Charles and he went for $63. I was also willing to pay $60 for Rice and he went for $65. Those were the only top two running backs from the top tier that I liked enough to pay the big bucks for. I obviously like Adrian Peterson and Arian Foster, but did not want to pay $72 for Adrian Peterson.
After missing out on Rice and Charles and passing on the rest of the elite running backs I was targeting LeSean McCoy who is a great PPR player, but so was everyone for that reason. I was hoping to get him for under $40 but there was a bidding war for him and he ended up going at a ridiculous $68. That is more than Rice and as much as Charles who are both better. So I stopped bidding around 40 and turned my attention to Shonn Green who I actually won for won and over paid for at 37 dollar in a PPR league. He doesn’t catch at all, but I needed a good running back, and most of the good ones were going off the board in a hurry at values I didn’t want to pay. Another guy I wanted was LeGarrette Blount but he went for $31 which I thought was way too high in a PPR league. I bought Felix Jones at $24 who is a good PPR player and in a good offense. I also took a gamble on Ingram for $13 who could pay off. My goal was to buy a top RB in the 50 dollar range, but unfortunately this did not happen. Instead I ended up getting value running backs to fit PPR leagues such as Felix Jones, Ingram, and settling on Green if I needed a good running back. If this wasn’t a PPR league LeGarrette Blount is someone I would have paid more for.
Arian Foster ended up only going for $58 so I don’t know what I was thinking, or everyone else was for that matter, and I should have bid up to $60. He wasn’t part of my strategy because I thought he was going to be too expensive, but he turned out to be less that Ray Rice and Jamal Charles which is crazy!
I don’t like paying for a top wide receiver; instead I like to find the value wide receivers. I was targeting Miles Austin who I was willing to pay $34 for and he went for $36 to TBO. If I lost out on Austin I settled for two wide receivers I like a lot in Anquan Boldin for a great price of 20 bucks and Brandon Marshall for 23. I think both will have great seasons and be good PPR players. If you don’t want to pay the price for Roddy White or Andre Johnson, these are two great alternatives who may not be as good, but will be for half the price.
I was going to target a average quarterback like Romo, Freeman, Ryan, but with my strategy changing in the middle of the draft and having more money because I didn’t buy an elite running back I decided to buy a top quarterback. Out of all of the top quarterbacks I really like Phillip Rivers this year so I invested $28 for him to anchor my team. A great QB can carry your team in a deep 14 team league like this; even though Romo went for a great value at 14 dollars and Freeman at 16 dollars.
Typically I don’t invest in defense or kickers, but I had extra money to burn so I may as well buy the Pittsburgh Steelers defense for $4. I also bought Nate Kaeding for $3. I think Jared Cook, a tight end for the Titans, will have a big year so I got him for $5. The biggest regret was not bidding more for Daniel Thomas who is in the doghouse now, but I think will have a good season. Miami loves to run the ball and Reggie Bush can’t stay healthy.
With me changing my strategy on the fly I can’t say I love my team not having any elite players besides Phillip Rivers, but I think I have a solid team with a lot of potential so I like my chances.
DAVID “MVP” ECKSTEIN
My team largely consists of players my two fantasy football expert friends recommended that did not seem overpriced (LeSean McCoy excepted), and players whose name I recognized from the TV show The League. I'd love to give more analysis than that, but there really was none. If I beat Sexy Rexy this year, I'll never let him live it down.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: DME is lucky in the sense that he is fully entrenched in the fantasy community because of fantasy baseball that he magically happen to come across fantasy football experts, like those from KFFL, who gave him a draft cheat sheet. And no way we experts at GOI were going to give him any advice. Also, while I kind of do like the player’s on DME’s team (McCoy, Kenny Britt, Larry Fitzgerald, Mike Tolbert). He did not actually draft players based on The League although his team’s name, The Fear Boners, is from the show. Also, he is not going to beat Sexy Rexy.)
This is a 14 team, PPR, auction league. The rosters look like this: 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 RB/WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF, 6 BN.
SEXY REXY
My goal in the draft was to get a top 3 RB, a top 5 QB, two top 15 WR, a one dollar TE, K, and DEF, and two middle of the pack guys for my RB and flex with a bunch of scrubs and nothings and dollar bids for my bench. Like all my drafts, I have a sheet of how much I wanted to spend per position. But after a half an hour into the draft, after I had not picked up anybody yet, and after the one RB left that I wanted- Philly’s LeSean McCoy- went for WAY too much money (DME and I got into a bidding war where he paid $68 for McCoy and as much as I love McCoy and needed a #1 RB there was in way in hell I was going to spend at least $69 on him, McCoy ended up being the second highest paid player in the draft behind AD). At that point I literally crumpled up my draft prep sheet and threw it out the window (OK, I didn’t throw it out the window but I did throw it behind me and just started paying for talent and value as opposed to my original plan). While I always recommend having a plan going into an auction drafts, this is just a perfect example of how you need to do your homework in order to be able to adapt to your draft.
The running backs I did end up getting were Michael Turner ($51) and Matt Forte ($33). Before I got these two guys I had no backs and Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson, Ray Rice, Jamaal Charles, Rashard Mendenhall, Arian Foster, Darren McFadden, Maurice Jones-Drew, and now LeSean McCoy were all off the board. I had both Forte and Turner in my top ten- not necessarily because I think they will end up being top guys but because I think they come with significantly less risk that about half the guys mentioned in the previous sentence. My quarterback, and actually my first pick in this draft was Tom Brady ($23). I think this was the best value in the draft and I have no idea how Brady came to me for this low. Brady came cheaper than both Matt Ryan ($26) and Philip Rivers ($28). I originally allocated $33 for a quarterback and I was targeting my man crush Rivers but I have Brady higher on my draft board and come on, for that price, how could I pass it up? My main wide receivers are Mike Wallace ($34) and Santonio Holmes ($21). I never really had a plan for my wide outs but I love Wallace and I don’t care that this is a PPR league. I was originally targeting Mario Manningham as my second receiver but when Santonio Holmes got thrown out there were plenty of other teams who still needed a second wide out, I knew people liked Manningham, I didn’t want to get into another bidding war and I felt like $21 was a really good price for Holmes. Manningham ended up going for $18 but what are you going to do. My other main starters are Reggie Bush ($8) and Ryan Grant ($16). I really like Bush and I think he’ll be this year’s Darren McFadden (this is based off of nothing but a gut feeling) and I like Grant. Truthfully, I drafted Grant before I realized Green Bay thought he was herpes but this guy had been too good in the league for too long that I refuse he won’t exceed the sixteen bucks I paid for him.
I spent most of my money at this point and that’s fine with me. Out of the 14 teams in this league only four had no money left over (three being GOI authors and one of them was not Cubsfan) and I prefer to use up all my money- that means I spent efficiently. My view of the bench is that you don’t need them until a bye- and even then chances are there’s a better guy that week to play on the waiver wire than the guy on your team. For me, I probably should have cared because three out of my four running backs (Forte, Turner, and Grant) and one of my receivers (Holmes) have a bye on Wee8 but whatever. I’ll lose one week and win every other. The rest of my team that I drafted was Colt McCoy ($2), Stevan Ridley ($1), Randy Moss ($1), Denario Alexander ($1), Alex Hendry ($1), and San Diego Defense ($1). I have already drooped Ridley, Moss, and Alexander for Isaac Redman, Greg Little, and Mark Clayton. The depth for wide receiver was barren and all the trendy sleepers like Emmanuel Sanders and Deion Branch went for more than a dollar because the rest of the league was dumb and didn’t spend their money at the front end of their draft like you should. That’s fine with me. I’ll sacrifice getting good starters than getting trendy sleepers.
Lastly, we get to my tight ends. I drafted Aaron Hernandez ($6) and Dustin Keller ($1). My philosophy was that I was only going to spend a dollar on a TE. I threw out my boy Rob Gronkowski early hoping no one else liked him. A team bid two dollars in him and I stupidly didn’t go three. In hindsight I really should have. Two hours later Aaron Hernandez got thrown out and even though I like Gronk better I started bidding up Hernandez just to price enforce. I also stupidly didn’t realize how little money my price opponent had. The max amount he could have spend was five dollars so once I went six I was stuck with him because he wasn’t able to bid seven. This was my biggest mistake of the draft because after this I was relegated to one dollar players. If I didn’t spend that much on a TE like I wanted maybe I could have gotten my wide out sleepers like Sanders and Branch. Oh well. C’est Le Vie. I still am super pumped at the way my team turned out and if my TE and bench guys are the worst part of my team then so be it.
Here are a few notes I have on this draft as a whole:
- Quarterbacks went severely undervalued. I have no idea why considering this is a 14 team league where having a quarterback is extremely important. Friend-of-the-site D.B. originally bought Matt Ryan early and then spent $21 on Matt Schaub just because he saw Schaub for $20 and couldn’t let that stand. My friend Ted, another person I was drafting with, bought Tony Romo ($14), Kevin Kolb ($7), and Ben Roethlisberger ($17) just because the prices were too good. This means that the top 10 quarterbacks are on eight teams.
- The one quarterback that apparently everyone wanted was Josh Freeman as two owners got in a bidding war for him. He went for $16. One less than Peyton Manning. Two dollars more than Tony Romo.
- Even though I wanted McCoy, the fact that he went for $68, the second highest drafted player, was the worst value in the draft. I’m super pumped I didn’t end up getting him.
- Arian Foster went for $58 and was the second person drafted behind Michael Vick. I was so dumb. I knew he would be a great value and I was willing to spend $65+ on him yet I have no idea why I didn’t. Even knowing what I know now I think that’s the best value in the draft. (Well, behind Tom Brady).
- One team spent $71 on Adrian Peterson and $63 on Jamaal Charles. I’m sure he spent the rest of the draft bored out of his mind. His QB is Sam Bradford and TE is Gronk . That’s a damn fine core. Now his wide receivers are pretty bad (Danny Amendola, Mike Thomas, Davone Bess, Jacoby Jones, and AJ Green) but with Peterson and Charles he might win every week. He also drafted James Starks. Drafting two top 3 running backs is not a strategy I recommend or would ever do, but it’s very interesting.
CUBSFAN4EVR1
Going into the Game of Inches fantasy football draft I had a strategy that I was going to follow to the T; I thought I was going to be golden. It was the same strategy I used last year which would have been dominating if two of my key players would have played the entire season and I didn’t have a really bad week in the first week of the playoffs, which was just really bad luck. So I believed in this strategy as long as I could follow it………………………………
My original plan was to draft a top 5 running back, two mid tier wide receivers (from my target list), two mid tier running backs, and an average quarterback. As you will learn I did not follow this strategy at all and altered my strategy completely during the draft that TBO could see from the frustration on my face. I was not going to give into the over valuing of these elite RB though!
My plan was to draft a marquee running back to anchor my team. My first choice was Jamaal Charles who I think is going to have a monster season and could be the number one running back at the end of the season. I was willing to pay $60 for Charles and he went for $63. I was also willing to pay $60 for Rice and he went for $65. Those were the only top two running backs from the top tier that I liked enough to pay the big bucks for. I obviously like Adrian Peterson and Arian Foster, but did not want to pay $72 for Adrian Peterson.
After missing out on Rice and Charles and passing on the rest of the elite running backs I was targeting LeSean McCoy who is a great PPR player, but so was everyone for that reason. I was hoping to get him for under $40 but there was a bidding war for him and he ended up going at a ridiculous $68. That is more than Rice and as much as Charles who are both better. So I stopped bidding around 40 and turned my attention to Shonn Green who I actually won for won and over paid for at 37 dollar in a PPR league. He doesn’t catch at all, but I needed a good running back, and most of the good ones were going off the board in a hurry at values I didn’t want to pay. Another guy I wanted was LeGarrette Blount but he went for $31 which I thought was way too high in a PPR league. I bought Felix Jones at $24 who is a good PPR player and in a good offense. I also took a gamble on Ingram for $13 who could pay off. My goal was to buy a top RB in the 50 dollar range, but unfortunately this did not happen. Instead I ended up getting value running backs to fit PPR leagues such as Felix Jones, Ingram, and settling on Green if I needed a good running back. If this wasn’t a PPR league LeGarrette Blount is someone I would have paid more for.
Arian Foster ended up only going for $58 so I don’t know what I was thinking, or everyone else was for that matter, and I should have bid up to $60. He wasn’t part of my strategy because I thought he was going to be too expensive, but he turned out to be less that Ray Rice and Jamal Charles which is crazy!
I don’t like paying for a top wide receiver; instead I like to find the value wide receivers. I was targeting Miles Austin who I was willing to pay $34 for and he went for $36 to TBO. If I lost out on Austin I settled for two wide receivers I like a lot in Anquan Boldin for a great price of 20 bucks and Brandon Marshall for 23. I think both will have great seasons and be good PPR players. If you don’t want to pay the price for Roddy White or Andre Johnson, these are two great alternatives who may not be as good, but will be for half the price.
I was going to target a average quarterback like Romo, Freeman, Ryan, but with my strategy changing in the middle of the draft and having more money because I didn’t buy an elite running back I decided to buy a top quarterback. Out of all of the top quarterbacks I really like Phillip Rivers this year so I invested $28 for him to anchor my team. A great QB can carry your team in a deep 14 team league like this; even though Romo went for a great value at 14 dollars and Freeman at 16 dollars.
Typically I don’t invest in defense or kickers, but I had extra money to burn so I may as well buy the Pittsburgh Steelers defense for $4. I also bought Nate Kaeding for $3. I think Jared Cook, a tight end for the Titans, will have a big year so I got him for $5. The biggest regret was not bidding more for Daniel Thomas who is in the doghouse now, but I think will have a good season. Miami loves to run the ball and Reggie Bush can’t stay healthy.
With me changing my strategy on the fly I can’t say I love my team not having any elite players besides Phillip Rivers, but I think I have a solid team with a lot of potential so I like my chances.
DAVID “MVP” ECKSTEIN
My team largely consists of players my two fantasy football expert friends recommended that did not seem overpriced (LeSean McCoy excepted), and players whose name I recognized from the TV show The League. I'd love to give more analysis than that, but there really was none. If I beat Sexy Rexy this year, I'll never let him live it down.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: DME is lucky in the sense that he is fully entrenched in the fantasy community because of fantasy baseball that he magically happen to come across fantasy football experts, like those from KFFL, who gave him a draft cheat sheet. And no way we experts at GOI were going to give him any advice. Also, while I kind of do like the player’s on DME’s team (McCoy, Kenny Britt, Larry Fitzgerald, Mike Tolbert). He did not actually draft players based on The League although his team’s name, The Fear Boners, is from the show. Also, he is not going to beat Sexy Rexy.)
The Game Of Inches Fantasy Football Teams
These teams are for a 14 team, fantasy football league ($200 auction budgets, PPR scoring) with the starting spots being:
An write up of how this draft went will be posted soon.
Tell us what you think of our teams!
Sexy Rexy
QB- Tom Brady ($23)
QB- Colt McCoy ($2)
RB- Michael Turner ($51)
RB- Matt Forte ($33)
RB- Ryan Grant ($16)
RB- Reggie Bush ($8)
RB- Stevan Ridley ($1)
WR- Mike Wallace ($34)
WR- Santonio Holmes ($21)
WR- Randy Moss ($1)
WR- Danario Alexander ($1)
TE- Aaron Hernandez ($6)
TE- Dustin Keller ($1)
K- Alex Henery ($1)
DEF- San Diego ($1)
David "MVP" Eckstein
QB- Eli Manning ($10)
QB- Kyle Orton ($6)
QB- Tim Tebow ($1)
RB- LeSean McCoy ($68)
RB- Mike Tolbert ($11)
RB- Joseph Addai ($16)
WR- Larry Fitzgerald ($45)
WR- Dez Bryant ($23)
WR- Kenny Britt ($10)
WR- Dezmon Briscoe ($1)
WR- Brandon Gibson ($1)
WR- Eric Decker ($1)
TE- Tony Gonzalez ($5)
K- Josh Brown ($1)
DEF- Dallas ($1)
The 'Bright' One
QB- Drew Brees ($34)
RB- Maurice Jones-Drew ($50)
RB- Rashard Mendenhall ($45)
RB- Ryan Matthews ($17)
RB- Ricky Williams ($1)
WR- Miles Austin ($36)
WR- Robert Meachum ($5)
WR- Lee Evans ($5)
WR- Eddie Royal ($1)
WR- Donald Driver ($1)
WR- Earl Bennett ($1)
RB/WR- Dexter McCluster ($1)
TE- Brent Celek ($1)
K- Rob Bironas ($1)
DEF- Tennessee ($1)
Cubsfan4evr1
QB- Philip Rivers ($28)
RB- Shonn Greene ($37)
RB- Felix Jones ($24)
RB- Mark Ingram ($13)
RB- Jerome Harrison ($6)
RB- Rashad Jennings ($6)
RB- Montario Hardesty ($1)
RB- Jamie Harper ($1)
WR- Brandon Marshall ($23)
WR- Anquan Boldin ($20)
WR- Julio Jones ($10)
WR- Braylon Edwards ($4)
TE- Jered Cook ($5)
K- Nate Kaeding ($3)
DEF- Pittsburgh ($4)
- 1 QB
- 2 RB
- 2 WR
- 1 RB/WR (choice)
- 1 TE
- 1 K
- 1 DEF
- 6 BN
An write up of how this draft went will be posted soon.
Tell us what you think of our teams!
Sexy Rexy
QB- Tom Brady ($23)
QB- Colt McCoy ($2)
RB- Michael Turner ($51)
RB- Matt Forte ($33)
RB- Ryan Grant ($16)
RB- Reggie Bush ($8)
RB- Stevan Ridley ($1)
WR- Mike Wallace ($34)
WR- Santonio Holmes ($21)
WR- Randy Moss ($1)
WR- Danario Alexander ($1)
TE- Aaron Hernandez ($6)
TE- Dustin Keller ($1)
K- Alex Henery ($1)
DEF- San Diego ($1)
David "MVP" Eckstein
QB- Eli Manning ($10)
QB- Kyle Orton ($6)
QB- Tim Tebow ($1)
RB- LeSean McCoy ($68)
RB- Mike Tolbert ($11)
RB- Joseph Addai ($16)
WR- Larry Fitzgerald ($45)
WR- Dez Bryant ($23)
WR- Kenny Britt ($10)
WR- Dezmon Briscoe ($1)
WR- Brandon Gibson ($1)
WR- Eric Decker ($1)
TE- Tony Gonzalez ($5)
K- Josh Brown ($1)
DEF- Dallas ($1)
The 'Bright' One
QB- Drew Brees ($34)
RB- Maurice Jones-Drew ($50)
RB- Rashard Mendenhall ($45)
RB- Ryan Matthews ($17)
RB- Ricky Williams ($1)
WR- Miles Austin ($36)
WR- Robert Meachum ($5)
WR- Lee Evans ($5)
WR- Eddie Royal ($1)
WR- Donald Driver ($1)
WR- Earl Bennett ($1)
RB/WR- Dexter McCluster ($1)
TE- Brent Celek ($1)
K- Rob Bironas ($1)
DEF- Tennessee ($1)
Cubsfan4evr1
QB- Philip Rivers ($28)
RB- Shonn Greene ($37)
RB- Felix Jones ($24)
RB- Mark Ingram ($13)
RB- Jerome Harrison ($6)
RB- Rashad Jennings ($6)
RB- Montario Hardesty ($1)
RB- Jamie Harper ($1)
WR- Brandon Marshall ($23)
WR- Anquan Boldin ($20)
WR- Julio Jones ($10)
WR- Braylon Edwards ($4)
TE- Jered Cook ($5)
K- Nate Kaeding ($3)
DEF- Pittsburgh ($4)
New Game Of Inches Facebook Page
Have you ever been to a house party and towards the end, where the party starts dying down, that one dude walks in with a 12 pack of beer and wants to "get down". Well that's us. Although currently GOI has a facebook page, it was created before there was any "like" buttons and before facebook evolved for the better. In fact, our facebook page is so old that when we decided to change from our boring, generic, "Ooo-we-want-to-get-this-blog-rolling-right-away format to our hip new format, we were not able to put a link to our facebook page. That's how old our facebook page is.
You can see our new and hip page here and please hit "like" so we can change our URL (as opposed to the generic one facebook has now randomly assigned us).
With our new facebook page we can have live chats, post threads instead of just a one block opinion and have a center to see all of our videos and pictures.
So come on by and check us out!
You can see our new and hip page here and please hit "like" so we can change our URL (as opposed to the generic one facebook has now randomly assigned us).
With our new facebook page we can have live chats, post threads instead of just a one block opinion and have a center to see all of our videos and pictures.
So come on by and check us out!
The GOI Football Draft Wrap-Up Special, Part III
Cubsfan's thoughts on the draft:
We have recently just completed the Game Of Inches Fantasy Football Auction draft 2010. This was the second time I have ever done an auction draft. The first time being the Game Of Inches fantasy baseball draft 2009. For those of you who haven’t followed this draft, it was less than pretty for me. I went in with no game plan for my first auction draft and it showed. I wasn’t aggressive and let all the players I wanted go off the board because I was worried about spending all of my money up front and not having enough left for later in the draft. As I learned the hard way, you don’t need much later when all the good players are gone. Us it is good to have some for the mid value guys you think will outperform their value, but you don’t need to have $20 left over like I did in the Game Of Inches fantasy baseball draft 2009. I had a rough baseball season because of not being prepared for the auction draft. So I started my research early for fantasy football 2010.
I am in a few competitive fantasy football leagues this year. Of course all of them are different types ranging from auction drafts, snake drafts, 10 team leagues to 12 and 14 teams. I did my research and did my best to have strategies for each of them. It makes it hard to put together a plan when all the leagues you are in are so different. So I had a few strategies for the GOI auction draft. I figured I would see how the draft played out and try a combo of them. That turned out to not be a good idea.
My first pick was Maurice Jones-Drew for $66 after I missed out on Chris Johnson for $69 and Adrian Peterson for $65. TBO got AD as a steal and everyone thought he paid a lot, but it obviously was a bargain. As you see MJD for $66 was stupid. I would have been much better paying that for Peterson or Chris Johnson. Going into the draft I was targeting MJD because he is steady, gets a lot of TD, catches a bit for this PPR league, and one of the most consistent safest players to take in my opinion. Another big reason I was targeting him was I thought I could get him for a discount thinking people would get in bidding wars and over pay for Peterson, Johnson, Ray Rice who is a PPR stud, and Frank Gore who I think has a lot of upside even though he is a top 5 guy. For some reason this didn’t happen and I didn’t want to lose out on MJD because then my team would of had a big hole and missing a stud anchor.
My second pick was Greg Jennings for $25 who I feel has a lot of upside. My goal was to get Jennings at $20, but like all of my players except Jeremy Maclin I overpaid for him. I love Jennings this year and think he will rebound from last year’s disappointing season. Last year he only had 4 TD with 9 and 12 the previous years respectively, so I think that number will go up. With that said, he isn’t an ideal PPR player because last year he only had 68 receptions last. In 2008-09 he had 80, with 53 in 2007-08. I feel like his receptions this season should be similar as they were last year, with 2008-09 just being an outlier year. Thus, I like Jennings as my second receiver, not my first receiver which he turned out to be!
With this being a partial points per reception league for my number one receiver I was obviously targeting guys who caught a lot of passes last year. Andre Johnson led the league last year with 115 catches, but Sexy Rexy beat me out for at $49. Wes Welker looks like he is making a very quick comeback, but I didn’t want to take that risk for $24, but in retrospect that might have been a good investment. With Brandon Marshall switching teams and playing with a unproven QB I was concerned. Fourth in receptions last year was Larry Fitzgerald, but with no QB I didn’t want to pay $29. T.J. Houshmandzadeh was 5th in receptions last season and has always been a good possessions receiver. He was a steal for $9 and I don’t know why I didn’t on him because he would have been a receiver for me even at 12 or 13 dollars. Roddy White was a guy I was targeting but stopped bidding at $30. I thought Michael Crabtree would be a good value, but I was surprised he went for $25. Dwayne Bowe had 80 receptions last year and Anquan Boldin had 89 so both were on my list of players to target. So I lost out on all of these receivers that I wanted so I settled on Jeremy Maclin for $9. I wish I would have bided a few more dollars for T.J. Houshmandzadeh though; who I think went underrated in this draft being a PPR league. TBO drafted DeSean Jackson for $16 and Marques Colston for $19 which were both great steals at those prices, even in an auction draft. I like Maclin, but wish I had a better receiver than him to go along with Jennings.
With my two receivers set I needed a QB and that was an ugly story folks. I really like Kevin Kolb and thought I could get him for a steal under $10. Obviously other people liked him because I got in a bidding war for him where I won at………………………………$16 which was way over priced. The problem was I liked him better than Cutler, Eli Manning, Matt Ryan, and all of the guys I would have liked better, Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Brees, and more realistically Tony Romo, Matt Schaub, and Tom Brady were off the board. Funny story about Tom Brady, the guy who drafted him accidentally bided on him for $60 and he already had Rodgers! So I felt I needed Kolb and way overpaid for him. You should be noticing a trend with my Team now, I missed out on all of the players I wanted or overpaid for the ones I wanted!
I needed to get two RB for my flex and second RB spot. I got my guy Ryan Grant for $38, about 9 dollars more than I wanted to spend on him. He is a good RB, but doesn’t catch much at all. I also had to over pay for Arian Foster who I was hoping to get around 10 at $16. People made fun of me for this move, but all the RB left at this time who I liked such as Michael Bush and Justin Forsett aren’t the starting RB and have a logjam of guys with them, while foster is the guy. So I liked this move.
My computer timed out during the draft and got me a kicker in Nate Kaeding at $12, which is 10 dollars more than I would have paid for a kicker. Over paying a lot for Kevin Kolb, Nate Kaeding, and to some degree Ryan Grant and Arian Foster I didn’t have any money left over for my bench. My bench is an embarrassment and barley serviceable with Mohamed Massaquoi, Fred Taylor (Patriots), Matt Hasselbeck, James Jones for when Driver shows his age, Chris Chambers, and Golden Tate.
As you should be able to tell by now, I don’t like my team, especially for a PPR league. We will see how the season plays out though
View the GOI fantasy team at http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/goi and vote on who you think the preseason favorites are.
View Sexy Rexy's take on the draft in Part II here
View Part I here
We have recently just completed the Game Of Inches Fantasy Football Auction draft 2010. This was the second time I have ever done an auction draft. The first time being the Game Of Inches fantasy baseball draft 2009. For those of you who haven’t followed this draft, it was less than pretty for me. I went in with no game plan for my first auction draft and it showed. I wasn’t aggressive and let all the players I wanted go off the board because I was worried about spending all of my money up front and not having enough left for later in the draft. As I learned the hard way, you don’t need much later when all the good players are gone. Us it is good to have some for the mid value guys you think will outperform their value, but you don’t need to have $20 left over like I did in the Game Of Inches fantasy baseball draft 2009. I had a rough baseball season because of not being prepared for the auction draft. So I started my research early for fantasy football 2010.
I am in a few competitive fantasy football leagues this year. Of course all of them are different types ranging from auction drafts, snake drafts, 10 team leagues to 12 and 14 teams. I did my research and did my best to have strategies for each of them. It makes it hard to put together a plan when all the leagues you are in are so different. So I had a few strategies for the GOI auction draft. I figured I would see how the draft played out and try a combo of them. That turned out to not be a good idea.
My first pick was Maurice Jones-Drew for $66 after I missed out on Chris Johnson for $69 and Adrian Peterson for $65. TBO got AD as a steal and everyone thought he paid a lot, but it obviously was a bargain. As you see MJD for $66 was stupid. I would have been much better paying that for Peterson or Chris Johnson. Going into the draft I was targeting MJD because he is steady, gets a lot of TD, catches a bit for this PPR league, and one of the most consistent safest players to take in my opinion. Another big reason I was targeting him was I thought I could get him for a discount thinking people would get in bidding wars and over pay for Peterson, Johnson, Ray Rice who is a PPR stud, and Frank Gore who I think has a lot of upside even though he is a top 5 guy. For some reason this didn’t happen and I didn’t want to lose out on MJD because then my team would of had a big hole and missing a stud anchor.
My second pick was Greg Jennings for $25 who I feel has a lot of upside. My goal was to get Jennings at $20, but like all of my players except Jeremy Maclin I overpaid for him. I love Jennings this year and think he will rebound from last year’s disappointing season. Last year he only had 4 TD with 9 and 12 the previous years respectively, so I think that number will go up. With that said, he isn’t an ideal PPR player because last year he only had 68 receptions last. In 2008-09 he had 80, with 53 in 2007-08. I feel like his receptions this season should be similar as they were last year, with 2008-09 just being an outlier year. Thus, I like Jennings as my second receiver, not my first receiver which he turned out to be!
With this being a partial points per reception league for my number one receiver I was obviously targeting guys who caught a lot of passes last year. Andre Johnson led the league last year with 115 catches, but Sexy Rexy beat me out for at $49. Wes Welker looks like he is making a very quick comeback, but I didn’t want to take that risk for $24, but in retrospect that might have been a good investment. With Brandon Marshall switching teams and playing with a unproven QB I was concerned. Fourth in receptions last year was Larry Fitzgerald, but with no QB I didn’t want to pay $29. T.J. Houshmandzadeh was 5th in receptions last season and has always been a good possessions receiver. He was a steal for $9 and I don’t know why I didn’t on him because he would have been a receiver for me even at 12 or 13 dollars. Roddy White was a guy I was targeting but stopped bidding at $30. I thought Michael Crabtree would be a good value, but I was surprised he went for $25. Dwayne Bowe had 80 receptions last year and Anquan Boldin had 89 so both were on my list of players to target. So I lost out on all of these receivers that I wanted so I settled on Jeremy Maclin for $9. I wish I would have bided a few more dollars for T.J. Houshmandzadeh though; who I think went underrated in this draft being a PPR league. TBO drafted DeSean Jackson for $16 and Marques Colston for $19 which were both great steals at those prices, even in an auction draft. I like Maclin, but wish I had a better receiver than him to go along with Jennings.
With my two receivers set I needed a QB and that was an ugly story folks. I really like Kevin Kolb and thought I could get him for a steal under $10. Obviously other people liked him because I got in a bidding war for him where I won at………………………………$16 which was way over priced. The problem was I liked him better than Cutler, Eli Manning, Matt Ryan, and all of the guys I would have liked better, Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Brees, and more realistically Tony Romo, Matt Schaub, and Tom Brady were off the board. Funny story about Tom Brady, the guy who drafted him accidentally bided on him for $60 and he already had Rodgers! So I felt I needed Kolb and way overpaid for him. You should be noticing a trend with my Team now, I missed out on all of the players I wanted or overpaid for the ones I wanted!
I needed to get two RB for my flex and second RB spot. I got my guy Ryan Grant for $38, about 9 dollars more than I wanted to spend on him. He is a good RB, but doesn’t catch much at all. I also had to over pay for Arian Foster who I was hoping to get around 10 at $16. People made fun of me for this move, but all the RB left at this time who I liked such as Michael Bush and Justin Forsett aren’t the starting RB and have a logjam of guys with them, while foster is the guy. So I liked this move.
My computer timed out during the draft and got me a kicker in Nate Kaeding at $12, which is 10 dollars more than I would have paid for a kicker. Over paying a lot for Kevin Kolb, Nate Kaeding, and to some degree Ryan Grant and Arian Foster I didn’t have any money left over for my bench. My bench is an embarrassment and barley serviceable with Mohamed Massaquoi, Fred Taylor (Patriots), Matt Hasselbeck, James Jones for when Driver shows his age, Chris Chambers, and Golden Tate.
As you should be able to tell by now, I don’t like my team, especially for a PPR league. We will see how the season plays out though
View the GOI fantasy team at http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/goi and vote on who you think the preseason favorites are.
View Sexy Rexy's take on the draft in Part II here
View Part I here
The GOI Football Draft Wrap-Up Special, Part II
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We are tonight's entertainment!On the last Saturday of August, I spent six hours drafting. I spent the day at my buddy Bennett’s place (whom I have a few board bets with) because he was in both of the leagues that had drafts on this Saturday. During our first draft, we popped in The Dark Knight to help pass the time. There’s a scene in the movie in which Harvey Dent is lying in his hospital bed when The Joker comes to visit him. The Joker tells Dent:
I just did what I do best. I took your little plan and I turned it on itself. Look what I did to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets. Hmmm? You know... You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan." But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!Besides the obvious, what The Joker is talking about is expectations. When we expect things to go one way, and they don’t, we get upset. But if we expect things to go a certain way, even if what you expect is bad, and it does go the way you planned- well then we don’t get upset. If you’re waiting for a table at a restaurant and the hostess tells you the wait will be an hour, you get a bit upset but you love this restaurant and you go sit down and sulk. However, to your amazement, the wait was only a half hour so you’re pleasantly surprised to wait only 30 minutes. Now let’s say the waitress tells you the wait will only be five minutes. You go and sit down and smile because you’re not going to be sitting down for very long. But then 15 minutes rolls around and you’re table isn’t ready. 20 minutes roll around and you’re table isn’t ready. 25 minutes roll around and you’re table isn’t ready. Finally after 30 long minutes you’re table is ready. In both these scenarios it took you 30 minutes to get a table, yet you’re happier in the end when the hostess told you it would be an hour wait as opposed to the five minute wait. And that’s because of the expectations that were set up from the get-go.
And that’s why I felt upset during this 14 team Game Of Inches auction draft. (My second of the night).
And here… we… go!Actually before we begin, go to http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/goi to see who drafted who and vote on who you think the preseason favorites are.
Like all good fantasy players, I made sure to do my research before the draft. Admittedly I could have done more, looking extensively at all 32 teams and analyzing their offense like I did the Baltimore Ravens. But alas I did not. But what I did do is enter plenty of mock drafts to see how I should rank and pay for the players I wanted. I made a list of every position and assigned a dollar amount to these positions of how much I wanted and was willing to spend based upon my mock drafts.
Unfortunately how the computers spent money in mocks seemed to be drastically different than how my fellow drafters spent their money in my league. And because my expectations changed, I was very upset at the end of the draft.
Look at you! What do you believe in, huh? WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN!?I believed in the stars and scrubs approach in this draft. I spent most of money on three players: Frank Gore ($61), Tony Romo ($26), and Andre Johnson ($49). In a .5 PPR league, I’m a big fan of Gore and Johnson. I had allocated $62 to spent on a top tier running back and I put in bids of Rice, Johnson, MJD, AD, and Michael Turner (the man I actually wanted). Unfortunately all those backs went for more than $62 so I was “stuck” with Gore. I don’t like the fact that he’s really injury prone but he’s very good at catching the ball and I expect about 50-60 receptions for him this year. I love Andre Johnson. Normally WR don’t perform as well as RB and QB, but I trust that Johnson will. And especially considering he’ll be AT LEAST top 3 in receptions this year, I didn’t mind that I had to pay a lot for Johnson. Especially considering I was willing to pay $50 for him.
The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules. And tonight you're gonna break your one rule.Now my Tony Romo pick I like and I don’t like. I had only allocated $21 to the QB position, but I wanted and needed a top tier QB. My plan was to put in $21 bids for Rodgers, Brady, Manning, Brees, and Romo and if I missed all of them then I’d wait on Joe Flacco. Unfortunately Bennett spit out Joe Flacco while Manning, Brees, and Romo were still on the board and got him for $16. I couldn’t in good faith risk paying for Flacco at that point in the draft (although now I wish I had). But when Manning and Brees both left the pool, I knew I had to get Tony Romo at whatever cost. This meant paying five more bucks than I actually wanted.
I know the truth: there's no going back. You've changed things... forever.I also only allocated $9 to my TE position and even though TE don’t nearly produce the same fantasy results as RBs and QBs and many WRs, I wasn’t going to get stuck with Greg Olson (as I did in my ten team draft a few hours earlier) and with Clark, Gates, Witten, Celek, Davis, Finley and Daniels already off the board I needed to get Tony Gonzalez- which cost me $11. But now that I had overspent an extra $7, I couldn’t pay for many of the sleepers I had wanted to get. While $7 doesn’t seem like a lot of money, when my sleepers Mike Wallace and Reggie Bush went for $10 each and my max budget was $6 at the time both went off the board, that extra seven dollars really could have come in handy.
After my boy Mike Wallace went to my hated rival TBO and Malcolm Floyd went for $8, I loaded up on cheap WR sleepers I liked- like Steve Breaston, Julian Edelman, and Anthony Gonzalez hoping that at least one pan out. I even tried spending $6 on Johnny Knox but he went for $9. I also have what I believe to be the #1 wide receiver and this is a 14 team league- which means the 28th best wide out will still work out well for me.
Now If I could go back I probably would have spent money on Reggie Wayne ($33), Randy Moss ($34), or even Brandon Marshall ($30) so I could pair them with better sleepers and wide outs. But c’est la vie. There’s no going back.
I am very good with calculations.I did think I allocated some money appropriately. I wanted to spend $24 on a second RB and I spent that much on Felix Jones. (Ideally I wanted Matt Forte but he was still out there and I didn’t want to risk of losing out on both Jones and Forte- who ended up going for $25). I also wanted to spent $14 on my flex RB position and I ended up getting Ahmad Bradshaw for $12. Last year I LOVED Brandon Jacobs and I wasted my first round draft pick on him. So you’d think I’d hate him but when training camp and pre-season started, I still liked Jacobs and thought he would be a post hype sleeper and I could get top tier talent for cheap. But as training camp went on and pre-season games went underway and reports of the New York running back situation came out, logic just told me that Bradshaw would perform better than Jacobs. But my heart’s still for B.J.
And I thought my jokes were bad.
See, I'm a man of simple tastes. I like dynamite, and gunpowder and gasoline! Do you know what all of these things have in common? They're cheap!You know what else came cheap, the rest of my team. I like Chad Henne a lot so as my back up QB I got him for $2, I also got a back up TE (Kevin Boss, $1) and a back up RB (Bernard Scott, $1) and as well as the best K (Jeff Reed, $1) and D/ST (Washington, $1) left on the board. I also got L.T. for three bucks. The guy can't run anymore but I expect Shonn Greene to be out for an extended period of time, that Jets O-line is amazing, and they LOVE to run the ball. Also part of the reason I couldn't spend money on Bush or Wallace but his value was too good for me to pass up
-Did she believe you?Cubsfan and I have a board bet Arian Foster vs. Steve Slaton. I took Foster. Cubsfan took Slaton. I love the talent of Slaton more than I do of Foster, but this bet is about fantasy football and I think the Texans like Foster more than Slaton and thus will get more carries (a lot actually) and be more fantasy relevant. Apparently Cubsfan agrees with this sentiment because him and I were duking it out for Foster when his name got spit out. The $14 allocation that I used on Ahmad Bradshaw was meant for Foster. But apparently Cubsfan liked Foster more because he paid $16 for him.
-Yes
-Of course she did. Because she trusts you!
Now, for obvious reasons, no one except me can know the location for now. But rest assured, your money is safe.For one member of this GOI league, his money was safe, because he still had $109 left at the end of the draft. The reason for this was because he autodrafted. At one point we got lucky and only had 2 out of the 14 members autodraft. But towards the end we had about 4-5 that weren’t picking for themselves. The computer loved to drive up the value on some crappy players (like Vincent Jackson and Sidney Rice) and made drafting for us real humans annoying sometimes. But we got the last laugh because not only did the computer spend more than a dollar for these teams kickers, they made sure these teams had two.
Why so serious?At the end of the draft when my expectations weren’t met and a lot of players I wanted and were targeting did not fall to me and when the players I ended up getting costs too much for me- I was upset. I was in a bad mood. I walked back to my place cranky.
The night is darkest just before the dawn. And believe me, the dawn is comingBut after I’ve had a night to sleep on it and briefly trying to work out a trade with TBO to get either/or Mike Wallace and Reggie Bush, I like my team. While I didn’t get the top sleepers on my list, I did get ones that I have full faith in. While I don’t believe with full 100% confidence that Felix Jones will emerge as Dallas’ #1 back, I do love the man’s talent and do think the price I paid for him is reasonable. I do like Ahmad Bradshaw in my flex, I still like the top of my team. I also think I have a legitimate chance of making the playoffs after looking at everyone else’s team. So when my last pick was in the books and I sat at my seat a bit ticked off, I was in the dark. But the night is darkest just before the dawn.
If you're good at something, never do it for free.On a final note, good friend of GOI FFSpin (who was in our draft) told me during the draft that he started up a new website called fantasyfootballcrystalball.com. For only a $15 subscription, you can get more and great fantasy football advice. I know I’m signing up for it. And when he probably defeats me and wins this league, you’ll see why paying for his service will be worth it.
So here's how my team turned out
QB- Tony Romo ($26)
QB- Chad Henne ($2)
RB- Frank Gore ($62)
RB- Felix Jones ($24)
RB- Ahmad Bradshaw ($12)
RB- LaDanian Tomlinson ($3)
RB- Bernard Scott ($1)
WR- Andre Johnson ($49)
WR- Steve Breaston ($4)
WR- Anthony Gonzalez ($2)
WR- Julian Edelman ($1)
TE- Tony Gonzalez ($11)
TE- Kevin Boss ($1)
K- Jeff Reed ($1)
D/ST- Washington ($1)
So what do you guys think of my team? Take a look at the rest of the league and how do you think I'll fair?
Part Three, with at least Cubsfans thoughts of the draft, to come shortly.
LAST EDITOR'S NOTE: If you couldn't tell, all quotes are from The Dark Knight
The GOI Football Draft Wrap-Up Special, Part I
I am extremely tired and am going to go to bed now, but a full wrap up and analysis (from at least myself and Cubsfan) about how the draft went and our thoughts on it will come later.
For now, you can visit the league and see how we all are doing at http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/goi.
So for right now, take a look at it and tell us who do you think are the pre-season favorites to win it all?
View my thoughts in Part Two here
For now, you can visit the league and see how we all are doing at http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/goi.
So for right now, take a look at it and tell us who do you think are the pre-season favorites to win it all?
View my thoughts in Part Two here
Game Of Inches Fantasy Football League
It's football season! Sure OTA's are still going on and the GOI authors haven't visited Bears training camp this year. Oh, and the MLB All-Star break haven't happened yet, but it's time to start your fantasy football strategy!
I have created a 14 team, 1/4 PPR, auction league. If you would like to join, contact us at gameofinchesblog@gmail.com or comment on the blog and I will send you the information to join.
I won two years ago and my brother won the league last year. Can you defeat the family dominance?
I have created a 14 team, 1/4 PPR, auction league. If you would like to join, contact us at gameofinchesblog@gmail.com or comment on the blog and I will send you the information to join.
I won two years ago and my brother won the league last year. Can you defeat the family dominance?
New "Baseball Board Bet" Page On GOI
Because we know you really care about our opinion and because we at GOI love to make bets about baseball, and instead of making a sister blog where only two members can contribute to the betting (deep breath in), we at GOI have decided to create a "Baseball Board Bet" page for all the board bets the GOI contributors decide to make with ourselves which can be accessed on the right side of the blog. Enjoy!
More People Like GOI Than The NJ Nets
According to the Huffington Post, only about 1,000 fans showed up to their loss recently to the Milwaukee Bucks.
This as opposed to a recent GOI article that was read by 20,000 people.
GOI- at least we're better than the New Jersey Nets
This as opposed to a recent GOI article that was read by 20,000 people.
GOI- at least we're better than the New Jersey Nets
Advertise On Game Of Inches!
Game Of Inches is an all-inclusive sports commentary analysis website. The majority of the material focuses on baseball, football, basketball and hockey, while the tone of the material ranges from humorous to sarcastic and critical to serious. About 60% of the site is focused on analytical material, some of which has been featured of MLBTradeRumors, BallHype and various SB Nation-affiliates.
Game Of Inches is oriented towards sports enthusiasts and averages just under 400 visitors and approximately 525 page visits per day. We are (or at least were, at some point) also one of the top results returned when you search "lesbians" on Google Images without turning off the search filter.
If you are interested in advertising in any form on Game Of Inches, please can contact us by clicking here or by sending an email to Gameofinchesblog@gmail.com. We ask that you please place "advertising" in the subject line.
Game Of Inches is oriented towards sports enthusiasts and averages just under 400 visitors and approximately 525 page visits per day. We are (or at least were, at some point) also one of the top results returned when you search "lesbians" on Google Images without turning off the search filter.
If you are interested in advertising in any form on Game Of Inches, please can contact us by clicking here or by sending an email to Gameofinchesblog@gmail.com. We ask that you please place "advertising" in the subject line.
We're On A Mission...Year 2
It was just a short year ago that David "MVP" Eckstein uttered these revolutionary words that began the phenomenon that is GameOfInches
With the recent death of FireJoeMorgan.com, and thus all hilarious sports commentary -- unless you count the frequent and unintentionally hilarious, but stupid comments made nightly by Steve Phillips, Steven A. Smith and John Kruk (which we do) -- four bold men embarked on a simple mission: to do sports commentary online...for free (seriously, fuck paying for shit). They began with a simple purpose. A simple, but noble purpose, with a rock-solid plan-of-action to back it up...All we have to say is if you're not first, you're last. So Deadspin, look out cause we're coming for you. Unless we get drunk again in which case this new template will have to do
...but then they got drunk. What resulted was this website. Too lazy and hung over to change things, they said "fuck it" and used this template and host name to forever complain about all things "point-related." The rest is, was, and will be history.
Enjoy.
-December 8, 2008
Call Me Crazy, But Bert Blyleven Deserves To Be In The Hall Of Fame
(Skip down two paragraphs if you are not interested in reading my teary-eyed introduction)
Today, December 8, is the one-year anniversary of the creation of the Game Of Inches blog. We began our blog with a mission: "to prove that God doesn't exist and that athletes are merely cold, metal machines with no souls or heart." With the then-recent death of FireJoeMorgan.com and an ever growing appreciation of the deeper stories in baseball -- those told below the surface of Batting Average and ERA --we started a blog to join the realm of sabermetrics fans everywhere and help penetrate the myths, while often trying to be funny and relevant along the way.
It all began with a single post, written late one night, following a heated argument with a friend about whether or not Tom Glavine deserved to be in the Hall of Fame. Though we were then-inexperienced in the ways of FIP and wOBA and the likes, we still knew of the importance of strikeouts, walks, home runs and the gallimaufry of hits, total stolen bases, wins and ERA. From that post sprung many more and today we at Game Of Inches sit proudly today, exactly 1,200 posts later, having grown from nothing into what we are today. We would proudly like to thank you, the 400+ readers who visit this site daily, and Google Images, for making us the #1 search result for "lesbians."
It is only fitting that in honor of our anniversary and first post that I follow it up by expounding upon a question I raised in passing 365 days ago: why is Bert Blyleven not in the Hall Of Fame?
In the long, traditional and tainted history of baseball, you will find few players who were as good as Bert Blyleven. A pitcher who spent 86% of his career in the AL, Blyleven was not only one of the most durable pitchers to ever play the game (14th all time in innings pitched), but he also played each and every one of those innings, up until the last few years of his career, remarkably well and consistently. Blyleven was not just "good" at baseball, he was nothing short of great, and unlike Javier Vazquez, he did not underperform his stellar peripherals.
In terms of the topical, traditional and irrelevant statistics, Blyleven's career 3.31 ERA puts him in company with current/future Hall Of Famers Randy Johnson (career 3.29 ERA), Fergie Jenkins (career 3.34 ERA), Phil Niekro (career 3.35 ERA), and Robin Roberts (3.41 ERA). His ERA is also lower than that of Tom Glavine (career 3.54 ERA). You like wins? His 287 wins are give him one more than Robin Roberts, and makes him 27th all time. Only six other players in the history of baseball who have more wins than Blyleven (Tommy
John (288), Bobby Mathews (297), Randy Johnson (303), Tom Glavine (305), Roger Clemens (354), and Greg Maddux (355)) are not currently in the hall of fame, and five years from now, that number will dwindle down to two. Many pitchers with less wins are already in. Furthermore, Blyleven was never known as a jerk or cheater or drug user like Albert Belle, Ron Santo, Tim Raines, Kenny Rogers, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, et al. (to the contrary,he has a good sense of humor). But wins don't really matter, attitude has nothing to do with talent and production on the field, and a career ERA may tell much about a pitcher's success over the years, but it does not necessarily showcase a pitcher's true talent (see Javier Vazquez). However, these are three of the most common factors by which voters approve or deny players into the Hall Of Fame. How Blyleven, who performed remarkably well in his surface stats and other irrelevant, but considered aspects of the game is not given due credit (he only got the nod from 62.7% voters last year) is downright puzzling.
Below the very quality surface stats, however, you find an even more impressive skill set. Bert Blyleven ended his career with a 3.19 FIP over almost 5,000 innings pitched, making him top 50 all time amongst starting pitchers who threw 2500+ innings. A 3.19 FIP puts Blyleven in.jpg)
company with such current/future Hall Of Famers as Steve Carlton (career 3.15 FIP) and Jim Bunning (3.22 FIP) and ahead of such guys as Don Sutton (career 3.24 FIP), Greg Maddux (career 3.26 FIP), Fergie Jenkins (3.28 FIP), Dennis Eckersley (career 3.40 FIP), and Phil Niekro (career 3.60 FIP). In fact, Blyleven's FIP was only above 3.00 twice during his first ninemajor league seasons (one of which was his rookie year). Over those first nine years of his career, his career high FIP was 3.27. In his career, his FIP was above 4 only three times. His BB/9 was only three times above 3.00 in a season and only once above 3.50. Blyleven's K/9 (6.70 career) was also above average each season until his final three in the majors. With the exception of his final three seasons -- over which Blyleven's K/BB was 2.98, 2.76, and 2.41 -- Blyleven's K/9 was never below 6.0.
Blyleven's numbers are so good because his control was superb. It was not Greg Maddux like, but his career 2.39 BB/9 is none the less fantastic. Blyleven posted a career 2.80 K/BB mark, which is top 35 amongst all pitchers who threw 2000+ innings (top 25 amongst all pitchers with 2500+ innings). And just in case Blyleven's career 2.80 K/BB does not sound sweet enough, between 1970 and 1992, the league average K/BB was only above 1.75 once (1988).
Fangraphs does not have any groundball data available for any season prior to 2002, but it is well known that Blyleven had a fantastic curveball and he kept the ball in the yard plenty with a 0.78 HR/9.
In sum, we have the portrait of a pitcher with great peripherals and quality surface stats.
Blyleven was an almost entirely AL pitcher with a good reputation, a lot of wins, great control (in terms of both BB/9 and K/BB), and a very quality FIP and ERA. His 3,701 career strikeouts are fifth all time and he's better than many of the pitchers who are already honored (some of whom should not be...) in the halls of history in Cooperstown, NY. Blyleven was one of baseball's true greats and he is for some befuddling reason (perhaps it's the superfluous lack of 300 wins or the fact that Joe Morgan hates all non-Joe Morgan players) overlooked every year.
Blyleven still has a handful more years upon which his name will appear on the annual HOF ballot, but time is running out. The world of baseball needs to take a second look at Blyleven's career before it's too late and hopefully, in the process, the world of baseball will also catch notice of the career of Mike Mussina.
Today, December 8, is the one-year anniversary of the creation of the Game Of Inches blog. We began our blog with a mission: "to prove that God doesn't exist and that athletes are merely cold, metal machines with no souls or heart." With the then-recent death of FireJoeMorgan.com and an ever growing appreciation of the deeper stories in baseball -- those told below the surface of Batting Average and ERA --we started a blog to join the realm of sabermetrics fans everywhere and help penetrate the myths, while often trying to be funny and relevant along the way.
It all began with a single post, written late one night, following a heated argument with a friend about whether or not Tom Glavine deserved to be in the Hall of Fame. Though we were then-inexperienced in the ways of FIP and wOBA and the likes, we still knew of the importance of strikeouts, walks, home runs and the gallimaufry of hits, total stolen bases, wins and ERA. From that post sprung many more and today we at Game Of Inches sit proudly today, exactly 1,200 posts later, having grown from nothing into what we are today. We would proudly like to thank you, the 400+ readers who visit this site daily, and Google Images, for making us the #1 search result for "lesbians."
It is only fitting that in honor of our anniversary and first post that I follow it up by expounding upon a question I raised in passing 365 days ago: why is Bert Blyleven not in the Hall Of Fame?
In the long, traditional and tainted history of baseball, you will find few players who were as good as Bert Blyleven. A pitcher who spent 86% of his career in the AL, Blyleven was not only one of the most durable pitchers to ever play the game (14th all time in innings pitched), but he also played each and every one of those innings, up until the last few years of his career, remarkably well and consistently. Blyleven was not just "good" at baseball, he was nothing short of great, and unlike Javier Vazquez, he did not underperform his stellar peripherals.
In terms of the topical, traditional and irrelevant statistics, Blyleven's career 3.31 ERA puts him in company with current/future Hall Of Famers Randy Johnson (career 3.29 ERA), Fergie Jenkins (career 3.34 ERA), Phil Niekro (career 3.35 ERA), and Robin Roberts (3.41 ERA). His ERA is also lower than that of Tom Glavine (career 3.54 ERA). You like wins? His 287 wins are give him one more than Robin Roberts, and makes him 27th all time. Only six other players in the history of baseball who have more wins than Blyleven (Tommy
John (288), Bobby Mathews (297), Randy Johnson (303), Tom Glavine (305), Roger Clemens (354), and Greg Maddux (355)) are not currently in the hall of fame, and five years from now, that number will dwindle down to two. Many pitchers with less wins are already in. Furthermore, Blyleven was never known as a jerk or cheater or drug user like Albert Belle, Ron Santo, Tim Raines, Kenny Rogers, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, et al. (to the contrary,he has a good sense of humor). But wins don't really matter, attitude has nothing to do with talent and production on the field, and a career ERA may tell much about a pitcher's success over the years, but it does not necessarily showcase a pitcher's true talent (see Javier Vazquez). However, these are three of the most common factors by which voters approve or deny players into the Hall Of Fame. How Blyleven, who performed remarkably well in his surface stats and other irrelevant, but considered aspects of the game is not given due credit (he only got the nod from 62.7% voters last year) is downright puzzling.Below the very quality surface stats, however, you find an even more impressive skill set. Bert Blyleven ended his career with a 3.19 FIP over almost 5,000 innings pitched, making him top 50 all time amongst starting pitchers who threw 2500+ innings. A 3.19 FIP puts Blyleven in
.jpg)
company with such current/future Hall Of Famers as Steve Carlton (career 3.15 FIP) and Jim Bunning (3.22 FIP) and ahead of such guys as Don Sutton (career 3.24 FIP), Greg Maddux (career 3.26 FIP), Fergie Jenkins (3.28 FIP), Dennis Eckersley (career 3.40 FIP), and Phil Niekro (career 3.60 FIP). In fact, Blyleven's FIP was only above 3.00 twice during his first ninemajor league seasons (one of which was his rookie year). Over those first nine years of his career, his career high FIP was 3.27. In his career, his FIP was above 4 only three times. His BB/9 was only three times above 3.00 in a season and only once above 3.50. Blyleven's K/9 (6.70 career) was also above average each season until his final three in the majors. With the exception of his final three seasons -- over which Blyleven's K/BB was 2.98, 2.76, and 2.41 -- Blyleven's K/9 was never below 6.0.Blyleven's numbers are so good because his control was superb. It was not Greg Maddux like, but his career 2.39 BB/9 is none the less fantastic. Blyleven posted a career 2.80 K/BB mark, which is top 35 amongst all pitchers who threw 2000+ innings (top 25 amongst all pitchers with 2500+ innings). And just in case Blyleven's career 2.80 K/BB does not sound sweet enough, between 1970 and 1992, the league average K/BB was only above 1.75 once (1988).
Fangraphs does not have any groundball data available for any season prior to 2002, but it is well known that Blyleven had a fantastic curveball and he kept the ball in the yard plenty with a 0.78 HR/9.
In sum, we have the portrait of a pitcher with great peripherals and quality surface stats.
Blyleven was an almost entirely AL pitcher with a good reputation, a lot of wins, great control (in terms of both BB/9 and K/BB), and a very quality FIP and ERA. His 3,701 career strikeouts are fifth all time and he's better than many of the pitchers who are already honored (some of whom should not be...) in the halls of history in Cooperstown, NY. Blyleven was one of baseball's true greats and he is for some befuddling reason (perhaps it's the superfluous lack of 300 wins or the fact that Joe Morgan hates all non-Joe Morgan players) overlooked every year.Blyleven still has a handful more years upon which his name will appear on the annual HOF ballot, but time is running out. The world of baseball needs to take a second look at Blyleven's career before it's too late and hopefully, in the process, the world of baseball will also catch notice of the career of Mike Mussina.
Sports: A Game Of Inches (And Lesbians)
So I was trolling thru GOI's referral page data and I kept noticing that a lot of people were getting referred to this post by Google Images. And I couldn't figure out why. That is until I Googled "lesbians." Check it bitches (click to enlarge):
That's right. We're the number one result for the search result for "lesbians" under Google Images' default safe-search setting. Not a porn site. Not an LGBT activist site. A sports blog.
Welcome to Game Of Inches. Home of sports analysis, humor and lesbians.
That's right. We're the number one result for the search result for "lesbians" under Google Images' default safe-search setting. Not a porn site. Not an LGBT activist site. A sports blog.
Welcome to Game Of Inches. Home of sports analysis, humor and lesbians.
Welcome To The New Game Of Inches Template
In honor of our one year anniversary, we at Game Of Inches decided to give the blog a new, more professional image. We hope you enjoy the makeover. Maybe now Chris Rongey will visit our blog.
(PS, please click our ads)
(PS, please click our ads)
BRB
Our apologies folks, but two of the four writers are in law school and another is in med school and it's finals time. Bear with us, and GOI will return to full steam come late December. Till then, let's all marvel at Fred Lynn and Ichiro for winning both the MVP and ROY awards in the same season. It's a shame Fred Lynn has such a hard name to spell.
True Story: In 2001, Albert Pujols won ROY by hitting 1/2 as many homers as the MVP. Pujols hit 37 that year.
Who am I: I average 32 HRs, 89 R, 105 RBI, and 277 TB a season with a slash line of .313/.411/.591.
Hint: I am awesome at baseball.
True Story: In 2001, Albert Pujols won ROY by hitting 1/2 as many homers as the MVP. Pujols hit 37 that year.
Who am I: I average 32 HRs, 89 R, 105 RBI, and 277 TB a season with a slash line of .313/.411/.591.
Hint: I am awesome at baseball.
Sports: A Game Of Inches is Officially Worth $27!
Sell! Sell! Sell!
According to this website value calculator, our website is worth $27!
(only $46,039,999,973 behind Google)
We're also one of the top 4,000,000 websites in the world!
Profit in the bank, baby.
(Oh, and we're not exactly kid friendly)
According to this website value calculator, our website is worth $27!
(only $46,039,999,973 behind Google)
We're also one of the top 4,000,000 websites in the world!
Profit in the bank, baby.
(Oh, and we're not exactly kid friendly)
Sexy Rexy Is Getting People To Visit GOI! Sort Of...
So I've been posting my football stuff on footballoutsiders.com message boards. Considering I use some pretty advanced statistics, even for the GOI authors, what better forum to explain myself than on the site that created the advanced statistics. Here's a comment I got from my Cedric Benson post:
Your welcome zhengyiquan, glad I could help!
Fascinating. I targeted Benson in several leagues based on an article I read about how he admitted he'd been lazy (for lack of a better word) in Chicago, that getting cut for him was a wake-up call, and that he was newly motivated as a result. Interesting to see that he's actually getting help. Thanks for the link!
Your welcome zhengyiquan, glad I could help!
Grad School, Shmad School!
Even though three of the GOI authors are either in law school or med school, this post will be the 97th post we've done this month, and there's still eight more days left in the month. At this pace, we should far exceed our record posts per month, which was 121 back in April. We're on pace to write 132.
So who says being in an institution of higher learning doesn't give you time so write posts that maybe about a hundred people will read!
So who says being in an institution of higher learning doesn't give you time so write posts that maybe about a hundred people will read!
