SB Nation User Blog: Jesse28

This just in, GT can throw the ball!

Jesse28 — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:39:36 -0000

This just in, GT can throw the ball!

Most of us here already knew this, but I thought I would help spread the good word.

Friday Random10

Jesse28 — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:16:40 -0000

Since someone has been slacking with this post recently and because I love music and miss the Random10, I've decided to post mine. It's Friday, work is slow since I put all the fires out yesterday (costing me a visit to see the Hawks play the Heat), and music is good mmkay?! Feel free to post yours!

1. The Hollow - A Perfect Circle

2.Crawl Away (Demo) - Tool

3. Forfeit - Chevelle

4. Sugar - System of a Down

5. Old Soul Song - Bright Eyes

6. Points Of Authority/99Problems (Live) - Linkin Park & Jay-Z

7. The Everlasting Gaze - Smashing Pumpkins

8. Zodiaccupuncture - Aesop Rock

9. Madagascar - De Facto

10. Lightning Song - Queens of the Stone Age

My player went all rock on me. I need to add some new stuff I got recently (Silversun Pickups, Drake, Owl City, etc.)

Congrats and thanks Green Nation

Jesse28 — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:23:56 -0000

Dear Green Nation,

Congratulations on your new signing of Michael Vick! Being a lifelong Falcoholic, I obviously was highly disappointed regarding Vick's situation. But, more importantly, I also know that there is a clear separation between on-field performance and off-field performance, and Vick has always been hands-down one of the most electrifying and dangerous players on the field.

I think Philly is a great place for Vick to slowly work his way back into the league. You have a great QB in McNabb, running a system Vick is familiar with, and by all accounts, a great organization that will help Vick stay true. This signing is very clearly a low risk/high reward situation. Best case, you guys end up with one of the best wild cards to have ever played the game. Worst case, you use him as trade bait for a few picks later.

Ignore all the nay-sayers and holier-than-thou types, they'll do nothing but try and drag you down into their weak state of minds. Vick has served his time and paid his dues, he owes none of us anything. So, I say thank you Green Nation for providing Vick the opportunity to make his comeback. Being an avid Vick fan, this just gives me one more reason to despise the Eagles, as if '04 wasn't reason enough, haha!

Sincerely,

Jesse

VPI RB Darren Evans done for 09 with blown ACL

Jesse28 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:57:13 -0000

VPI RB Darren Evans done for 09 with blown ACL

Horrible news for Evans and VPI, but it definitely changes things in the ACC landscape. Looks like all the talking heads will need to adjust their predictions as I would say that GT should be firmly placed at the head of the Coastal Division.

VPI is excited, mmmkay!!!!

Jesse28 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:17:40 -0000

VPI is excited, mmmkay!!!!

VPI football players getting ready for the upcoming season, curtesy of SBN's SmokingMusket.

Falcoholic Yahoo Keeper league

Jesse28 — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:47:02 -0000

I have created a 12 team Head-2-Head Keeper league for those that would like to their hand at building a franchise and becoming a dynasty for all ages. Obviously the first draft will be 100% new players, but starting next year we will get to keep a select few for the 2010 season. Click on my profile and email me if you would like to join. I will then send out the Group ID# and PW to you individually so as to not get any spammers.

I was planning on doing it first-come first-serve, but feel free to object in the comments here.

Salary Cap Fantasy League Open

Jesse28 — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:02:19 -0000

For all of those that would like to try a Salary Cap fantasy football league, I have created one on Yahoo called Falcoholics Anonymous. Salary Cap football is where each manager gets a starting salary cap (in this case $100.00 million) with which to fill a minimum roster of skill positions. Each player is assigned a dollar value with no player being worth less than $1mil. Each those values will be adjusted based on performance. Each manager has to fill a complete roster each week to earn any points for that week.

Also, one of my favorite things about this style of fantasy football league is that each manager could possibly have the some of the same players on their teams. For example, since we are all Falcoholics, it is possible that many of us will have Ryan, Turner, and TG on our teams. Another nice thing is that it's based on a group environment so the number of managers for the group is unlimited. This gives everyone here an opportunity to compete against each other and see who the better GM is! For more complete rules, go here.

Continue after the jump for instructions on how to join Falcoholics Anonymous!

The first step is to visit Yahoo and create an account if you don't already have one. It's free and comes with email and all that jazz, but any site that you are going to go with for any type of fantasy is going to require creating a registered account with them. I've been using Yahoo since the mid-late 90's and each year they get better and better, so I'll endorse them.

Once you have your base account created, simply go to the Salary Cap page (linked for your convenience), make sure you are signed into your Yahoo user account, and click on Play Now. From here, create your team name and adjust your personal settings (email, notifications, etc.).

After that, click on Join A Group and enter the Group ID# and Password I have provided below. Congratulations, you are now officially a member of The Falcoholics Anonymous! From here you can go to the group page or to your team's page and start filling your roster.

Enjoy fellow Falcoholics!

Group ID#: 1476

Password: dirtybird

From The Rumble Seat now live!

Jesse28 — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:35:46 -0000

From The Rumble Seat now live!

This is for all the GT fans that have been wondering why there wasn't a place for us to go on SBN. The guys from LegacyX4 (http://thelegacyx4.blogspot.com/) have moved over to SBN, so why don't you head on over and spread the good word: TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!

Fantasy Football Leagues Part 2 - So many options, what does it all mean?

Jesse28 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:28:55 -0000

Since it’s never too early to discuss the coming NFL season, I thought it could never be too early to discuss something else involving professional football, that being fantasy football leagues. This will be a two part discussion with the first intended for the uninitiated or new participants to fantasy sports, in general terms, and the second going into further detail with regards to fantasy football specifically.

This post will cover the some basic steps in getting started in the fantasy football realm, as well as help describe many of the options available upon starting. I will try to explain the different styles, scoring formats, and subtleties involved with fantasy football in hopes of helping someone to decide what might provide the most rewarding experience. So, if you’re feeling a little cramped Alice, just drink the Falcohol I’m serving and you’ll be normal in no time, I promise!

So, now that those basics are covered and you have decided to join the millions of people in the wet wild web, what do you do? Most sites will require that you are a registered member so pick one that you feel comfortable with and sign up. My main email provider is Yahoo, and you could easily make your choice based on that alone. Also, because I am most familiar with Yahoo’s service, I will provide information from that experience, but a lot of these details will serve you across most sites.

Once you are registered, find the fantasy sports section and then choose Fantasy Football. There will be plenty of links to take you to all sorts of info about how that site runs its service, from rules concerning different sports or styles of leagues within one sport, to simple FAQ’s that might solve many of your inquiries. Feel free to peruse those as needed.

After that you will probably have two or three options presented to you. You could create your own custom league with your own custom rules and settings and invite friends and family to it, you could join a public league with a bunch of random people using the site’s default rules and settings, and in some cases you will have the choice between pay leagues and free leagues. Choose what suits you and follow the on-screen steps to get set up and you’ll be off in no time!

In fantasy football there are a bevy of options to choose from so I’ll try to cover as much as I can. There are two primary types of leagues, Single Season leagues and Keeper leagues. Single Season leagues are exactly that, you get to manage one team for one season and then next year you start over completely. Keeper leagues allow you to draft your team then hold a certain number of players from season to season, much like a real franchise. Keeper leagues are fun, but manager turnover can sometimes cause problems if it’s not organized. I like both styles equally because they offer completely different experiences. A lot of people like having that chance to start fresh each season. Some people like the franchise feel. I do both so I suggest trying both for a few seasons, especially if you are just getting started.

There are also two other types of leagues that might interest you, Suicide leagues and Salary Cap leagues. In Suicide leagues, you can have as many managers as you want. Each manager picks a team for that week. If your team wins, you move on to the next week. If not, you’re out, done, finished. Simple and crazy. I’ve won a league in Week 1 before.

In Salary Cap leagues, again, you can have as many managers as you want. Each manager gets to pick a certain number of starting players, but each player is assigned a dollar value and you have a limited number of funds available to field a team. If the limit is $1mil, then that is what you have to work with, so you probably aren’t going to field an All-Pro team. Every manager can pick from the same players, so it’s possible that some teams will be the same or close to it. Scoring is then based on stats and their respective multipliers. Highest scoring team at the end of the year wins. One other thing, the player’s values change each week depending on not only their performance, but also on how often they are dropped or added. So, if a RB that no one really had goes off and everyone picks him up in the fantasy world (not just this leagues realm), then his value is going to go up and cost you more, which can make things tricky. Some of these leagues force you to field a full squad or you get zero points for the week as well.

The next level of options is the scoring type. Whether Single Season or Keeper, you can choose from a Head-To-Head format, a pure Points format, or a hybrid H2H/Pts format. In a H2H format, the winner, or the playoff seeding if you choose to have them (see, options galore), is based off the final record of the teams and the teams go against each other every Sunday just like in the NFL. This provides a more realistic feel to your league. The scoring typically is based off who scores the most in each stat category available, with the winner of that match up getting a win. For example, if Team A had more rushing TD’s than Team B, then Team A would “win” that category. Whichever team wins the most categories gets the win for the week. In a pure Points format, each stat is assigned a point value multiplier and points are awarded based on stat accumulation each week. The winner is the highest point scorer. In the hybrid H2H/Pts format, each team faces each other every Sunday like in the H2H format, but it adds the stat multipliers to the mix. Instead of “winning” stat categories, you get points for the stats your team accrues and whichever team has the most points at the end of the week (after MNF, so Tuesday morning) gets the win for that week.

After those main options, everything else comes down to personal flavor if creating your own league, or going with the defaults when joining a public league. If you are creating you own league, you can control which stats are tracked, how much they are worth, how many starting and bench positions each team gets, and many more things. One of the most rewarding though, is the draft type. One of the biggest draws to fantasy sports is the experience of drafting your own team. And like everything else, there are options. The three to choose from are Offline, Live Online, and Auto.

An Offline draft is really where it’s at though. I’m sure everyone has seen the commercials of the guys all sitting around drafting players and laughed at the guy who can pronounce Chad “Whos-ma-nilla”, Chad “Whos-ya-mam”. Well, trust me, it never fails that at least one person will do that in every draft, especially when there is beer involved. Plus, it’s a great excuse to get everyone together, grill out, drink beer, and talk some pre-season smack.

And while the Live Online draft isn’t as good as the Offline draft, it can more than hold its own because unlike Offline darfts (sometimes, just depends on how hardcore you are I suppose), there is a time limit on picks. That can easily lead to some insane player choices. The Auto draft is simply where the site you have chosen makes all the picks for each manager based on a pre-set Player Ranking list that can be edited beforehand by each manager in the league. Simple and effective, but it doesn’t come close to the experience or the flexibility of making on-the-fly decisions.

After all that, really everything else is gravy on your league Salisbury steak, but some final things to keep in mind. Try everything. What I deem to be a user friendly site may not be for you, so while I find Yahoo to be extremely easy to navigate ad CBSSportsline to be rather tedious and annoying, you mileage will surely vary. Personally I like to use a H2H/Pts hybrid system, but you might like a strictly Points system for your league. I use individual defensive players in my leagues, but I know plenty of people who think that is too much to manage and would rather use a Defensive Team style instead. When it comes to fantasy football, definitely taste the rainbow!

Be prepared. While many sites provide all forms of information regarding individual players as well as teams, it never hurts to do a little of your own research before the draft and during the season. Part of being prepared means knowing your league and how its scoring system is working. I’ve seen a league won by a team using nothing but KR/PR guys for his WR’s because it just happened that the league’s scoring system favored returners heavily in the same year that Dante Hall was ripping off return TD’s in every single game. Some sites will show you what players would score in the current scoring system with the previous year’s stats making it so you can easily project trends.

And the final and most important thing to remember, HAVE FUN! I’ve seen long running leagues blow up over some of the most mundane things because people blew things out of proportion or got bent because something didn’t go their way. There is no need for that. If you aren’t having fun with it, try something different, be it a different site or a different scoring format. There are just too many options out there for you to not have fun.

Hopefully this answers any question people may have about fantasy football. Feel free to reply here with questions, or email me specifically. Peace!

Fantasy Football Leagues Part 1 - Is it for you?

Jesse28 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:10:36 -0000

This post will cover the five W’s of who should play, what type they should play, when they should play, where they should go to get started, why they should spend even more time in front of a computer for a silly game. So jump on in Alice, I’ve got a wonderful fantasy world for you to explore!

Personally, I have been playing fantasy sports since I was in middle school, like early 90's. Back then we did everything with pen and paper and used the Sunday edition of the AJC to keep up with stats from box scores. Thankfully, things have progressed since then and, thankfully, Al Gore invented the interwebs for us so now I don’t have to write nearly as much as I used to. No more calculators to add up cumulative stats and create percentage based stats that the paper didn’t track or provide. But, while the computer age has provided us much, I still break out the pen and paper to create strategies and personalize things my own way. Call it an old habit if you will.

I have been running leagues for over a decade now covering just about every sport you can think of. When I couldn’t find a site to provide what I wanted, I created my own just like I did back when I was a teenager. Instead of pen and paper though, I use spreadsheets and formulas. I have created fantasy college football, college baseball, and college basketball leagues in this manner since they don’t have the same following or support that professional sports do. Since this is a Falcons site, I will stick to fantasy football when covering specifics, and since I am most familiar with Yahoo, I will base the rest of this post on my experiences there, but all of the below information should mold to any sport or site you choose to participate in. So let’s start by answering the five W’s, who, what, when, where, and why.

Who should play depends, but the easiest answer is everyone. Everyone should play at least once, that is. If you like sports, regardless if it’s hardcore or casually, fantasy sports leagues will allow one to get even more involved with that sport and more importantly, their chosen team. Sure, I follow the Falcons, but managing a successful fantasy football team is more about following every player in the league than it is following one team. You know how on that one awesome Falcons site, The Falcoholic, there are always these guys posting a bunch of numbers and stats and sometimes you don’t understand what all those acronyms mean? Well, fantasy sports allows you to dive into the world of statistical analysis without doing all the dirty work and it can even act like a 'NFL Stats For Dummies' book. See, who doesn’t benefit from a little extra knowledge?

What fantasy sport you play and when you play it depends on what you like, but there is just about everything you can think of out there so you probably won’t be left out if you wanted to manage an IRL fantasy racing team. All of the major sports are covered thoroughly as well as most of the minor sports, but some will require you to find a specialty site, especially if you are looking for something in the college variety. Obviously, the sport you choose will dictate when you can find a league since all sports follow some form of season. And as far as styles go, well, those are just as varied as the sports available to choose from, so I will cover the football specific things later in the post.

Where you decide to join a fantasy league also depends on what sport you choose. As I mentioned above, most sports are well covered, but some require finding a specialty site, and in some cases you may have to create your own as I have in the past. I use Yahoo for almost all things fantasy sports related, but I have used many others such as FleaFlicker, ESPN, CBSSportline, and countless others over the years. Yahoo's leagues have gotten so much better over the years that I just stopped using other sites unless I was invited to someone's league on a different site. They have a free league and a pay league. Typically you get many more options when you pay for their Plus leagues, however, I have noticed that each year they implement more and more of the Plus league options to their free leagues, so it's really not necessary to pay unless you want to dish out cash prizes or have something very specific that you want to cover in your league. I think last year they finally let the keeper league option go to the free stuff, but can't remember. ESPN, and I believe NFL.com (though I think NFL.com merged with CBSSportsline so...), let's you do a keeper league for free, but CBSSportsline might make you pay for that option.

Why a person should choose to play fantasy sports really comes down to personal choice more than anything else. Maybe you want to be more knowledgeable about the players and teams in your favorite sport. Maybe you want to get a little office rivalry going so you have something to brag about while hanging around the water cooler. Maybe you just want something fun to do while sitting at work home, haha. Either way, for me, I say why not?

Granted this is very generic, but I’m hoping that it helps some who have never experienced the candy that is fantasy sports to take the plunge. Fantasy sports caters to many different types of people that I feel everyone should try it. From casual sports fans to hardcore staticians, fantasy sports provides something for everyone. Stay tuned for part two where I will delve more deeply into fantasy football and how to get started. Thanks for reading!