Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Fantasy Football '07 Preview

A couple quick hitters before I get into the preview:
  • Pumped about the Teixeira trade. Yes the number one priority for them was getting another starter to solidify their rotation. But literally no one was out there...Jason Jennings? No thanks. I also understand that the Braves gave up a lot, but I'm okay with that. They haven't been this active in a decade and they need to make moves now. Smoltz and Chipper are on the older side, Andruw is most likely gone next year, and although they have a nice young nucleus, the other prospects besides Salty in the deal won't see a major league field for at least 3 or 4 years. The Mets and Phillies will keep spending and the Braves won't be able to keep up in the future. Like the aggressiveness, we shall see how it pans out.
  • Curtis had mentioned that I tend to overvalue players in fantasy baseball, I will just like to make two points: 1) I have executed more trades then him this year. 2) I believe the players he was mainly talking about were Mike Lowell (who I ended up trading for a better/younger Jeff Franceuor) and Eric Byrnes (who I was trying to trade earlier in the year and he said I was overvaluing him). Let the record show that according to the Yahoo! fantasy rankings through the 2007 season Byrnes is ranked higher than ANY of Curtis' active players. Overvalued? Try undervalued. In conclusion, suck my balls.

Okay, back to the post. With our upcoming fantasy football draft on Friday, I've ranked the top 5 players at each position, enjoy:

QB:

1) Peyton Manning - IND: No comment.

2) Carson Palmer - CIN: Dynamic offense with many targets and fully healthy.

3) Tom Brady - NE: Brand new toys to play with at wideout combined with question marks at RB injury wise could spell a big year for former 6th round pick.

4) Drew Brees - NO: Most people have him rated above Brady but I believe last year was a little bit of a fluke. Colston will not have as big of a year, and most of Brees' production will come from Bush out of the backfield. He'll still but up big numbers, but not as big.

5a) Michael Vick - ATL: Just kidding. But if watching dogs kill each other and betting on them gave you fantasy points, I'd move him up to #1 (closely followed by Deon Sanders...idiot).

5b) Marc Bulger - STL: Deadly accurate, new WR's and contract. The guy just doesn't throw picks.

On the Bubble: Romo - DAL, McNabb - PHI, Cutler - DEN

RB:

1) LaDainian Tomlinson - SD: How could someone with this guy and Rudi Johnson NOT win a fantasy league...HA!

2) Stephen Jackson - STL: This guy is a stud and can do it all.

3) Willie Parker - PIT: Fast Willie will continue to put up huge numbers with his breakaway speed.

4) Larry Johnson - KC: Wanted to put him lower because of the holdout and workload issues, but I can't do it. As long as he's on the field he should be ranked 3, maybe even 2.

5) Frank Gore - SF: This young squad is up and coming. Hopefully his broken hand will be healed by season start and won't affect his fumbling.

On the Bubble: Addai - IND, Alexander - SEA, Johnson - CIN

WR:

1) Marvin Harrison - IND: I don't care how old he is, until someone knocks him off as #1 in fantasy, I'm going with Starvin' Marvin' every time (remember who's throwing to him also...).

2) Chad Johnson - CIN: Look for Ocho Cinco and the rest of the Bengals to have a monster season.

3) Torry Holt - STL: Consistency defined.

4) Terrel Owens - DAL: Love him or hate him, the guy puts up monster numbers.

5) Steve Smith - CAR: Everyone loves this guy...I don't. He's small, not very durable, and doesn't have a good QB throwing to him.

On the Bubble: R. Williams - DET, Wayne - IND, Fitzgerald - ARI

TE:

1) Antonio Gates - SD: Will flirt with 1,000 yards and 10 TD's.

2) Todd Heap - BAL: Most consistent TE numbers after Gates.

3) Jeremy Shockey - NYG: If healthy, Eli will go to him a lot in the red zone.

4) Alge Crumpler - ATL: The only decent target to throw to on this team.

5) Veron Davis - SF: Love this guy if he can stay on the field.

On the Bubble: Gonzalez - KC, Winslow - CLE, Miller - PIT, Cooley - WSH, Witten - DAL

K:

1) Jeff Wilkins - STL: Indoors, Rams sometimes have trouble putting the ball in the end zone.

2) Adam Vinatiri - IND: Indoors, greatest clutch kicker of all time.

3) Nate Kaeding - SD: Young kicker, high powered offense.

4) Shayne Graham - CIN: Ditto.

5) Robbie Gould - CHI: Another team that has a hard time scoring TD's

On the Bubble: Rackers - ARI, Stover - BAL, Scobee - JAX

DEF:

1) Baltimore: Sorry, having flashbacks of when I was laughed at for drafting them last year.

2) Chicago: So fast, especially good in the winter.

3) New England: Adding Adalius Thomas should solidify this Super Bowl contending D.

4) Miami: Getting old, but still hungry. Porter will give this D a lot of versatility as well.

5) San Diego: Shawn "Lights Out, I love Steroids" Merriman should have an even bigger year if he's not suspended any games.

On the Bubble: Pittsburgh, Dallas, Carolina, Philadelphia, Jacksonville

UPDATE: Braves also completed a trade for Octavio Dotel before the deadline passed...What's that Mets fans are hearing? Yep, footsteps.

Red Sox got Eric Gange.

Celtics got Kevin Garnett.

Big week so far for Atlanta and Boston.

1 comment:

cjeasy said...

Correction - "Eli SHOULD go to him a lot in the red zone."