Fantasy Football Librarian

Happy New Year's Eve! I hope you all have some fun plans for tonight whether fun be hanging out with family and friends at home or out and about. I'm not usually big on going on out for a crazy NYE (it's safe to say my mom probably parties harder than I do most years) but tonight I think I'm going dancing. I love to dance, everyone in my family loves to dance, as evidenced by our dance floor activity at my sister's recent wedding...but my husband, not so much. Fortunately where there's dancing, there's beer so I think that should keep us both happy. Rankings for the playoffs are everywhere! FFXtreme has ranked all the key players for this year's playoffs by position in Fantasy Football Playoff Rankings . I love the game previews that AccuScore provides and this week is no exception. Take a look at their thoughts for each matchup : Chargers vs Colts Ravens vs Dolphins Falcons vs Cardinals Vikings vs Eagles Wondering about the team it would've taken

Check this out - the Bruno Boys have offered up a $25 gift card to the store of your choice for the winner of my FFLibrarian's Challenge . How great is that?! Thank you, Bruno Boys, you guys rock. I was already thinking of creating either a FFLibrarian t-shirt or mug for the top 3 winners (I've got the text planned out, just need to stir up some deep-seated creative juices to make some images/jpegs/whatever - can you tell I never do this? - and I apologize in advance if the design is of crappy quality), so look at all the awesome items you could accumulate as top dog of the FFLibrarian's Challenge ! That's it, I have nothing else to add in this post since it's already remarkable that I've squeezed out three posts in one non-regular season day. Oh yeah. Back tomorrow with more links with playoffs advice!

Wow. I simply cannot believe what just happened - Mike Shanahan was just fired as the Broncos head coach and director of football operations . I've been sitting here for about 30 minutes now trying to wrap my mind around this craziness. I am not a fan of this decision at all but now may the speculations begin...

I was almost swept off the sidewalk this morning. No joke. It's a rather windy day here in Boulder- wind gusts of up to 80 mph have already been clocked this morning and I swear I was almost knocked down on my daily jaunt to the bus. But I have arrived at a freakishly quiet library (oh except for the incredible whistle in our fifth floor tower-like office) and am gearing up for one of those work days where you only kind of half-work since no one else is really here. That might mean good things for all of you who are into playing some fantasy playoffs since a post chock full of links is on the agenda for today. If you missed my post yesterday, I have a FFLibrarian's Challenge group going for the playoffs - click here to join the group or e-mail me and I can send an invitation directly your way. There are already 25+ of us and I'm excited to see how many of you are interested in keeping the FF season rolling into the playoffs! Without further ado, today's links... Loo

It has been a long day - we traveled back from Tennessee to Colorado just in time to make it home for the Alamo Bowl where my Northwestern Wildcats are currently beating the Missouri Tigers...but that lead is in peril. I'm crossing my fingers that they can keep it up - so Go Cats! But in the meantime, I've pulled together another FFLibrarian's Playoff Challenge group through NFL.com's free postseason game. Last year more than 90 of you joined me, so join in on the fun again! All of the rules and details can be found on NFL.com but basically you have 300 "points" to snag your 8 players for the NFL playoffs, but can change out a small number of players each week. Very fun and a great way to keep the fantasy fun rolling for another month. Use this link to join the FFLibrarian's Challenge and if you have any trouble with it at all, let me know and I can e-mail you back with an invitation to join. Since I just rolled back into town this evening, I'll l

Greetings and welcome to the final consensus start/sit advice for the 2008 season. Sorry it's coming so late in the day - I somehow slept until almost noon today (seriously, what kind of awesome sleep-filled life am I living right now?!) and then the afternoon was filled by visits with extended family. So I'm just now getting to the consensus start/sit list. As always this info is based on the players with the most start or sit "votes" from the start/sit links I provided yesterday. The names are listed in no particular order and of course depend on your other roster options... QB Start: Philip Rivers, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan Sit: Brett Favre , David Garrard, Peyton Manning RB Start: Kevin Smith, Matt Forte, Cedric Benson Sit: Marshawn Lynch, Jamal Lewis, MJD WR Start: Vincent Jackson, Greg Jennings, Andre Johnson Sit: Bernard Berrian , Lance Moore, Antonio Bryant, Lee Evans TE Start: Owen Daniels, John Carlson, Tony Scheffler , Anthony Fasano Sit: Dustin Keller, Ver

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone - I've found it really hard to carve out time for a blog update while visiting with family so my apologies for going off the radar for a few days! I've now transitioned from visiting with my family in Virginia down to my husband's family in Tennessee. One of the best parts about being in Tennessee is my unbelievable ability to sleep late here - at least 10 AM every morning. It's glorious. But now we're off to visit grandmothers and such, so I'm hoping to get a quick start/sit list up that I'll try to add to (though a lot of sites have shut down for the season) and do a consensus start/sit for by tomorrow. Also, I am doing another FFLibrarian's Challenge with NFL.com's Playoff Challenge for the postseason. Stay tuned on that front if you're interested - I should have a group set up by the end of this weekend. NFL.com's Start 'em Sit 'em Bruno Boys' Start em & Sit em - Week 17 The Talented M

There's something kind of nice about being surrounded by my family during the last week of fantasy football. Sure, I probably didn't pay very good attention to the MNF game last night thanks to the fact that my family would rather talk about such varied topics as tax returns, musicals and running - but being with the fam takes the sting away from losing in the semifinals this week. This has not been my finest fantasy season. I take pleasure in being the top scorer in multiple leagues but having a championship under my belt this year certainly would have been nice. I think this is a sign that I need to drop a league or two next year - 7 was just too many. I admit that there were times I forgot to make a lineup change or two because I just blanked on the existence of a team. No more of that next year. But what I will continue to do next year is confer with my favorite fantasy expert sites. Thank you, experts, for a great season of advice. Sometime in January I think I'll thro

I think every single holiday season I vow to live closer to the rest of my family so that I don't have to put up with the hassle of flying back home. This year was no different. Granted this year I did actually make it home on the correct day as opposed to the big Denver snow of 2006, which kept us in Colorado for an extra three days. But still - when we boarded a plane for Houston (not even our final destination of D.C.) and the pilot came on to tell us that there may be a 5-hour wait during which he'd prefer that we stay in our seats, it didn't really sit well with me (ha! little bit of a pun intended there). We finally made it to Houston (only a 2-hour wait) to find our next leg of the trip delayed as well for missing pilots and inoperable bathrooms. But hey, we're back in good ol ' Arlington, Virginia, and even caught the last few minutes of overtime between the Panthers and Giants last night. What a game - wish I had seen more! Though I must admit that I am gla

Hmm , well better late than never with this consensus start/sit list - packing for my travels east and playing Santa have gotten in the way a bit today. But I made it just in time to be helpful (I hope!) before tonight's game between the Cowboys and the Ravens. Below you have the players who received the most start or sit votes across the 15+ start/sit links that I provided this week. Players are listed in no particular order. QB Start: Matt Schaub , Shaun Hill, Matt Cassel , Chad Pennington Sit: Ben Roethlisberger , Eli Manning, Tarvaris Jackson RB Start: Steve Slaton , Pierre Thomas, Cedric Benson, Ronnie Brown Sit: Marion Barber, LenDale White (lots of sit votes for Chris Johnson, too, but not as many as the rest of these guys), Clinton Portis , LeRon McClain WR Start: Antonio Bryant, Torry Holt, Calvin Johnson Sit: Santana Moss, Santonio Holmes, Justin Gage TE Start: John Carlson, Jeremy Shockey , Dustin Keller Sit: Tony Scheffler , Todd Heap, Jason Witten Kicker Start: Gar

Hi fantasy footballers - hopefully many of you are gearing up for a championship fantasy battle as well as holiday time with family and friends. Check out the list below for your weekly dose of start or sit links: Ask The Commish Sit or Start for Week 16 SI FanNation's Start 'em, Sit 'em Bruno Boys' Start em & Sit em - Week 16 The Talented Mr. Roto : Love/Hate for Week 16 Sports Outlaw's Week 16 Start 'em Sit 'em Mac Bros' Week 16 Start or Sit Rankings FFToolbox's Week 16: Start 'Em The Hazean's Start & Sit CBS Sportsline's Week 16 Start 'em and Sit 'em ProFantasySports . com's Week 16 Start 'em/Bench 'em Report Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit - Week 16 The Fantasy Football Report's Start'm Sit'm - Week 16 SportingNews . com's The Decider: Week 16 starts and sits I've got a few more links - my weekly column with the NY Times' Fifth Down, Fantasy Foot

As loyal readers might know, I am in a bowling league - more by default than anything - and apparently my competitive streak really digs bowling, too. I was doing pretty well for awhile and then hit my mid-season slump or something. But last night I bowled again for the first time in a few weeks and if I may say so, I rocked. Still some up and down moments on the ol' lane but I think maybe I just stopped thinking so hard about it and remembered how to have fun with bowling. At the end of the night one of my favorite characters in our league told me that I need to bowl with more confidence - he thinks that if I can finish with a strong follow through and raise my hand way up to the ceiling after releasing, that I'll bowl like a rockstar every week. Since I have NO idea what I'm doing and my form is likely dreadful, I'll take any advice I can get - but of course as with everything in my life, I can't help but relate this to fantasy playoffs. So let me bust out some mo

In just a few days we head east for the holidays, and I've gotta admit that my mind isn't really focused on fantasy football as much as it should be - rather thinking ahead to seeing family and friends back home. But then again, I was definitely checking into my flight schedule on Sunday to see how long of a layover we had in the Houston airport for watching football... So let's talk links. There are some sites that are starting to shut down for the season , but don't worry, I think there are still plenty of sites that will keep churning out content for quite some time and I will do my best to track them all down. There's still more quality waiver wire advice out there - my faves today are: Through the Wire - when is this gem from FFToday NOT one of my favorites? AccuScore's NFL Waiver Wire Wonders: Week Sixteen RotoExperts ' Waiver Wire Tips: The Pickup Artist The Talented Mr. Roto : Keep your eye on the prize FFManiaxs ' Week 16 Waiver Wire The Fant

Well I made it to the playoffs in five leagues but am now only moving forward in one of those leagues, The Hazean's Blogger league, which doesn't even end until Week 17. So here's hoping I make it into at least one championship game this year. Meanwhile, my husband beat me in two leagues with a solid McNabb performance and is going to the championship game in all three leagues he plays in - while I find that a bit irritating and would rather that I be the one in 3 championship games, I do take some pride in this since he's been the recipient of a LOT of my fantasy football advice...probably more than one individual should ever receive. There are a lot of you out there that deserve a hearty pat on the back for making it to the championship game, including but not limited to some loyal readers and friends like Ryan, Matt, Chris, JP and Maureen. Well done! As the fantasy season ends for many of us I wanted to remind you all that I really don't stop blogging as the s

Good morning from a very cold Colorado. I've always been of the mindset that cold is cold and there really isn't a big difference between 5 degrees and 25 degrees. I still maintain that mindset but am now going to suggest that perhaps -2 (what the thermometer read this morning as I was making breakfast) is a whole different bag. I've been at work for quite some time now and still can't really feel all of my toes. Perhaps that says more about my footwear than anything but I think my cheeks are still thawing out, too. Anyway, like many of you I'm anxiously awaiting tonight's impact on my fantasy status. I'm playing my husband in the playoff semifinals in two different leagues and am very worried about my impending loss to him in both leagues...I think it's a foregone conclusion that I've lost to him in one league but I'm still holding on and pulling for big things from Westbrook in the other league. However, in different league entirely I'm cur

Hello playoff- ers . Here's your Week 15 consensus, culled together from the various start or sit links that I posted throughout the week. Players below are listed in no particular order - and remember to always take the rest of your roster into account when making lineup decisions! QB Start: Tyler Thigpen , Philip Rivers, Donovan McNabb , Aaron Rodgers Sit: Ben Roethlisberger , Matt Schaub , Matt Cassel , Joe Flacco RB Start: Dominic Rhodes, Maurice Jones-Drew, Steven Jackson, DeAngelo Williams, Sammy Morris, LenDale White Sit: Marshawn Lynch, Tim Hightower , Willie Parker WR Start: Santana Moss, Deion Branch, Dwayne Bowe , Wes Welker , Torry Holt, Davone Bess, Marvin Harrison Sit: Laveranues Coles , Kevin Walter, Hines Ward, Calvin Johnson TE Start: John Carlson, Chris Cooley, Donald Lee Sit: Dustin Keller, Todd Heap, Anthony Fasano , Heath Miller Kicker Start: Dan Carpenter, Nate Kaeding Sit: Nick Folk, Kris Brown, Rian Lindell D/ST Start: Colts, Eagles, Jets Sit: Viking

Last night I left my house with about 4 minutes left in the New Orleans vs Chicago Thursday Night game to meet up with some friends for a quick drink - when I got there one of them said, "wow you must really like us to come out when there's a game on!" and yes, indeed, I do have my priorities straight: friends before football. Usually. But since I left before the end of the game, I missed the OT situation that occurred and Marques Colston's second touchdown of the season. Second touchdown?! A mere two TDs is not what I was anticipating on draft day... Anyway, here's your Friday start/sit listing for Week 15 - I should be back with a consensus by tomorrow so stay tuned! Ask The Commish Sit or Start for Week 15 SI FanNation's Start 'em, Sit 'em Bruno Boys' Start em & Sit em - Week 15 The Talented Mr. Roto : Love/Hate for Week 15 Sports Outlaw's Week 15 Start 'em Sit 'em Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit -

Earlier this year we ponied up for the NFL Network assuming that paying a little extra a month on our cable bill might equal out the cost of dinner and drinks every Thursday night as the Thursday Night Football games got rolling. I imagine many of you might not have gone this route so I'd be interested in knowing how many of you will be going out to a bar or restaurant to track your fantasy stats live now that the playoffs are here - or will you be way more laid-back than I am and just check in on your stats on Friday morning? Or something in between? We've got lots of start & sit advice out and available - note that some of the links are specific to tonight's game between Chicago and New Orleans while others are applicable to the whole slate of games this weekend: Mac Bros' Thursday Night Fantasy Recommendations RotoExperts ' Start and Sit: Week Fifteen - I like the love for Thigpen here and as I noted in my weekly column for the Bruno Boys, Finding the Week

Greetings football fans. I'm hanging out at home this morning since I'm working nights this week to do some usability testing on our new library website with students (any CU students out there, we're giving free pizza for your thoughts) - and I just saw a fawning interview with Keanu Reeves on the Today Show . Um, Keanu is kind of old. No, 44 is not actually that old but I guess I haven't really seen him in a long time (since the first Matrix in 1999 perhaps) but it was a little surprising to see that the guy I remember from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Point Break is in fact no longer young at all and has a patchy beard. I realize this is hardly a revelation but it was a bit of a gut-punching, "hey, I am getting old, too!" feeling. Anyway, that has absolutely no connection to fantasy football (I wonder if Keanu plays fantasy sports?) but felt necessary to note. Is this what happens when you don't go to work and sit around watching

Well DeAngelo Williams' incredible performance last night had me seriously concerned about my playoffs status in one of my leagues, but I ended up pulling it out by a mere two point victory. May you all have been on the winning side of matchups last night as well. And if so, I've got you covered with lots of waiver wire advice and start/sit links this week. But if you didn't make the playoffs and your 2008 season has come to and end, don't worry, I've got lots of links coming over the next few weeks for you, too... FFXtreme has already taken a stab at a 2009 mock draft - you gotta love the early mock. Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Week 15 video - includes pickups, spot starters and other thoughts for Week 15. FFGeekBlog's The Wire: Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 15, 2008 - the inclusion of waiver wire kickers and defenses is really clutch here. Those are positions that can just be overlooked way too often, but make a huge difference in the playoffs. With so

What a weekend. With Frank Gore, Brandon Jacobs, Peyton Hillis and many others all sustaining injuries yesterday, I am sure many fantasy football seasons have been affected (or are about to be affected...) and perhaps some of you are now sweating bullets over lineup gaps. To get the latest on injury news, here are a few sites to get you up to speed: The Hazean's Monday morning rehab KFFL's Post-game injury report - Week 14 But all the injuries of course mean there are lots of waiver wire articles to scope out as well: FootballDocs ' Pick-up/Drop Advice - I enjoy the "vs the Rams" defense suggestion here. Yes indeed, it looks like any team playing the Rams might just be a decent defense to snag. I put the Cardinals in my lineup in place of the Eagles D/ST at the last minute and was rewarded with 25 points. Nice, real nice. Bruno Boys' Waiver Wire points out how well Kevin Walter has done, and I think he has extra value with Schaub behind the helm; could b

A few links for those of you who are looking for last minute advice for your lineup. Please be sure to scope out the news coming in - my favorites are Rotoworld and KFFL . You'll learn valuable things there like, oh say, bench Marion Barber since he didn't even make the trip to Pittsburgh. Other good last minute tips come from the following articles: Rotoworld's Last Minute Decisions: Pierre Is Here to Stay KFFL's Sunday Morning Report FanIQ's Get Marion Barber out of your fantasy lineup, start Brian Westbrook If you can get to this link ASAP, you might be in time to catch the end of the Bruno Boys' live advice show . Good luck, everyone - I want to hear about some playoffs wins!

Here's your consensus start/sit list - I've pulled together this list of players that got the most start and sit votes from the many start/sit links that I provided this week. Take a look but remember to always keep the rest of your roster in mind! QB Start: Matt Cassel, Matt Ryan, Brett Favre , Aaron Rodgers Sit: Jason Campbell, Donovan McNabb, Jake Delhomme RB Start: Larry Johnson, Peyton Hillis, Steve Slaton, Tim Hightower Sit: Marion Barber, Clinton Portis, Jonathan Stewart, Willie Parker WR Start: Randy Moss, Bernard Berrian , Jerricho Cotchery Sit: Braylon Edwards, T.J. Houshmandzadeh , Santana Moss, Roy Williams TE Start: Kevin Boss, Vernon Davis, Owen Daniels Sit: Dustin Keller, Greg Olsen, Anthony Fasano, Heath Miller Kicker Start: Neil Rackers, Ryan Longwell , Jay Feely, Matt Prater Sit: Nick Folk, Phil Dawson D/ST Start: Colts, Cardinals Sit: Eagles - only team with a consensus

Good morning from cold and snowy Boulder - thanks to the Colorado sunshine, soon this half foot of snow will be long gone. And I'm sure Oakland is hoping their game last night will soon be a distant memory. Man, that was an ugly game. I was playing against Darren McFadden in one of my leagues and one of my individual defenders, Eric Weddle , outscored McFadden. Good for me, sad for Oakland. But moving on - with the playoffs coming up I know a lot of you have start/sit questions. Take a look at the list of start/sit links below and keep in mind that I'll be posting my consensus start/sits later this afternoon. SI FanNation's Start 'em, Sit 'em Bruno Boys' Start em & Sit em - Week 14 Sports Outlaw's Week 14 Start 'em Sit 'em Junkyard Jake's Bench/Start The Mac Bros' Start or Sit Week 14 Rankings Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit - Week 14 CBS' Week 14 Start 'em Sit 'em The Fantasy Football Report&

As many of you know, in the past I've run some "How Accurate Were They?" tests on fantasy football experts and their preseason rankings to see which of the many sites out there has the most accurate recommendations. This year I've joined up with the FSTA (Fantasy Sports Trade Association) to look into this question and even provide the winning site with a solid FSTA award this winter. I've been blabbing for some time now about how I would run some mid-season report cards to assess how sites were doing...well, as you regular readers know, I was a traveling machine this fall. That doesn't leave a ton of time for rankings analysis. But now, thanks to a little extra time and my great husband who put his dissertation defense work on hold to help me run the data through Stata, I am churning out some results. Right now I am only looking at running back rankings and am comparing the rankings to fantasy production as of Week 13. I'll spell out some of the steps in

It's a beautiful winter wonderland in Boulder; a couple of inches of snow and it's still coming down with some gusto . Growing up in Northern Virginia where the slightest bit of snow freaks out the entire area and schools are closed, traffic comes to a standstill, and everyone runs to the grocery store to get the last gallon of milk, I'm just trained to get my hopes up that snow = no school/work. Not so much here in Boulder. Granted everyone here is a transplant from somewhere else (I only know 2 Boulder natives), but when it snows here, people really just put their boots on and get where they're going. Or go skiing. And while I certainly wouldn't mind being on the slopes right now, for the sake of fantasy footballers who need information, I am here in front of a computer. Oh and that whole "I have a job that expects me to be here" thing. Before I get to the links, if you have e-mailed me for advice on who to start, don't worry, you will hear back from

I love December. It's just a great month for all of these wonderful reasons: 1. Winter still seems a bit novel and I actually enjoy waking up to see snow on the ground. 2. It's socially acceptable to play Christmas music. 3. We're in a bit of a holiday sandwich, with Thanksgiving behind us but Christmas and Hanukkah still to come, which means most people are only half-working and there's a more festive spirit at work. 4. I know I'll be seeing family and friends when we head back home in a few weeks. 5. And perhaps most of all, football ( just kidding, Mom, seeing you is the best! Actually, Mom, I think you read this blog only once in a blue moon and then inevitably proceed to call me up and tell me you can't believe your own daughter knows so much about football and you have no clue what language I'm speaking...but you're still better than football, don't worry. .!) The fantasy playoffs are here, baby, and the real football playoffs aren't far be