Fantasy Football Librarian

A few quick links before we get to the consensus start/sit for the week... Need some IDP advice? Scope out FFManiaxs' Week 8 IDP Start/Sit. Okay deep leaguers, you're going to want to pay attention to KFFL.com's blog post Don't overlook the fantasy football depths . Names that only those in the deepest of leagues should be interested in, fyi. I was on GoGameFace's GameOn podcast earlier this week talking about how I got my start, my love for the Broncos, and my conviction that Austin Miles  Miles Austin (ahh, gotta love a name screw up -I'll blame that on Austin Collie and my 8th grade boyfriend, Austin. Perhaps if I'd dated a Miles...) is a great start this week. Bonus? You get to hear Bill Root from RotoExperts.com, too.  Speaking of podcasts, back in September I spoke with some of the Fantasy Football Tonight guys (thanks Ryan and Jeff!), but there are many, many podcasts to chose from, which is one of the great features offered from Fantasy Footbal

Thanks to all for your input on my 1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice poll - I should have the poll ready to roll early next week and have definitely added some questions and sites thanks to your emails and comments. Can't wait to find out which sites you all love to read! I've got a fun weekend ahead with lots of friends coming in for the marathon - and my brother-in-law should be en route from the ATL before long. Good times ahead. Look for me in my FFLibrarian t-shirt spectating on the marathon course! You're all really here for the start/sit advice, so let's get to it! Start/Sits: Talented Mr. Roto's Fear and Loathing in Fantasy Football FFGeekBlog's Hit & Misses - Week 8: Happy Halloween! Bruno Boys' Week 8 Start Ems FFToolbox's Week 8; Sit 'Em The Hazean's Week 8 Start & Sit: OK, now you can start Brett Favre Yahoo!'s Roto Arcade Flames & Lames: Darren Sproles, Three, Two, One...Liftoff!   Pyromaniac.com

I've had an idea rumbling around in my head for awhile and think it's time for the 1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice poll. I want to know which fantasy sites and writers you all find the most helpful - and there's nothing like a good ol' fashioned poll. So here's the deal - I'm pulling together my poll right now using Google Docs (don't worry, you'll be able to answer with or without a google account) and am hoping to have the poll up and running for the entire month of November. In early December, I'll reveal the winners in each category. Now before I get too far into the poll I wanted to let you know the questions I'll be asking and give you a chance to respond in the comments section if there are any sites that I should be sure to include in the survey. I'm already including a lot (and I mean a LOT) of the obvious sites that I link to frequently, but please feel free you voice your opinions below just to be sure I cover all my bas

I love my neighborhood - I think it's just beautiful. I felt this way as soon as laid eyes on it when we were apartment hunting this summer. There's just such an abundance of character between the brownstones, old apartment buildings, churches, banks, and even the court buildings. Now I'll be the first to admit that I didn't think anything in New York City could possibly top my Boulder foothills, and while Boulder still takes the cake, my Brooklyn 'hood is awesome in a totally different way. I was walking around in the cool drizzle here yesterday thinking about how absolutely lovely the changing leaves are, even on a soggy day...and it occurred to me: this is it. This is how autumn was meant to be. And what makes autumn even better? Football. So let's get to today's links: In yesterday's comments, reader Brian reminded me that I've been neglecting FantasyPros911 - and what an oversight! Thanks for the nudge, Brian, since it's definitely worth

A few early evening links for you before my weekly contest update... Rotoworld's Week 7 Target Report confirms what I was thinking and writing about in my column for the Bruno Boys this week (article will go up in the next day or so) in terms of Chris Chambers. His number of targets per game have actually increased since 2008 but clearly he isn't capitalizing on them...combine that with Norv's comments and Floyd will soon take over giving Chambers little to no fantasy relevance. Take a look at FantasySharks.com's Week 8 projections or FFToolbox's Week 8: Start 'Em for some early Week 8 lineup advice. I'm following the news on Goodell appearing before Congress to talk concussions - I read Malcolm Gladwell's article on the topic in The New Yorker a few weeks ago and definitely learned a little something. What I find most fascinating are the responses to the CBS article I link to here...lots of negativity. Am I naive in that I was expecting football

I was watching the weather forecast this morning (fairly standard since I'm a weather nut) and couldn't help but wish I was back in Boulder where they're getting dumped with snow today. Much better than the sogginess that has descended upon NYC. Here's hoping the snow clears out in plenty of time for our Boulder buddies to make it out here for the NYC marathon. My husband and a bunch of our friends are running the marathon this weekend and I'm planning out my spectator route - any suggestions? I'm thinking mile 8 and mile 19 or so - then closing things out near the finish. I'm taking advice from seasoned NYC marathon spectators though. It's just occurring to me now that I should have made a Fantasy Football Librarian shirt for my husband to run in for the race - that would have been awesome. By the way, if you're thinking to yourself, gotta get me one of those FFL t-shirts, fear not, it's as easy as could be. Click on the Support the FFLibrari

My dad was in town last night (major bonus to living in NYC? seeing my family frequently) so I missed part of the MNF game to enjoy a tasty dinner at Basera (best naan I've had in awhile, by the way) with the NYC transplants in my extended family. Always a good time. Meanwhile tonight I'm embarking on what I see as a ritual for practically every urban-dwelling 20/30-something woman I know: a book club. It's like the urban response to being a soccer mom or something. To be honest, I don't really understand the appeal. Now I realize that I'm a librarian and in theory I should enjoy incorporating books into my everyday life as much as possible, but there's something so incredibly cheesy about a book club. That said, this is my sister's book club so I'm trying to have an open mind here. And that whole reading thing is of course something I can get down with... Speaking of reading, I've had a busy morning reading the latest waiver wire posts and other

I have a whole new respect for double fantasy sports players - by that I mean those who are playing two different fantasy sports simultaneously. I've decided it's time to tango with another fantasy sport and since I dig basketball, I jumped in head first to an SI Friends & Family league, which started drafting a few days ago. Here's hoping I'm not way in over my head. Thanks to those of you that sent fantasy basketball resources my way - I'll be getting a post up (hopefully this week!) with feedback on my favorites so far just in case any fantasy basketballers out there are interested. Some good games and some serious blowouts yesterday - I thought I'd get started today with a few injury updates and then dive right into the rest of the links: There's a very good chance that I'll pull out a win in the BWW All-Star Blogger League this week despite a goose egg from Leon Washington, who is unfortunately out for the season with a broken leg (which re

Wow. I just watched a heart-breaking loss for the Tennessee Volunteers (and my husband) as their kicker had a 45-yard FG blocked, to lose to top-ranked Alabama. What a disaster for the Vols kicking game today...meanwhile my Northwestern Wildcats narrowly eked out a win against the lowly Indiana Hoosiers. Could've been a bit embarrassing - oh wait, a bit more embarrassing - had we lost.  Anyway, thought I'd get the consensus start/sit links for Week 7 up - and a few extra links for those looking for one more opinion or one more interesting football tidbit. First up, links: I've written a lot about it this week but the photo documentation of my brussels sprouts adventure is up on Fighting Chance Fantasy , as well as this week's Five Game Parlay bets. Will I be able to turn things around this week? One can only hope. Football Outsiders' Mike Tanier does another excellent job with his Week 7 NFL Matchups on the Fifth Down - I'm honestly not sure if there's a

So I attacked my brussels sprouts consumption challenge with vigor last night. To many of you this might seem like a small task, but those who knew me in my youth (and my mom in particular) perhaps understand the undertaking that this was for me. I like to refer to myself as someone with a sensitive palate; my family just calls me a picky eater. I have of course progressed quite a bit since my youth but just to give you a sense of my picky eating (and my stubbornness), I didn't eat pizza until I got to college. Yeah, I said it. No pizza. My worst years were my elementary school years: I was that kid at birthday parties who showed up already fed; the one with a PB&J sandwich in my lunch box at a restaurant while the rest of my family ate normally; the one that possibly offended her grandmother with her refusal to eat more than one pea. Yes, I was a joy to feed. The good news for those parents out there with picky eaters is that we grow up and accept that spinach is a treat, lima

Come and get your fantasy love here, friends. I'm in a great mood - just finished up an interview with Melissa from The Football Girl (the podcast will be up in the next few days) and spent basically the whole day at a spa by accident. Well kind of by accident. I was getting my hair cut and my stylist ended up needing to leave in the middle due to a family emergency - while I really didn't mind (family comes first and far, far before hair cuts), the salon bent over backwards to make me feel like a valued new customer and I ended up with a facial, hand massage, a goodie bag of lotions, and the best stylist in the salon to finish up. Trust me, it was good. You ladies out there in Brooklyn (and dudes who like nice a coiffure) who need a new salon, just drop me a line and I'll send along their name. Anyway, all of this makes me want to put a few more fantasy links up - and of course update you on the FFLibrarian weekly contests. So links first, contest news second: 12StepDr

Those of you who have been following along with the Five Game Parlay I've been participating in with Fighting Chance Fantasy know that I got a bit too sure of myself (and the Eagles) last week and set myself up for a brussels sprouts extravaganza - I promised to provide photo documentation of me eating a sprout if the Eagles didn't cover against the Raiders last week and trust me, I do not want to eat a sprout. But you fine people have given me several sprout recipes, and I'm a woman of my word, so tonight we'll be fixing up several sprout dishes. Should be an interesting dinner. So let's get to some start/sit links and other good stuff... The Fifth Down's Week 7 in Fantasy Football is up with my weekly batch of best links and lots of matchup advice from the Sablich brothers.   Good stuff from the KFFL blog - this week's roundtable discussion between a bunch of my favorite bloggers is "Which two players are you stashing for the second half? Why?&

This might be a quick post - I've got a final round interview with a library here in NYC and need to head out the door before long. I'll try to get another post up this afternoon with more links plus some info on this week's FFLibrarian weekly contest with 365FantasySports (password is book7 for you eager beavers out there). Last night I had about 17 different windows open on my computer, working on a presentation that's part of my interview today, working on my Bruno Boys article, and working on my links for the NY Times ' Fifth Down. My night work session was peppered with cheers from our downstairs neighbor who is quite clearly a Yankees fan. Speaking of baseball, big night tonight in our house since my husband is a big Dodgers fan... Anyway, here are some quick morning links: There are still some quality waiver wire articles to scope out: The ever-entertaining Matthew Berry's Waiver Wire: Celebrity edition FantasySharks.com's Waiver Wire Pickups

Eddie Royal really pulled through for me. If you missed what happened last night, check out this ESPN article first. So let me list the ways I love Royal...first and foremost, he helped the Broncos win. Second, in my BWW All-Star Blogger League , return TDs count so I pulled out a 3 point win thanks to Royal (and Prater) to go 5-1 and get a little bit closer to the trip to Miami during the Super Bowl. Third, I was playing against my husband this week - he had Royal, I had the Denver D/ST. In a move that I couldn't have orchestrated better myself, our league settings did not give my husband points for Royal's TDs, but gave them to me instead for the Denver ST. Now for those of you calling shenanigans here (like my husband), I still would have won despite Royal's TDs. Oh winning against a spouse in FF is a beautiful thing. Thanks for letting me talk about my fantasy successes here - the fact that I worked the system so well this week was just too noteworthy. So moving on

What a crazy Sunday. As evidenced by my picks in Fighting Chance Fantasy's Five Game Parlay for the week, I was pretty off on the outcome of a lot of games. And now I have to eat a brussels sprout. I'm not happy about this and my inner child is emerging ("does one bite count?" "what kind of a chaser food can I have ready?").Oh Eagles...how did this happen? I had a great weekend with my mom in town though I did end up trading in some football for a trip to the MoMA, so I've been catching up on the big football news from yesterday. If you also missed any of the games yesterday, there are a few good recap articles out there. So onto today's links! First great recap of the weekend comes from USA Today's Fantasy Joe - Explosive games make for hectic Week 6 . Another good game review, which includes some waiver wire names you might want to scope out - CBSSports.com's First Response: Is the Brady of old back? In addition to some unexpected out

Sorry for the late posting of the consensus start/sit lists this week - my mom is in town and honestly I just completely forgot! My apologies...keep in mind that this consensus is an average from all the start/sit sites that I linked to earlier in the week, many of which try to avoid recommendations on total studs or total duds. So if you're debating between a stud and one of these guys, definitely keep that in mind when you look at these names: QB Start: Matt Hasselbeck, David Garrard, Matt Ryan Sit: Mark Sanchez, Eli Manning, Trent Edwards, Matt Cassel RB Start: Rashard Mendenhall, Knowshon Moreno, Cedric Benson, Cadillac Williams, Ryan Grant, Jonathan Stewart Sit: Brandon Jacobs, LaDainian Tomlinson, Jamal Lewis, Willis McGahee, Julius Jones WR  Start: Santana Moss, Donnie Avery, Wes Welker, Nate Burleson Sit: Vincent Jackson, Terrell Owens, Derrick Mason TE Start: Jermichael Finley, Jeremy Shockey, Todd Heap Sit: Heath Miller, Zach Miller Kicker Start

Lots of winners to announce today. Last week I ran three different FFLibrarian weekly contests with 365FantasySports.com so I've got three winners: 1. Freeroll contest where you pick two from each offensive skill position: ziggy64 2. Late games challenge where you only pick from players in the late Sunday and Monday night games: Fantazzle 3. Points cap challenge where you pick your players within a points budget : Zrayed Nicely done, all. Try your hand at the weekly contests if you haven't already - this week I'm just doing two - the pick two freeroll and the points cap. Click here and use the 6book password to participate. In the 96-team monster FFLibrarian league the top 5 point scorers across all 6 conferences were: Steel Vipers - 187.75 points HitNRun - 165.05 points Blue Boy Bed & Breakfast - 140.65 points denverdelinquents - 137.15 points 3rd String Wannabe's - 135.50 points Finally, a few links to wrap things up: My article for the Bruno Boy

Happiest of birthdays to my wonderful grandpa - he turns 91 today. He's a big fan of the Detroit Tigers and Northwestern and Michigan football - and I think genetically speaking, he's really the one I can thank for my love of football. So three cheers for my grandpa for ultimately making this blog possible! So I've been spending some of my morning playing around with the Fantasy Football Nerd's lineup analyzer - it's awesome. You need an account (free!) and it's really easy to add in your leagues; the Nerd Analyzer will then compare your roster to the weekly rankings and projections and show you your ideal team, projections included. I was feeling like a smarty pants when the Nerd and I came up with the exact same roster in my BWW All-Star Blogger League , but then I realized I'm sort of in bye-week-plug-in-desperation-mode and a trained monkey could have done what I did. So I put in another team that I play in with my Boulder buddies and other than the

My mom is coming to visit this weekend - she's going to be the family guinea pig on the fancy wifi-enabled buses that run from DC to NYC (yes, seems a little odd to call a bus fancy). My sister lives here in NYC, too, which means my mom will be in complete heaven spending all weekend with her girls (if you know my mom, I promise you could see her visibly gushing with excitement for this weekend) and I can't wait to have her here in my new home. Sadly it will be cool and rainy all weekend here in NYC - perfect football-watching weather, right? Well perhaps I can talk my mom into watching some football with me...  Now to today's links! Is Bradshaw better than Jacobs? Rotoworld explains why it's time to buy low on Jacobs now. LOTS of good stuff in IDP Wednesday - Week 6 from Numbers & Guts; good pickups, bye week fillers, and those teams that allow their IDPers lots of tackle opportunities.  The Fifth Down's Week 6 in Fantasy Football Matchups is up with my

After a long weekend in Tennessee, my husband and I returned home last night to a chilly, autumnal New York City. We walked into our apartment and realized that for the first time in over a decade, since those good ol' college dorm years, we have no control over our own heat. This is old hat to NYCers I'm sure, but I stared down the radiator in the bedroom last night, looking and then groping the thing for anything that would even remotely feel like an on-off dial...no dice, nada. But not too long after we got home and sat shivering on the couch, a lovely clanking sound began and that new-heat-burning-dust smell filled the apartment. Ahh, sweet sweet heat. That said, this morning those lovely radiators no longer seem to be emitting warmth. It's going to take me awhile (and many layers?) before I get a grasp on the inner workings of our heat. So not in my realm of past experiences. Anyway, I'm back in town, have unpacked my tiny travel bag , and am ready for a new wee

Just a quick post this morning - I'm in the ATL this morning (a shoutout to my Atlanta readers and of course the Falcons) and am en route to the airport before long so I can only throw up a few links. I'm heading back home to NYC so my blogging for the rest of the week should be back to normal. Lots of waiver wire links for you today: FFGeekBlog's The Wire Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Week 6 video KFFL's Waiver Wire by position (QB here) Pigskin Addiction's Waiver Wire Work Fantasy Joe's waiver picks NFL.com's Waiver Wire Report video FFManiaxs' Week 6 Waiver Wire Fantasy Hulks' Waiver World A few non-waiver links: The Fantasy Football Report's Buyer's Bargains - Week 6 Fifth Down's Top 7 Points From Week 5 Fighting Chance Fantasy already has Who to Start, Who to Sit up for Week 6 - impressive!

Waahaahaaha! The Broncos are 5-0!! I mean no offense to my sister and other Pats fans but I'm so psyched about yesterday's win. So good! As evidenced by my extreme usage of exclamation points here. I didn't catch the game other than about 2 minutes (so yes, I saw the ridiculous socks) since yesterday was my husband's grandmother's funeral (sorry to those I didn't respond to with start/sit advice) but I have it DVRed and waiting for me back at home. I'm still in Tennessee until tomorrow afternoon and my postings today and tomorrow are going to be on the late side - good thing there are lots of great sites to scope out. Fantasy Hulks reviews the Sunday games and flaunts the Miles Austin call they made in Mr. Monday Morning: Week 5 . FFGeekBlog lists all of the 2 TD receivers yesterday in Receivers gone wild! Wow. Rotoworld has a nice review of 5 games yesterday in Cardiac Cats Strike Again . Another great wrap-up of the Week 5 games from Football Outsiders

Greetings and welcome to the Friday evening edition of the consensus start/sit. Before we jump in though, a few links for you to add a little something to your early weekend festivities. Take a look at Ground Running Back Goulash from Razzball - a look at the different rush defenses that are matching up head-to-head this week. Fantasy Sharks' The Hive - Week Five Edition for those who need some IDP assistance. I've had a few requests for a recap of the strength of schedule links - here you go: FFToday's Strength of Schedule   CBSSports.com's Interactive Defensive Matchup Tool FFToolbox's Strength of Schedule Now to the consensus start/sit. As always I'd like to remind you that these are not my personal start/sit recommendations but a look at which players got the most start or sit votes from all these expert links that I offer up during the week. Players are listed in no particular order and without further ado... QB Start: Tony Romo, Joe Flacco, B

In the past week I've had three readers contact me about linking to rest-of-the-season rankings, in particular those from Yahoo's Roto Arcade, which seemed to be missing this season. I'm very happy to report that upon checking my links this morning I discovered Roto Arcade is doing their Shuffle Up and Deal rest-of-the-season rankings again so if you're looking for some feedback on values for the remaining weeks, be sure to scope it out. Next up, I wrote about this on the Buffalo Wild Wings All-Star Blogger League website , but I wanted to be sure to let you all know about a site called FantasyIQ.com that I've joined - it automatically imported my lineups from my Yahoo and ESPN leagues and tracks all of my roster decisions for the world to see without me having to do a darn thing. So if you'd like to thumbs up or thumbs down or comment on my start/sit or waiver wire actions, come on over to FantasyIQ.com . Now onto more start/sit links for the week: Matth

I've got blogger's block this morning so instead of detailing the meandering thoughts in my head or life in Brooklyn, I'll instead just skip the chit chat and jump right to today's links. Lots to look at: Who doesn't want advice on the Top 5 Most Likely to Go Off - Week 5 ? See which players are going to knock you over with their stat lines this week. In a good way.  Lester's Legends brings us Week 5's Fantasy Football Out on a Limb - will Wells outperform Benson this week? I've got my weekly top links up in the NY Times ' Fifth Down - Week 5 in Fantasy Football Matchups - and there's lots of great lineup advice there, too, from the Sablich brothers. They do a fantastic job at responding to start/sit questions in the comments, so ask away! I had a handful of IDPers that I needed to replace for this week's bye so I first turned to FFToday's IDP Notes for the latest and greatest news on the IDP front.   Let's mosey on over to t

Let's talk about the winners in my various FFLibrarian contests. First up, the top 5 scorers in my 96-team FFLibrarian League : 1. Cruzan Stomp Revival, 156.80 points (yes, that included the 49ers D!) 2. UltimateFFStrategy.com, 149.50 3. The Dogs of War, 147.70 4. FantasyIQ, 144.60 5. Htown, 136.05 Congrats to the big scorers - keep it coming! And in my weekly contest with 365FantasySports.com , the big winner of the week was kanabro - nicely done! See the image below for the top contestants and winning lineup. Oh and hey, hey the FFLibrarian came in 4th! If you'd like to prove that you can beat me in FF, sign up for one of my weekly contests with this week's password: book5. I've got three different contests going on so pick one from the contest lobby or choose them all! First we've got the "pick 2" contest that we've been running all along (pick 2 from each position); second, my personal favorite is a contest where you can only pick from th

I've got a heavy heart today - my husband's grandmother passed away. She was really special to my husband and a truly wonderful woman so it has been a tough morning for us. We're off to eastern Tennessee this weekend so it may be another difficult weekend for me to answer start/sit questions. If you need advice though, there are lots of wise FFers out there and many of these links will take you to sites that can answer your questions. Since I've known her, whenever my grandmother-in-law saw us walk into her room, she seemed so overcome with delight at being surrounded by her family that she would say with a smile on her face, "oh boy, oh boy" over and over again. Or when she was pleased with a present or photo or some other memento we brought with us, she'd give us all a "purr, purr" and you knew she was happy as a clam (or cat, as the case may be though that's hardly a well-known phrase). So in her honor, here are some links to make you go