Fantasy Football Librarian

Well the weekend was full of March Madness as I'm sure most of yours were, too, but also a little dose of fantasy baseball. Oh that's right, fantasy baseball ...the elusive fantasy sport that I will probably never learn to embrace. But on Saturday night my husband and I joined some great fantasy sports writers (yup, I'm talking about you, Scott Engel , Andy Behrens and Nick Minnix ) at the screening of Fantasyland , a movie that's spun off of the premise of the book by the same name, Fantasyland, by Wall Street Journal writer Sam Walker. The movie follows a regular dude, Jed, as he joins the illustrious Tout Wars fantasy baseball league - though to call this guy regular would be an understatement. Jed truly might be insane - he literally is making trade deals from the hospital as his wife is gearing up to delivery twins; he travels to meet Tigers and Royals players in person and let them know he's counting on them for the good of his fantasy team; he drives nearly ...

There are few things that put a smile on my face like an overburdened dogwalker in NYC - well okay, any dog is likely to make me happy, so put a whole bunch on a leash and I'm highly entertained. On my walk to work each morning I routinely see the same woman with roughly 5-9 dogs cruising up 5th Avenue with surprising ease and dexterity. Since I don't work on Fridays, gotta say I'm kind of missing my daily dose of dog entertainment. Fortunately there's basketball on tonight (big one for this Vols-loving family) that might just even out my dogwalker loss...and of course, some great fantasy links to get the weekend started right. Speaking of the weekend, I'm heading to a screening of a fantasy sports movie, Fantasyland on Saturday night. It primarily focuses on fantasy baseball from what I've heard but I'm pretty sure any fantasy sports fan will get a kick out of it - I've seen lots of publicity for the film in fantasy circles, and have heard good thing...

Not to get all political on you guys but I was watching Sports Center tonight with coverage on the changes to overtime in the NFL and I was struck by some serious similarities to the health care legislation coverage. There was Mort, reporting from the NFL owners meeting, talking about how many folks weren't 100% sure that the OT rule changes were exactly the right ones to make, but that everyone agreed changes needed to be made, and this was a move in the right direction. Now substitute "OT rule changes" for "health care reform" and basically you have the same commentary that I swear I read from politicos yesterday morning. Just another example that basically all of life is mimicking football in one way or another...heh. But if you want the details on the OT rule changes, head on over to the Fifth Down's coverage, New Rule for Settling Overtime , or see what Peter King has to say in this week's MMQB, Modifying OT seems like longshot . If you're u...

It's almost a shame that this beautiful spring weather had to come to NYC right at tourney time - but then I just think of my buds in Boulder, Colorado, who were socked with a big snowstorm this weekend and I feel supremely grateful that I was able to spend plenty of time outside this weekend in between big games. So yeah, plenty of basketball watching here this weekend - a few things I've learned: I'm on the Cornell bandwagon (gotta love smarties doing so well), I'm amazed at how gigantic the Purdue shorts seem to be, the final shot in the Michigan State win over Maryland was money, and years of being a Northwestern fan have turned me into a big fan of the underdog (though it helps that much of my bracket is decimated...thanks, Kansas). But I'll move on from basketball now - I know you're all really here for the football talk: I know I've waxed on in the past about how much I enjoy local beat reporters as a source for team info to help inform your draf...

My mom and dad lived in New York City back in the late 60s, early 70s and they have both talked about how glorious spring in New York can be. And my friends, I can now concur. I don't want to get my hopes up since I realize it's the funkiest of all weather months (you know I love it), but take the near 70 degree temps we've had here lately and combine them with daylight stretching later into the evening...and you've got one happy librarian. I don't work on Fridays, so I'm trying to figure out where I can take my laptop to spend some time outside while still watching tomorrow's big tourney games. Man, life is good! So speaking of the tourney, I hope you all are enjoying this year's March Madness. I've been wiping away my Northwestern-lost-in-the-NIT-again tears...meanwhile, tonight is big for my husband and in-laws who are all big Tennessee fans. I've committed to eating only orange food for dinner tonight in support of the Vols but I'm pret...

Well I think we can all agree I've been a bit of a slacker with the blog posts for the past week or two. My apologies - the offseason + friends in town + tournament hype = a slow librarian. But that doesn't mean the offseason has slowed down along with me...if you need to catch up on any free agency news, head on over to Rotoworld's NFL Headlines or the FantasyFootball.com's Off-Season Player Tracker . Before getting to today's links, let's talk March Madness for a bit. I recently fooled RapidDraft into thinking I know what I'm talking about when it comes to basketball, so they invited me to be one of their pro drafters in their Hoops Madness game . Come on by and set up a team to combine the fantasy fun of drafting with tourney time! One final comment on basketball before turning to football: my Northwestern Wildcats take on the University of Rhode Island on Wednesday night in the first round of the NIT...go Cats! Now finally, linkage time... This wee...

Before I delve into fantasy football today, just have to give a little nod to my Northwestern Wildcats who just got their first 20-win season in school history when they beat Indiana during the first round of the Big Ten tourney. Congrats Cats! Plenty of free agency news out there - let's start with a few news tidbits before getting into the fantasy analysis angle: L.T. has left MN without a deal - he's headed here to the big apple to meet with the Jets. Think I'll see him out and about tomorrow?  ProFootballWeekly highlights some action in Ohio for all 2 of you Browns fans - Changes begin in earnest for Browns at quarterback .  CBSSports.com reports that Antonio Bryant has inked a deal with the Bengals . So now let's jaunt on over to the fantasy view for a few dudes including Bryant: Razzball's Thomas Jones Hates Your Fantasy Team DraftBuddy's Antonio Bryant to Bengals - Fantasy Impact Free agency isn't the only thing going on though - the draft s...

For a few years after college I lived in DC, which is when I met my husband and also made a bunch of awesome friends. One of those friends is here visiting us for a few days and it's funny how hanging out with him takes me back immediately to the good times of the early 2000s. We've talked football, I've scoped out photos of the Steelers kegerator he built, and we've all stuffed ourselves full of food from his favorite restaurant in Brooklyn. Love having him here and since he's a big FFLibrarian reader he's of course supportive of me taking some blog time now...so let's get to the linkage: Free agency rolls on so we'll start things off with some info from that frontier: Football Jabber's NFL Free Agency Forces Mock Draft Changes looks at the implications of this past week's free agency moves and how it could impact draft choices in April. Another good read full of free agency details (including some nice 2009 vs 2010 comparisons) comes in MM...

The free agency fun begins, my fantasy football friends. While I was peacefully sleeping in the wee hours of the morning, Adam Caplan was tweeting about Nate Burleson's move to Detroit ...this goes to show how valuable twitter will be in sharing free agency news, so stay hip by checking out the latest from folks like AdamSchefter , greggrosenthal , ProFootballTalk , and daverichard . Lots of other great news tweeters out there - feel free to leave any in the comments if you've got some other favorites to share. Plenty of football news out there and of course some nice fantasy analysis pieces, so let's get right to it: News has broken that Peyton Manning had surgery for a pinched nerve - read the details from ESPN.  Meanwhile the Panthers have broken ties with QB Jake Delhomme . Hello Matt Moore. Or other as yet unnamed/unacquired QB. The Hazean has taken a look at 5 dudes who we might be hearing more about as free agency unfolds in In Honor of Free Agency, Five Impac...

I'm officially in transition time between the Olympics and March Madness - fortunately I have the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference up in Boston this weekend to keep me entertained. I'm heading up on Friday and will stay with an old college roommate, which should be great. A weekend of sports analytics talk from some big names plus time with old friends? Doesn't get much better. Today's links are of course full of looking ahead to the 2010 season...only 5 more months until preseason games start! First off, let's conclude the combine talk with CBSSports.com's Combine wrap-up: Value runners, DT conundrum, diva QBs  and The Hazean's Reactions from the NFL Combine . Sports Buff always provides solid IDP advice so I was pleased to see the IDP Sleepers: NFC North article - lots of details in terms of past and future for these value picks. Meanwhile if you want even more IDP suggestions, try Kilryoz Krystal Ball's 2010 Dynasty IDP Rankings: Defensive...

Well as you all can imagine, I was very sorry to see the Olympics wrap up last night, particularly after putting up a pretty decent showing in RosterSlots.com's fantasy Winter Olympics game . I even found myself bragging to my sister about my new fantasy olympics skills. But we've got lots of combine news out there so let's delve right in to today's links... FFToolbox takes a look at results from the combine at a variety of positions - scope out their look at quarterbacks , running backs , tight ends , and let's throw some offensive linemen in there since I love seeing what's new on the o-line front. Meanwhile you can never go wrong with the Football Outsiders' combine report - check out either Friday's combine report or Saturday's report . SI's Fantasy Clicks: The potential deification of C.J. Spiller devotes some time to combine standout C.J. Spiller, top free agent backs, fastest 40 times, and of course a ranking of this year's ro...