Looking Ahead 2010: CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS

This is the eighth post of a series of blogs covering each team from Brothers Keeper in detail. We began with the last place team and have moved up to the top of the league standings as it stood at the end of the 2009 fantasy football season (cf. Kabuki Strikes Back; CustodianPandemonium; Favre$Footlong; Ghost; Redmans CatPunters; Yankinfowlsandfeline; Simba's ButtKicker!). Eighth up, CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS (R Smith).

Overview of R Smith's Brothers Keeper History
2007 The Superbads: 8-6-0 (5th Place) 1524.17 points; 12 transactions
2008 Team Cake Farts: 6-7-0 (8th Place) 1174.03 points; 20 transactions
2009 CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS: 8-5-0 (3rd Place; Bronze Medalist) 1356.46 points; 13 transactions

2009 End of Season Commentary
The "Looking Ahead 2010" series of posts finally reaches the medalists of the league. CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS (R Smith) made the playoffs as the 3rd seeded team and played well enough to garner the bronze medal over Simba's ButtKicker! by a score of 127.02 to 100.64. Unfortunately, CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS was decimated by Yer X-MOM (P Smith) in the semifinals scoring a mere 68.95 to 124.59. That score resembles the results of their regular season week 5 matchup 99.61 to 46.28. That's nearly double the points in both games. But CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS picked himself up off the ground and swung mightily and successfully at Simba's ButtKicker! for the Bronze Medal Trophy:

To those who keep on in the fight 'till the end of the final game the rewards are won. R Smith didn't make too many transactions on the season (13) and only suffered one multi-game losing streak. His lower than average point totals and his 3d place seed combined with the fact that CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS only had one multi-game losing streak indicate that R Smith had an easy schedule of opponents. In fact, only 4 games during the regular season did his opponent score greater than 100 points. Of those 4 games he won 2. The first game of the playoffs also had an opponent score less than 100 points. The 3rd Place Game in the final week of the playoffs saw Simba's ButtKicker! score 100.64 points. So, while the fantasy fairy gave Ghost (B Garner) fits, she was sweet talked into a plush deal with CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS (R Smith)... or else she was just scared into it... it's really hard to tell when you are interacting with CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS.

While CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS may have had an easy schedule R Smith did have the talent to be productive. R Moss WR and D Brees QB have both been a staple of his team since the 2007 draft. Brees had yet to be the top QB in fantasy and R Moss had yet to play with T Brady in NE. Both have produced at high levels since. With D Brees at a 2d round pick twice and a 1st round pick in 2009 and R Moss as 5th round pick twice and a 4th round pick in 2009, R Smith is getting great value out of 2 of his top 5 picks every year. How long will that last? Will he be able to pull enough talent around those two in order to make a championship run in 2010? It remains to be seen but the foundation is there as it has been from the beginning to battle hard most weeks. I say most weeks, because R Smith had an obvious strategy when he loaded up on players who all shared the same bye week. And, on top of that, R Smith didn't sub in other guys to play on those bye weeks thus preserving potential developmental eligibility. That's a couple of sneaky strategies to accomplish the task of making it to the playoffs and preserving eligible players for a developmental status.

CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS's 2009 Draft
CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS (R Smith) had the 6th overall draft pick position in the 2009 draft due to his poor playoff performance in 2008. It should be noted that he has yet to miss a Brothers Keeper playoff. His 2009 draft results are thus (noting that those who were kept from his 2008 final roster:

1. (6) Drew Brees QB (Keeper)
2. (15) Ryan Grant RB
3. (26) Reggie Bush RB
4. (35) Randy Moss WR (Keeper)
5. (46) Larry Johnson RB
6. (55) Roy Williams WR
7. (66) Jeremy Shockey TE
8. (75) Bernard Berrian WR
9. (86) Mason Crosby K
10. (95) Eddie Royal WR
11. (106) Brett Favre QB
12. (115) Earnest Graham RB
13. (126) Carnell Williams RB
14. (135) Miami DEF
15. (146) Tim Hightower RB (Keeper)

CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS's Final 2009 Roster
I have included the 2010 draft round and pick overall (overall pick is in parentheses) value of each player on CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS final roster followed by the name of the player, player's position, total # of fantasy starts for the season (a * indicates developmental eligibility for 2010's draft; some players were on more than one team but their total starts for all teams is listed); and total fantasy points scored by the player for the 16 fantasy week season (which is not subject to the # of starts):
 
1. (7) Drew Brees QB (1st Rd Keeper Value); 15 fantasy starts; 398.62 fp
2. (14) Ryan Grant RB; 15 fantasy starts; 224.15 fp
3. (27) Reggie Bush RB; 11 fantasy starts; 151.09 fp
3. (27) Randy Moss WR; 15 fantasy starts; 224.2 fp
4. (34)
5. (47) Darren McFadden RB; *2 fantasy starts (2 with Custodian Pandemonium + 0 with CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS); 68.95 fp
6. (54) Roy Williams WR; 6 fantasy starts; 107.8 fp
6. (54) Owen Daniels TE; 6 fantasy starts (6 with Yankinfowlsandfeline + 0 with CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS); 95.95 fp
7. (67) Jeremy Shockey TE; 16 fantasy starts; 94.95 fp
8. (74)
9. (87) Mason Crosby K; 16 fantasy starts; 127 fp
10. (94) Beanie Wells RB; 5 fantasy starts; 136.45 fp
11. (107) Brett Favre QB; *1 fantasy starts; 373.68 fp
12. (114)
13. (127) Carnell Williams RB; 4 fantasy starts; 163.55 fp
14. (134) Tim Hightower RB; 10 fantasy starts; 184.2 fp
15. (147) Green Bay DEF; 15 fantasy starts; 174 fp
15. (147) Mario Manningham WR; 8 fantasy starts (2 with Yer X-MOM + 6 with CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS); 126.1 fp (Undrafted)

Looking Ahead at 2010
R Grant RB had a tremendous year in 2007. He was kept by R Johnson as a 14th round undrafted draft pick for the 2008 season. However, 2008 was a poor year for R Grant in fantasy production and was reluctantly released from R Johnson's roster. Taking the opportunity in the 2d round of the 2009 draft to pick up a quality RB to coincide with D Brees QB and R Moss WR was a nice move. Even better was drafting B Favre QB in the 11th round. Favre was only used once despite having one of his best years in his illustrious career. So he has a developmental eligility tag.

Another late 2009 draft pick came in the form of C Williams RB in the 13th round. E Graham RB, and D Ward RB were on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers roster already. C Williams was lucky to be on the team trying out for any job at all. C WIlliams was decimated in 2007 and 2008 by blowing out both knees catastrophically (back to back years!). He played in 4 games in 2007 and 6 games in 2008. Everyone expected him to be done. Shortly before the 2009 Brothers Keeper Fantasy Football BBQ Draft in Slidell, LA on Saturday August 29th, word was released that C Williams would be the 2009 starter; not E Graham or the newly acquired D Ward. R Smith took up the challenge and got a productive fantasy footballer. Not a top tier talent, but definitely a solid average fantasy start each week in 2009.

It's easy to pick D Brees QB, R Grant RB, and R Moss WR as the most likely candidates to be kept. The only downside to this possibility is that R Smith's first 3 picks of the 2010 draft would be used for slotted keepers. That's not a bad top three picks in a straight re-draft league. Most would be happy with those three. The success of O Daniels TE, B Wells RB, C Williams RB, T Hightower RB, and M Manningham WR might be worthy considerations as well because of their placement in the draft. However, they would not usurp the value seen in D Brees QB and R Moss WR. R Grant is the questionable one of the top three picks.

So let's see what R Smith has in the developmental eligibility department? D McFadden and B Favre played less than 3 games in fantasy. Favre may or may not come back for 2010 with Minnesota plus he appears to need ankle surgery (see also here; although the ankle injury may not matter since he's had ankle surgeries in the past and Favre himself has now commented on it). McFadden is talented but on a poor team in Oakland. It is unclear what the projections look like for these two in the short term or long term. Both are a possibility. If Favre is kept and it is clear he will play for the Vikings as their starting QB then the unique possibility arises for R Smith. Theoretically R Smith could keep Brees and trade Favre or Brees for other talent he deems necessary for his team. Or, instead of trading one of the QBs he could not keep Brees and have a 1st round draft pick in the 2010 draft and keep Favre as his starting QB as a developmental status and keep another player on his current roster like C Williams or M Manningham. There are some possibilities to toss around. There would need to be some forecasting of scenarios of first round picks in order to discover the potential available talent (akin to the work I did in this section of Yankinfowlsandfeline [J Smith]). But that's hard to do when you have the 7th pick in the draft. It's just as easy to stick with the keepers in the first three rounds and have an early 4th round pick with Favre ready to go in a trade or bye week substitute. But R Smith thinks about the future with his keepers like last year when he kept T Hightower. I would not be surprised to see M Manningham WR or B Wells RB as potential keepers while R Grant is tossed into the free agent pool.

My Best Guess at CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS's 2010 Keepers
D Brees QB (Rd 1); R Grant RB (Rd 2); R Moss WR (Rd 3) and B Favre QB (Rd 11) as developmental.
 
Brothers Keeper Third Party Consultant's Best Guess at CYBORG PIRATE NINJAS's 2010 Keepers
"ok i would keep brees, moss, wells and as the keeper i would take farve [as developmental] if he comes back. if not as the keeper i would keep mcfadden."

2010 NFL Undrafted Free Agents

Following the NFL draft, teams can then begin to sign players from college who were not drafted. If you need to look at a quick snapshot of each team's activities following the draft in order to fill their roster needs, take a look at Pro Football Weekly's "2010 undrafted free agents" which includes Sicko.

If you're not familiar with Scott Sicko's story, he's a TE out of New Hampshire. Since he wasn't drafted, he gained noteriety from Peter King's MMQB, declaring he was going to go on in his schooling to do his master's degree and PhD in history in order to be a college professor since he wasn't drafted. He then changed his mind and decided to try out for the Dallas Cowboys, one of his pursuers.

Anyhow, check out the link to the "2010 undrafted free agents" and see if you can find the next fantasy football stud akin to Tony Romo et al.

The NFL Draft Value Chart

Every Spring, the NFL looks at the available unsigned college talent and decides to hold a draft in order to restock the league with players. There's a good article on "Everything You Wanted to Know About the Draft But Forgot to Ask" by Barry Goodberg to catch you up to speed on all that normally takes place for the NFL Draft.

The yearly NFL Draft gave rise to NFL Draft Value Charts. The NFL Draft Value Chart was built originally in 1991 by Mike McCoy for then Head Coach of the Dallas Cowboys Jimmie Johnson and Owner Jerry Jones (see the first 3 links below for his values). Though flawed in it's creation, NFL Draft Value Charts were designed to give a numeric value to each draft position for an entire NFL Draft. The reason for building a chart was to be able to evaluate trades before, during, and after the draft. If one were to receive draft picks in a trade or trade away draft picks one needed to know the potential value they were gaining or losing or both. Everyone knows earlier picks are more valuable than later picks but how much more valuable are they? Well, smart NFL executives have assigned values for each pick in the draft.

Here are some of the NFL Draft Value Charts out there, although, I am sure there are more (that are published and unpublished):
NFL draft-pick value chart (ESPN)

Value Chart (Draft Countdown)

Draft Pick Value Chart (nfldraftblitz.com)

NFL Draft Pick History This astute blogger has tracked all the NFL draft pick(s) for draft pick(s) trades since 1992 and proposes the "Values For Trading Down"

Here's that blogger's recent post on The trade value of NFL draft picks. Look for it to be updated following the results of the 2010 NFL Draft.

The Draft Value Chart: Right or Wrong? (Chase Stuart May 21,2008) This blogger uses an approximate value system of players to come up with his value chart which closely resembles the common one created by Mike McCoy. However these are both flawed because they do not assume perfect market efficiency/an ideal draft value chart that is human error free.

Some discussions on the NFL Draft Value Chart:
Picks of the Littered: Draft's bottom-dwellers cannot choose their destiny (SI.com March 25, 2008)

Raiders Trade Chart Cheat Sheet Offers Glimpse Behind Curtain (by Ryan Wilson) A pretty funny assessment of the Oakland Raiders Draft Rules

Who Makes Draft Trades and Why (by Michael David Smith April 20, 2004) Smith analyzes a few years worth of trades and asks: "Do the point values hold up when teams actually trade picks?" when considering the Draft Pick Value chart from the Jimmie Johnson era. As a result he makes some pronouncements on how certain teams will either be more or less active in that year's draft.

draft pick compensation chart The blog presented a question with some good responses by readers.

The following is a more recent technical discussion (in April of 2010) regarding the NFL Draft. Basically it talks a bit more about money. Massey and Thaler "found that the teams choosing early in the draft generally don’t, in fact, get the players that provide the most value per dollar. [Their] paper is titled 'The Loser’s Curse' because [they] discovered that the first pick in the draft is, on average, the least valuable in the entire first round." Their work produced an article by Ben Riley in 2008 called "Building a Better Draft Value Chart." Regardless, here's the links to the recent discussion:

The Loser's Curse: Overconfidence vs. Market Efficiency in the National Football League Draft (by Cade Massey and Richard H. Thaler April 8, 2010)

When a First Pick Isn't the Best Pick by Richard H. Thaler April 2, 2010

When a First Choice Isn't the Best Choice (by Bill Barnwell April 5th 2010) Barnwell critiques the work by Massey and Thaler.

2010 NFL Draft Coverage

The NFL Draft is the priority of fantasy football fans today. They will wait, watch, and see what their favorite teams do and figure out any sort of fantasy impact there might be. Who's the next Calvin Johnson WR? Who's the next stud RB? Who's the next Matt Ryan at QB? What trades will happen? Regardless of what actually goes down, you can watch and listen to a lot of it live via NFL Network, ESPN Radio, or live blogging and draft tracking on the internet. The draft news will continue hot and heavy for the next 3-5 days with all sorts of specualtions and evaluations.

Here's the skinny on the time between picks: 10 min per pick in round 1. Tomorrow, 7 min per pick rd 2, then 5 min per pick rds 3-7.
On Tuesday April 20th there was a live chat with the Jarretsville MD native Mel Kiper Jr:
http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/31976/football-guru-mel-kiper

On Wed April 21 there was a live chat with NFL Network analysts Brian Billick, Charles Davis and Mike Mayock:
http://chat.nfl.com/front/index/870

Here's a pre-draft chat with Matthew Berry at 3pm Eastern/ 2pm Central
http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/31965

Here's some good NFL Draft Trackers (which are awesome if you just ignore the whole event live since you can look at it on the fly after the fact):
http://www.nfl.com/draft/2010/tracker

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draft/rounds

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/drafttracker?tag=globalNav.nfldraft;fastFacts



Tonight there will be the 2010 NFL Draft Live Blogs/Chats/Streaming during the first round of the draft:
http://espn.go.com/espnradio/player?rd=1#/live/?callsign=ESPNRADIO

http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/draft/live

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner

http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/

http://www.cbssports.com/video/player/nfl-draft-live?tag=coverlist_active;coverlist_footer

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2010

http://fantasyfootball.com/no-plans-thursday-night-join-us-instead/

http://www.thefantasysportschannel.com/

If you have ESPN or NFL Network you, too, could just watch it on TV.
http://thefantasysportschannel.com/blogs/?p=544


(more to come probably since this will be the important part of this blog; including twitter feeds)

Let's try this twitter feed code:






Here's some good articles on the business end of the NFL Draft related to market efficiency etc. Pretty in depth:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=697121

http://www.advancednflstats.com/2010/04/rethinking-massey-thaler-draft-study.html

Here's another article on NFL draft day mistakes:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/insider/news/story?id=5117713

If you have ESPN Insider access you can see how the different front offices rank in their abilities in the NFL Draft:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/insider/news/story?id=5114845

2010 NFL Regular Season Schedule Revealed

Okay fantasy footballers, now you can work out your fantasy match ups and bye weeks or whatever other pre-fantasy football draft prep you like to do with it! Take a look at the 2010 Regular Season NFL (via ESPN).

Mock Draft Databases

Basically, FFToolbox has become the one stop shop for the 2010 NFL Mock Drafts. They've collated 74 published mock drafts:

2010 Mock NFL Drafts Database


Some other mock draft databases:

TheFootballExpert NFL Mock Draft Database

NFL Mock Draft Database at dcprosportsreport.com
NFL Draft Today Mock Draft Database

HailRedskins.com Mock Draft Database

NFL Draft Dog

The Huddle Report

NLS Fantasy Football

SundayKickoff.com



Next week the 2010 NFL Schedule and the 2010 NFL Draft takes place.

Looking Ahead 2010: Simba's Buttkicker!

This is the seventh post of a series of blogs covering each team from Brothers Keeper in detail. We will begin with the last place team and move to the top of the league standings as it stood at the end of the 2009 fantasy football season (cf. Kabuki Strikes Back; CustodianPandemonium; Favre$Footlong; Ghost; Redmans CatPunters; Yankinfowlsandfeline). Seventh up, Simba's Buttkicker! (R Johnson).

Overview of R Johnson's Brothers Keeper History
2007 Simba's Butt Kicker: 4-10-0 (9th Place) 1535.54 points; 49 transactions
2008 Simba's Buttkicker: 2-11-0 (10th Place) 1080.75 points; 40 transactions
2009 Simba's ButtKicker!: 7-6-0 (4th Place) 1455.30 points; 29 transactions

2009 End of Season Commentary
After a late morning IHOP breakfast M Peltonen and P Smith headed on over to the designated Brothers Keeper Fantasy Football BBQ Draft location where R Johnson was found. His well air conditioned office is a veritable place filled with objects of his trade and R Johnson prominently leaned back in his old chair. Always an entertaining talker he seemed to breath easy with his fantasy foes on his turf. He can take the easy pot shots and smile them off and keep on going with his stories with the occasional muttering about his back (around which he wore a brace). He's one of the elder statesmen underdignified fantasy players in Brothers Keeper. Just look at the track record: 9th Place (2007); 10th Place, a.k.a. last place (2008). He's missed the playoffs during the entire league's history. According to some reason, R Johnson hasn't yet studied for the draft but was just beginning his research away from home in a quiet office. So he's brought his laptop and is connected to the internet (contraband?). I have to hand it to a man of his age who knows how to get around the interwebs... well, Yahoo's fantasy sports stats anyhow... that's what's on the monitor. It's only 2 hours till draft time.

The chat inevitably turned to his #1 draft pick. There's a bit of talent available after the keeper declarations but he can pick any of them. Sure we talked about the teams after the keeper declaration and which ones seemed more poised. But R Johnson has the pick of the available talent. So why not confess. It's 2 hours till draft time. He's just started to study.

According to R Johnson's Yahoo Fantasy Sports profile, his current overall performance is 70%. He goes deep into the playoffs in most fantasy leagues he plays. Brothers Keeper fantasy football has been the anomaly. It's even more of an anomaly in Brothers Keeper because 8 of the 10 teams make the playoffs. He can play fantasy football, and even made sure to tell me about a 2009 fantasy football championship:

I know the other league is meaningless to you, but that was the team I had that kicked butt to all of you. Having won that league in the finals over Cleaning Lady, proved I was dominant there. So, my hope is that the team in this league will be to the standard I had in the other league.

R Johnson's hopes were 2 hours away at draft time. With M Turner RB, R White WR, and the NYG DEF already kept, R Johnson picked a legitimate top pick in D Williams RB. There was a fissure in the logic though. While D Williams was able to shine in 2008 for his fantasy owners it was in the shadow of a D Foster injury. This year J Stewart RB fantasy owners reaped the benefits of the D Williams injury. R Johnson felt it:

In reference to last year’s league, I was content with the final part of the season much more than I was at the beginning of the season with the draft. The reason being I, I did not think I did well in drafting certain players at the beginning. One for instance is DeAngelo Williams. He was a huge disappointment because of injuries toward the end of the season. He did fairly well at the beginning and toward the middle, but then diminished in his performance.

As an objective observer, starting your fantasy football draft studies 2 hours before draft time was also a contributor to the feeling of discontentment. The D Williams draft pick could have been avoided with further study. J Stewart RB was a highly touted talent and it was known as such when the Carolina Panthers drafted him in one of the best NFL Drafts for RBs in recent memory. J Stewart was drafted the same year as S Slaton, R Rice, C Johnson, R Mendenhall, T Choice, F Jones, M Forte, J Charles, K Smith, and D McFadden. J Stewart just happened to be hampered by lingering injuries his rookie year. But the time was definitely coming when he would at least share the RB carries with D Williams. He was too special to sit.

Maybe the early season malaise should be contributed to the poor talent pool of R Johnson's 2008 final roster? He did trade L Tomlinson RB to J Fullerton for M Turner RB (L Tomlinson's former backup in San Diego) in 2008 which was more beneficial to R Johnson than J Fullerton (by less than a point if one considers the final season fantasy point totals [see stats below]; I do not have records as to which week in 2008 the trade was made and the following fantasy points scored for each player after the trade). But neither player has been the first tier stud either one of them thought they were offering or getting in return. It was basically a middle of the draft value talent swap. It was not a blockbuster. Another oddity was R Johnson's choice to keep a DEF. No one had kept a DEF before in Brothers Keeper. Not sure a 12th round value for a DEF is all that great either. But it was his choice, even if unexplainable. The fruit of the draft arrived.

Trade Comparison:

L Tomlinson

2008 Total Fantasy Points: 256.30

2009 Total Fantasy Points: 168.70

Total: 425.00

M Turner

2008 Total Fantasy Points: 275.95

2009 Total Fantasy Points: 149.85

Total: 425.80

A Gates TE, M Schaub QB, and B Roethlisberger QB were also quite productive. A better talent pool than previous years netted a much more competitive team than R Johnson had historically. Still not great, but more competitive than previous years. Simba's ButtKicker! did beat Yankinfowlsandfeline to end the regular season and finalize his place in his first Brothers Keeper playoffs. However his team's lack of dominance was exhibited by two close games in the playoffs. He narrowly downed Favre$Footlong (D Kessler) 127.03 to 128.15. R Johnson then made his exit in the semifinals against Sea Buzzards (M Peltonen) losing 115.25 to 117.38.

Overall, I think I was happy in the final part of the season. Especially when I kicked Yank’s butt before the playoffs and won the first playoff game only to be eliminated in the next game by a few measly points because of Williams not playing after that injury in that game. I only had to win that one game and then I would have had to play [Yer X-MOM (P Smith)]. Instead, [Yer X-MOM] took the brass ring in the finals.

This may not have been a very good strategy for R Johnon's future. The further he went into the playoffs the worse his draft pick position would be in 2010. In three years of Brothers Keeper drafting he has had 2 number one draft picks and 1 number two draft pick. He's never had anything past the third pick in the draft. With the 2009 4th place finish he will now suffer by drafting eighth. For a person who needs all the draft help he can get this might not be a good thing. It will all depend on his draft prep. Here's what he says about that:

Till draft time this year, I’ll see you then! Meanwhile, it is now baseball season, and I look to do great like I do every year.

Simba's ButtKicker!'s 2009 Draft
Simba's Buttkicker! (R Johnson) had the 1st overall draft pick position in the 2009 draft thanks to his poor 2008 season last place finish. His 2009 draft results are thus (noting that those who were kept from his 2008 final roster:

1. (1) DeAngelo Williams RB
2. (20) Antonio Gates TE
3. (21) Michael Turner RB (Keeper)
4. (40) Roddy White WR (Keeper)
5. (41) Matt Schaub QB
6. (60) Kevin Walter WR
7. (61) Derrick Ward RB
8. (80) Darren Sproles RB
9. (81) Ben Roethlisberger QB
10. (100) Ahmad Bradshaw RB
11. (101) Jerricho Cotchery WR
12. (120) New York Giants DEF (Keeper)
13. (121) Nate Kaeding K
14. (140) John Carlson TE
15. (141) Chaz Schilens WR

Simba's ButtKicker!'s Final 2009 Roster
I have included the 2010 draft round and pick overall (overall pick is in parentheses) value of each player on Simba's ButtKicker!'s final roster followed by the name of the player, player's position, total # of fantasy starts for the season (a * indicates developmental eligibility for 2010's draft; some players were on more than one team but their total starts for all teams is listed); and total fantasy points scored by the player for the 16 fantasy week season (which is not subject to the # of starts):

1. (8) DeAngelo Williams RB; 12 fantasy starts; 191.30 fp
2. (13) Antonio Gates TE; 12 fantasy starts; 184.85 fp
2. (13) Michael Turner RB (Keeper); 9 fantasy starts; 149.85 fp
3. (28) Roddy White WR (Keeper); 12 fantasy starts; 208.85 fp
4. (33)
5. (48) Matt Schaub QB; 8 fantasy starts; 8 384.50 fp
6. (53)
7. (68)
8. (73) Darren Sproles RB; 11 fantasy starts; 199.57 fp
9. (88) Ben Roethlisberger QB; 8 fantasy starts; 350.32 fp
10. (93) Ahmad Bradshaw RB; *3 fantasy starts; 148.98 fp
11. (108)
12. (113)
13. (128)
14. (133)
15. (148) R Willaims B; 8 fantasy starts; 234.30 fp (Undrafted)
15. (148) J Cribbs WR; *3 fantasy starts (1 with Redmans CatPunters + 2 with Simba's ButtKicker!); 162.05 fp (Undrafted)
15. (148) Q Ganther RB; *2 fantasy starts; 52.68 fp (Undrafted)
15. (148) R Meachem WR; *3 fantasy starts; 152.23 fp (Undrafted)
15. (148) M Sims-Walker WR; 7 fantasy starts; 146.45 fp (Undrafted)
15. (148) S Janikowski K; *1 fantasy starts; 113.00 fp (Undrafted)
15. (148) Cincinnati DEF; 6 fantasy starts (1 with Redman's CatPunters + 5 with Simba's ButtKicker!; 134.00 fp (Undrafted)

Looking Ahead at 2010
In 2007 R Johnson drafted A Boldin WR in the 5th round. He was not kept and A Boldin had a tremendous 2008 scoring 207.60 fantasy points in 13 games. In 2008 R Johnson drafted R Mendenhall RB in the 10th round. He dropped Mendenhall because W Parker RB was still the starter. Mendenhall became the starter in 2010 scoring 191.12 fantasy points. If there's anything that should be a concern for R Johnson, it should be his ability to draft, keep, trade for, and scavenge free agency to find players who will be good in the future. R Johnson's 2009 final roster is better in talent than his final roster from 2008. If the trend continues he might be worth considering as a serious contender by 2011. 2010 should be a year to continue to build on his success from 2009 and avoid taking steps backwards. Going backwards in the standings is not as essential as going in reverse in the talent pool. Only A gates TE is at the end of his prime. R Johnson was willing to discuss his insights about the future:

Turner was okay and I will keep him for another season. I might also keep Sproles since Tomlinson was traded and now it looks like Sproles will be the starting running back this next season for San Diego. I haven’t decided to keep Williams yet. I have to think about it some more, because it is a toss up between Roddy White and Williams.

This is an interesting situation. If he maintains 2 RBs (M Turner and D Sproles) he will probably want to keep another position player other than RB for his last potential keeper. Evaluating any developmental eligible players will be beneficial in narrowing down who that last keeper could be. J Cribbs WR and R Meachem WR seem to be legitimate contenders as developmental eligible keepers. A Bradshaw RB doesn't seem to be a fit with D Sproles and M Turner and D Williams as viable options at RB.

R Johnson has had an affinity toward R White WR in Brothers Keeper. He's been on R Johnson's team the past two seasons. This could end with the presence of J Cribbs or R Meachem as a keeper because of the depth of talent at QB. With B Roethlisberger worth a 9th round draft pick and M Schaub worth a 5th round pick you know there's less room for R White if what R Johnson has said is true. I doubt Roethlisberger will be kept because of the exit of S Holmes WR to the NYJ and if Roethlisberger is subject to any sort of suspension (can someone say "no, this is not OK"), thus diminishing any fantasy value completely the weeks the suspension is served. Regardless, M Schaub was the more productive QB on R Johnson's team. Both are definitely steals in the rounds they could be kept in while R White WR is a legit 3d round pick, he's just not as good of a deal. Same goes with A Gates TE. He produced in 2009 at a level that was acceptable for the 2d round pick that he was but he doesn't seem to be as good a deal especially when you consider his age or the fact that he would forfeit his 1st round pick in order to keep two 2d round picks in M Turner and A Gates. There is a far chance that R Johnson might do away with Sproles and keep R White instead. That would allow him to draft a different RB, or D Sproles in the 1st round and still have M Turner, R White, M Schaub, and J Cribbs or R Meachem. That is a solid start to a fantasy future in 2010 and 2011.

My Best Guess at Simba's ButtKicker!'s 2010 Keepers
M Turner RB (Rd 2), M Schaub (Rd 5) D Sproles RB (Rd 8), and R Meachem (Rd 15). Meachem is a hometown favorite playing for the Superbowl Champion New Olreans Saints. Plus J Cribbs is on a sub-par team with older sub-par QBs as potential passers (J Delhomme and S Wallace) instead of the elite D Bress.
 
Brothers Keeper Third Party Consultant's Best Guess at Simba's ButtKicker!'s 2010 Keepers
"roddy white, mike turner, matt shaub, and meach as the keeper. atlanta's schedule should work out well for the falcons they had a bad yr last year. shaub was the 3rd best fantasy qb last yr and he gets owen daniels back and meach was an easy choice for a keeper he should have a good yr next yr cuz the saints are a spread team. each should be right behind colston in targets."

Fantasyland: The Movie

A year or two ago I found a stockpile of Sam Walker's book Fantasyland in the local used book store... unused. So I bought one on the cheap. Basically, he's a reporter and he gets invited to the most prestigious Fantasy Baseball League there is: Tout Wars. It's a fun read since he has access to players and he does some interesting stuff on his own to try to compete. It's old material and I hardly remember the fantasy season the book was about. It was a quick read at a discount price. Not bad.

Well, here's a movie about a regular guy who plays against the fantasy baseball experts in Tout Wars, with some of Sam Walker's book material mixed in:

Fantasyland

Hope you enjoy.