I am in three Fantasy Football leagues and in everyone of them the player with Ladanian Tomlinson is absolutely running away with the league. You know with his 2,3,4 TD games. 200 Yards of total offense every game. Stuff like that. And what really kills me is that it basically means this year it came down to who got lucky in the randomly selected draft order.
So got to hell LT, for ruining my make-beleive football dreams!!!
(He is fun to watch though, must admit)
Believe it or not, in our league, the guy that had him was blowing everyone out until last week. Then he got blown out and knocked out of the playoffs.
Well this long suffering Charger fan is loving him. 
Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t Larry Johnson and/or Shaun Alexander rated higher than him by most Fantasy Football experts? For each of these leagues, were the people that got him always the one who got lucky enough to get first pick AND smart enough to pick him over LJ or Shaun Alexander? Of course, even though I don’t play, I remember thinking the experts were morons for rating him lower; I would have taken him, or done what I could to trade for him.
But really, is it pure luck? Did the same “lucky” shmoe who got him only survive on luck; I doubt the rest of his team is made up with such “stars” as Drew Bledsoe, or Rex Grossman, right? Maybe your leagues should consider seeding for your picks rather than random.
Well, maybe it is coincidence, but in all three of my leagues he went third, meaning the person who was randomly selected third basically had LT dropped in his lap and therefore the season as well. I was the 5th pick twice and the 9th pick in the third league. And while you do need som other playerrs, of course, having LT this year is like getting a 25 yard head start in the 100 yard dash.
I’m thinking an effing sports discussion as cordial as this will do well in Cafe Society. (That’s where sports talk goes, right?)
He’s good, but MartyBall tends to pad his stats.
Well, if he went third, then that means it wasn’t pure luck, because he wasn’t even projected to be the best producer, and no one picked him first as the “obvious” pick. Sounds to me like you shouldn’t be pitting him, but the morons who picked first and second and didn’t pick him. If the guys (or gals) that have him had an average player instead, would they still be in similar position? If so, then I assert they deserve their victory for being good AND lucky.
Last year wasn’t Shaun Alexander nearly as good? How did the teams that had him fair last year? Its only luck is as much as any pick could have been a bust or a find, just like the real NFL draft. Look at the people who may have picked Tony Romo or David (?) Garrard with late picks that ended up being starters who may be performing better than who they expected to start. What about the poor sap who did all of his homework and made a good pick with Shaun Alexander only to have him get injured?
But, yeah, I get your point… really, you should be pitting dumb luck. Like the guy in monopoly who gets doubles, gets 2 or 3 railroads and Boardwalk right off the bat and never looks back. Or the guy in poker who goes all in with 2-7 off-suit against A-A, and cracks it when 3 7s drop on the flop. Or the guy in Fantasty Football, who probably doesn’t do any homework other than buying an “expert’s” magazine who rates LT third, randomly gets the third pick and luckily has him available as the best pick with both LJ and Alexander having gone first and second. How does the saying go… “Better lucky than good.”?
I’m pissed because my fantasy go-to guy has pretty much let me down this season. When my draft turn came up, I couldn’t believe he hadn’t been selected yet.
Peyton Manning, I’m looking at you.
What MartyBall? Have you watched any of the last seven games? We’ve had flea flickers, last week a fumblerooski, last night a fake punt in the first quarter.
MartyBall is long gone.
No way. It’ll be the same ol’ Marty come playoff time; playing not to lose rather than to win. Wait and see.
LT went first in our league, and the guy that drafted him got ousted in round 1 of our playoffs. Unless Joseph Addai blows up tonight, I’ll take at least second place with a bunch of scrubs. Go figure.
Maybe they knew something you didn’t…? How late did you pick? Before the season, it was expected the Colts wouldn’t have a running game (Addai has turned out better than expected, of course), so I would have perceived that as a hamper on his stats which would have reduced his fantasy value. Of course, I still probably would have valued him over just about every other QB out there, but from what I understand, QBs are often overrated in FF, with a few rare exceptions. That is, a stand-out RB (like LT, LJ, etc.) is a lot better compared to the average RB than a stand-out QB (like Manning, Tom Brady, etc.) is compared to an average QB, depending on the rules of your league. In other words, early picks should be devoted to the greatest outliers, even if they don’t necessarily out perform someone else at a different position
Which goes to show that I still have a lot to learn about FF. He was my first round draft pick because I expected him to be a steady, reliable point generator. I had him in 2004 when he seemed to break records every week, and he was the main reason I was undefeated then. I guess I didn’t consider the Colts as a whole team, and was expecting more of the same.
No, he should be pitting yahoo for not having a cap feature. Guys like Tomlinson in 06, Alexander in 05 and Manning in 04 lead to huge imbalances in the fantasy world.
It would be amazingly simple for yahoo to add a single setting for a point cap. Then you could set it at, say, 30 points, so any game where a single player scores more than 30, he only earns 30.
Simple, effective, adjustable and optional. The lack of that feature is what is pittable.
At least, as some other posters have pointed out, it wasn’t like LT was the obvious #1 pick going into the season. Most lists I saw had a clear cut top 3, but many had LT as the 3rd overall player. I think this would be worse if LT had been a no-brainer top pick, in which case it really would have came down to whoever ramdomly drew the #1 pick getting a huge advantage right out of the gate.
I do know of one league some of my buddies are in, in which LT went fourth overall. Someone took Peyton Manning at 3.
In my league the team with LT is playing in our Super Bowl next week, but his team is pretty good even without LT. In my league’s example, it would be hard to say getting LT single handedly won the league for this guy, but it definitley didn’t hurt.
The hallmark of MartyBall is the “Run, Run, Pass, Punt” format. The focus is almost entirely on the running game. As a result, a good running back can get stupid high numbers with his system. If you look at his playcalling on the year I think you’ll find that there are around twice as many runs as there are passes. Not that that’s a bad thing if it works, and this year it is clearly working, but you don’t think that LT could put up this type of season with a different team, do you? The Steelers are the closest thing to MartyBall outside of San Diego and LT wouldn’t get anywhere near the number of touches he’s getting this year in Pittsburgh.
One other thing: fumblerooskis are illegal in all levels of football. What happened with San Diego was technically a trick handoff, because the ball was never placed on the ground. Had it been it would have been penalized.
Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that the only reason it doesn’t look like MartyBall to you is because LT is putting it away so often. If the other teams could stop him more often it would look more familiar. LT is skewing the appearance of it. You can’t teach an old dog like Schottenheimer new tricks.
Alexander in 2005: 1,880 rushing yards, 28 TD (27 rushing, 1 rec)
Tomlinson in 2006: 1,626 rushing yards, 31 TD (28 rushing, 3 rec), 2 passing TD through 14 games
I don’t know how these things are calculated. Tomlinson will probably rush for more yards and finish with five to seven more TDs, plus the two he threw for - so maybe Alexander was nearly as good, maybe not.
I just want to know if anyone picked up Tony Romo for their fantasy team.