The Avenger

It really doesn't take longer than a regular snake draft - in our case we go about 3 hours (but we've never been a group to do speedy drafts to begin with - half the fun of the league is getting together for the draft). Our rosters are 16 players, and we have 10 teams, so the draft goes for 160 auctions (the concept of a round becomes moot in an auction draft). Towards the end some autions last about 10 seconds as only certain owners still have money, so guys are jus throwing out a name and an opening bid which nobody contests so the player is awarded and the next name goes up on the action block - that moves really quick. The big name players take longer - somebody's always going to put another dollar on LT, but eventually only 1 person is left bidding.

wasn't there also some talk about using Posey as a DE?

Simple. Each team gets a payroll (ours is $200) with which to "buy" a team. The first owner up throws a player out onto the auction block with an opening bid (i.e. - Willis McGahee - $5) and the player is auctioned off to the highest bidder (just like a regular auction - the bids increase until the point where only 1 person is left bidding). The next owner then throws out another name, and evetually everyone builds their squad with players they have successfully bid on. Advantages: -Draft order is not important. The only thing you get to do when it's your turn is throw a name out for auction. You can bid on any player up for bid. -You have a shot at any player in the league. Want Ladanian? He's yours if you are willing to bid high enough (by contrast, if you draft #5 in a normal draft you will NEVER get LT). -There's a strategy to drafting - you can actually throw out the names of players you DON'T want when it's your turn and watch other owners burn through their payrolls, allowing you to get players at bargain prices later on (I play with a bunch of Pats fans and I love throwing Tom Brady on the block and watching everyone overpay for him). -It rewards skill rather than luck of the draw when they set the draft order. If you're crafty you can really end up with a good team. You have to think on your feet - anyone who shows up with a fantasy football magazine draft cheat sheet is going to get pounded (as they should). I'd recommend this style only to leagues where players are very experienced - my league's been going for about 12 years. Also, there's almost no way to do a draft online like this - you have to be together or on a conference call (8 of us get together, another 2 on the West Coast join by phone). We love the auction draft - we'll never go back. It makes the draft so much more fun.

If they truly mean a free kick then it doesn't matter - how many of those do you ever get in a game, or even a season? So few you wouldn't even need to change any rules - truly insignificant.

I don't know specifically what that rule change(s) is, but wouldn't this really impact onsides kicks? They always load one side with players - if you can't do that, will another onsides kick ever be successful?

I tend to think he could be undervalued as well. I'd put him ahead of Davis who looks like he's always going to have some sort of nagging injury this season, and probably on par with Jackson. My philosophy on drafting Bills is to draft a Bill over other players in the same talent level because I know I'll get to see my guy play week in and week out. Can't comment on when to draft Willis - we do an auction draft (once you do an auction you'll never go back).

"Pismo Beach and all the clams you can eat.....hey!....."

Actually, what you described is being drawn out as well - even more so because your slow play didn't force him out and allowed him to draw out on you. To me a bad beat is when you play the way you would have even if you were able to see all the other hands at the table. You have the best hand, play like you have the best hand, are a huge statistical favorite (the other guy only has 1 or 2 outs) and he manages to pull one of those cards. That's a bad beat because its luck - you played exactly the way you should have and you still got beat - ugly.

Leave my eyes out of this - I have 20/20 vision and I'd like to keep it that way...

Fear not, for this is fortold in the Bible: Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal. Job 5:17-18 Is more proof needed that Bruschi is the blessed one and his hands shall heal (as long as he binds them up, presumably with some sort of athletic tape?)

Gotta be the o-line, same as my concern has been for years (it's getting tiring, really)... While I have concern with the DL, I know they are going to a whole new system, so I expect there to be issues. QB is also a concern, but until we have a decent line it will be very difficult to know what we have - someone can look terrible behind a weak line but put up good numbers elsewhere (see also: Bledsoe, Drew).

I think it's a risk vs. reward thing - how much benefit do you get from practicing for a few hours in "real world" conditions vs. what is the increased risk that extreme heat/cold could cause injuries? I see the "real world" argument, but from the perspective of guys getting hurt/sick, etc. I rather play it conservatively and only expose them to such conditions when there is no choice (like week 2 in Miami).

This is a prime example of how poorly kids do in geography these days - they didn't realize that Massachusetts is its own state, and actually a different state than NY.

Got that right. Ever wonder why the NHL broadcasts were relegated to OLN? Because when they were on network TV their ratings were on par with Arena Football ratings (I'm a huge foorball fan, and even I don't wantch much Arena ball). That's just pathetic. At least it's not as bad as the New Hampshire station I get and listen to whats happening around the NFL on Sunday afternoons - for more than half the season NFL radio coverage is forced off the air by radio coverage of NASCAR. Damn - that stuff is boring to watch on TV - imagine how boring it is on the radio! What's next - brush to brush radio coverage of the world paint drying championships? Shoot me. Seriously - in July, knock off the hockey coverage unless there's some major news...

Drafting last is a tough place to be, but I don't think there are any hard and fast rules about what to do with regards to when to take running backs. The question to ask yourself when its your turn to pick is what the dropoff in talent will be at the position by your next pick. In the case of RB, there's going to be a HUGE drop in the talent level you get at #10 and the talent level you get at #30 - you're going to need to get a RB at #10 or #11 or you're not going to have ANYONE at the position who is the main ball carrier for their team. At #11 I'd probably look to get a top/the top WR on my board. With 9 guys picking ahead of you, you're not going to get a top 5 RB, but you will get a top 3 receiver (probably even #1). If you settle for another 10+ RB at this spot you'll be picking WR at 30/31 and again you'll be behind everyone. The last thing you want to do in your draft is always be the LAST guy picking at player at a position where everyone else has already scooped someone up - you'll be incrementally weaker at every position on your roster. As difficult as it may be, I'd save your second RB spot for a later round and take an educated risk on a guy who has the potential to be the #1 durring the season (one of the Denver RBs, a rookie like Laurence Maroney in NE or Lendale White in Ten, Cedric Benson in Chicago who may be the main ball carrier but nobody is talking about because he was on the bench last year). Remember that there are many instances where all a guy needs in some opportunity/playing time to show he can do it (Willie Parker, Samkemon Gado) - find these guys but take the sure thing at WR (or QB, depending on your league).

What was the interview with your brother? - I think I've seen almost every Daily Show - wonder if I'd remember the bit...

Why do you read posts you don't care about and then complain about it? It's not like the topic of the post was hidden or misleading - it is "Lance Bass of N'Sync reveals that he is gay, what a shocker". If you don't care, don't read - simple.

Welcome to the board, Len Bias.

See also: Benson, Cedric, RB, Chicago.

Actually, it's a law - right after the one that says you have to preface Willis' Fiesta Bowl injury as either "devestating" or "gruesome".

A simple solution indeed, except that it is riddled with politics and grandstanding. With this solution politicians couldn't stand up and rail again abortion even though abortion doesn't really have anything to do with it. They also would have to still take heat from the religous conservatives who believe that using a 200 cell blastosphere is "murder" (not sure why they don't get riled up by the multitude of blastospheres detroyed every day by fertility clinics but froth at the moth if these same blastospheres could actually serve some good to human kind in the process of being destroyed - then again these folks often times aren't too big on logic - some think the earth is flat). By linking this issue to "abortion" and "murder" the politicians can pander to whatever group they like. Witness the veto of the stem cell bill - Bush was surrounded by children who were "adopted as embyos" and "shouldn't be used for spare parts" although they have nothing to do with the subject at hand.

Agreed. Not only is that a fallacy in logic as you point out, its just plain wrong. People don't abort 200 cell blastospheres, and if they do, they certainly aren't "harvested". The "embyos" that would be used are the clumps of cells in cold storage at fertility clinics, etc. that were never implanted and would otherwise be destroyed. You can't even imagine how many extra embyos are produced by fertility treatments and how many people undergo these treatments. They may create 10-15 blastospheres in vitro for each attempt at a pregnancy and only 2-3 are usually implanted - the rest are stored for future attempts. Once they have been stored for a ceratin amount of time thier chances of becoming viable are greatly reduced so they are scheduled to be destroyed - this is where most of the prohibited "embyos" would come from. Implying that this issue has much to do with abortion or would lead to more abortions is pure politics, which is a terrible thing for science.

Yeah, my first thought was that he must be the most unlucky guy on earth being an innocent bystander twice, but then you see the circumstances and have to read between the lines: -The first time he was shot outside a topless club. Not saying he was doing anything wrong or that we all have been to the ballet, but if you're trying to avoid trouble that's not the place to be. It's like walking around in the south Bronx at night - you might very well be an innocent victim of a mugging, but on some level you put yourself in a bad situation - if you'd been at chior practice you probably wouldn't have been shot. -The guy is driving home from a vacation and a car pulls up and starts shooting? Call me crazy, but this ususally doesn't just happen. People don't just pull up to you on the highway and start shooting (OK - I'm not from L.A.) - you'd think they were looking for someone to do something like that. I'm not saying that he did anything wrong, but I think there could well be more to the story on this one - I'd be curious to see if there was any link between him and the shooter(s) - that might explain lots. I'm skeptical (and I hate the Cowboys).

That dude is going to rock in Madden!!!

Looks like our posts overlapped - as soon as I hit the Add Reply button it showed up right under yours.