Fantasy Football Librarian

Week 11 Consensus Start/Sit

2009-11-21T10:09:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Northern Virginia - I only have time to get up the consensus picks and a quick link or two before I hang out with my mom; my apologies but moms come first.
Link love first:

If you'd like to see me hopefully turn around my sinking ship with Fighting Chance Fantasy's Five Game Parlay, well, good luck to you. Here's hoping it's not another stinker of a week for me...
With so many injuries and doubtful starts out there, it doesn't hurt to remind you all to check out some of the top news feeds before plugging your players in each week. Two of my favorites are Rotoworld and KFFL.com.
Looking for a real sleeper? See what Rotoworld has to say about Brandon Gibson.
Finally, IDPers if you're in the market for some start/sit advice on your IDP players, see what FFManiaxs have to say.

Those playing my weekly contest with 365FantasySports.com should know that you can always email David at 365 and ask for more points if you'd like to keep playing but are running low on points. If you need David's contact info, just let me know.

Now to the consensus start/sit for the week - remember, I troll through all of the expert start/sit links that I put up during the week and give you the players with the most votes either way. So listed in no particular order, here are your consensus picks!

QB

Start: Eli Manning, Matt Hasselbeck, Brett Favre
Sit: David Garrard, Matt Ryan, Jay Cutler (though several sites also suggested starting Cutler)
RB
Start: Bernard Scott, Kevin Smith, Beanie Wells
Sit: Jamaal Charles, Joseph Addai, Ryan Grant

WR
Start: Sidney Rice, Steve Breaston, Santonio Holmes
Sit: Santana Moss, Roy Williams, Mike Sims-Walker
TE
Start: Greg Olsen, John Carlson
Sit: Benjamin Watson, Jason Witten, Zach Miller
Kicker
Start: no consensus
Sit: Jason Elam
D/ST
Start: Bengals
Sit: Ravens

Lots of Week 11 prep

2009-11-20T10:22:00.000-05:00

Did you all know that the Panthers are the only team that has never defeated the Dolphins? Wow. Perhaps those of you who live in a land where your cable company and the NFL Network can agree upon viewing terms did know that, perhaps heard your announcers talk of this stat. But since I can't stand to "watch" the game on NFL.com (there's no watching, it's like an extended painful halftime where every once in a while you're taken to a brief clip of the game), I ended up bailing on most of the game. In the future I'm thinking of switching to Westwood One's broadcast of Thursday Night games.

So I'm headed home to Arlington, Virginia, this afternoon via the fancy wifi bus. It's cheap, it's relatively fast, and it's got wifi and plug ins. What could be better? So I'll probably try and catch up on emails and such this afternoon but might not have a ton of time to answer any other start/sit or trade questions this weekend since I'll be living it up with the fam and friends. Can't wait, will be good to be home.

Let's get to today's links:

First up I've got a new article for you guys this week, penned by a friend of my sister's at the Boston Globe. Though frankly I'm learning that everyone is a friend of my sister's - seriously, she's the most social butterfly the world has ever known and I guarantee at least half of you readers are somehow connected to my sister. Forget Kevin Bacon, try six degrees of Katie. Back to the actual link - Titan runs up the points has a handy look at three players moving up and three players moving down in the fantasy world. While I'm sad to see my dear Broncos make the "three down" list, I'm hoping Ed is right on the Marion Barber front...
If you'd like to feel educated and entertained about this week's matchups then look no further than the Fifth Down's Week 11 NFL Matchups, written by Football Outsiders' Mike Tanier.
We've got rankings from Mr. Fantasy by position - this link goes to QB.
Time for this week's roundtable discussions among my favorite bloggers and FF writers:

BigTroph has thoughts from lots of sharp minds on this week's sleepers and busts - good stuff here.
Junkyard Jake hosts the blogger roundtable this week, discussing which players have been the biggest disappointments so far and what lessons have been learned for the 2010 season.

It's almost hard to believe there could be more start/sit links since I feel like I've just been posting them for days, but here you go!

Bruno Boys' Start Ems
Talented Mr. Roto's Love/Hate: Requiem for 'Remote Control' (bonus video starts right away)
FFGeekBlog's Hits & Misses - Week 11: Playoffs approaching
The Hazean's Week 11 Start & Sit: Injuries Steal the Fantasy Spotlight
CBSSports.com's Start 'Em and Sit 'Em
Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit
NFL.com's Start 'Em & Sit 'Em
RotoExperts.com/SI's Who to start, who to sit

With so many injuries out there right now, your best place to go these days for updates is Stephania Bell's injury blog on ESPN.
A few days ago I mentioned that there's a contest on the BWW All-Star Blogger League for a $50 gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings. I need the most comments from you all on my posts in order to win that gift card (see more details in my post earlier this week), so swing on by my post today to leave a comment and become eligible for that gift card. And this will happen every week until December 31st! How awesome is that?

I'll be back by tomorrow afternoon with the consensus start/sit info!

Weekly contest!

2009-11-19T17:59:00.000-05:00

First up, this past week has been a busy one for me so I fell off the wagon with my weekly contest with 365FantasySports.com. But we're back up and rolling - feel free to join us, it's free to participate and you can jump in or out any time. For details, start here and use password book11 when prompted.

Here are a few afternoon links for you...

The start/sit links are still rolling out, trying to make it before the Thurs Night game begins...drum roll please....

FFNerd's Where to Put 'Em
Fantasy Phenoms' Early Week 11 Starts and Sits
CBSSports.com's Week 11 Start 'Em & Sit 'Em
Yahoo's Roto Arcade Flames/Lames: Steve Slaton, come on up for the rising
FFToolbox's Week 11: Sit 'Em

Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's handy doc has studs, starts, sleepers, and bench suggestions for the week.
I linked out to Fantasy Depth Chart last week for the first time - I'm still digging the target perspective offered here in this week's NFC Depth Chart Notes.
Sports Grumblings has a Snap, Crackle and Pop article full of interesting little tidbits while suggesting which players to start, sit, or plug in with sleeper hopes.
And of course SI's Fantasy Clicks is a great read with tons of info. If you've got trade deals on the mind, stop what you're doing and check it out now - it's worth it.

Rockstar links for Week 11

2009-11-19T11:31:00.000-05:00

I am a rockstar. Okay, not really, the closest I've ever come to rocking an instrument was the recorder back in 3rd grade. But I was living like a rockstar last night, somehow hanging out with my husband's old college buddies until 3 AM. As someone who is frequently in bed by 11 most Wednesday nights, this was a rare occurrence. When we left the bar though there were still plenty of others going strong on a Wednesday night; I mean, who are these people?! How do so many folks have schedules that allow them to be out and about like that in the wee hours of a Wednesday night turned to Thursday morning? Well it's New York City, friends, it's New York City.

So big surprise, I'm running late today with my post. Good thing I have a lot of awesome material to make up for the slowness of my morning post.

I'm digging Fantasy Football Report's Matchup Charts by position - you can get a player by player look at opposing defenses overall rankings, rush defense rankings, and pass defense rankings.
MyOfficePool's Buy Low, Sell High evaluates the value of some players that you might want to deal with/for before trade deadlines.
Take a look at my top 3 links for the week - and of course some player advice - in the Fifth Down's Week 11 in Fantasy Football Matchups.
On a similar note, the Sporting News has some thoughts on running backs that will help you make that playoff push during Weeks 11-13.
If you haven't heard, Ronnie Brown is out for the season. Sad, very sad.
We've got rankings. Read on.

Rotoworld's Week 11 Rankings
Mac Bros Start/Sit Rankings
FantasyPros911's Week 11 Top 250 Rankings
Pyromaniac.com's Week 11 positional rankings

And we've of course got start/sit suggestions.

Pigskin Addiction's Start/Bench - Week 11
Rapid Draft's Week 11 Start 'em/Bench 'em Report
Pyromaniac.com's Start 'Em - Sit 'Em: Week 11
FantasySharks.com's Start/Bench List
FFToolbox's Week 11: Start 'Em
RotoExperts' Dear Diary: Sit/Start

Finally, prep for tonight's matchup with Rotoworld's Thursday Night Matchup: MIA @ CAR.

Enjoy the Thursday Night Football game and I'll be back tomorrow with even more start/sit links!

Win a $50 gift card to BWW!

2009-11-18T10:51:00.001-05:00

I'm alive and well, having survived yesterday's interview. As with all things in academia, particularly around the holidays, it will be awhile before I learn more about the job. But I just want to say a quick thanks to all who e-mailed or left a comment, wishing me luck yesterday. I'm truly one lucky blogger to have such a great readers.

Since I'm just lounging around this morning, avoiding anything that could possibly be considered mentally tasking, I caught this fun little library news tidbit: remember kids, it's never too late to make good on those overdue library books. Probably better not to wait 51 years, but hey, better late than never.

Finally, who wants to win a $50 gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings? Here's the deal - the BWW All-Star Blogger League is running a weekly contest from now until the end of the FF season where the league blogger who has the most comments on their posts for the week on the BWW All-Start Blogger League site, will win a $50 gift card. I will then pick at random from the names that posted a comment on my posts that week (Mon-Sun) and get that $50 BWW gift card sent to the winner. So in order to win just follow my links to my posts on the BWW site, post a comment with a unique name/moniker, and check back here on FFLibrarian each Monday to see if your name is listed as the winner. If it is, after sending me your contact info, a $50 gift card will be on its way (note: just to clarify, there's only a winner if my posts on BWW have the most comments for the week, so get commenting!)! Pretty easy, right? Now I need your advice on which D/ST to start this week, so head on over to my post for today and start commenting!

Moving to today's links:

First up, some last minute waiver wire advice:

FFGeekBlog's The Wire - Week 11: The Replacements
Talented Mr. Roto's Wouldn't it be Great If... with pickups of the week
FFToday's Through the Wire
Sports Grumblings' Waiver Wonders: Week 11
RotoExperts' The Pickup Artist

IDPers, make sure you check out Numbers & Guts' IDP Wednesdays - full of great ideas on guys to pick up, plug in, or just IDP-friendly matchups to focus on when making your weekly decisions.
A few sleeper suggestions for you from FFToolbox and KFFL.com.
It's Trade Deadline Advice Week at The Hazean...stroll on over for thoughts on who to target for the playoffs.
Take a look at Bruno Boys' Carrots or Karats? for a look back at some of the fantasy winners and losers from last week. Again, one of my favorite parts here are the little nuggets of info at the end.
ProFootballWeekly.com has their Matchups to exploit or avoid, a valuable reference as always.
Some early start/sit advice and rankings are up:

FFManiaxs' Week 11 Start/Sit
Junkyard Jake's Sleepers/Creepers
KFFL.com's rankings for Week 11
Fantasy Football Report's Projections by position (links to QB)

Finally, got questions about this week's matchups? Do a live chat with expert George Winkler from The Sporting News today, Wednesday, from 12-1 eastern time.

Quick morning recap

2009-11-17T09:05:00.000-05:00

Gotta be quick this morning - that interview at Library B that I mentioned a few weeks ago? It's today and will last a solid 8ish hours when it's all said and done. Cross your fingers for me!

Waiver wire articles:

FFToolbox's Week 11: Pickups of the Week
Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Week 11 video - all about RBs
FantasyPros911.com's Waiver Wire: Week Eleven
NFL.com's RBs Forsett, Snelling will be popular names on fantasy's waiver wire
Fighting Chance Fantasy's On the Radar - and don't forget to catch their podcast on Tues nights!
Pyromaniac's Scanning the Waiver Wire
12StepDrop's Pickups: Week 11
FFManiaxs' Week 11 Waiver Wire
NFL.com's waiver wire video (starts immediately)

Other good stuff:

Always enjoy Rotoworld's Beyond the Box Score - a look at 5 interesting games from Sunday.
Another link that I always scope out is SI's Fantasy Clicks - great review of the weekend's games and chock full of interesting details.
FantasySharks.com's On the Rise, On the Fall - Week 11 has a nice preview of players whose value is heading up or down for this weekend's matchups. Love that some tiny voice in my head suggested I hang onto Forsett after drafting him as a flier...
Best part about MJD's apology to the fantasy community? That he was playing himself in his own fantasy league. Love it.
ESPN's Week 11 projections are already up and available. Remember, there's another Thursday game this week.

Rolling out Week 11 waiver wire links

2009-11-16T10:36:00.000-05:00

The only thing more amazing than the finish to the Colts vs Pats game? Randy Moss's beard. A quick shot of him sans helmet last night showed an impressive beard that caused my husband to muse, "is there any evidence that Randy Moss and Jesus are not one in the same?" which of course caused me to crack up (not intended to offend anyone, fyi...). Anyway, what an amazing game - let's get it all out there: yes, I was pulling for the Colts (my husband is a Knoxville, TN native and thus a huge Peyton fan) but I personally felt that the 4th and 2 call was incredibly ballsy and incredibly good. Would I have done it? Hell no, not a chance, but that's just one of the many reasons that Belichick is the evil mastermind of New England and I am not. And keep in mind that if it had worked there would be a parade in Boston this morning honoring Belichick's genius. Now what we can all hope for is an equally entertaining rematch for the AFC Championship game. If you'd like to see why Advanced NFL Stats' Brian Burke thinks the call was a great one, see what he has to say on the Fifth Down.

Meanwhile throughout the rest of the league there were countless injuries this week. Including one to Kyle Orton, which caused my Broncos to fall...to the Skins. I know, I know, I can barely even form coherent sentences after that one. But truth be told, the Skins are one of my favorite teams (hey, I grew up outside of DC!), and I've been feeling badly for them this whole season. I did not see the game, just followed the stats and highlights, so I don't know for sure how it all went down. But I know this - the Broncos are in a world of trouble.

Onto today's links:

For the latest injury news, scope out KFFL's Post-game injury report, or head to FFToolbox's updates on Ronnie Brown, Michael Turner, Cedric Benson, and Julius Jones.
Plus, Brian Westbrook had another concussion. Not good for his long-term situation.
If you missed any of this weekend's games, there are as usual some solid recaps out there. Take a look at CBSSports.com's First Response: Adding insult to injury or Football Outsiders' Audibles at the Line: Week 10.
Another good one to scope out from a fantasy perspective is Fantasy Hulks' Mr. Monday Morning: Week 10.
So let's get to today's waiver wire articles:

FootballDocs' Waiver Wire
ProFootballWeekly's Fantasy Ticker: Week 11
Bruno Boys' Pick Them Up and Cut Them Loose
Lester's Legends' Get 'em or Don't Sweat 'em
The Hazean's Early Week 11 Waiver Wire Thoughts
FanHouse's Waiver Wire Wonders: Superstar Wheels Come Off
IDPers, take a look at Monk's IDP Waiver Wire Pick Ups

By the way, could I be any worse at picking games? Yeah. Nice, real nice. Basically if you're wondering who to pick, just do the opposite of what I say on Fighting Chance Fantasy.
And in case you're in the market for a new website to scope out, SportsCenter.com goes live today - what do you guys think?

Don't forget to get your voice heard in the 1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice poll - it's still up for about 2 more weeks and while I've already heard from over 500 of you, I'm hoping for even more!

Week 10's Consensus Start/Sit

2009-11-13T18:10:00.000-05:00

Just finished up a little Skype session with a really good friend and her 3-month-old baby - seriously, God bless the creators of Skype, it's awesome. So I've got a few more start/sit links for you before I get to the consensus start/sit list for Week 10.

Bruno Boys' Week 10 Sit Ems
Rotoholics' Starters and Sitters - Week 10
The Hazean's Start & Sit
Fantasy Joe's Studs, duds and sleepers
Fantasy Phenoms' Early Week 10 Starts and Sits
Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Studs, Starts, Sleepers and Bench

Time for the consensus picks - I've gone through all of this week's start/sit links from experts and tallied up those players with the most start/sit votes.

Start: Ben Roethlisberger, Mark Sanchez, Matt Hasselbeck, Brett Favre

Sit: Kyle Orton, Carson Palmer, David Garrard, Donovan McNabb

Start: Ricky Williams, Ronnie Brown, Jamaal Charles, Pierre Thomas

Sit: Julius Jones, Kevin Smith, LaDainian Tomlinson

Start: Steve Smith (CAR), Sidney Rice, Derrick Mason, Jerricho Cotchery

Sit: Santana Moss, Eddie Royal, Mike Sims-Walker, Dwayne Bowe

Start: Kellen Winslow, Brent Celek, Brandon Pettigrew, Visanthe Shiancoe

Sit: Fred Davis, Dustin Keller, Benjamin Watson, Tony Scheffler

Kicker

Start: John Carney, Matt Prater, Steven Hauschka, Rob Bironas

Sit: Jeff Reed

D/ST

Start: Jets, Titans, Saints, Cowboys, Cardinals

Sit: Eagles, Packers

Friday morning start/sit links

2009-11-13T09:08:00.000-05:00

I'm meeting some of my buddies from Sports Data Hub this morning - they're from Colorado, which is where we originally met, and they're out here in the big apple enjoying a Sports Media & Technology conference. Should be good to talk shop with them a bit. This morning's post might be a bit light on commentary but I'll be back later with more links and the consensus start/sit picks for the week.

So jumping right in, let's get to the morning linkage...

Of course we'll start things off with the start/sit articles:

Matthew Berry's Love/Hate: Sharing the misery
FFXtreme's Week 10 Start & Bench Advice
RotoExperts' Dear Diary: Sit/Start
Junkyard Jake's Sleepers/Creepers
Bruno Boys' Start Em
CBSSports.com's Start 'em & Sit 'em video (starts right away)
Yahoo/Roto Arcade's Flames/Lames: Mark Sanchez, lady wrangler, dancing machine (with a headline like that, how can you not click on it?)
FootballDocs' Start Sit
FFGeekBlog's Hits & Misses
Pigskin Addiction's Start/Bench - Week 10
Ask the Commish's Sit or Start
NFL.com's Start 'Em & Sit 'Em

I'm such a fan of random little nuggets of information that help inform fantasy decisions, so I'm down with ProFootballWeekly.com's Week 10 fantasy tips by position (links to QB) as a nice starting point for decision making this week.
You're going to want to scope out Fantasy Depth Chart's Notes (links to AFC, but NFC will also be available soon) - I'm always wondering not only how many carries an RB gets, but what percentage of the team's carries that represents; same for receivers. What percentage of targets are going my guy's way? So Depth Charts makes it very easy to digest that info in a team-by-team format. Includes additional commentary on players as well.
If you've got players who are injured and you'd like the latest update on their return/status, be sure to check out Stephania Bell's injury blog. Best injury news out there.
Those in the market for rest-of-season rankings can turn to Roto Arcade's Shuffle Up and Deal or ESPN's Big Rotowski. Any others out there that I'm missing?
Jay Cutler's 5 INTs were just stunning. I mean, seriously, Cutler? I know they weren't all just your fault but what a sad number. Rotoworld's Daily Dose takes a look at last night's game plus other notes for the weekend.
On a fun, not-at-all-fantasy-football note, what do you guys think about these helmet makeovers?
And a few rankings to close things out:

Fantasy Tailgate's position rankings (links to RB)
Mr. Fantasy's Week 10 rankings (links to QB)

Say goodbye to your friends & family, Thursday Night Football kicks off

2009-11-12T18:44:00.000-05:00

Can't. Stay. Away. Oh yeah, double post. So much to link to today, but truth be told I must keep my fingers moving before they go numb in this frigidaire of an apartment I live in...just saw a penguin waddle by. Kidding, not that bad. But I'm seriously considering fingerless gloves in my own apartment.

Onto the pre-game links...

I've got a quality Thursday night matchup link to bring you first. Rotoworld's Evan Silva does a great job with a look at the Bears vs 49ers matchup tonight - gotta say, knowing what the Cardinals were able to do against the Bears secondary gives me pause over benching Crabtree. I'm stuck starting Alex Smith in my deepest league so here's hoping something works out with that passing game...
Fantasy Football Fools has a nice Thursday Night Football is for Lovers title for his start/sit advice this week. The native Virginian in me digs that play on my state's tourism logo.
A little more start/sit help from Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit. I'd like to point out that Ryan from FCF owes me a brussels sprout taste. Still. This is what losing tastes like, buddy!
A couple of IDP links:

FFManiaxs' IDP Starts and Sits
Numbers & Guts' IDP Wednesday: Week 10

And now for the roundtable love:

The good fellas at Razzball bring us Week 10 Raves and Busters from some of the smartest of the smarty pants on the FF scene.
The rest of the smartest of the smarty pants can be found on Rotoprofessor discussing the adjustments you should make to your fantasy strategy now that Thursday games have begun.

Cloudy with a chance of football

2009-11-12T11:28:00.000-05:00

My grandfather has always been one to immediately ask about the weather when we talk on the phone. I used to chalk this up as an endearing old man question but turns out, I think he really wants to know - and strangely enough, so do I. Yes, I actually want to hear about his weather in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I think he might have passed along an odd weather gene, which regular readers here might have picked up on long ago. I talk about my weather with some regularity, which might just make me an old lady weather librarian type but hey, I eventually get to the fantasy football, right? And today is no exception...time for my weather rant.

When I started telling people that I was moving from Boulder to NYC one of the first things I inevitably heard was, oh you are going to miss the sunshine. I laughed and thought, sure but I've lived through fun weather before like the cold, frosty winds of Chicago and the oppressive humidity of Washington, DC. Lack of sunshine? That will be a piece of cake, I can handle it. But I miss the sun like you wouldn't believe. In Boulder, it could be the middle of winter but the sun would be out, making everything a little bit better. I should do an ad for the awesomeness of Colorado or something as I feel my freckles fading away, never to reemerge in this new land of clouds. As one who has always had to lather on the SPF, I've rarely found myself lounging in the sun for the heck of it but trust me, at this rate soon you'll find me sunning on street corners.

The bonus to this gray, cloudy day here in NYC is that Thursday Night Football is ON! Let's get to today's links:

We're at a point in the season where you can't really afford to mess up - so KFFL.com's got your Week 10 busts by position (links to RBs).
Or if it's Week 10 lineup advice you're in the market for, take a look at the Fifth Down's Week 10 in Fantasy Football Matchups. You can find my top 3 links for the week in there, too!
Those that read my Bruno Boys column might remember the article I did back in August on the riskiest players of this year's fantasy draft. This week I did a follow-up article to see how those risky picks have played out so far.
Wondering about the teams that might have the worst schedules during the fantasy playoffs? See what Rotoworld has to say.
More on the playoffs note, Rookie Blitz has a look at backup running backs that could lead you to success down the stretch in Running Down the Fantasy Football Playoffs.
Lots of start/sit links out today with the TNF game on...if I can I'll do a double post today if I'm seeing more start/sits coming out:

Rapid Draft's Start Em/Bench Em Report
The Hazean has start/sit advice specific to tonight's game
FFToolbox's Sit 'Em and Start 'Em
Pyromaniac.com's Start 'em - Sit 'em
12StepDrop's Contentious Starts and Sits: Week 10
If you're looking for a start/sit that approaches the week in a slightly new way, try Top Fantasy Football's Start-Sit WR Rankings: Enter at your own risk (links to other positions at bottom of page).
FFGoat's Start em, Sit em and Sleepers

Some rankings for Week 10:

Fantasy Hulks' Rankings by position (links to RB)
Mac Bros' Start/Sit Rankings

KFFL.com has a nice set of articles looking at this week's matchups based on fantasy defenses and points/stats allowed against each position - the fantasy defense rankings used go back for the past 4 weeks.

Finally, don't forget to participate in the 1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice poll. The poll will be up for the rest of November and while I've heard from about 450 of you so far, I'm hoping to get responses from as much of the FF community as possible!

Heading into Week 10 with the first TNF game!

2009-11-11T11:32:00.000-05:00

Well I've got a good thing going in the Buffalo Wild Wings All-Star Blogger League - I'm sitting at 8-1, 2 games ahead of the next best team. Sweet! I'm getting to the point where I'm doing so well in the league that I'll be sorely disappointed if I don't win the big grand prize Super Bowl trip to Miami. I know, I know, it's bad to set myself up for this but I can't help it! I want to win!

Anyway, I recommend you scope out the BWW league site - lots of experts (like RotoExperts, Fantasy Guru, The Sports Outlaw and others) are posting throughout the week with great advice or even just links back to the start/sit and waiver wire advice on their own sites. Good stuff. Speaking of good stuff, let's get to today's articles:

There were some interesting little nuggets of info in the Bruno Boys' Carrots or Karats? article this week - Turner has had a rushing TD every week since week one?! Wow, hadn't noticed that since I don't own him anywhere, but it's a stat I like to hear.
I started the Falcons D/ST against the Skins last week and that strategy worked out pretty well for me - so if you're in need of a new D/ST or a bye week fill-in, take a look at the FFGeekBlog's Week 10 Defenses to Consider. I'm salivating over my Broncos getting to face the Redskins this week, by the way...time to get a W!
We've got a handful of waiver wire articles out there:

FantasySharks.com's Waiver Wire Pickups
Matthew Berry's Calling my shots for the second half - both waiver wire picks and 20 bold predictions for the second half of the season.
The Hazean's Week 10 Waiver Wire Adds
12StepDrop's Pickups: Week 10
Fantasy Phenoms' Searching the Scrap Heap - Week 10

Need to make some roster changes? Take a look at Fantasy Depth Chart's Buy/Sell Trade Market for some ideas on trade bait and player value.
Many of you checked out FantasyXPERT.com last week - take a look at their review of Week 9 rankings at QB in Football Source Accuracy Scorecard - Week 9. You all know I love this stuff - and I'm happy to see one of my favorite analysts, Matt Schauf from SportsBuff and Rapid Draft, at the top of Week 9's accuracy for QBs.
And of course the start/sit advice is beginning to roll out:

FantasySharks.com's Start/Bench List Week 10
FFToolbox's Week 10: Deep League Start 'Em and Who to Start Rankings/Projections
FFManiaxs' Week 10 Start/Sit

Don't forget that there is a Thursday Night Football game this week - be sure to have your lineups set for that Bears vs 49ers game (or your whole roster depending on your league's set up). I'm fairly grumpy that I can't get the NFL Network at home so I'm planning on watching it online via NFL.com unless any of you brilliant readers have a better suggestion. And I realize I can watch at a sports bar but really I'd like a home-based solution since this whole lack of a job thing has put a dent in the ol' sports bar budget.

Finally, happy Veterans Day and a big thanks to those in the military for their service!

Name Twin and Week 10 prep

2009-11-10T09:56:00.000-05:00

One of the really weird things that I discovered after moving to NYC? Sara Gore. Now those that know me are well aware that Gore is my maiden name, making me Sara Gore. Turns out I'm far from the only one. This is hardly a complete surprise since I grew up outside of DC playing soccer against Al Gore's daughter who happens to be my age and named Sarah. The sidelines would cheer for Sara(h) Gore thoroughly confusing all Sara(h) Gores on the field since how does the other team know my name and why are they cheering for me?? (note: when your name is Sara(h) and you're a child of the 80s, you get called by your full name since there are so many freaking Sara(h)s running around out there). So I was used to this existence of another Sara(h) Gore and even when we mistakenly received a wedding present for her, we clarified the situation, and I chuckled over still having this name twin. But things got creepy with the whole name twin thing upon moving to NYC since there's yet another Sara Gore who is a co-host of the tv show LX New York (and I believe she's been the host of NYC cab tv news?). It's just a little weird to be sitting in your living room, cranking out a fantasy football post, when bam you hear "I'm Sara Gore" or you look up and see your very own name on tv associated with someone else's face. It's just strange.

And I'm guessing this is how the Panthers and NYG Steve Smiths feel. I mean really, they've probably encountered countless other Steve Smiths (I know I have), but to have a famous person out there with your name (I'm using famous liberally here) - bizarre.

Speaking of names, there aren't a ton of new names on the waiver wire this week. But there's still lots of advice on which guys you might want on your radar or bench just in case they prove to be fantasy worthy. For the latest waiver thoughts, check out these links:

FFGeekBlog's The Wire - Week 10: The Return of Chris Chambers. I mean just look at how few players here are deemed "startable" versus "worth a look" or "one-week wonders" - it's getting sparse out there, fantasy fans.
FOX Sports' Rotter's Top 10 Waiver Claims
NFL.com's Freeman, Betts will be popular names on fantasy's waiver wire
KFFL.com's FF Waiver Wire by position (links to QB)
FFManiaxs' Waiver Wire
Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Week 10 video

Moving on from waiver wires...so Rotoworld's Daily Dose wonders whether Rashard Mendenhall was the steal of the fantasy draft. Gotta say that I was wondering the same thing about Joseph Addai this weekend, who is a consistent performer for me week in and week out - and came at a cheap price! Yahoo's Roto Arcade is similarly musing over Joseph Addai's value in Monday brunch: The curious case of Joseph Addai.
Of course I can't avoid mentioning that Larry Johnson was indeed released - get this news and more from the Daily Haze.
GoGameFace.com has updated their playoffs Top Fantasy Defenses series - it's now divided by position with color-coded teams for greater ease of reading. Take a look at the best teams for your RBs, WRs, and QBs to play during Weeks 13-17.
Finally, I'm still on a high with Northwestern's win against Iowa - and since my sister is a Stanford grad, and hoards of my extended family went to Notre Dame a few generations ago, this Stewart Mandel article that starts off with a Northwestern/Stanford/Notre Dame comparison was of definite interest to me. Go NU and Stanford; go nerd schools!

And yes, I've decided to completely avoid the depressing topic of my Broncos losing to the Steelers...

Cruising the streets in Broncos gear

2009-11-09T10:13:00.000-05:00

Oh my friends, it will be close to 70 degrees here in NYC today - I've got a long walk around the neighborhood in my future today...in my Broncos gear!! You can all imagine just how excited I am about tonight's Monday Night Football game. Should be a good one and I've got my fingers crossed for a big win in Denver...

Lots to get to today:

Let's start off with the fact that yesterday's Battle of the Bays went to Tampa Bay. Unreal. Did anyone see that coming? Ryan from Fighting Chance Fantasy sure didn't, which means it's time for him to fulfill his end of the brussels sprouts bargain (he'll be enjoying his sprout with bacon thanks to a reader's suggestion here on FFLibrarian). You can also scan my parlay picks for this week and see how, um, not good I am at this.
Take a look at this week's MMQB: Let the hype begin - ahh, the Colts-Pats game is coming and there's some excitement in my family (my Colts-loving husband vs my Pats-loving sister...).
If you missed any of this weekend's games, like my sister who was stuck hanging out in an airport while awaiting new travel plans after a canceled flight, then you're going to want to scope out some of these recaps. To be honest, even if you were cruising through all the games getting updates, you will still find value in these game reviews, so scope out either CBSSports.com's First Response: Some studs just didn't deliver OR Rotoworld's Beyond the Box Score: Comeback Kids.
Or take a look at Fantasy Hulks' Mr. Monday Morning - I have Warner and Cutler on one of my teams and had to pick between the two this week. Ultimately the point difference wasn't huge since they both had nice games, but I was pleased to have picked Warner and his massive stat line.
And if you're looking for a review of players that surprised, see Pancake Blocks: Sunday's eyebrow raisers.
We've got a slew of waiver wire articles up:

FootballDocs' Waiver Wire
ProFootballWeekly's Fantasy Ticker: Week 10
Bruno Boys' Pick Them Up & Cut Them Loose
Lester's Legends' Get 'em or Don't Sweat 'em
The Hazean's Early Week 10 Waiver Wire Thoughts
FantasyPros911.com's Waiver Wire: Week Ten Pickup
Or those in IDP leagues will want to read Monk's IDP Waiver Wire Pick Ups

Go Cats!

2009-11-07T18:58:00.000-05:00

I don't normally post on the weekends very often but my friends we have a momentous occasion on our hands: my Northwestern Wildcats beat the #4 ranked Iowa Hawkeyes. Now if you're not a college football fan, just humor me on this one. It was unbelievable; a beautiful, beautiful thing. There's lots of yammering on about Iowa's QB Stanzi getting injured and going out for the game and hey, read between the lines, that's why Northwestern won...but no word at all on the fact that Northwestern's starting QB played through an injured hamstring (injured last week against Penn State, whom we were beating for awhile), was replaced by our backup QB who then got injured himself, forcing the starting QB to come back in - not exactly an ideal situation. But the 'Cats can clearly bring it when needed with or without our starting QB. Fan freaking tastic. Now that I'm done thoroughly gloating and ensuring that Iowa alum Andy Behrens from Yahoo/Roto Arcade will never link to me again, let's get to today's fantasy links...

We've got Week 9 Rankings and Projections from Fantasy Phenoms - this link will take you to QBs but you can find info for all offensive skill positions.
If you're looking for more Week 9 rankings, hit up one of my favorite sites: Rotoworld. Seriously if I was on a desert island and could only bring one FF site with me, after bawling my eyes out since a future with just one FF site seems like no future at all, I'd probably pick Rotoworld.
GoGameFace has pulled together something that's right up my alley - a ranking of defenses based on fantasy points allowed to each position. Add in a little chart with Week 13-17 playoffs schedules and you're all set to do some trades or lineup tweaks.
Heads up, Moats is getting the start over Slaton this week. I certainly think that gives you reason to start Moats in a flex spot but be prepared for the inevitable uncertainty there about Slaton's role.
Finally, IDPers who want some last minute advice, head on over to FantasySharks.com's The Hive.

Consensus Start/Sit - Week 9

2009-11-06T18:02:00.000-05:00

Before we get to the consensus start/sit picks for Week 9, a quick glimpse at a few gems out there:

My buddies at FFGeekBlog are offering up a $50 gift card to NFL.com if you can guess the top fantasy QB this week. Check out their site for more details.
The Hazean takes an interesting look at the top 12 fantasy players at each position now that we're at the midpoint of the NFL season.
Scope out Roger Rotter's Top 10 sleepers for Week 9 - I'm seeing Hasselbeck and Crabtree all over the start lists this week.
Always a good read, take a look at FFToday's Inside the Matchup for some hints on what to expect from the running and passing games from a fantasy standpoint.

Okay, consensus time. Keep in mind that I've gone through all of the sites that I link to with start/sit advice during the week and have tallied up those players with the most start/sit votes, or the most consensus from the experts. So here they are, listed at random:

Start: Matt Hasselbeck, David Garrard, Joe Flacco, Alex Smith

Sit: Matt Ryan, Eli Manning, Kyle Orton, Chad Henne

Start: Ryan Grant, Jamaal Charles, Brandon Jacobs, Julius Jones, Joseph Addai

Sit: Knowshon Moreno, Ryan Moats, Cadillac Williams

Start: Dwayne Bowe, Mike Sims-Walker, Michael Crabtree, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Santana Moss

Sit: Steve Smith (NYG), Roy Williams, Santonio Holmes, Antonio Bryant

Start: Fred Davis, Vernon Davis, Jason Witten

Sit: Greg Olsen, Heath Miller

Kicker

Start: Lawrence Tynes, Mason Crosby, Olindo Mare

Sit: no consensus

D/ST

Start: Saints, Patriots

Sit: Bears

A parade of start & sit advice

2009-11-06T11:31:00.001-05:00

Greetings fantasy footballers and happy Friday! I feel like I should be part of the Yankees Ticker Tape Parade in Manhattan right now if for no other reason than how often can you participate in a parade?? This is exactly the logic I'll be using when I tromp around the Macy's Day Parade on Thanksgiving. Who knew my parade options would increase exponentially upon moving to NYC?

Considering I'm still in my pajamas (hey, what's the rush?) and thoroughly enjoying my morning coffee, the whole parade thing might get tabled for now. There are football links to get to!

Wondering if there are some guys you should target as the playoffs creep closer? The Hazean looks at Six Small(er) Fantasy Names to Buy - or scope out Rotoworld's Looking Ahead: Best Playoffs Schedules.
Ultimate Fantasy Football Strategy has a handy little Team by Team Projections chart for Week 9.
IDPers, you'll want to scope out SI.com's Eight in the Box: IDP Report.
I'll probably gush over this column every week, but seriously, go read Mike Tanier's Week 9 NFL Matchups on the Fifth Down.
Yahoo!'s Roto Arcade has rest-of-the-season rankings up in Shuffle Up and Deal.
If you've been hoping Anthony Gonzalez would be back and better than ever soon, I've got bad news. The dude just underwent more knee surgery.
And since it's Friday, you know there are many start/sit links to post...

Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit
SI/RotoExperts' Dear Diary: Start/Sit
NFL.com's Start 'Em & Sit 'Em
Bruno Boys' Week 9 Start Ems
Rotoholics splits up their start/sits into tiers for each position - like it, like it a lot. Except I'd bump Carson Palmer up into a "Strong Starter" and I'm crossing my fingers that Matt Forte could really be worthy of that label, too, against a pretty stout Arizona run defense...he might be more of a "Mediocre Starter" in my book.
One of my favorites, Rapid Draft's Week 9 Start 'Em/Bench 'Em Report
Sports Outlaw's Start 'em Sit 'em
Junkyard Jake's Sleepers/Creepers
FFToolbox's Week 9: Sit 'Em
CBSSports.com's Week 9 Start 'Em and Sit 'Em
FFGeekBlog's Hits & Misses - Week 9: Baseball is finally over!
The Hazean's Week 9 Start & Sit: Warner, Jacobs Ready for Bounce Back Weekend

Double post day

2009-11-05T21:15:00.000-05:00

Well my husband is off at a conference and my sister is froufing around in Cali for a wedding - that means the quantity of friends I have in the city has just been reduced by about 50% - which frankly benefits you all since I'm hanging out writing another post tonight. I know, I need to get more friends. Funny how hard making friends can be when you work from home on fantasy football and basically hang out with cats all day (they're adorable cats, but still, they don't talk back)...all kidding aside though, it's kind of nice to have a quiet weekend after we had so many folks in town for the marathon last weekend.
Anyway, a quick housekeeping note first before I get into the rest of tonight's post. So I've updated the 1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice survey - despite my efforts to be as thorough as possible, I missed a few sites that I feel belong in the survey. Plus some of the additions are sites that have seen a massive number of write-in votes, too. So if you feel this invalidates the survey, my apologies, but we're talking fantasy football here not neuroscience. You've got all month to vote and many thanks to those who have already done so!

Now onto my big winners in the 96-team FFLibrarian league...these are the top 5 scorers across all 6 conferences:

BIG DUKE - 128.20 points
Bookie - 127.80
Vick's Cellmates - 123.70
Skins North - 121.85
Poopship Destroyers - 121.75

And the winners of my two weekly contests with 365FantasySports.com are WIguyinMN (see winning roster in image below) in the freeroll "pick 2" contest and mscogle in the points cap contest. Nicely done! I should point out that WIguyinMN came in 2nd in the points cap game, too, so he's clearly a dude to be reckoned with...and apparently I need to start taking these contests a bit more seriously. Play against me this week using password book9 and see if you can beat me! While you're at it, join the Commish Chick's weekly league for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate.

Okay finally time for some links:

This is a roundtable discussion kind of night - we've got not one but two roundtables going on:

RapidDraft brings us expert opinions on Week 9 sleepers and busts.
And LOTS of different opinions from FantasyFootballFools' 4th & 1 debate this week - clearly Jacob and I were thinking along the same lines this week since he posed essentially the same question I did in my Bruno Boys article: who has a sweet playoffs schedule??

I like how Razzball offers up an analysis of matchups based solely on passing and then rushing matchups. Check out this week's passing matchups analysis - rushing goes up tomorrow (Friday).
A few start/sit links:

Ask the Commish's Sit or Start
Pyromaniacs.com's Start 'Em - Sit 'Em: Week 9
Fantasy Phenom's Early Week 9 Starts and Sits
Talented Mr. Roto's Love/Hate: QB, thy shalt not sit thyself (video starts right away)
Yahoo!'s Roto Arcade Flames/Lames Ahmad Bradshaw, boogying in the Big Apple

Week 9 Start/Sits and Rankings

2009-11-05T10:33:00.001-05:00

Congrats Yankees fans! I'll be honest, I was pulling for the Phillies since I was hoping for another championship for my sister's friend Eric Bruntlett, but I can put that aside and be happy for my new hometown team. You guys all know my heart is really with football anyway...

So speaking of which, let's jaunt on over to today's football articles:

My weekly article with the Bruno Boys is up - I'm looking at some players who have sweet playoffs matchups, but not the top guys, more like your borderline/bubble players. But to be honest, wait an hour or so to check it out. One of the graphics/charts was accidentally left out so there's going to be some tweaking needed...
In the meantime, check out my recommended reading in the Fifth Down's Week 9 in Fantasy Football Matchups - lots of good advice from the Sablich Bros, too, so definitely swing by the comments section if you've got a question about your lineup.
I don't know what it is but I love reading ProFootballWeekly.com's 10 Most Intriguing Players series - I always feel a little rumble of excitement for the weekend's games after reading this article. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'm even eager to see what Tampa Bay's offense will look like with Freeman at QB.
By this point in the week most waiver wire articles have been posted and you're likely past your waiver deadline...but I think Yahoo's Caught on Tape: Week 9 fantasy pickups is worth a watch anyway for Andy Behrens' helpful tips.
Drum roll please...time for start/sit links:

Fantasy Joe's Studs, duds, and sleepers: Dolphins' Brown, Patriots' Moss to duke it out
Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Studs, Starts, Sleepers, and Bench
FFToolbox's Week 9: Start 'Em
Fantasy Depth Chart's Sit/Start: Week 9 (Part 1)
FFXtreme's Start and Bench Advice: Week 9
FFManiaxs' Week 9 Start/Sit
FFGoat's Start em, Sit em, and Sleepers Week 9
FootballDocs' Start Sit

Some rankings for the week:

Mac Bros Start/Sit Rankings Week 9
FFToday's Week 9 Rankings (link goes to QB & RB)
Bruno Boys' Week 9 Rankings (link goes to TEs, more will go up today)
FOX Sports' Rotter's rankings: Week 9 (link goes to WR)
FootballDocs' Weekly Rankings (link goes to QBs)

The ultimate gut call

2009-11-04T11:24:00.001-05:00

I might have just done something a bit crazy: I turned down a great job offer this morning. Without getting into too much detail, I was offered a position at a library (let's call it Library A) here in NYC but I still have a final round interview with another library (Library B) that I believe is more in line with my long-term library career aspirations coming up in a few weeks. I really wasn't ready to pull the trigger on Library A before meeting again with Library B, and since Library A decided they couldn't wait until my Library B interview had concluded, I declined the offer. I feel a little nuts: a job in the hand is worth two in the bush, right? But I firmly believe that there are times when you just have to go with your gut and trust that circumstances will evolve as they're meant to...so here's to Library B (or options C, D, and beyond!).

This of course is a perfect segue into fantasy football since I so often urge you all to go with your gut when faced with some tricky decisions. Use of the gut of course comes after you do your research, so let's research baby!

FFToolbox brings us their Week 9: Super Sleepers but I have to say that Malcom Floyd is far from a super sleeper - I'd happily add him to my lineup in just about any league with 3 WRs or a flex spot.
Looking for some thoughts on who you can buy/sell to sweeten your squad? Check out Pyromaniac.com's Pyro Stock Exchange. Other than disagreeing firmly on Aaron Rodgers, I really like a lot of the thoughts here. Good read.
A few IDP links for you:

Numbers & Guts' IDP Wednesday: Week 9 - chock full of interesting nuggets as always
FantasyFootball.com's Wire Me This (IDP) - I've got Greer in one of my leagues so glad to see some love for him here.

Razzball's Game (Day) Theory: Sleeper Math Week 9 - you can get advice on players with the most potential + opportunity divided into tiers here.
I know how you all love your targets, so for a snapshot from Week 8, see Rotoworld's Week 8 target report highlights.
Still lots of good waiver wire links up today:

Rotoworld's Turnover in Texas
Talented Mr. Roto's The Green-Eyed TMR
FantasySharks.com's Waiver Wire Pickups
FantasyPros911's Added and Dropped: Backfield Reinforcements
Fantasy Depth Charts' Waiver Wire (new site for me, would love any feedback)
Fantasy Phenoms' Searching the Scrap Heap
RotoExperts' The Pick-Up Artist: Pretty Boy Floyd

And of course the start/sit links are starting to roll out now, too:

FantasySharks.com's Start/Bench List
FFToolbox's Who to Start Rankings/Projections
Pigskin Addiction's Start/Bench - Week 9

Oh and you guys rock - there are already nearly 250 votes in the FFL Readers' Choice poll after just 36 hours. Keep it coming!

Waiver words of wisdom for Week 9

2009-11-03T11:27:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you all but I can't believe it's November already - my husband and I are getting our Thanksgiving plans together, but I think despite the fact that we're now many miles closer to our family, we might just have a 2-person Thanksgiving dinner. A large part of it is thanks to my hesitation to travel that week (it ranks very, very low on my list of fun things to do over holiday weekends, especially since we travel like crazy over Christmas) but I'm kind of looking forward to our Thanksgiving. We'll hit up the Macy's Day Parade because we can and watch unbelievable amounts of football - sounds pretty decent to me.

On another note, I should have known you guys would flood the FFL readers' choice survey (thank you!)...to the point that I need to switch survey hosts from PollDaddy back to my original Google Forms plan. So if you try to answer the survey today and aren't able to do so with PollDaddy, stay tuned...I'm getting it switched to Google. And don't worry, if you already voted, I'll be transferring those votes over. Thanks for being patient!

Time for today's best links...

Of course there are several waiver wire links to scope out:

Pigskin Addiction's Waiver Wire Work
KFFL's Waiver Wire by position (links to QBs)
Fantasy Joe's Moats: Worth a pick but maybe not a start
FFManiaxs' Week 9 Waiver Wire
Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's video
NFL.com's Smith, Charles among the players to target off the waiver wire (includes video)

Sigh. Kevin Smith owners (such as myself), beware of his falling value thanks to the incoming vulture, Maurice Morris. Rotoworld takes a look at what this might mean for Smith's fantasy worth.
Take a look at MyOfficePool's Moving Up, Moving Down to get a sense of players who might be worth starting or targeting in a trade.
Wow, the Chargers have released Chris Chambers. They must have read my article for the Bruno Boys last week that noted his poor fantasy points per target ratio this year...kidding, kidding. But on the fantasy front, Malcolm Floyd will probably start turning a few heads.
Okay, FFGoat led me to this new site that I think you all will really dig...mostly because many of you have asked me to analyze the experts on a weekly basis, which FantasyXPERT.com has found a way to do. Basically when you sign up for a free account you can access a consensus on the best waiver wire advice, start/sit advice, and player rankings advice. Now where it really gets interesting is that with a premium account you can find out which sites have the most accurate waiver wire and start/sit advice. I'd like to know how they assess the accuracy of those advice pieces, but you can get some details on how they analyze the rankings here, but not a ton since it's a proprietary algorithm.
If you're wondering what to do with Owen Daniels or Chris Cooley, take some advice from Top Fantasy Football and see why Fred Davis might be a great grab in Fantasy Sneak Peek: Fred Davis.

1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice Poll

2009-11-02T21:36:00.000-05:00

The 1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice Poll is up! It's the eve of Election Day so it seems appropriate to roll out my first ever readers' picks poll. I'm eager to hear which sites you all deem to be the best of the best, so please take a few moments to answer the survey when you get a chance. There are 8 questions and I'm hoping that I've got all the right sites in all the right categories. If you see any mistakes, let me know stat! Fortunately each question has an "other" answer option so if you don't see your favorite site listed, you still have a place to let your voice be heard.

The poll will be up until the end of the day on November 30, 2009 so you have plenty of time to vote - the link to the survey will be on the top right side of the blog for the rest of the month. The results will be made available on FFLibrarian in early December.

Thanks for participating, I really appreciate it!

The road goes on forever...

2009-11-02T09:57:00.000-05:00

...but the party never ends! Not sure my husband would agree that the whole marathon was a party since he later declared it to be a tough race, but I for one enjoyed spectating. Frankly I'd like to brag for a minute and note that we were able to see him at four different spots including a monumental mile 18.5 to mile 22.5 to and finish line viewing stretch (that included my sister on her husband's shoulders as our lookout at the finish line and a troop of unhappy Italian tourists who had to put up with us). This was no small feat and I'd like to thank the subway for being remarkably - no, stunningly - super speedy.

So the race is over and my sister and 2 brothers-in-law and I are making our way to my husband who has basically just crashed post-race onto a bench alongside the park. My husband has a bit of a history of tough times post-race (for example, there was the heatstroke post-Chicago marathon in record heat a few years ago; or the hour-long 5-block walk back to our hotel in Portland last year)...so I had myself braced for the worst. And he didn't disappoint. So we're all with my husband at this bench, and there were marathon employees and cops wandering around with megaphones telling everyone who is not a runner to vacate the benches for those who need them. I'm cool with that of course but there weren't any struggling runners needing a bench at that moment - and when you're sitting next to your spouse who looks like he might just make camp at that bench and try for home tomorrow, trust me, you're really not going to listen to these folks. So finally a cop approaches us and asks us and the rest of the bench loafers to move on. Since there was no way my husband was going to get up and get moving at that moment, I asked her to give us a minute and with fantastic timing my husband proceeded to puke basically right at the poor cop's feet just to make our case. A family with a small child next to us cleared the bench in record time and the cop and a megaphone-toting employee looked on with horrified faces. It was awesome. Not to say I wasn't mildly concerned, but I also know my husband's post-race patterns well and knew he was just fine; needed to hurl and would be ready to rally.

Anyway, I've had a weekend full of copious amounts of pasta and good friends and family - a little light on the football though. My apologies if I didn't get back to any of you with start/sit questions but by this time you're probably getting used to my completely erratic schedule that doesn't really lend itself to much e-mailing over the weekends. Let's get to today's links...

I heart Owen Daniels. So I was very sorry to hear about his knee injury. For the latest updates on injuries yesterday, see KFFL.com's Post-game injury report.
Scope out FFManiaxs' Top 10 Disappointing Players and Top 10 Surprising Players for the season. I'm not sure I agree with all of their calls but a good read nonetheless.
If you're looking for some recaps of yesterday's games, there are several good wrap-ups for you:

I always like reading FootballOutsiders' Audibles at the Line
Fifth Down's What We Learned: Week 8
Rotoworld's Titanic Day
CBSSports.com's First Response: Houston's win is our loss - some good TE suggestions to replace Daniels are mentioned, FYI.

Speaking of Houston, I've got two words for you: Ryan Moats. I'm guessing 80% of the FF world will be putting in a request for him. For the latest waiver wire advice, check out these fine sites:

FootballDocs' Waiver Wire Advice
The Hazean's Early Week 9 Waiver Wire Thoughts
ProFootballWeekly's Fantasy Ticker: Week 9
Lester's Legends' Get 'em or Don't sweat 'em
The Bruno Boys' Cut Them Loose and Pick Them Up
FanHouse's Whatever Floats Your Moats
For those in IDP leagues, see Monk's IDP Waiver Wire Pick Ups

Finally, I should have my 1st Annual FFLibrarian Readers' Choice poll up tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest. I'll let you all know as soon as it's up and will link to it off the right side of the blog for the rest of the month.

Consensus Start/Sit and more!

2009-10-30T17:54:00.001-04:00

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 Football Search.

Consensus time - remember, I've gone to each of the start/sit sites I linked to earlier this week and pulled together the players with the most start and sit votes for the week. They're listed here in no particular order:

Start: Brett Favre, David Garrard, Jay Cutler

Sit: Donovan McNabb, Matt Ryan, Eli Manning, Matt Hasselbeck

Start: Steven Jackson, Matt Forte, Kevin Smith, Beanie Wells

Sit: Ryan Grant, Knowshon Moreno, Marshawn Lynch

Start: Austin Collie, Donnie Avery, Mike Sims-Walker, Devin Hester

Sit: Derrick Mason, Terrell Owens, Mario Manningham, both Steve Smiths (NYG and CAR), Ted Ginn Jr.

Start: Jeremy Shockey, Vernon Davis, Zach Miller

Sit: Tony Gonzalez, John Carlson, Visanthe Shiancoe, Todd Heap, Tony Scheffler

Kicker

Start: Robbie Gould, Matt Prater

Sit: John Kasay

D/ST

Start: Colts, Chargers, Bears, Cardinals

Sit: 49ers, Broncos

Lots of Week 8 Start/Sit Advice

2009-10-30T09:43:00.000-04:00

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's Start 'Em - Sit 'Em: Week 8
NFL.com's Start 'Em & Sit 'Em
Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit
CBSSports.com's Start 'Em & Sit 'Em: Week 8 (video starts right away)
Rapid Draft's Week 8 Start 'Em/Bench 'Em Report
RotoExperts' Dear Diary: Sit/Start

And of course there are other things to link to today besides start/sits...like The Hazean's Bye Week Plug-and-Play suggestions.
Check out Rotoworld's Football Daily Dose for some thoughts on this weekend's upcoming games.
Some rankings for the week:

Mac Bros Start/Sit Rankings
Fantasy Hulks' Week 8 Rankings
FOX Sports' Projections/Rankings by position
Yahoo!'s Early Position Ranks

Finally, don't forget to participate in my weekly league with 365FantasySports.com - this week's password is 8book.