Waivering at the Wire: Paty’s Cuts-n-Waives

Fan Info, Fantasy Football — By Mia Jackson on December 22, 2010 at 9:01 PM

Week 15 – Semi-finals in all 3 leagues!

I could be in serious trouble in Yahoo1:  Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers was knocked out of the Packers vs. Lions game

with a concussion.  They are not saying how badly he’s concussed until they run further tests on him but I should have a back up QB, right?  I do, but unfortunately his name happens to be Kyle Orton  – otherwise known as one who has taken this inexplicable nose dive into the ff black hole.  What’s worse is that he very well may be taking Brandon Lloyd down with him.  This being a 12-team league, the remaining QB’s may as well be named “the not-so-desirables.”  Not exactly the type of QB you want going into the semi-finals of your ff playoffs.  “Them’s slim pickins…”  Not good.  Not good at all.  I will have to see if the GB backup QB Matt Flynn is available.–>  Okay, I just did a search and long story short Flynn is available but being unknown that he is I am hesitant to sign him up.  DAL QB John Kitna is still on the waiver wire and would be starting against a league bottom feeding WAS DEF.   Kitna seems like the safer choice.  Also, with KC coming into town to face STL I’m going to switch out their DEF & pick up DAL’s DEF.  Guess I’m rooting for the Cowboys this week!

Yahoo2 was the league in which I would take risks. I’ve been picking up players and plugging them in each week as was needed.  Some week 14 sleepers include BAL WR Derrick Mason and JAC RB Rashad Jennings but I will most likely be searching for K Rob Bironas’ replacement.  The TEN offense has stalled to the point where Bironas is not even getting FG attempts.  The past two weeks have been pretty bleak.  I am eyeing the new PIT K journeyman Shaun Suisham to fill Bironas’ spot.

Also, I do not like my BAL DEF this week against PIT so I’ll be picking up the NE DEF which is playing against a battered and undermanned GB team.  But I’d like to keep the BAL DEF around just in case for next week so I’ll be dropping NO RB Chris Ivory to get the NE DEF.

ESPN: I’ve been keeping an eye on DAL K David Buehler the last couple of weeks and have a feeling that he will be having a good week against a torrid WAS team.  So, thank you Mr. Cundiff for the one week visit and welcome aboard Mr. Buehler.

WIN! An autographed picture of Wide Receiver Larry Fitzgerald Click here to fill out your entry form.

Roster Adjustments

Yahoo1: Lots of big moves this week as each substitution could mean winning or losing your match – with the biggest one being substituting John Kitna for my injured #1 QB Aaron Rodgers.  I’m not expecting spectacular numbers from Kitna but I know he’ll have a decent outing (15-20 fantasy points).

As I alluded to earlier, the downward spiral of Kyle Orton has impacted how his receivers output as well.  The skeptic in me says that Brandon Lloyd can’t be a no-brainer starter like he used to be.  With this mind I was reading and doing some research on what to do.  Now with Brett Favre’s starting status in question (but you and I know better than to wonder whether Favre will start this game…) some of the ff gurus on twitter discovered a loophole in the Yahoo leagues position designation for MIN 3^rd string QB Joe Webb.  Joe Webb was a QB for UAB and was drafted 199^th overall in the 2010 by MIN originally as a WR prospect.  But after watching Webb on the field former MIN coach Brad Childress decided to use him as a QB.  Consequently, Yahoo lists Joe Webb both as a QB and WR.  Which means, at least in the Yahoo leagues, Webb can be started in either position.  The upside is that Webb can get more reliable points being the QB from the unpredictable WR position.  This is however a very risky move because one just never knows that Favre will do.  As of right now, it looks like Favre WILL NOT be playing this week.  I’m going to take a HUGE gamble, bench Brandon Lloyd with Tim Tebow set to start at QB, and start Webb in his place.

Another big roster move is going to be benching RB Cedric Benson for RB Ryan Torain.  With Washington’s shocking move to Rex Grossman for their QB my guess is that they will be relying on their running game even more.  I hesitate a bit because Cedric Benson has been on a terror these past few weeks.  This leads me to wonder if he’s going to hit the end of the season wall.

Yahoo2: This brings me my second big decision of the week.  Brady or Vick?  Vick is going up against a pumped NYG team whereas Brady will be hosting the banged up & back up starting GB.  Heart says Vick.  Head says Brady.  As they say in the biz: GTD.  It will be a game time decision!  LOL!

The other question was whether to start DMC (Raiders RB Darren McFadden) or LeGarrett Blount in the flex position.  Kind of a tossup this week so I’m just going to go with my gut and start DMC.

Lastly, NE DEF takes over for BAL & Shaun Suisham will be doing the kicking duties over Rob Bironas.

ESPN: I’m shuffling Ryan Torain and Devone Bess in favor of benching Danny Amendola.  I don’t have much confidence in STL on either sides of the line against KC.  And David “the Ferris” Buehler will be my kicker from here on out.  Anyone?  Anyone?

Week 15 Results: GTD’s!!!!

Yahoo1: 116.76-89.48 Secured League Championship Match

Although I usually advise against being so dependent on one team, the 3 Cowboys starters really came through for me this week!  Jon Kitna (305 yds, 2 TD’s& 11 rushing yds=21.3 pts)) and Jason Witten (140 rec yds for 1 TD=20 pts) both scored 20 pts or better.  And the DAL DEF, although allowing 30 pts, still managed 5 sacks, 2 INT’s, and 1 fumble recovery for 10 pts.

Which is more than I can say for the Vikings…  So my love-hate relationship with Favre (ok, it’s been more hate and frustration as of late) has taken its toll on me.  Late Monday afternoon, just hours before kickoff of MNF, it was announced that Favre and NOT Joe Webb would be starting the game.  There were several unmentionable adjectives that ran through my mind when I heard the news.  Here’s a G-rated one: NO WAY!  How in the world does someone who is declared OUT all of a sudden get upgraded to questionable and start the game?  Isn’t there some sort of NFL rule where you can’t do that?  So with everyone else on my roster already done for the week I had no choice but to start Joe Webb in my WR3 spot despite not getting the start.  And since I’m not the type of person to wish a player to go down so my guy can come in, I was screwed.  The gamble failed even before it had a chance to succeed.

Remember how I benched Cedric Benson thinking he’d hit the end of the season wall?  Well, I was wrong.  The Bengals RB

decided he was mad at being benched and ran off 150 yds & 1 TD (21 pts) just to spite me!  Also, another player who didn’t take the benching well was Brandon Lloyd (79 rec yds & 1 TD= 13.9 pts).  I left over 35 pts on my bench and was only leading by 4 pts going into MNF.

So Favre starts the game, throws a TD and I’m crushed because I was really counting on Webb’s points to help me win the  match.  But wait, the football gods have mercy on me.  And that mercy’s name was Cory Wootten.  Wootten sacks Favre for a 13-yard loss & knocks Favre out of the game with a head injury.  Joe Webb enters the game for Favre (as it should have been in the first place!) and all is right in the ff world.  The rookie did about as well as could have expected. 129 passing yards, 2 INT’s, 38 rushing yds for 1 TD= 12.96 pts.  Not bad QB3, not bad.

My other hero of the week is Johnny Knox.  JKnox had a huge 67 yd TD rec for 12.7 pts which along with Joe Webb’s numbers secured my spot in the league’s championship match with a total score of 116.76-89.48.

In next week’s finals, I go up against a fierce #2 seed.  I’ve already taken a peek at the projected totals for the match and they have me losing my nearly 20 pts!  But I wasn’t supposed to win this week either (was projected to lose by 18 pts).  But that’s why you play the game, right?

Yahoo2: 140.42-60.66 – 2nd Championship Finals

The time?  Thursday early evening.  I just sat down to go over my rosters one last time before all the free agents go on waivers until the following week.  (Week 13 I had dropped Vincent Jackson.  His first two games back were not very encouraging so I let him go.)  The Thursday night game was SF @ SD and rosters are locked in 30 mins prior to kickoff.  So at an hour before kickoff I read on Twitter that SD’s WR2 Malcolm Floyd will be inactive due a hamstring injury.  Twitter was all a flutter with “pick up and start VJax if he’s still available.”  My luck would have it that he was still around!  Unreal!  I was sure that someone had picked him up.  But at the same time did I really want to go down this road of uncertainty again?  Maybe with two games under his belt he’d be better?  So with about 5 mins left I snatched up VJax & immediately plugged him into my starting lineup.  Talk about GTD!!!!  And it was a beautiful thing because Philip Rivers and VJax had great chemistry going.  When it was all said and done VJax finished with 112 rec yds for 3 TD’s=29.2 pts!!!!

Sunday afternoon’s routine went all to pot this week and I actually had to get other things done.  I couldn’t believe I was on the road driving to Costco yet once again (3^rd time this week…) and not watching the games on tv.  But just as I was leaving a last second check on Twitter I read DAL’s WR2, Roy Williams was declared inactive for the game.  I’m driving along thinking about what to do.  Should I bench Deion Branch in favor of Miles Austin with Williams out?  If I was going to make the change I had only 5 minutes to do it.  So I’m yelling at my husband sitting in the passenger seat to get my iPhone out.  Luckily, Yahoo has a ff app where I can edit my roster.  Unfortunately, my husband had a little difficulty trying to navigate through it.  My kids must have thought that mommy was losing her mind.  About 2 miles later, hubby’s mission was accomplished & the roster move was submitted.  This GTD wasn’t a fruitful as the first but I still came out ahead.  Austin had 38 rec yds for 1 TD=9.8 pts vs. Branch’s 38 rec yds.

Other notables on my team were Steven Jackson who ran for 67 yds for 1 TD and 37 rec yds=16.4 pts., DMC who ran for 119 yds and had 39 rec yds=13.8 pts., and the NE DEF who gave up 27 pts to GB but had 5 sacks, 1 INT, 1 Fum Rec, and 1 TD=15 pts.

But the big man on my team this week ironically happens to be smallest in stature.  Ray Rice had a career day with 233

combined yds from scrimmage!!!  The little big man RAN for 153 yds for 1 TD and racked up 80 rec yds for 1 TD=35.3 pts!

My third and final GTD was at the QB position.  Knowing that the NYG DEF had already knocked out several QB’s I wasn’t going to hold my breath each time they rushed Vick.  I went with the safer option of Tom Brady.  As I was reading the plays as they came through Twitter it was apparent that Vick was getting knocked around quite a bit, realizing what I had feared.  But in the last 8 mins of the game it became the Michael Vick (and DeSean Jackson) show again.  The Eagles came back to score 28 pts to absolutely terrorize the NYG.  Vick threw for 242 yds, 3 TD’s, 1 INT and ran for 130 yds for 1 TD=39.68 pts.  Brady had a modest 163 passing yds for 2 TD’s=14.52 pts.

After a crazy weekend of games the final score was 140.42-60.66.  I am now moving on to my 2^nd championship finals!

ESPN:  125-53 3rd Championship Match

No real drama here.  I had Brady (14), Ray Rice (35), Peyton Hillis (7), Ryan Torain (15), Miles Austin (9), Hines Ward (3 L), Davone Bess (7), Witten (20), CLE DEF (zero L L), and David Buehler (15).  This match up was actually over pretty quickly and beat the #2 ranked opponent 125-53!

The hat trick is complete and I am now in all 3 of my leagues championship matches! (even though I’m the projected underdog in all 3…)

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