Ready for the fantasy draft? What are you WAITING on???

by stujo4 on Jul 16, 2008 8:48 PM CDT Comment 4 comments

Here are some ideas for the new guys who aren't addicted to Fantasy Football (yet).

We're going to be using the Fleaflicker.com site to administer our draft, and you can sign up and look around the site here

I signed up and created a team (which I will delete later) so I could look at the rules and see how the site works, you can do it too if you want. Check out that Mock Draft button: It lets you see how the live draft works on this site and even lets you make your own picks. It's fake though, so don't get excited if you get LaDainian. Or Reggie. Note how the Mock Draft board ranks the players according to how it thinks they should be valued. True value will depend on how Commissioner Saintsational Dave decides our league should keep score (how many points for a touchdown, for each yard gained, etc) and how our starting rosters must look (1 or 2 quarterbacks? 1 or 2 running backs? 2 or 3 wide receivers? etc) I'm sure that announcement is coming soon.

After we know the scoring and roster rules, you need to get ready for the draft by having some kind of idea of how the players' values should be ranked. Yahoo has a regularly updated Top 100 here for example. Other sites have them too, some want you to pay for it. Lots of magazines on the rack have cheatsheets, but that information is dated. Better find a website with up to date info on who is probably starting and who is hurt. NFL.com's ranking page is here

I know a lot of guys (and I am one) who will join a league (Fleaflicker has thousands of free leagues, as do Yahoo, Fox Sports, NFL.com, ESPN.com and others) just for the draft experience, to see if Adrian Peterson ever gets picked first (or if anyone accidentally picks Adrian Peterson-Chicago Bears by mistake, HA!) or how soon guys start picking quarterbacks. Just to get a feel for how things are going. Sometimes I abandon the league, sometimes I play it throughout the year, just depends. I think I was in 6 last year.

Even if you have the best inside information and make the best picks, the boys still have to play the games. Injuries and just plain luck have a big impact on who wins and loses each week. Get ready, and good luck!

This FanPost was written by a reader and member of Canal Street Chronicles. It does not necessarily reflect the views of CSC and its staff or editors.

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great

i can’t wait. signing up right now.

by therick2323 on Jul 17, 2008 10:08 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Just for planning purposes... vacation time, custody weekends, etc.

In my other fantasy leagues, we’d have a big fight every year about when to have the draft. The hard cores wanted it on Labor Day weekend, right before the season started, so they’d have the latest player info before they committed to any picks. The rest wanted it the weekend before, in August, so they could be with their families and they finally prevailed.

The CSC draft will be on fleaflicker.com and I presume it will be a live draft (really the only way to go) with all team owners logged on and making their draft picks in a live, instant messaging on the side type of environment. Lots of “nice pick” “that was a steal” comments and occasionally an argument might break out (not among the CSC gentlemen, of course). Big fun!

The question is when. Online drafts can be done anytime (they are going on right now!), you just have to get everyone together. Are weeknights good? Which night? Saturday afternoon? That Brit guy at the Times-Pic had his at 2pm on a weekday, crazy. Maybe Dave can put up a poll? Just thinking and typing in the comments section.

(If someone can’t make it to the draft, the fleaflicker server will pick for them. Not as much fun, and pretty risky. I did see someone get Vick picked for them last year, you can’t count on the site’s player ranking logic)

by stujo4 on Jul 17, 2008 10:27 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

DON'T!

For the sake of all those people out there that join public leagues to actually play them, never EVER, join with the goal of just drafting….or “I might play it out…” If you do that, no matter how anonymous you may be, you are a deadbeat and ruining someone’s fun.

You can do all the mock drafts you want (about a 1/2 hour a piece) at Fantasy Football Calculator.

No, I have nothing to do with that site so I’m not spamming. I happen to have my own Fantasy site that some of the readers would find helpful (and free) that I’m not going to mention because people would perceive it as spam.

FFCalculator let’s you get that drafting fix without hurting anyone…it’s victim free…lol.

by FBJabber on Jul 18, 2008 4:56 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs