Atletico SV got out to a rousing start. Yes, my fantasy team. I got goals from Herculez Gomez, Sacha Kljestan and Kenny Cooper. The Galaxy-Houston game messed me up though. I got negative points from Brian Mullan, Kyle Martino and Brian Ching. After one week, I'm in second place. Nice.
Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
My fantasy
I used to be all into fantasy sports. At one point, I had a fantasy NFL, NBA and MLB team. I've only got fantasy baseball to keep me going these days and that's actually a strat league so I don't really dedicate a lot of time because I don't have a lot of time for that. But I still enjoy it to some extent.
Anyway, I jumped back into the fantasy world for one reason: this blog. I wanted to start a fantasy MLS team and keep track of it here. I don't really have a ton of time but what the hell? It's only going to take a few minutes each week to update my team.
So I sorted out my team yesterday and now am awaiting this weekend to start my own search for a title. I signed up for a team on mfls.com because I'd heard good things about it. Okay, I saw it on a post on the WhoAteAllTheCupcakes blog. They had some good things to say about it so I figured why not.
First thing I did was to look at the scoring system. Turns out you get points for goals. But since this isn't baseball where you can get points for hits, extra-base hits, total bases, home runs, RBIs, walks, runs scored, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS (on-base plus slugging)... and that's just the hitters... in soccer there aren't quite as many things to keep track of. You get four points for a goal, two points for a PK goal, three for an assist plus points for players whose teams don't surrender goals. Goalies get points for shutting out teams for a half and extra for an entire game. You also get negative points for various things.
Now, I didn't put too much thought into this. There are players in every sport who perform better in fantasy than in real life. So I didn't do research on that. But there were things I wanted right off the bat. I don't want to worry about injuries or national team absences. I also wanted to have solid players at each position and not Landon Donovan-Christian Gomez and nine scrubs. You get a salary cap (2600) so you have to invest wisely.
Part of the problem of being a reporter, though, is you get to know guys and talk to them and you are influenced by them. At one point I had five Chivas USA players and considering another but I had to stop myself. So I cut back to four. I also ended up with several Colorado Rapids players (including former Galaxy players Herculez Gomez and Ugo Ihemelu).
I started in the back and wanted someone with some upside who was going to play a lot of games. Brad Guzan was a good choice for that and he was relatively inexpensive. Still, he's been benched each of his first two seasons so I have to be wary of that. I took Matt Pickens as cover. Pickens was an even bigger bargain than Brad.
You have to take a 3-4-3 formation which is good because it cuts down on scrubby defenders. I wanted some punch from the back but somehow I ended up with three left backs. Funny how that worked out. Oh well, it's fantasy. I nabbed Jose Burciaga because he's probably the highest-scoring defender. I'll sacrifice some negative points for goals allowed if he can score another eight goals and eight assists. To round out the defense, I took Todd Dunivant and Jonathan Bornstein. I gambled with Bornstein because I think he'll be gone a lot this summer and Dunivant may as well. But I took Ihemelu and Craig Waibel for cover.
In the midfield, I went with value again. Francisco Mendoza and Sacha Kljestan could do big things this year and both were cheap (110; Landon Donovan was 300; most stars were above 200). I took Brian Mullan and Kyle Martino to round it out. Oh yeah. You can only pick so many foreigners. Anyway, I think Martino will have a great year but there is some risk involved because the Galaxy will have a crowded midfield. Still, I'm willing to take that risk... for a few weeks. For cover, I took Medhi Ballouchy (a steal at 90) and Clint Mathis, who could have a monster season or be a dud. A risk worth taking.
Up front, I needed some goals. Aside from Herculez Gomez I grabbed two guys who could be gone this summer too: Brian Ching and Kenny Cooper. Ching was my most expensive player at 240. In fact, he was the only guy I took over 200. For backups I took Nico Hernandez and Roberto Brown (can you tell I'm high on the Rapids this year?) as well as Nate Jaqua who I think could have a great season as well.
You also have to take a coach. There are no salary restrictions so I took Dominic Kinnear. I was thinking about taking Tom Soehn but I didn't have any D.C. players and had some Dynamo guys.
My team name is Atletico SV (Atletico Sideline Views). I need to join some league or something. Maybe I'll hit up the Cupcakes crew for their division.
So that's one MLS team I'm rooting for: Atletico SV
Vamos, Vamos SV
Esta noche tenemos que ganar
Anyway, I jumped back into the fantasy world for one reason: this blog. I wanted to start a fantasy MLS team and keep track of it here. I don't really have a ton of time but what the hell? It's only going to take a few minutes each week to update my team.
So I sorted out my team yesterday and now am awaiting this weekend to start my own search for a title. I signed up for a team on mfls.com because I'd heard good things about it. Okay, I saw it on a post on the WhoAteAllTheCupcakes blog. They had some good things to say about it so I figured why not.
First thing I did was to look at the scoring system. Turns out you get points for goals. But since this isn't baseball where you can get points for hits, extra-base hits, total bases, home runs, RBIs, walks, runs scored, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS (on-base plus slugging)... and that's just the hitters... in soccer there aren't quite as many things to keep track of. You get four points for a goal, two points for a PK goal, three for an assist plus points for players whose teams don't surrender goals. Goalies get points for shutting out teams for a half and extra for an entire game. You also get negative points for various things.
Now, I didn't put too much thought into this. There are players in every sport who perform better in fantasy than in real life. So I didn't do research on that. But there were things I wanted right off the bat. I don't want to worry about injuries or national team absences. I also wanted to have solid players at each position and not Landon Donovan-Christian Gomez and nine scrubs. You get a salary cap (2600) so you have to invest wisely.
Part of the problem of being a reporter, though, is you get to know guys and talk to them and you are influenced by them. At one point I had five Chivas USA players and considering another but I had to stop myself. So I cut back to four. I also ended up with several Colorado Rapids players (including former Galaxy players Herculez Gomez and Ugo Ihemelu).
I started in the back and wanted someone with some upside who was going to play a lot of games. Brad Guzan was a good choice for that and he was relatively inexpensive. Still, he's been benched each of his first two seasons so I have to be wary of that. I took Matt Pickens as cover. Pickens was an even bigger bargain than Brad.
You have to take a 3-4-3 formation which is good because it cuts down on scrubby defenders. I wanted some punch from the back but somehow I ended up with three left backs. Funny how that worked out. Oh well, it's fantasy. I nabbed Jose Burciaga because he's probably the highest-scoring defender. I'll sacrifice some negative points for goals allowed if he can score another eight goals and eight assists. To round out the defense, I took Todd Dunivant and Jonathan Bornstein. I gambled with Bornstein because I think he'll be gone a lot this summer and Dunivant may as well. But I took Ihemelu and Craig Waibel for cover.
In the midfield, I went with value again. Francisco Mendoza and Sacha Kljestan could do big things this year and both were cheap (110; Landon Donovan was 300; most stars were above 200). I took Brian Mullan and Kyle Martino to round it out. Oh yeah. You can only pick so many foreigners. Anyway, I think Martino will have a great year but there is some risk involved because the Galaxy will have a crowded midfield. Still, I'm willing to take that risk... for a few weeks. For cover, I took Medhi Ballouchy (a steal at 90) and Clint Mathis, who could have a monster season or be a dud. A risk worth taking.
Up front, I needed some goals. Aside from Herculez Gomez I grabbed two guys who could be gone this summer too: Brian Ching and Kenny Cooper. Ching was my most expensive player at 240. In fact, he was the only guy I took over 200. For backups I took Nico Hernandez and Roberto Brown (can you tell I'm high on the Rapids this year?) as well as Nate Jaqua who I think could have a great season as well.
You also have to take a coach. There are no salary restrictions so I took Dominic Kinnear. I was thinking about taking Tom Soehn but I didn't have any D.C. players and had some Dynamo guys.
My team name is Atletico SV (Atletico Sideline Views). I need to join some league or something. Maybe I'll hit up the Cupcakes crew for their division.
So that's one MLS team I'm rooting for: Atletico SV
Vamos, Vamos SV
Esta noche tenemos que ganar
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)