Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - 10 Tips & Tricks to Dominate Your Fantasy League

five to nine points. That's generally what a defense scores. San Diego scored 24 points for me in the championship week. Oh, it was depressing for me, but validation for number two. Yeah, the championship victory came in week 12. Yep. And week 12 for Mike is the move that he made. So especially with streaming defenses, if there's another position that makes sense to do that with as well, if you know your running back is going to go up against, and he's a running back two or three, he's not a guy that performs every week, and you know he's going to go up against the best running defense in week.

13 and 14. 15. You got to look ahead. You got to start. Plan to be in the playoffs and plan to be in the championship game. Don't play just for the first week of the playoffs. And don't be afraid to drop guys that you need to drop to pick those up, which is all the more reason, like I said earlier, pair this with Gordon Gecko. You get...

towards the you get towards the trade. You get towards that trade deadline. Do some two for ones that open up some bench spots for you so that you can pick up those future streaming options. Get ahead of your competition and make them sad. When I go, when I know that I have playoffs locked up or just about locked up, I absolutely make sure I have my handcuffs for my two running backs.

And then I will have generally two or three defenses. If you're in any of our leagues, though, definitely ignore this one, please. Because I'd prefer if you didn't do this, so it was a little easier for me. All right, we are going to post, by the way, all 10 of these tips. We're going to post them on the website with the podcast. So you can read them on there. What website? The Fantasy Footballers.com, of course. Yeah, there you go. All right, let's move on to number one. We're going to hand this over to Jason. Number one.

Number one. Yeah, how did that happen? Well, we made him number one because he's never been there in any of our leagues. Oh. Give me a break. Number one is number two. Look, if you play in any of our leagues, you should listen to this one. This is called the traditional. The traditional is not necessarily, well, it's definitely not necessarily something that will help you win your league, but it will make you play in a winning league. It is to make.

traditions make so so i i just thought about you know the the the most hardcore league that the three of us share in together and some of the traditions that we have so uh we have mike is known for being the worst winner of all time thank you thank you he is not really bad he you know it's funny because he's such a nice guy but in in victory he's just the worst just

The worst. Andy, he has monikered the Holloway. It's his signature move. It's his signature move and has been for years. If he gets down pretty much by a point any week in the world, he congratulates the person. It's so annoying. Everybody in our league has known it for years, and it's his attempt to pull back the victory, which for some reason, his congratulations generally pull those off. For me, my recent favorite tradition to start is, I really should just

made this my final tip because this can help you in your league. There you go. I hate this, by the way. Well, you were the, you were the, uh, was the, the, the, the, the, the, the victim. Yeah, you were the victim of this last year. Um, go on smear campaigns. Go on smear campaigns against players who are on, especially if you're in a keeper league, the players that are on the better owners teams. So, for instance, last year, uh, coming into the year, uh,

Andy in this keeper league had Marshawn Lynch, who, you know, was great. And we all knew coming in because of his pick situation, he had to trade Marshawn Lynch. He had to do it. And if you, so I ran a, I mean, I pretty much, I paid out the nose to run a smear campaign in our league on Marshaun Lynch's value because I did not want Andy fleecing the other guys in our league. So I'll tell you, if you are good at trades and you're in a league with me, your players will have the worst.

PR imaginable among our league. It's the cost of victory. You know what? It comes along with being the...

defending champion. Yeah, take it as a compliment. So, yeah, just make traditions, do things. You know, we've got the water bets, both at the fantasy footballers, and that came out of that league where people will make bets and douse each other on waters. That's another thing we're going to have at the recommendation of some of the listeners. We're going to put up on the Fantasy Footballers.com a dedicated page to our water bets and our waterings. There you go. So there are the top 10 tips and tricks, ways to win your league.

Make your league more fun, more exciting because you've won. And through the... They're always more fun when you win. When we get up to draft season, we will try to every show drop a tip for drafting. I think that that's going to be one of the great values of listening to this show to make sure that, you know, come draft day, you know all the tips and tricks. There you go. So let's go ahead and hit the listener mailbag and answer some questions.

Mailbag. Buy your mind. Very nice. I'm always amped after that. Oh yeah. That didn't sound amped.

That sounded like a 12-year-old boy. You know, you tell me to be more excited on the show. So every once in a while, it crosses my mind. But it just doesn't come naturally. Andy Holloway, you're super boring. I'm not boring. No, you're not. I'm not going to be traded for Adam Azer. So you're talking about your trade value right now. We'll have to throw something in, Mike. If I'm traded, you have to steal Adam's wallet. That's all I know. If Adam comes in here, you're stealing his wallet every day. Yeah.

I don't think he's going to enjoy it. Wow, we'll get him. He might not come on the show now. Mailbag question. This one comes in via email. By the way, you can email us any question that you have. Mail at the fantasy footballers.com. We'll answer them on the show. You can also tweet us those at the FF ballers. We love listener questions. We love helping you in this off season answer your keeper and dynasty league questions. And so this one comes in from Dustin. First of all, he says, great show. What's up, Dustin?

New listener, new listener here, and I am so happy I found a show with excellent fantasy wisdom and good humor. That's it. That's all you wrote. Yep. Next email. We're full of ice cream. Right. I am in a 10-team half-PPR league, one keeper. Do I keep Emmanuel Sanders for an eighth round pick or Carlos Hyde for a 13th rounder? I think I know what our answer is going to be, but I'll let one of you take it. Mike, you got this. Oh, that's the best question I've gotten all day. That's Carlos Hyde.

All the way to the bank. All the way. You got to take that running back value of... He's basically free. Yeah. You get a free Carlos high. And if you really want Sanders, you could draft him probably in the sixth. Yeah. One of the things about Sanders we've talked about, he had all career highs last year. It's hard to do that multiple years in a row. So he has to get career high numbers to duplicate last year. And even if he did, I'd still take Carlos High. Even if you guarantee me those Sanders numbers.

All right, question number two comes in via email from Jordan. He says he's in a 12-team redraft league. And the first place prize is deciding where you want your draft position to be. And I'm going to assume this is a snake draft. It's a redraft, so it will be a snake draft. What is the best philosophy in this situation? What do you guys think? Well, first thing. He gets to choose where he drafts. Jordan S. Congratulations on winning your league, right? I mean, we're in place. Well done. We're assuming.

Yeah. Well, it says, you know, the first place prize, unless the first place prize goes to the loser. Maybe he's planning ahead. He's listened to the show. He realizes he's going to be in that position in the future as well. So as far as where you want to pick to be in your league, I'd like to hear your guys the thoughts on this year. Oh, I know. Exactly. Yeah. Where do you want to pick? I tear out my running back ones and I put myself at the absolute back position to still get one of my running back one tier guys. Yeah, generally speaking, that's the exact.

the exact strategy I would do. This year I'm a little concerned because I feel like I'm just low on all the running backs. But one thing you can do as well, Jordan, if you're not aware of this tool, you can go to Fantasyprose.com and you can go to do the...

you know, click NFL, and there's a mock draft there, and you can pick your position. So that's one of those things where you can go and say, I want to pick first, I want to pick sixth, I want to pick twelfth, and you can see what type of positions you fill up at those different, and take a look at your roster, see what you like. But I agree with Mike's philosophy. Short of Ladanian Tomlinson returning to the world of fantasy football, I think that that's really the best way to go, because we've looked at...

Any position has the potential to bust. So give yourself the best chance of getting the two highest guys you can as you flip over to the second round. And just off the top of my head, I'm not looking at my list. So with Lacey Bell, Charles, Peterson, that, am I missing somebody in there? Well, Andy would say Arian Foster. Yeah, he may. But I think those four guys.

I'm trying not just to get over-excited, but Hill's probably in my top tier. I think he's in mine, too. So, fifth, maybe six. Kelsey Hill? Yeah, but you wouldn't take, but you wouldn't take Hill there. I mean, so that might be something where, Jordan, if you like Hill, and Hill's not going, you know, fifth in the first round. That's true. That depends on your league. But if you see him as worthy of being taken fifth, that's where you can say, okay, I want the, I want the eighth or ninth or tenth or, or.

You know, 11th pick. If you know your league and say, I'm going to try to get Hill as late as I can and be closest to the turn to grab the next best running back. Excellent point. Another sound strategy. All right. Here's a keeper question in from Michael, Michael S. And this is good. This is an auction question. We haven't had too many auction questions. Few on Twitter. He says he's in a 12-team, non-PPR Keeper League. Now, this is a two-quarterback league.

where he also starts two wide receivers, two running backs, and a tight-end, and a flex. You can keep two guys from the previous year. It's a $300 auction draft, so I think $200 is the normal, but this is a $300. One of his keepers is automatic. He's got Antonio Brown for $30, and I agree. That's a great value. So now he needs to decide between these guys. Eli Manning for $24. C.J. Anderson for $45. Joyick Bell for $25. Frank Gore for $31.

or Carlos Hyde for 13. He says he's leaning towards Hyde for that price. It's good price, good value. Because then he'd have Antonio and Hyde locked up for 43 of his 300. But he feels like C.J. Anderson could easily be a top five pick if the pieces fall into place. And then there's Eli, who was great last year, a top 10 QB for $24 and a two QB league would be good. So which...

Where do you lean, Jason, on this one? So, obviously, you care about value. I mean, if you can draft any of these guys for around the same amount, then it's pointless in an auction league because you'll have the opportunity to buy each and every one of them. So that's what you're really looking for here is value. Carlos Hyde is the best value at $13, so I would not fault you for that. The one thing that I think I would probably...

do, though, I think I would take Eli Manning. Because it's a two-quarterback league, it flips quarterbacks completely on its head. It goes from, you know, being one of those where there's just tons of guys, where you can stream guys, where quarterback's not very valuable, to falling...

you know, right in its face, and then next thing you know, you're starting just the worst or the worst. And so the question is, you know, look at last year's draft and see where your higher guys go because Eli is more valuable this year than he was last year. So if you got him last year for $24, I'm going to assume that's a good value, and I would want the quarterback in a two-quarterback system. Yeah, that's a really good point of we don't know how much the quarterbacks usually go for. Eli Manning this year is...

His ceiling is outstanding. I think his ceiling is top five. So $24. If you're, if you paid 24 for Eli last year, I can only imagine a Rogers type is going for what, $60? Probably more. Yeah, probably more. 80. Because this is a $300 league. So, yeah, my first instinct is to take that Carlos Hyde value. But because of where, of what I think the cost for your quarterbacks probably are,