You know what would make a great story?

A non fantasy football blogger joins a league with 11 fantasy football bloggers. Even with the odds stacked against him, the non fantasy football blogger defies all odds to win the league in its first season. Must have been beginners luck.

But then he wins again in the league’s second year. Amazing right? Sounds too good to be true. That would never happen in a million years.

Uhhmmm … yeah … nevermind.

For the second consecutive year in the two-year old fantasy football blogger league hosted by The Hazean, a non fantasy football blogger won the league. Congratulations — again — to you, MWC Connection. Do not blame me if your invitation to next year’s league gets lost in the mail.

Kidding, of course. Continue reading →

No time for a legitimate update this week on the Blogger League, but I did want to pass along the results from the first weekend of postseason play.

Only a slight upset, No. 5 seed Fantasy Football Librarian posted the week’s highest score in ousting the team from Fantasy Football Exchange. The Librarian moves on the the semis to face No. 1 seed MWC Connection, last year’s winner.

On the other side of the bracket, seed was held as Football Jabber held off West Coast Nonsense in a low scoring affair. Next up for Professor Jabber: The EndZoneView.

Hit the jump to see the B League bracket. Continue reading →

So I made a significant fantasy football faux pas in the blogger league: I assumed the league’s postseason started in week 14, but in reality is starts in week 15.

Oops, my bad.

This is an example of how important it is to pay attention to all of your league’s settings. Knowing playoff rules, tiebreakers and waiver wire rules like the back of your hand can give your team a leg up on the competition. More importantly than those rules, perhaps, is to know your league’s scoring rules absolutely.

Lucky for me, this oversight did not matter too much, because I play to win each and every week. Like in week 13, where my team put a solid 91.58 points on the board.

But apparently Lady Luck — or was it karma? — has it in for The Hazean, because that point total was not enough to overcome The Fantasy Football Geek Blog’s total of 93.9. Yeah, I was that close to lucking into a chance still to make the postseason, but alas that ship now has officially sailed.

The lesson here is to check your league’s settings before the season starts and monitor important scenarios throughout the year. There are many statistical anamolies possible in a game like fantasy football, so knowing where your team stands on things like tiebreaker rules and playoff seeding is all part of being a great fantasy owner. Continue reading →

The season always has to end every year at this time for at least half the fantasy teams in leagues across the globe. And the clock struck midnight in week 12 for The Hazean’s team in the 2008 blogger league.

Despite an offseason filled with determination heading into this year’s campaign, vengeance to make better on last year’s last-place finish simply was not enough to overcome the other great talents in this league.

As you clearly can see to the left, there is not much to say about last week’s disappointing performance. And despite being only a game out of a playoff spot, The Hazean’s team in the blogger league would not win a tiebreaker with any of the three teams ahead of it in the standings.

While it is disappointing to fall short of the postseason despite having one of the highest scoring teams in the league, the other members of this league are well-deserving of the second season. It is true that I, as the league’s host, would like to defend The Hazean’s honor until the end, but the time has come to bow out of the running with grace.

So how exactly do you gracefully concede in fantasy football? Continue reading →

Losing is tough. Especially in fantasy football.

Sometimes, the chips are stacked against your fantasy team. Like when you have the highest-scoring team in the league and still find yourself on the outside looking in on the playoff picture because of some untimely match-ups. Or when you to play the highest scoring team in the league almost every single week.

Yeah, fantasy football is fickle sometimes.

But how can you deal with losing so many games in a season despite having — by the numbers — one of the best teams in the league? If you score a lot of points but still find yourself on the wrong end of the match-up, what else can you do?

Sometimes, bad luck just is part of the game. A lot of owners in these circumstances will whine and complain about the system. Others continue to brag on their team as the best in the league despite a meager record.

Both are popular responses to the string of bad luck that plagues many a good fantasy team. The best thing to do, I find, is keep your chin up. Continue reading →

Last week I told you guys how to squeak out a close win. But what happens if you end up on the opposite end of that script? Or, more importantly, how do you get there?

To make it a truly heartbreaking loss, your fantasy team has to perform well. So well, in fact, that you would have beaten almost everyone else in the league. Take a look to the left and you will see that The Hazean scored the third-most points in the league in week 10, which would have been good enough to beat nine other teams.

But in order to be on the wrong end of the contest, you have to draw an unlucky matchup. Objective accomplished.

It would not be heartbreaking enough, however, just to have bad luck. There has to be some glimmer of hope for the win. And that hope came in the form of two running backs squaring off against each other on Monday Night Football: Frank Gore and Tim Hightower.

Trailing by 11 points heading into Monday night, The Hazean was in position to steal a late win. In fact, if those were the only two players performing on Monday night the win would have been in the bag. But in order to accomplish the most devastating of losses, another player has to come in and steal the glory. Continue reading →

Consider this your fantasy football lesson for the day: How to win a fantasy game by the narrowest of margains against a worthy opponent:

First, make sure to start a runningback who will score zero points. Thanks to Willis McGahee’s goose egg, I gave my competitor a false sense of hope and security.

Second, encourage one of your opponent’s players to score zero points. Doing so almost doubles your competitor’s anxiety. Thanks for obliging, Heath Miller.

And finally, well, hope and pray that your measily point total will be enough. Sometimes, Lady Luck will smile upon your fantasy team.

That is exactly how The Hazean’s team in the blogger hung on for a win in week 9. Despite scoring only 76.58 points in week 9, it was just enough to brush past the team from Fantasy Football Fools, who registered 74.94 points. Talk about a nailbiter!

Four players carried the team with double-digit efforts. Jay Cutler and Tim Hightower led the way with 18.48 and 17.3 points, respectively. Reggie Wayne and the Titans defense both scored 11 points. Continue reading →

Just like next week’s Presidential election and many local elections, the blogger league is too close to call at the NFL’s midway point.

And despite posting a solid 91.96 points in week 8 without the services of Reggie Bush, The Hazean (4-4) drew the short end of the stick in the matchup against Football Jabber.

Five players posted double figures for The Hazean: Eli Manning [13.86], Frank Gore [19.4], Willis McGahee [10.7], Vincent Jackson [14] and bye-week kicker Shaun Suisham [16].

The team has been rather streaky so far this season. Three consecutive wins to start the year, followed by two losses, a win and now two more losses. That type of inconsistency is pretty standard in most head-to-head fantasy leagues, but keeping The Hazean — the league’s highest scoring team, by the way — on the edge of the playoff race.

If the season ended today, the team would make the playoffs as the No. 6 six, despite being tied with three other .500 teams.

Hit the jump to check the full standings after eight weeks. Continue reading →

Yikes.

Clearly it can be seen that The Hazean did not fare so well in the blogger league during week 7, losing to the Fantasy Football Librarian 115.64 - 61.02. It was a bad week for just about everyone in the starting lineup, starting with the Reggies.

Reggie Bush started well against the Panthers, totaling 6.5 fantasy points in the first half. But he tore his medial meniscus on a punt return at the end of the first half, and never came onto the field. Reggie Wayne, meanwhile, was held in check by the Packers’ secondary. He finished with only 3.4 fantasy points, his worst outing of the season.

Only two players cracked the double-digit barrier, led by San Diego’s Vincent Jackson. VJax scored a team-high 15.3 points. Jay Cutler had a subpar performance on Monday Night Football but was able to muster 10.52 points.

For the first time this season, the Titans’ defense failed to score in the double figures, finishing week 7 with only nine points. It was a meltdown of epic proportions across the board, as Frank Gore (7.6) and Matt Prater (1) also posted season lows. Continue reading →

Posting the highest score in a fantasy league is one way — nay, the best way — to stop a two-game slide, and that is exactly what The Hazean’s team did in the blogger league this week.

That two-game slide briefly dropped The Hazean (4-2) out of first place, but the 120.38 - 94.46 win against the team from This Just In… in week 6 coupled with a loss by Football Jabber catapults The Hazean back into first place.

Three players cracked the 20-point barrier in the win. Reggie Wayne led The Hazean’s scorers with 21.8 points and Reggie Bush posted another good outing with 20.2. Free agent acquisition Steve Breaston, getting the start for the idle Dwayne Bowe, scored 20.2 points in spot-start action.

Three other starters broke the double-digit barrier: Frank Gore with 19.2, Jay Cutler with 17.88 and the Redskins’ defense — another spot starter — with 10. Zach Miller (6.1) and Matt Prater (5) were the only starters not to score more than 10 points.

But the team may have dodged a bullet in week 6. This Just In… elected to start Le’Ron McClain (-1.5) in lieu of Thomas Jones (27.3). Had TJI started Jones, it would have been enough to overcome The Hazean’s 120.38 point total. Continue reading →