Fantasy Draft #3

by | Aug 28, 2008 | Fantasy Football

So, I guess I’d better finally get around to actually posting that link to our third fantasy draft, for the 3 people who might actually care. This league was put together by a sports card blog, and I joined under the guise of promoting my Football Card Blog.

Having endured the marathon auction the night before, and since I was “Out of Office,” I decided to forgo the draft, and let Yahoo pick my team–based on my list, of course.

Draft results are here.

Next up for ZoneBlitz will be possibly the most interesting draft we’ll have all year, as it’s the one league where Andy and I go head to head rather than partner up on a team. Should be interesting…

Fantasy Update #2

by | Aug 25, 2008 | Fantasy Football

Last Friday night, ZoneBlitz participated in it’s second fantasy draft, an auction format ($200 cap) draft for a league in its second year of existence.   Last year, we blew a big chunk of our budget early on two star running backs–Joseph Addai and Steven Jackson.  Looked like a sound move early in the season, as Addai carried the team, while Jackson got off to a slow start.  However, we hit a mid-season slump, and ended up dumping Steven Jackson before the trade deadline for Clinton Portis & Javon Walker – a deal in which one league member ridiculed the other owner for bending over, which ended up working out in no one’s favor (they were out of it already, and it certainly didn’t help us at season’s end).

So this year, our goal was not to blow our budget on so few guys, and and it worked out–kind of.  Not really 100% sure on the order we got these guys, but here goes:

(more…)

One Draft Down, Five Drafts to Go

by | Aug 21, 2008 | Fantasy Football

ZoneBlitz participated in it’s first fantasy draft last night–a free league sponsored by the proprietor over at RandBall, featuring a bunch of regular commenters from the site.   It’s a free league, which we participated in last year, and made a late push in despite saddling ourselves with Marvin Harrison and Torry Holt (two normally safe picks) with our first picks (fortunately we dumped Harrison in a deal for Willis McGahee right before Harrison went down).

This year, we had the somewhat unfortunate position of drafting #5 overall–which according to Paul Charchian, would be one spot too early to start the ‘Do The Opposite’ strategy.  Fortunately for us, we don’t always listen to the experts.

(more…)

Boldin Wants Out of Arizona

by | Aug 20, 2008 | Contract Squabbles, NFL News

Wide receiver Anquan Boldin, entering his sixth season in the NFL, has requested that the Arizona Cardinals trade him, due to his unhappiness with his current contract, and his claim that the team has reneged on on an offer to re-do the deal.

“At the beginning of camp, I hadn’t asked for a trade,” Boldin said. “As of recently, we did.”

Boldin reached 400 career receptions faster than any other player in NFL history, and has 5,458 yards and 29 touchdowns in his career.  He has three years left on a four-year, $22.75 million extension he signed after the 2005 season, which keeps him under contract until 2010.

Asked if he thought the situation could be resolved, Boldin answered “No.”

“If I’m not going to be treated fairly, if my hard work and loyalty isn’t going to be rewarded here, then let me go somewhere where it’s going to be rewarded. That’s how I feel,” Boldin said.

Because nothing says hard work and loyalty like whining about your contract to the press, and trying to cause a distraction for the team as it prepares for its third preseason game.  Still, he’s not worried that the situation will hurt his reputation with fans:

“Anybody that knows me, that knows what kind of guy I am, they know I’m a hard worker,” he said. “I’m a guy that does the right things, on and off the field. I’m not worried about my reputation being tarnished for me telling the truth.”

Because, you know, fans have a long history of being more loyal to a player who wants to leave their city over the team that is less likely to leave.

We’ll give Boldin some credit–he’s not being as big of a douchebag so far as some of Drew Rosenhaus clients–but that might just be because Rosenhaus is too busy reminding TO how to stir things up in Dallas to fully devote attention to the lowly Cardinals.

But you signed the extension in 2005, and you have three years left on it–if you couldn’t get the renegotiation of the deal based on your performance in writing, then you shouldn’t have signed a deal if you knew you could out-play it.  Especially with a team as notorious for being cheap as the Cardinals.

Now you’re a co-number one receiver with a guy with a much bigger contract (despite inferior career numbers), and you’re causing a distraction for your team and asking to be traded–despite the fact that going to a new team would likely hurt your numbers this season, and hurt your long term value.

Shut up, play football, and maybe you’ll get lucky enough to get something done–contract or trade–at the end of the season, when it would be in everyone’s best interest.

CentSports.com Update

by | Aug 18, 2008 | NFL Gambling

Last week, we put up a post recommending all our readers who are interested in sports betting check out CentSports.com.

From what we can tell, you’ve all ignored it–which is fine.  But it doesn’t mean we’re not going to subject you to updates on our betting habits.

Our first bet was a 4-way parlay, taking the Colts (+3) over the Falcons, the Vikings (+3) over the Ravens, the Saints (-3) over the Texans, and the Cardinals (+3) over the Chiefs, which would have won us $1.17–if the Saints hadn’t blown the game.  Not really sure why we went with them in the first place, to be honest.

But, the beautiful thing about CentSports is–when your account hits $0.00, they give you another $0.10 to play with.  So last night, we threw up a quick two-way parlay, taking the over on both the Lions/Bengals (35.5), and the Bucs/Pats (34)–and neither disappointed.  So now we’re up to $0.45, heading into tonight’s game–just for fun, we threw down a $0.10 over bet on that one, too (would pay $0.13).