Funeratic Football 2015

Scott Hardie | August 9, 2015
Are you ready for some football?!

Funeratic members are invited to play together in a fantasy football league this fall. If it goes well, we'll play more fantasy sports year-round. (If you're not a Funeratic member and you want to participate, it's free to join.)

I have chosen Yahoo to host the league. You will need a Yahoo account to play. They have an API that I might use to pull stats for display here.

The draft will take place on the morning of Saturday August 29 September 5 at 11am eastern, 10am central. I can be persuaded to move it if that's a problem for anybody.

I freely admit that I have no idea what I'm doing, as this is my first time running a league. :-) The floor is definitely open for debate about specific rules and terms. If you want a particular rule changed, please bring it up publicly (here in TC) so that we can discuss it, and I'll go with what seems like the consensus. For now, I have started the league using almost entirely the default settings.

If you want to play, all you have to do is say so. I'll send an invitation to the email address that you have on file with Funeratic. The deadline to sign up is one hour before the draft. I'll raise the limit on the number of teams as needed to accommodate however many people want to play.

I guess it's obvious from the links above, but for the record, this will be a publicly-viewable league, so don't expect privacy in the message boards. Better yet, discuss the league here in TC please. :-)

I'm excited about this! Let's play some fantasy football!

Scott Hardie | August 9, 2015
Also: My thanks to Chris Lemler for trying to start this himself in 2009 and 2010. Sorry it didn't work out back then. Hopefully we'll have more luck this time.

Chris Lemler | August 9, 2015
Scott I will join :)

Steve West | August 9, 2015
Cool, count me in.

Scott Hardie | August 9, 2015
Glad to have you both! We need at least five to make it official. Who else is in?

For the record, there are no prizes here but bragging rights. If it goes well, I might add a prize to later leagues/seasons.

Erik Bates | August 10, 2015
[hidden by request]

Matthew Preston | August 10, 2015
Heck yeah, I'm in!

You players with little to no experience make me nervous. The NFL is so unpredictable that someone not overthinking things tends to win. Good luck all, I'm looking forward to this!

Scott Hardie | August 10, 2015
There's two more! Glad to have you aboard!

I am just as intimidated by experienced NFL fans, believe me. :-)

Justin Woods | August 10, 2015
I am in!

Matthew Preston | August 10, 2015
Rule suggestions for discussion:
6 points per passing touchdowns instead of 4.
1 or 2 flex roster positions (WR/RB/TE).
8 - 10 bench instead of 6.

My thoughts are with 5 - 10 teams, it will be more interesting if players are scarcer to acquire (trades needed).

Samir Mehta | August 11, 2015
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | August 11, 2015
You are in! Everyone so far should have received an invitation by email from Yahoo. Please let me know if you didn't.

Justin Woods | August 11, 2015
Joanna Said she would join.

Scott Hardie | August 20, 2015

6 points per passing touchdowns instead of 4.

1 or 2 flex roster positions (WR/RB/TE).
8 - 10 bench instead of 6.
My thoughts are with 5 - 10 teams, it will be more interesting if players are scarcer to acquire (trades needed).

Steve West | August 20, 2015
I prefer 4 points per passing touchdown but I can happily live with 6.

Newbie alert! Flex positions? I have a good guess what this means but no concrete notion. This sounds okay to me.

8-10 bench sounds okay and I will stock mine with good players not to keep them from anyone but that's what you want out of your bench - good players who can step in and take over for an injured player, right?

Chris Lemler | August 21, 2015
You would be correct Steve

Erik Bates | August 21, 2015
[hidden by request]

Chris Lemler | August 21, 2015
Well Erik you want to try to get the best players.......haha

Matthew Preston | August 25, 2015
Jordy Nelson's season ending injury reminded me of something important. I've been in a no-money league with the same guys for about 15 years now and we learned two important timing aspects early on.

1) Draft after the preseason is over. This prevents the unfortunate situation where someone like Jordy Nelson is a top performer, you get lucky with him in the draft, and BAM, 0 points for the season for you. Some could argue that this is just part of the drafting strategy (which it is if you know this ahead of time). But for me, it absolutely sucks the fun right out of the season from the start. If a player gets injured during the regular season, he's likely brought in a few points for you at the very least. I highly recommend moving the draft to the week between the preseason and regular season.

2) (This is already the case in this league, but I thought I'd mention it). Playoffs need to end the season with the championship in week 16, not week 17. This burned several of us, and again really put a damper on the season. All top players who brought in mega points for the season are likely already guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, and are benched for the final game of the season to prevent injuries.

Matthew Preston | August 25, 2015
Also, I wanted to mention that I don't have overly strong feelings one way or the other about adding flex or more bench positions. It feels like the consensus is to keep the roster as is, and I'm fine with that. We're up to 9 teams now, so it will be interesting either way.

After my last post, I realized I'm trying to turn this one into the same as the league I'm used to. Maybe I should just let a lot of this go and enjoy something different for a change...

Here's to a fun season!

Scott Hardie | August 25, 2015
I'm ok with pushing back the draft one week to September 5 if everybody else is. I avoided that weekend since two Funeratic members have birthdays and might not be available, but you're right, it's a good idea to get the preseason behind us. What do you all say? (That really sucks about Nelson, btw.)

Scott Hardie | August 25, 2015
Hey, all ideas are welcome. I have never run this before and would appreciate the help. :-) I have played on ESPN's website but not on Yahoo, so I'm figuring out Yahoo as well.

Steve West | August 25, 2015
I'd prefer Sept 5 but it's not my birthday. I can understand not switching.

Justin Woods | August 25, 2015
yes the 5th is better... get the preseason over first, don't really want to have players who get injured on my team.

Scott Hardie | August 26, 2015
It's official: We'll draft on September 5 instead, still at 11am Eastern.

Erik Bates | August 28, 2015
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | September 2, 2015
It's almost time! So far, everyone but Joanna has accepted the invitation and made their team. She and anyone else who's still considering playing will need to make their team by Saturday morning to qualify. I have a friend (Rosa Melano from Rock Block) standing by to join at the last minute if necessary, since Yahoo requires an even number of teams for this kind of competition.

I'm used to ESPN's fantasy website, so I'm curious to see how smoothly Yahoo's draft will work. I'm sure it will be fine. Does anyone have interest in a video conference during the draft or would that be too distracting? Here's looking forward to Saturday morning either way. :-)

Justin Woods | September 2, 2015
Scott, I checked with Joanna but she said she did not get an email. What email address did it get sent to?

Scott Hardie | September 2, 2015
Apparently her old one. I just sent another to her new one.

Steve West | September 3, 2015
I'm not a techno-phobe but I am a techno-newbie in a lot of ways. Doing a videoconference sounds cool but I'm sadly clueless as to how to go about that.

Scott Hardie | September 5, 2015
Having now tried mock drafts using Yahoo's interface, I can say that I like ESPN's interface a lot more. ESPN gives you a lot more stats and a more reasonable 90 seconds per choice, while Yahoo rushes you with only 30 seconds. There's no commissioner option to change that time limit that I can find. :-\ If you haven't played with Yahoo before, I definitely suggest trying a mock draft before the real one.

Our team list is finalized with eight teams, some of which I presume will be renamed:
- Scott Hardie (Concussionators)
- Chris Lemler (Chris L's Grand Team)
- Steve West (Fat Rats)
- Erik Bates (Saint Louligans)
- Matthew Preston (Under Pressure)
- Justin Woods (Salty Dog)
- Samir Mehta (SDS's Excellent Team)
- Joanna Woods (Joanna Woods's Team)

Yahoo will randomly set the draft order at 10:30am, before our 11am (eastern) draft, now less than an hour away. I'm excited!

Steve, I saw your poll question about shortening the pre-season and lengthening the regular season. Given that the regular season starts next weekend, and that it ends a week early because the best players are benched before the playoffs (as Matthew discussed above on August 24), I'm not sure what you have in mind. Did you mean that you want to count this weekend's preseason games as if they were regular season? Sorry I'm dense and new at this. :-)

Steve West | September 5, 2015
I meant for the actual NFL in future seasons.

Justin Woods | September 5, 2015
Yeah I have not played yahoo but I know others who have and complained as well.

I have been in ESPN for the last few years and like it better but never ran a league.

Matthew Preston | September 5, 2015
Are the "Scoring and Settings" fields finalized? I still see 4 points per passing touchdowns.

Scott Hardie | September 5, 2015
In that case, Steve, I definitely support that. :-)

We may switch to ESPN in the future if we do this again. I only picked Yahoo because they offered a free API that I could use to pull data, but I don't really have time to take advantage of that anyway.

I see four of us in the draft room now. Erik is out today (happy birthday Erik!) but I hope everyone else can make it, or has pre-queued their auto draft in advance.

Scott Hardie | September 5, 2015
Matthew, I thought the matter was closed after your comment on 8/24 about leaving the settings alone after all. I'd prefer to discuss further but there's not really time, so I have to make a call as commissioner. Let's leave it at 4 points.

Matthew Preston | September 5, 2015
OK.

Scott Hardie | September 5, 2015
My apologies. I should have sought a clear resolution/consensus.

Scott Hardie | September 5, 2015
Oh, sweet. Yahoo does give you 90 seconds. It's only the mock drafts where you get 30 seconds.

Chris Lemler | September 5, 2015
Scott I pre draft cause I'm at work. I didn't want to say anything cause I didn't want you to change the time on the draft. So I'm hoping to pick up some Steeler players but we will have to wait and see ;)

Matthew Preston | September 5, 2015
That was fun. Good luck everyone!

Scott Hardie | September 5, 2015
It was! Good luck indeed.

Chris, you got Pittsburgh's defense, otherwise no Steelers. But it looks to my untrained eyes like you have a pretty decent team overall.

I'm not thrilled with my results, personally. I got distracted during the first round and was nearly out of time to research, so I made a snap decision to pick up a quarterback and it was too early. At least I got the best quarterback in the league out of it. :-) But I got some lousy tight ends, and my wide receivers could have been better. I'll pay for my mistakes.

I like how Yahoo predicts that Erik, who wasn't even participating in the draft, "won" it by winding up with the highest projected season score. :-) I presume that's because it auto-assigned him the next-highest scoring player available each time, which the rest of us made more precise selections.

Scott Hardie | September 14, 2015
Great first weekend, Steve! That score is not at all intimidating. :-)

Samir Mehta | September 14, 2015
[hidden by request]

Steve West | September 14, 2015
Not a chance I'll repeat those numbers consistently. Watch for a decline starting next week.

Chris Lemler | September 14, 2015
Since I been playing in one of my leagues someone scored 302 points so i have seen higher. But Steve that is a great score nice job

Scott Hardie | October 9, 2015
I'm really enjoying this! Of course, I say that having been exceedingly lucky, winning the first few weeks despite having a much lower overall score than other players. I think my winning streak is about to end against Steve this weekend. My lack of decent running backs is turning into a critical weakness.

Does anybody want to try a basketball and/or hockey league? We'd have to start quickly, as in within the next week. I'd be interested, but I'm also fine just sticking to football for now and waiting until it's over to decide whether we try additional leagues.

Steve West | October 9, 2015
I know less about hockey and basketball than I do about football (which isn't a lot). It would make those sports infinitely more interesting because I pay almost no attention to either now.

Chris Lemler | October 9, 2015
How about hockey Scott?

Scott Hardie | October 11, 2015
We need at least five for a viable league I think. Counting me, that sounds like three for hockey and two for basketball. Is anybody else interested at this time? Come on, hockey's fun. :-)

Justin Woods | October 11, 2015
Sorry guys, I really only follow football.

Erik Bates | October 12, 2015
[hidden by request]

Matthew Preston | October 13, 2015
If not too late, I'd be in for hockey. Never tried it, but have wanted to.

Samir Mehta | October 14, 2015
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | October 15, 2015
Four for hockey, three for basketball. Anybody else willing to give it a shot? I don't really follow either sport closely but I'm game for anything. :-)

Scott Hardie | October 15, 2015
Oh the hell with it (waiting). Let's start a league in each sport and see what happens. The hockey draft will be Saturday 10/17 at 11am eastern, and the basketball draft will be Saturday 10/24 at 11am eastern. I'll set up both leagues tonight using ESPN's service and send invitations. Thanks for the feedback everybody. :-)

Fair warning, based on my experience with ESPN, it will back-fill the hockey season to date as soon as the draft is over, as if your drafted players had already played week 1 and part of week 2.

Steve West | October 15, 2015
Sweet.

Scott Hardie | October 16, 2015
Done. You should have received an invitation by email; please let me know if not. (That is, Steve and Chris and Matthew for hockey, and Steve and Samir for basketball, so far anyway.) I hope that we get some more players before the seasons start or this is going to be bizarrely imbalanced. :-)

If you're enjoying the football season, I suggest giving this a shot even if hockey or basketball isn't your game. The stats online make it fairly easy to choose well, and with one possible exception it's not like any of us are huge enough fans to make a lack of following the sport detrimental to your odds against other players. I'm looking forward to this either way. :-)

Erik Bates | October 16, 2015
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | October 16, 2015
Glad to have you! Your invitation is in the mail.

Scott Hardie | November 1, 2015
As predicted, Steve trounced me last week. I may have more wins, but he has by far the most points so far this season. Well done, Steve.

This week, I expect to lose to Chris, but maybe I'll get lucky. Yahoo predicts my victory by one point but I'm skeptical. Good luck, Chris.

Steve West | November 1, 2015
I'm currently getting kicked in the buttocks so I can only take consolation from Hockey and Basketball drubbings. Hah!

Scott Hardie | December 30, 2015
Congrats on winning the season, Steve! I lost track and didn't realize that last week was the playoffs; I mistakenly thought Yahoo had only a single week to end the season. It's not like it would have changed my score last week if I had known -- you kicked my butt, Steve. Joanna, congrats on making it to the final. Erik, congrats on having the most wins all season long. This was fun, but if we're going to do it again (and I'd like to), I'm switching to ESPN. :-)

Final outcome, for posterity:
Steve "Fat Rats" 9 wins 5 losses, won championship
Joanna "MeanMug" 7 wins 7 losses, reached final
Scott "Concussionators" 9 wins 5 losses, reached playoffs
Erik "Saint Louligans" 11 wins 3 losses, reached playoffs
Matthew "Under Pressure" 2 wins 12 losses
Justin "Salty Dog" 6 wins 8 losses
Chris "Superman Punch" 5 wins 9 losses
Samir "SDS's Excellent Team" 7 wins 7 losses

Steve West | December 30, 2015
Thanks. This certainly doubled my pleasure of the season and if we do it again, I'm in. I learned a lot about fantasy football and I'm prepared to do better next time so fair warning to you guys to step your game up! This was not easy - if things had gone differently week to week by just fractions, someone else would by hoisting the Lombardi trophy. Nice and fun competitions every week.

Erik Bates | December 30, 2015
[hidden by request]

Chris Lemler | December 30, 2015
Congrats Steve