FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume I, Issue X

Welcome to our tenth edition of the FDH Fantasy Newsletter, as we continue to bring you weekly fantasy sports updates in addition to our usual content on FantasyDrafthelp.com. In case you missed it, here are the previous issues:

^ Volume I, Issue I (September 4, 2008)
^ Volume I, Issue II (September 13, 2008)
^ Volume I, Issue III (September 19, 2008)
^ Volume I, Issue IV (September 27, 2008)
^ Volume I, Issue V (October 4, 2008)

^ Volume I, Issue VI (October 11, 2008)

^ Volume I, Issue VII (October 18, 2008)

^ Volume I, Issue VIII (October 25, 2008)

^ Volume I, Issue IX (November 1, 2008)

In this week's edition:

^ NFL Week 10 game-by-game fantasy preview
^ NFL Week 10 top 5 waiver wire pickups

^ A preview of next week’s college basketball team draft on THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER

^ The FDH New York Bureau Report

NFL Week 10

NOTE: Our advice, as it does on our FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER weekly program (Wednesdays, 7-9 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com), is based on helping you determine which of your marginal starters are worth a play this week. Hopefully, your initial draft/auction efforts were successful, because frankly, “playing the matchups” is far from an exact science regardless of what you will be told by other advisory services claiming to possess a crystal ball. But our weekly game notes are designed to try to help you maximize the potential of your situation. We will post this preface to the notes every week to remind you of the context of our advice. Also, each of our game previews links to the page for that game on CBSSports.com, with statistical information and a video preview of each game.

In addition, every week right here we will provide you a link to your ultimate Sunday morning last-minute news source: Google News. Although any updates from responsible news providers are very useful, pay particular attention to those who come from team beat reporters, because they are closest to the action.

(Byes: Baltimore, Dallas, Tampa Bay, Washington)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9

Baltimore Ravens at Houston Texans 1:00 p.m. QB Rosenfels and RB Slaton are the marginal starters that make the least amount of sense for Houston. With RB McGahee banged-up, Rice will have some nice opportunities.

New Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons 1:00 p.m. RB McAllister is, for right now, the only real option at that position for the Saints and should have at least a decent game. WR2 remains far too volatile to pronounce anyone a good option for New Orleans. QB Ryan could well continue to achieve beyond expectations this week.

Tennessee Titans at Chicago Bears 1:00 p.m. As is almost the case for Tennessee, don’t go beyond RB/RB/TE. RB Forte is not a great option to start, but realistically, you may not have anyone better.

Jacksonville Jaguars at Detroit Lions 1:00 p.m. WR Johnson is a decent play, but far from great. On the other side, WRs Jones and (sleeper) Porter should join QB Garrard and both RBs against the hapless Lions.

Seattle Seahawks at Miami Dolphins 1:00 p.m. Until further notice, RB Jones is all there is for Seattle. QB Pennington is an above-average fantasy backup right now and he’s in a good spot here.

Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings 1:00 p.m. RB Grant is a bad option, so this is one of the few times when the matchup dictates that he ride the pine. WR Berrian is the only marginal Vike worth your time.

Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots 1:00 p.m. Both QBs look good here, as does WR Welker. Stay away from the New England RB morass.

St. Louis Rams at N.Y. Jets 1:00 p.m. In a rare recommendation for this week, this is an all-in game – but only if RB Jackson is able to go (which he probably won’t be).

Carolina Panthers at Oakland Raiders 4:05 p.m. Panthers all-in (only RB Williams since Stewart is hurt), Raiders all-out with RB McFadden hobbled.

Indianapolis Colts at Pittsburgh Steelers 4:15 p.m. Indy is all-in, the Steeler QB situation is all-out regardless of starter with the vulnerability there. WR Ward looks to be the only good marginal starter for Pittsburgh (including RB Moore).

Kansas City Chiefs at San Diego Chargers 4:15 p.m. Insamuch as WRs Bowe and Jackson probably are automatic at this point, WR Chambers is the marginal pick in this game.

N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia Eagles 8:15 p.m. The Giants are all-in again and WR Jackson is the marginal play for Philly.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10

San Francisco 49ers at Arizona Cardinals 8:30 p.m. It’s the usual suspects for Arizona (everyone except TE and now with RB Hightower instead of James) and only RB Gore for San Fran.

NFL Week 10 top 5 waiver wire pickups

1. Brady Quinn: Few players on the scrap heap have his pedigree, but that’s what happens when you end up backing up a lame duck as he inexplicably has for most of this season. But that’s over now and he’s starting, with his first game against a leaky Bronco defense. With the weapons at his disposal, he could become an every-week starter.

2. Jamaal Charles: LJ has worn out his welcome and this rookie is taking advantage. If he can gash the Bucs defense, he could very well be good for more production in the weeks ahead.

3. Derrick Mason: Granted, his best days are behind him, but as Joe Flacco matures, his value will rebound from the depths of the McNair-Boller era.

4. Sage Rosenfels: In a decent Houston offense, he’s at the helm for just about all of the fantasy regular season now that Matt Schaub is on the shelf.

5. Jerry Porter: Now that he’s healthy, he’s getting his first looks in what is materializing as a lost year for the Jaguars. The desperate search for new options on this team can only benefit him.

College Hoops Team Draft preview

Each November, FDH holds a fantasy college hoops team draft on our program. How does it work? Let’s check out our college hoops home page on FDH:

SUGGESTED LEAGUE GUIDELINES

^ A standard serpentine-style draft serves as the best place to begin.

^ The ideal distribution of talent would be as follows: 5 teams drafted by 8 owners, 6 teams drafted by 7 owners, 7 teams drafted by 6 owners or 8 teams drafted by 5 owners.

^ Points should be divided equally between success in the regular season/conference tournaments and in the NCAA tournament.

^ Regular season point distribution should come in the form of a "snapshot" of the Associated Press Top 25 poll on the following dates: December 31, January 14, January 28, February 11, February 25 and March 12. On those dates, points would be allocated in the following manner: 1st place (100 points), 2nd place (94 points), 3rd place (91 points), 4th place (88 points), 5th place (85 points), 6th place (78 points), 7th place (75 points), 8th place (72 points), 9th place (68 points), 10th place (65 points), 11th place (58 points), 12th place (55 points), 13th place (52 points), 14th place (48 points), 15th place (45 points), 16th place (40 points), 17th place (36 points), 18th place (32 points), 19th place (28 points), 20th place (25 points), 21th place (22 points), 22nd place (18 points), 23rd place (15 points), 24th place (12 points), 25th place (10 points). Additionally, 90 points are to be awarded to the winner of a regular season conference title and an additional 90 points to the winner of a conference title tournament.

^ The other half of the points, in the form of NCAA tournament points, are to be distributed as follows: 50 points for qualifying for the tournament, 100 points for one of your teams qualifying as a #1, #2, #3, #4 seed in any region, 40 points for qualifying as a #5, #6, #7 or #8 seed in any region, 40 points for winning a first-round tournament game, 75 points for winning a second-round tournament game, 150 points for winning a third-round tournament game, 175 for winning a regional final game, 250 points for winning a national semifinal game and 500 points for winning the national title.

This Wednesday night on our FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER program (7-9 PM EDT) we will be holding our 2008-2009 draft. Here is our draft board (numbers in parentheses indicate where each school placed in our composite average of where they placed in major preseason polls):

TOP TIER

1. North Carolina (1)

SECOND TIER
2. UConn (4)

3. Louisville (2)

4. UCLA (3)

5. Duke (5)

6. Texas (6)

7. Michigan State (8)

8. Memphis (9)

9. Gonzaga (11)

10. Pittsburgh (7)

11. Notre Dame (10)

12. Tennessee (12)

13. Purdue (13)

14. Oklahoma (14)

THIRD TIER

15. Arizona State (18)

16. Miami (15)

17. USC (19)

18. Georgetown (17)

19. Marquette (16)

20. Wake Forest (24T)

21. Florida (22T)

22. Davidson (22T)

23. Wisconsin (20)

24. Xavier (24T)

25. Villanova (27T)

26. Baylor (32T)

27. Kansas (21)

28. UNLV (29T)

29. Drake (26)

30. St. Mary’s (38)

FOURTH TIER

31. Ohio State (34)

32. Vanderbilt (27T)

33. Stanford (29T)

34. Butler (31)

35. Clemson (32T)

36. Kent State (36T)

37. Creighton

38. Nevada

39. South Alabama

40. Cleveland State

41. Tulsa

42. Southern Illinois

43. Indiana (35)

44. Washington State (36T)

45. Siena

46. Miami (OH)

47. Western Michigan

48. Syracuse (39)

FDH New York Bureau Report

By Steve Cirvello

NYB Sneaky Starts Week #10

QB - Chad Pennington (MIA vs. SEA)

RB - Tim Hightower (ARZ vs SF)

WR - Mushin Muhammad (CAR at OAK)

TE - Greg Olsen (CHI vs. TEN)

DEF - PHI (vs. NYG)

K - Jay Feely (NYJ vs. STL)

RED ALERT - (player coming off injury who could have fantasy impact): WILLIS McGAHEE - RB: After sitting for a week, the Ravens' main back is on track to return Sunday in what is a pivital game against the Texans in Houston. However, with the big effort from rookie RB Ray Rice last week in the win over the Browns, McGahee's carries may be minimal, or he could assume the role of a touchdown vulture getting the rock inside the five yard line. Definitely appears to be a case of if he's left on the fantasy bench he'll probably score at some point in the game even with low yardage.

LOOKEY HERE: (team with favorable fantasy schedule the next 3 weeks):

CAROLINA PANTHERS

Week #10 - at Oak

Week #11 - vs DET

Week #12 - at Atl

The Panthers come off their bye week with three potentially winnable matchups. At 6-2 and atop the NFC South, they have a chance to at least ensure a .500 season with two wins against the Raiders and Lions, before a big rematch with division-rival Atlanta in Week 12. Carolina dismantled the Falcons back in Week 4 at home, 24-6. All three games figure to deliver huge fantasy points from the Panthers' regulars.

The Ricky-O Trio: Questions for FDH Managing Partner Rick Morris

1 - Big game for the Eagles this Sunday hosting the Giants. Besides McNabb and Westbrook, with Philly absolutely needing to win this game, who else from this offense is worthy of a start this week?

Only DeSean Jackson is really a good bet inasmuch as WR2 is kind of a revolving door for this team fantasy-wise.

2 - Who would you give the starting nod to this week between Matt Ryan, Jake Delhomme and Brett Favre?

You must have heard me mention the fantasy show this week when I recommended all three! But which one is the best for this week? Ultimately, it comes down to matchups in such a case and Favre looks to be in a freewheeling two-way shootout (as opposed to the may-pull-the-dogs-early Panthers beatdown on Oakland), so I’d say take him.

3 - Tight Ends have been a disappointment this year in terms of fantasy points for the most part. Is there a starter who's not in the top 5 at the position who you feel could be a major threat down the stretch?

It’s been a bit of a microcosm for the fantasy football industry as a whole, where few players overall are hugely predictable from week to week anymore. But tight end is even more unpredictable these days, even among some of the alleged top producers such as Kellen Winslow. For this question, I look at organizational track records and past history in this regard. The Giants made Jeremy Shockey a huge part of their passing game in recent years and now Kevin Boss is slowly beginning to assert himself. With the need to diversify the receiving options so as not to make themselves any more hostage to the insane Plaxico Burress then they already are, Boss could be positioned for a big finish to the season.