Dear Mr. Fantasy

Does anyone out there on the Internet Tubes use Dear Mr. Fantasy for a column name? I'm sure somebody must but nothing came up when I Googled it. Maybe there are no Traffic fans in the Fantasy Football world. Anyway, I'm not going to use it regularly or probably ever again - I used Sweet, Sweet Fantasy Baby yesterday, so I needed something different today. Plus there was a fantasy question from TH that I didn't answer yesterday. To wit:

"I need help beating a fantasy upstart this week I will call him "CH and his brady bunch". Who should I start for my rb situation: McGahee, Jamal Lewis or LaMont Jordon (two who are coming off of injury and may be limited in playing time), and at WR: Andre Davis, TJ Housh..., Jerry Porter or Santana Moss? What to do, what to do? I need advice Mr. Sports...help me beat "CH and his brady bunch"."

And then later the same day:

"You didn't answer any of my questions!?!?! WTF? I don't mind taking advice from you...seriously, I am not biased against a guy who has no wins (plus I know you want me to beat CH deep down inside). You probably give better advice than a certain Trebor (who advised me to take a certain Michael Jenkins of the Falcons for a bye-week issue that I had). So who is it going to be, Jamal Lewis or LaMont Jordon? Jerry Porter, Andre Davis or Santana Moss? This is assuming that they are all healthy and playing. You used to answer peoples questions man...what happened to you? you've changed buddy, you've changed."

I'd say that mocking CH because he spelled chunky as chuncky would be victory enough for me. However, since you were irate over my lack of response yesterday - WTF indeed - Trebor, the resident Sports As Life Fantasy Expert is back to answer your question, even though you clearly do not value his advice:

"To TH, you can’t assume they are all healthy… you wont know until Sunday. I’m guessing about the status of Lamont, Lewis and Moss. So I would sit Moss because of match-up and same with lamont, SD seem to have found their defense and who know how the carries will be split in Oaktown. Yes I did say Jenkins based on his average 6 rec/game, Anthony Gonzalez was also mentioned, but you dropped him for…Amani ‘it’s not a’ Toomer. I think I even mentioned Bryant Johnson if Boldin doesn’t play…what about those guys ?? Would they have made a difference ?? May I suggest a better Def…SD or Cardinals both should put up better #’s than Dallas."

And might I add - oh snap. Anyway back to our 'usually on Wednesday' Fantasy Football breakdown brought to you by Trebor:


Alright, this is the time when the weak look like All Stars and the top dogs get brought down to their knees. You’ve been sitting at the top with your great draft, live or generated. You’ve not had to deal with any injuries your top players are playing like they should.

Enter Week 6. Following teams are on byes: Indy, Denver, SF, Pitts, Detroit and Buffalo. 4 of those teams have #1 qb’s, there’s 5 starting rb’s who could be #1 on any ones team. Then 6-7 wr’s that were probably taken as a top 20. Meanwhile the guy scrambling at the bottom has comprised himself a team made up of undrafted players all startable the next few weeks.

So you’ve been sitting at the top not having to change your team, chances are this week though you have some holes to fill. In my NFL league I have Gore and Fast Willie to replace and my only solution is DeShawn Wynn… could work out good, could post a big old 0 or 1 though too. In my Yahoo keeper league… Gore, Addai, Henry…I’ve been laughing up until now. This week I have Sammy Morris, Dunn and Leonard, not laughing anymore.

Everyone knows the injury bug has hit the rb’s this year hard… my suggestion pick up #2’s now. RB that aren’t hurt... LT, Alexander, Bush, Edge, McGahee. All these top back are the workhorses and 4 of them probably won't play all of the remaining games. Wr’s.. who cares, this week I’m not even filling my roster because of wr bye’s. Qb’s... if you have Brady or Romo good for you - if not well Ferotte was the 3rd best qb last week. It’s really a plug and hope Kitna has fallen of the starable qb list, Brees isn’t even on the bye week replacement list, I’d rather start Tarvaris Jackson.

One last note before the picks. Did you know that 4 kickers outscored all wr’s last week, 3 kickers outscored all rb’s not named Kenton Keith. Also these top 3 kickers outscored all but Brady, Rivers, Ferotte... yes Gus Ferotte. All I can say is wow. (And all I can say is I'm quitting Fantasy Football after this season - that's it, I've had enough. How is a person supposed to compete with garbage like that going on? There used to be some skill involved in this - now it's just all about luck. /end rant)

I unfortunately did family stuff this weekend on Sunday and Monday. So it only being Wednesday night I haven’t even reviewed what happened last week, I don’t even know who’s starting qb for Miami, KC or Atlanta. (If you're scoring at home, it's: Cleo Lemon, Brodie Croyle and Joey Harrington. Try to contain you're excitement) So very brief this week...

QB
Start
Anderson vs Miami … Zach Thomas is back and all of sudden they can stop the run, to bad Jamal Lewis isn’t the primary or secondary weapon.
Palmer vs KC… not a good match-up but coming off a bye.
Warner vs Carolina… could be the high scorer of the week. (And that's Kurt Warner by the way - *shakes head*)

Sit Em'
Vince Young vs Tampa… they've got a good Def.
Pennington vs Philly… versus a team coming off the bye Chad is up and down ??
Culpepper vs SD… good Def and until Daunte can complete more than 5 passes he's a Sit.

RB
Start
Larry Johnson vs Cincy... he finally gets off the bench and shouldn't disappoint. Hopefully you weren’t one of the owners who gave up on him early on.
Edge vs Carolina… Def may actually be focused on the air attack.
McGahee vs Rams… anyone against the Rams.
Westbrook vs Jets… He might be off the probable list, who am I kidding he lives there, but since he practiced hope for a good game then trade him...who needs the Sunday morning headache.

Sit Em'
Benson vs Minny… with favorable match-ups he’s almost useless, so against a strong Def coming off the bye... you can do the math.
Alexander vs NO… if you listened to me last week - you sat him and were grateful. This week Strong is out and coach says he’s going to lose carries. It’s a good match-up but I’d stay clear
Peterson vs Chicago… He’s been good this year but Chester Taylor stepped up last week and it’s a tough Def who will put 8-9 in the box.

WR
Who really knows ??? Wr’s on Cincny, Arizona and the Browns should see lots of balls thrown to them. Baltimore, Minny, Chicago, Tennessee, Oaktown, SD, Washington, Carolina, Atlanta and KC… either the quarterback is inconsistent at best, or doesn’t like to throw the ball, or any wr may be a #3-4 wr on any other team. (last one doesn’t include Steve Smith, but the first 2 apply to him). That’s a lot of teams and with the teams on bye you probably have 1-2 of these guys…