Fantasy Football Keepers are ready

I got into a pretty competitive keeper league last year and took over a pretty shabby team. When I first got my roster I was looking at a set of 5 keepers that included T.O., Caddy, Delhome, Fred Taylor, and any random loser you can find. I quickly traded away a couple picks and moved back int he draft a bit to get Alexander and Burress. This is a start 3 RBs league so I wanted to at least get one of the bigger backs out there to help solidify my team. I was also able to pick up a 3rd RB in the name of Droughns for basically an 8th round pick. Not too shabby with what I started out with. Alexander got hurt, so the season was pretty much over.

Get your theater seating because we are ready for a ride.

Over the course of last season I made some pretty good moves. I traded away Fragile Fred and Droughns to get myself Willie Parker and a decent #2 WR. I was pretty much done for the year so I wanted to make sure that I upgraded my RB situation for this year. Jones-Drew got picked up off the free agent market after 1 good game and I decided he was worth Deion Branch after 1 good game. Some said I was crazy (haha). We all know how that turned out. So at this point I am sitting with Alexander, Parker, Jones-Drew, Burress, and Stallworth who I got in the draft.

So...another manager is a big fan of Willie Parker and decides he must have him. I get an offer of Frank Gore, and Chad Johnson for Willie and Stalworth. I take it obviously. Now I have Alexander, Gore, Jones-Drew, Burress, and CJ for my 5 keepers. Not bad, and much better than where I started. In fact I was able to win the #1 overall pick with these guys since we play for that pick instead of just giving it to the worst team to prevent bagging.

Now we get to this year and those 5 were pretty much my keepers. First day trading opens I am asked to move from #1 overall (Adrian Peterson pretty much) to #6 in the first by trading away Jones-Drew for Willie Parker. So I got him back. Now I have 3 of the top 6 ranked RBs for fantasy football and Chad Johnson. Burress I didn't want to keep so I decided I'd go with Hasselback considering there is nothing in the QB pool left and I don't want to go into the draft trying to get a guy like Eli.

Now I traded up to #4 in the draft because there are a few keepers that actually got dropped into the pool. With the 3 RB starters in our league the top 3 picks will be PEterson, Lynch, and the new hot commodity Brandon Jackson. Being at 6 I would be missing out on 2 sure things going into this draft. Boldin, and Gates. The guy at 4 needs youth, but the guy at 5 has a very solid set of keepers so I wanted to ensure myself of having 6 keeper-type players like he would and to have my choice of the 2.

So it looks like I'll have Alexander, Parker, Gore, Chad Johnson, Hasselback, and Boldin (My first choice), or Gates at the very least after the first round of drafting. I like my chances ;).

Sporting Event Tickets are a SCAM

Looking up some berndes cookware for an assignment I had today I ran a crossed an ad for online ticket sales and wanted to do a bit of a rant about it. I don't get it. I want tickets to a Thursday afternoon game for a Detroit Tigers baseball game. THURSDAY AFTERNOON. I went directly to the ticket booth online to get these tickets from whoever sells the tickets for the team and found out that they were sold out. Mind you this was over a month and a half ago and i wanted tickets for about 3 weeks from now. I wanted primo tickets. 1st/3rd base lines, behind the plate, etc. These tickets are said to be sold out for this game almost 2 months in advance. Impossible.

So I go to all the Stub Hubs, and Ebays of the world and there they all are. Every damn one of those tickets are being sold at 3rd party distributors. When i mean every one, I mean damn near every seat in those sections. Sold out? Not quite. Bought by a group and scalped? Yes. Of course they aren't being sold at face value, which is the LEGAL way to go about this. Oh no. The prices are TRIPLE, and even QUADRUPLE face value. Let me say this again. These are REGULAR SEASON, THURSDAY AFTERNOON TICKETS. These games don't sell out. Why the hell am I getting jacked for 3-4 times the price of these tickets then? It's bullshit. You can't buy a ticket for face value outside the stadium because it is illegal, but these guys can buy them in bulk and sell them at 3-4 times face online? Something isn't right here.

Brandon Webb

I don't know what has gotten into this guy, but he is on an absolute pitching tear right now. He's a very good pitcher anyways, and is the Cy Young winner last year, but right now he is pitching out of his mind. Yesterday he pitched his second straight complete game shut out and had 10 Ks. He hasn't allowed an earned run in his past 4 starts. A span of more than 32 innings.

On the other hand the damn guy named Wang should be looking for a New York personal injury lawyer after his last start. The guys screwed me bad giving up 8 ERs in his start this week. I hate this guy so much. He strikes nobody out either, but hey...he has double digit wins.