Fantasy expert Maggio offers 2009 season insight

by | Jul 29, 2009 | Fantasy Football

Anthony Maggio spent two years as an associate editor at Fanball, one of the earlier fantasy sports sites on the Internet. He has moved on from there but he’s still a freelance writer, covering both real and fantasy sports, the latter for FFChamps.com. You can read the rest of his writing at the blog puntingbaxter.wordpress.com, where he also provides additional fantasy sports analysis – including some kick ass team defense rankings.

There’s a strong possibility – talks are underway – that Maggio may team up with the proprietors of Zoneblitz to share some fantasy football thoughts via various technological means during the upcoming season. For now he has agreed to answer some questions. His answers are below.

Zoneblitz: With Tomlinson’s tough season last year, how do you rank the top of the draft? Is it Adrian Peterson without question or are there others you could consider with the top pick?

Maggio:  I think that Peterson is the only back that belongs in the discussion for the top pick regardless of scoring system. That said, a strong PPR league could have guys like Matt Forte and Maurice Jones-Drew in the conversation. A touchdown-heavy league gets Michael Turner in the mix. Keeper and dynasty league, depending again on scoring system, could thrust Larry Fitzgerald in the conversation as well. As for Tomlinson, the drop in carries, touchdowns and yards per game each of the last two seasons is worrisome and he’s definitely not in the conversation for a top three pick, but I think he’s got one more season as a No. 1 fantasy back left in him.

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Fan says Favre to Minnesota is done deal; fantasy ramifications for four

by | Jul 10, 2009 | Fantasy Football, NFL Random Thoughts

A caller to KFAN Radio this morning told hosts Paul Allen and Paul Charchian that a friend of his in the south had an order for 50,000 purple Brett Favre jerseys.

Okay, it would be preposterous to assume that the Vikings are officially signing Favre based on the musings of a guy who may or may not have a friend in the south who knows anything about pending jersey orders.

But the combination of that coupled with a Pioneer Press report that Favre has put a deposit down on a condo in suburban Edina and another from WCCO.com indicating that a contract has already been signed contingent upon Favre’s arm being alright are enough of an indication that it’s likely that this transaction has more like a 95/5 chance of happening than a 50/50 chance.

So someone should look at the fantasy football ramifications of this potential deal. First, not that you can help Adrian Peterson’s draft status much – he’s number one on most lists and top two in almost all projections. But Favre, even with not much left in the tank, has to be taken more seriously than teams have taken Tarvaris Jackson in the passing game.

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Yahoo! and NFLPA Settle Fantasy Football Lawsuit

by | Jul 8, 2009 | Fantasy Football

The Associated Press is reporting that Yahoo! settled the suit it filed against the NFL Players Association over licensing fees for player stats for fantasy football purposes last month.

A previous licensing agreement had expired in March of this year, and the NFLPA has argued in the past that such information is proprietary–but a similar suit brought last year was decided in favor of CBS  Interactive, although the NFLPA is appealing that decision.

In the mean time, Yahoo! apparently has decided that the licensing fees would cost less than the legal fees–and the NFLPA apparently has decided that they should take what they can get now, rather than possibly miss out on it all down the road.

Mission Competition Tries to Save Fantasy Leagues

by | Jul 7, 2009 | Fantasy Football

Every fantasy league seems to have one–the owner that doesn’t prepare, drafts his team (or maybe let’s the computer do it), and then checks out as soon as the team hits the loss column in week 1.  Injuries pile up, bye weeks come and go, and their lineup never changes.  It’s all fine and good when you face him, but when a couple teams get the advantage of playing the dead team twice–maybe once with a playoff spot on the line late in the season–that’s when it really sucks.  I mean REALLY sucks.

That’s where Mission Competition comes in.

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First 2009 NFL and fantasy football magazines hit the racks

by | Jun 7, 2009 | Fantasy Football, NFL Random Thoughts

BALTIMORE (Zoneblitz) – I’m in Baltimore at a conference for my day job for the next few days. During a short jaunt for lunch I wandered into one of the large bookstore chains and came across the first football annual magazines.

I rarely buy Athlon anymore. It used to be one of my “must buy” publications, mostly because it came out first. The magazine still has some good content, but it comes out just a little bit too early for my tastes. It feels a little bit like they sacrifice quality and current information for being the first major publication out after the NFL draft. Nonetheless, if you are hungering for information on the season ahead, they as always are among the first ones out.

One I do buy every year is Lindy’s Pro Football. I like the way they analyze every single player on every team’s roster and I love the several pages of draft coverage that typically include best picks and biggest leaps for each team.

The pro version isn’t due out for a few days yet but the college preview is on the rack.

I ended up making two purchases.The first was the jointly published annual by Yahoo! Sports and Pro Football Weekly, which teamed up to produce a solid preview of the real football season coupled with a sizable section of fantasy information. They’ve got a nice ranking of players by position as well as analysis by so-called fantasy football experts from each publication.

Sporting News Fantasy Football ’09 is also on the rack. My second purchase includes a mock, 12-team draft conducted by various Sporting News contributors and staff.

My initial reaction to at least the first round of the mock draft is lukewarm. I liked the top four picks, but after that I think there are some reaches. What do you think?

1. Adrian Peterson
2. Matt Forte
3. Michael Turner
4. Maurice Jones-Drew
5. Steven Jackson
6. Brandon Jacobs
7. DeAngelo Williams
8. Brian Westbrook
9. Frank Gore
10. LaDainian Tomlinson
11. Larry Fitzgerald
12. Drew Brees

Anyway, we’ll have more analysis and thoughts on some of the publications as they come out en masse. In the meantime, who would you put in your top 10 or 12 fantasy picks for the 09 season? Do you agree with the experts from above? Or do you have different thoughts?

Yahoo sues for free access to NFL player stats

by | Jun 3, 2009 | Business of Football, Fantasy Football, NFL News

Yahoo Inc. has filed suit in Minnesota alleging that the NFL Players Association has no right to charge for player pictures, biographies and statistics used to drive its fantasy football games.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the NFLPA has argued in the past that such information is proprietary.

This isn’t the first time the issue has arisen. CBS Interactive and NFL Players have been fighting over the issue in court since September 2008. CBS filed suit in Minnesota while NFL Players filed a countersuit in Miami a week later.

Richard Berthelsen, acting chairman of the NFLPA at the time, said in a September 2008 press release announcing the lawsuit that “It is just wrong for companies to use the rights of NFL players to generate revenues for their own benefit without any compensation to the players. NFL PLAYERS will take all steps necessary to protect its rights, and the rights of NFL players generally.”

Last year CBSSports.com announced that it would proceed with a college fantasy football offering after Major League Baseball Advanced Media lost a suit in which it claimed ownership of statistics generated by baseball players.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June refused to hear its appeal.