Fantasy (12/12)

Mike Granieri Fantasy Sports Column

(Mike is our in-house fantasy expert. He will wax poetic on everything from WHIP to assist/turnover ratio if you give him the time, so we decided to do just that.)

I have recently become very disenchanted with one of the most popular fantasy sports writers on the internet -- Eric Karabell (ESPN’s Fantasy Games Senior Writer). Of course you see the title of this post and if you know anything about Eric Karabell you probably think I am going in the “his full-time job is a fantasy sports analyst, looks like a poindexter with his glasses, is a total dweeb whom probably was the towel boy for the basketball team in high school, wears a cup and jock to softball games” direction. And yes, that probably does factor into my overall impression; however, the main reason I think he is useless is due to the pitiful job he does covering fantasy basketball this year.

Like all fantasy players I need my fix of fantasy analysis to a) remember how good my team is b) improve my team by adding, dropping or trading players c) kill some time at work. Well, Poindexter Karabell has failed me on all three fronts while he delegates most of the analysis to some scaring looking German dude with a barbaric goatee named Jason Langendorf. Here are my main beefs: 1) He writes a basketball article once a week which is way too infrequent for any sport 2) He changed the usual Wednesday Fantasy basketball chat to a “Multi sport chat” (have the folks at PCU taken over ESPN Fantasy games? Did the Rainbow Alliance version of fantasy sports decide the term Fantasy Basketball was offensive and wanted a more pleasant sounding “multi sport chat”) which gets dominated by football talk (not that there aren’t 5 other fantasy football chats during the week). 3) The subjects and contents of his articles absolutely suck. Case in point, the theme of his last article was “Building the ultimate fantasy team”. Essentially, he picked an arbitrary spot in the draft (late first round) and drafted the best player in each round six weeks after the season had started, explained why it was a great pick, and then declared his team virtually unbeatable. Hmm...that helps fantasy players how? It’s not like they haven’t looked at their draft recap and realized they could have made much better picks. It’s not like they don’t regret passing up Marcus Camby in Round 5 to take Carlos Boozer and don’t realize he is the best player in fantasy basketball. And how does this possibly help people? It probably makes them more upset with their draft and contributes to their disenchantment with fantasy basketball this year. Now, I am not expert, but it might be a better idea to do something like this BEFORE the season starts so people can actually have a good draft or maybe explain why people are underperforming to prevent bad picks in the future. He also did a similar, half assed article on Thanksgiving where he listed the MVPs and LVPs of fantasy basketball so far. I mean, isn’t it obvious that Marcus Camby is doing awesome and Stephon Marbury was struggling? Maybe you should take it a little bit further and prognosticate so we can act accordingly.

What is chapping my ass even more is that he devotes more of his team to analyzing every single baseball trade/signing in the off-season. Why the hell do I need to know about Scott Eyre prospects for the upcoming season when Emeka Okafor is killing my FG%? The majority of his writing should be devoted to Fantasy football since the playoffs are looming and then fantasy basketball since we are in the beginning of the season; however, for some reason he believes baseball’s off season activities are more important than basketball’s in-season developments. Don’t worry, all hope is not lost for fantasy basketball fans. Rotoworld.com is a great site for fantasy basketball analysis that (hopefully) is not run by a bunch of strokes.

As a sports enthusiast I tend to play my fair share of fantasy sports games. The reason for this is three fold: 1) to actively follow the sports, players, and teams I like (which in this case includes all Chicago sports teams and random athletic freaks) 2) It is a great way to keep in touch with old high school and college chums 3) to rekindle the competitive nature that playing sports brings out in the best of us. If you are anything like me, the most competition you can get now is by seeing how far you can run by yourself, how much you can bench press and/or squat, or sweet you are at Beer Pong. Needless to say, fantasy sports fill a competitive post-Fraternity Intramural void.

In my world, there are only three major fantasy sports: Football, Basketball, and Baseball. Other sports do exist such as hockey (if you are from Canada, Sweden, Russia), Nascar (if you are from Indiana; Countryside, IL; or the Sunbelt region) and fantasy golf (if you reside in the upper quartile of the 18-49 demographic). The primary focus of this article will be to describe the pros and cons of the three major fantasy sports and decide which sport wears the crown as “best fantasy sport.”

Football is probably the most popular fantasy sport in addition to being the most popular sport to follow. There are myriad reasons for its popularity 1) games are concentrated to one day a week (with one MNF game) which makes it enjoyable and less time consuming to follow 2) it is almost always played in a head to head format which encourages weekly trash talking 3) It is unpredictable since touchdowns, yardage, FGs can vary so much from game to game 4) Its scoring system is based on total points per week with every position (qb, rb, wr, te, etc) contributing to the same point total. That being said, its simplicity is part of the reason it is easier to manage and follow than other fantasy sports. However, fantasy football success can also be very fluky and may not be the best indication of managerial skills. Teams can get very lucky with weekly matchups, draft picks, injuries (or lack thereof) and somehow make the playoffs. That being said, it can be very rewarding (ie drafting Priest in 2003, Peyton in 2004, Shaun Alexander in 2005) or very frustrating (drafting like Greg Smith and losing 4 of your top 5 picks to injury). Overall, it is a very fun fantasy sport but its fluky nature leaves the more competitive fantasy sports player with something to be desired.

Basketball has one aspect that distinguishes itself from the other two major sports – each player can impact every single category. As a fantasy purist, I think this makes basketball challenging and fun. It is also by far the most “Star Driven” league. Basketball highlights are the most entertaining and the NBA’s marketing strategy is based on promoting individuals first then the team. Basketball itself is the sport that leads to the most athletic, awe inspiring plays that fans are attracted to. That being said, it’s a lot more fun to say “I have Vince Carter, Lebron James and Yao on my team” than “LaMont Jordan, Carson Palmer and Jason Witten.” However, fantasy basketball is more than just alley oops, sick crossovers and posterizing dunks. Rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, turnovers, and shooting percentages are commonly used. You really begin how players like Sean Marion and Andrei Kirilekno can impact the game in so many ways and I personally think that is a lot of fun. However, there seems to be a big disparity (relative to other sports) of a players real value versus his fantasy value. I mean, is Brevin Knight really a top 25 player in the league? Is Rashard Lewis top 10? Are Larry Hughes’s steals that important when he gambles so much on passing lanes? Does Baron Davis help his team when he constantly chucks up three points shots? Plus, another drawback is that many times a players fantasy value is driven by the number of minutes he plays (greater chance for rebounds, points, steals, etc). This is important to an extent but can often incorrectly skew a player’s perceived value. Overall, a great fantasy sport to play with basketball enthusiasts

And now I present you with the best fantasy sport to play – baseball. Baseball started the statistical revolution in sports pioneered by Bill James, Rob Neyer, and now Billy Beane. Statistics are so important to baseball, well, because they do a great job of accurately reflecting a player’s value. Batting average, home runs, Runs, RBI, OPS, Wins, Saves, ERA, WHIP and K are the most commonly used categories in fantasy baseball (roto-style, of course). The only minor concession is that defensive categories are not included, which of course is an important aspect of baseball, but the accuracy of the offensive categories compensates. Baseball is also the most grueling fantasy sport to win since the season is incredibly long (from March/April to October) and in-season management is more important than how well you draft. This is where I think baseball really separates itself from the two other sports. Sure, in season management occurs with basketball but only in the case of major injuries or the addition of fringe players (rarely do you ever play the match ups). Management in football is fun due to the heavy emphasis on favorable match ups but often a coupe stud players can carry you through the season. In baseball you often have to play the match ups (esp. with pitchers) and also constantly add/drop players due to underperformance (since averages play a large role in success) and injuries. Winning a baseball league is by far the most challenging out of all the fantasy sports and this is a main reason why I think it is the best sport to play. If you weren’t up for challenges, you probably wouldn’t be playing fantasy sports anyway (Sean Cusick).