NBD - Week 8 Review C

A few notes before I finish off Week 8:
1) Happy Birthday tomorrow (I'm pretty sure) to Joe Colly. Brooklyn misses you, you old bastard.
2) The trade deadline is approaching. It's November 20th, about two weeks away, and it is doubly important this year because it's also the free agent-keeper deadline. This means that in order to keep a player next year, he must be on your roster by November 20th and remain there until the end of the season. (Note on trades: I have never been clear on whether Yahoo interprets the deadline as the date by which trades must be accepted or the date by which they must go through. As Commish, I will accept any trade agreed to up until 12:01am on the 21st, and if need be will push it through.)
3) Speaking of free agent acquisitions, I would be remiss if I didn't mention this week's whopper. I thought that Derek's 87 NBDollar price paid for Ryan Moats was ridiculous, until I saw that someone in my third league paid 89 bucks for him. In some ways, I understand this move: Derek had spent all of one dollar prior to this week, so clearly he has not been working the wire and likely won't find use for any money he had saved in the next few weeks. Despite his .500 record, his team is lousy (least points scored on the season), especially at running back (Tomlinson, Lynch, Beanie). With little chance of success this year, might as well snatch up a promising young back to potentially keep next year. The big question: is Ryan Moats that back? I don't really think so. He's sharing the backfield with a 2nd-year player, so it's not like he's taking over for some aging veteran next year (a la Shonn Greene and James Davis). Steve Slaton may be having a rough year with the fumbles, but he's shown that he can be an effective back in the past and has great receiving skills that will always keep him in the mix as far as a 3rd-down or change-of-pace option. So at the best it seems Moats will be a lead back in a timeshare with Slaton on a team that would rather pass than run. At the worst, he's a one hit wonder we never hear from again. Either way, doesn't seem that promising. As I said, I understand Derek's motivation in making a move like this, but if a "real" running back prospect hits the market in the next few weeks, he's gonna feel awfully stupid.
Then again, I probably spent more time analyzing the move than Derek spent making it, so maybe I'm the one who should feel stupid. Let's get on to the games...


Wild Stallions (93) defeat Burke City Giants (79)
Have we given Aaron Rodgers his proper fantasy due this season? He now leads all QBs (and, in fact, all players) in points scored, just a smidgen above Matt Schaub (who hasn't had his bye yet) and at least a point a game better than superstuds Peyton Manning and Drew Brees. This week was Rodgers' best yet (29 pts) and the top score on a triumphant Wild Stallions squad. Joining him in victory were Pierre Thomas (20), Percy Harvin (15), and the Baltimore defense (14). That foursome overcame some abominable performances by the rest of the Stallions, including a two-point day from Marcedes Lewis, a one-point day from Mike Sims-Walker, and a zero-point day from Willis McGahee. At first glance, the Burke City Giants score sheet looks like it'd be superior to those shitty showings. Two-thirds of Michael's squad was in double-digits, after all. But closer inspection reveals that none of those were higher than 14 points, which means a lot of decent performances, and no great ones. To wit: Peyton Manning (14), Justin Fargas (14), Steve Smith 1.0 (13), Brent Celek (12), Matt Stover (12), Brandon Jacobs (11). Even that might have been enough had the Arizona defense (0) and Steve Slaton (-1) not shit the bed so profusely. And now we find that Slaton is going to be riding the pine/time-sharing for the foreseeable future. I hope Jamaal Charles is ready to carry the Burke City load.

Woody's Warriors (98) defeat Deuceburger (69)
You know, 69 points is actually a pretty respectable total from a team with five blank spots in its line-up. Had their owner actually peeped in at his roster, Jonathan Stewart (21), Adrian Peterson (20), Matt Schaub (11), and Bernard Berrian (11) likely would have led the Deuceburger to a win. As it is, though, we know that Manning did not find an opportunity in his weekend of debauchery to adjust his line-up. In the interests of posterity and our few non-NBD readers, I am publishing his e-mail here:
"I would like to like to apologize for my fantasy starting line up, there is no excuse. Having said that, anybody that remembers my old roommate Mike Bernardi (aka shark nardi, mark nardi and doug gould) is getting shotgun married and we were in vegas for halloween at the fetish and fantasy fest at the hard rock(definitely the best party i have ever been to in my life. at one point there was a guy on stage with flames coming out of his head and every shred of his axe was accompanied by sparks shooting out of the guitar i believe to the tune of for whom the bell tolls while flanked by two hot chicks wearing metal underwear and were using grinders on the underwear to make it look the they had sparks shooting out their vag onto the axeman). The shindig ended at about five and then we destroyed our room with whips, steegs and other things till about nine when i remembered i had to make some fantasy moves. So i walked to the only available computer at hard rock which was in the business center with no shirt wearing a shark costume. For some reason there were business events at 9 am, one of which i walked into accidentally and was asked if i could be helped, I told them i needed a computer for fantasy line up. the computer i was looking for was not available and I was escorted out. At this point I said fuck it, went up to the room, got the spins, yammied and passed out for two hours and then had to check out."
Still waiting on pics of that shark costume.
Anyways, Woody ended up pulling off the win, although it's kind of anti-climactic after hearing his opponents story. Props to Donovan McNabb and Michael Turner (21 each) for carrying the Warriors this week. The Dallas D (14) and Thomas Jones (13) also chipped in.