It’s week 11, and at this point you know if you have a shot at the playoffs or not. You have added and dropped, second guessed your self, cursed at Chris Johnson (I know I have), and maybe even traded a play or two. So what do you do now to keep the momentum going? Here is some friendly advice to the teams that are on top or looking to get into the playoffs.

Never “Set it and forget it”

Yeah that line worked for the “Ronco Rotisserie Cooker” (bad infomercial reference), but not for your fantasy football line up. These next few weeks are crucial; you cannot just coast and lock up the playoff spot we are all looking for. I have preached matchups all season and for the most part I have been right, play the guys with the best match ups, it is OK to bench the big names for the best matchups. Remember the real NFL teams are looking better than others, so they may sit someone for a game because he is “a little banged up” because they can win without him, especially an offensive linemen, which could effect the running game.

Last Minute Pickups

I know at this point of the season this is very tough to do, but, “another man’s trash, is another man’s treasure!” This is so true with add/drops at this point. Look at what the guys in your league are dropping, and if you can fit them in your lineup, do it. When you see someone add Lex Hilliard because he is Ricky Williams’s backup and they drop someone that had actually produced this year, add him to your bench, you never know when you will need an extra player, guys are getting injured left and right and the good teams are looking to the playoffs.

Kickers and Defenses can make a difference!

Yep, I said it. This is completely going against anything that I have ever said when talking about fantasy football, but this season it has been true. Let’s face it, points are points, whatever you can get is great. I usually draft a kicker with a big leg (extra points for distance) and a team that scores a lot of points, so basically I draft Neil Rackers every year. That has backfired on me as the Cardinals score more TD’s than they used to and I am getting 1 point instead of the 3 or 4 I used to. Look at the teams that have Red Zone issues, or the bad teams that are just happy to get on the board. Couple suggestions, Jason Hanson, Josh Brown, ect. As far as the Defenses go, matchups are huge, look at the bad teams and who they are playing, and if you can get their D, do it. I am actually playing the Detroit Defense against the lowly Browns. They cannot move the ball and the odds of a pick 6 are huge! Hopefully that helps you roll into the playoffs, if it doesn’t,

I feel your pain, been there, doing that! Look for another blog on how to be the spoiler!

Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/sportsguymike and email me questions, suggestions, and complaints, to sportsguymike@gmail.com

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I feel bad for any baseball fans living in the western part of Pennsylvania. Sure, the Steelers won the Super Bowl and the Penguins clinched the Stanley Cup for the Steel City, but what the Pirates are doing is absolutely horrid. It’s one thing to be a bad team in the process of rebuilding, but it’s something entirely different to be on the verge of breaking the record for most consecutive losing seasons while trading away all of your talent.

Nate McLouth was a member of one of the best outfields in baseball at one point when he was sharing space with Jason Bay and Xavier Nady at PNC Park last year. At this point, all three of those guys are now gone and not only was the fanbase enraged when the team sent McLouth to Atlanta for prospects in June, but several Pirates players griped and questioned the moves made by GM Neal Huntington. One man who was really upset about it at the time was first baseman Adam LaRoche who said, “It’s fine. Heck with it. We’re not the GM. We don’t run the team. If they feel like it’s the best move for three or four years from now, great. Unfortunately, that does me no good. I’ve still got to be in here telling guys it’s going to be fine with Nate gone. Well, you can only do that for so long until guys just kind of … well, they know.”

LaRoche doesn’t have to worry anymore though since he was shipped out of town yesterday to Boston for two minor league prospects. Pittsburgh continues to say that they are rebuilding and stocking their minor league system with good talent, but when will it be this team’s prerogative to win now? Despite the fact that LaRoche was struggling, he was still hitting .247 with 12 homeruns and 40 RBI and led the team in the latter two categories. It’s not everyday that a team will just take its leading run producer and ship him out of town on a whim. But that’s not where the story ends, and in fact, it just keeps getting worse for Pittsburgh fans.

The team was attempting to negotiate with shortstop Jack Wilson and second baseman Freddy Sanchez in recent weeks, but according to an ESPN report, talks have been cut off from the Pittsburgh side of things. With no attempts being made at re-signing the two, it makes them trade bait as well. Huntington probably looks at it as “well if we can’t sign them, we might as well get something for them,” but I can tell you that at this point, after 16 straight losing seasons, that’s not acceptable for the fans. Even more frustrating is the fact that the Pirates have been accused of wanting to underpay the two players.

Regarding the attempts to sign Wilson and Sanchez, Huntington recently said, “We’ve not received a counter at his point, so for our minds, they’re not interested even in the foundation we’ve laid…” Here’s my question to Pirates management: If you want these guys to basically take pay cuts, why on Earth would they be interested in your “foundation?” It’s insulting to offer way less than market value for arguably your two best players. Typically the only reason any player will voluntarily take less money is because they want a chance to play on a championship caliber team. I hate to break it to you Mr. Huntington, but there is no way that you will contend in 2009 and you probably won’t in 2010 either.

Since taking the job in 2007, Huntington has shipped out Nady, Bay, McLouth, Damaso Marte, Nyjer Morgan, Sean Burnett, and now Adam LaRoche. In a few days at the trade deadline, I wouldn’t be surprised if both Wilson and Sanchez are added to that list because rather than putting his money where his mouth is and actually showing some sort of commitment to his players, Huntington is coming off as an arrogant front office type who has no interest in doing business on anyone’s terms but his own. In the sports world, when you win championships and make the right moves in free agency, you have a right to toot your own horn. Huntington has done absolutely nothing that can be skewed as even somewhat positive since taking over the job and Pittsburgh is arguably worse now than they were before he came aboard.

You might be able to come back in two or three years and tell me that his deals worked out when all of the prospects he has acquired finally make it to the big leagues, but prospects are called prospects for a reason. Sure they could be great, but they could also fall flat on their face. In my opinion, a lineup consisting of Ryan Doumit, LaRoche, Sanchez, Wilson, McLouth, Bay, and Nady would probably have the Pirates at least showing some fight in the NL Central (where they currently sit in dead last). Instead Pirates fans are forced to deal with Huntington’s ignorance and by October will have sat through yet another losing season, the 17^th in a row.

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It was reported today that Ben Roethlisberger recently had a civil suit served on him over the weekend. In it, Andrea McNulty, a Harrah’s casino employee, claims that Roethlisberger sexually assaulted her. With this tabloid-worthy morsel, the NFL is being carried into yet another spinning vortex of legal problems which also makes things messy for fantasy owners.

Roethlisberger made a smart move when he canceled a Thursday press conference that had been scheduled to discuss his role in Shaquille O’Neal’s new show “Shaq vs.” But the emerging trend of this whole thing is disgusting. It seems as if the NFL can never be void of some sort of legal mess at any given time. Michael Vick, Pacman Jones, Donte Stallworth, and now Ben Roethlisberger have bludgeoned the image of the league and one has to wonder if it will ever stop.

The NFL is clearly filled with a bunch of men who make more money than most athletes in all of the other major professional sports (except Alex Rodriguez of course) and this money tends to lead to unbelievably inexcusable personal actions occurring off the field on a regular basis. If these allegations are true, it shows that the athletes who are labeled as “thugs” are not the only ones that the league has to worry about.

Roethlisberger was the youngest quarterback to ever lead his team to a Super Bowl victory, has secured another championship since then for Pittsburgh, was developing a reputation as one of the toughest quarterbacks in the league after coming back from his motorcycle accident and emergency appendectomy in 2006, and was projected to have a great season in 2009. With these accusations, it all changes and even the All American quarterback is now subject to being put under the media spotlight.

I am one of the people who was thrilled for Roethlisberger’s potential in 2009. I even drafted him in my first fantasy draft of the year. With Willie Parker and Rashard Mendenhall in the backfield to complement receivers Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes and Limas Sweed, along with tight end Heath Miller, it was hard to argue against anyone claiming that the Steelers would have a chance to repeat. I’m sure that some of you are thinking that this will be taken care of before too long, but even if it does blow over, never underestimate the power of legal drama. It is absolutely emotionally draining and can really take a toll on the normal person, let alone a football player who will now be stalked from the minute he walks out his door in the morning to the time he goes to bed at night.

I think that Roethlisberger will be able to handle this entire situation better than most in his shoes would. He has a good head on his shoulders and as was previously mentioned, he is a tough guy who battles through everything. Despite this, if you already own Big Ben you might want to think about looking at the waiver wire to see who is available in case you suddenly feel uncomfortable with this whole situation or it explodes into something even bigger than it already is. If you are thinking about drafting him, take heed because while we as fantasy owners can project how great or how terrible a player might be against a certain football team, we cannot predict how they will perform against a team of lawyers.

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The Minnesota Vikings have had one of the best defenses in football for a couple of years now. They are always hovering toward the top of the list on most fantasy cheat sheets and with Jared Allen at one end spot and monster defensive tackles Kevin and Pat Williams in the middle, the team has become one of the best run defenses that the league has seen this decade. However, with the StarCaps nonsense surrounding the Williams duo, Minnesota fans, overanxious team defense drafters, and IDP players might be in for a rougher 2009 season than they would like.

In 2008, Kevin and Pat Williams combined for over 100 tackles and anchored a Minnesota defensive line that allowed only 76.9 yards per game on the ground. With Kevin weighing in at 311 pounds and Pat tipping the scales at 317, it’s pretty easy to see why the Vikings have no problems shutting down the running attack of an opposing defense. With the ground game being so limited, it forces teams to pass the ball. Surely fantasy owners drool when a run on defensive selections begins in their drafts and the purple and gold is sitting there ripe for the picking.

However, the two behemoth tackles found themselves in a bit of trouble when they were lumped in with Deuce McAllister, Charles Grant, and Will Smith in what is simply known as the StarCaps case. StarCaps is a weight-loss supplement that contains a diuretic called bumetanide which is banned in the NFL because it is said that the diuretic can serve as a masking agent for steroids. The league found out about the usage and slapped a four-game suspension on the players.

Instead of taking the penalty and serving their time, the two Vikings filed a restraining order against the NFL that was granted and prevents the league from suspending them while the ongoing court case continues. This means that the Williamses will be able to attend training camp and play in any regular season games until the court case is completed. While the Williamses must be happy that their restraining order was permitted, Vikings fans (and fantasy owners) shouldn’t get too excited just yet.

An interesting development surfaced today when Major League Baseball, the NHL, the NBA, and U.S. Olympic officials put in their two cents stating that, “their own drug testing programs would be affected if the linemen are allowed to fight their four-game suspensions in state court.” The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency also said, “Uniform rules are needed to ensure a level playing field.”

This latest news about all of the other major sports entities in the country teaming up against them is making this into a much bigger battle than they probably ever expected. I understand that the Williamses have said that the diuretic was not listed on the package. So how are they supposed to know, right? But in an age where fans can’t go through a season without at least one player being pegged for juicing, it’s imperative that athletes in all sports always check with their employers (whatever sports league they’re in) before ingesting any sort of pill.

The fantasy implications are made worse by the news that this case could stretch into the regular season. Losing these two guys for the first four weeks would surely sting a fantasy owner who was really hoping for a defensive selection that would garner him/her some decent points each week especially in leagues based on yardage allowed. But if the Williamses have to serve a four-game suspension in the middle of the year or maybe even closer to the playoff push, fantasy owners could be spurned badly.

The Vikings are typically one defense that drafters will reach for along with Baltimore and Pittsburgh and the Williamses are one of the main reasons why. It’s still not a bad move to draft the defense as a whole, but I would be a bit hesitant if this situation is still sketchy and hasn’t worked itself out as the preseason creeps closer especially if you are in an IDP league.

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It’s time for me to rant and get something off of my chest that has been brewing since the news broke just a few weeks ago. I could not be more disgusted with this entire Donte Stallworth situation. I know that everyone has aired their grievances, but I wasn’t here at BigTroph when this story was the hot topic, plus I don’t think that it can be talked about enough because it irks me more than just about any sports story I have heard in a long time.

Stallworth was drunk (at a tune of twice the legal level) and ran over Mario Reyes, a third shift construction worker, who was on his way home on March 14^th. Stallworth was celebrating his new contract with Cleveland before getting behind the wheel of his SUV. He made some financial settlements with the Reyes family prior to his court appearance and was then sentenced to 30 days in prison. Some people say that the money alone is enough to atone for the unexplainable damages he did to that family, but I think it’s disgusting.

Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for killing and torturing dogs. While I am a dog lover just as much as the next guy, I still cannot bring myself to think that several dogs’ lives are more valuable than a human’s life. I don’t care if Stallworth pled guilty and I don’t care how much money he paid to the late Mr. Reyes’ family. He was sentenced to a whopping 30 days in prison for his killing a man. 30 DAYS?!? When I heard this announcement I was bouncing off the walls in adamant shock.

Well folks, apparently Stallworth behaved himself in prison as he was released today after serving 24 days of his 30 day sentence. At Pro Football Talk, site editor Mike Florio (who is also a lawyer as many of you know) says that “The reduction of actual time served to 80 percent of the sentence isn’t unusual; many jurisdictions employ similar devices to encourage good behavior while inmates are behind bars.” I understand that making plea deals is a common thing in the court room, but are you telling me that any other Joe Schmoe would get punished to just 30 days in jail for DUI manslaughter? I know I know, Stallworth can’t drive a car for a long time and is on house arrest/probation for the next 10 years, but the fact of the matter is that he shouldn’t even be out of the big house for a LONG time. I’m sure he will be living a real tough life on house arrest in his home which is most likely a spacious estate.

The only good thing about him being out of prison is that in the very near future, he will get to meet with Commissioner Roger Goodell. Goodell has already suspended him indefinitely meaning he’s not going to be playing anytime soon, but we have all been witnesses to Goodell’s version of serving the time for doing the crime. He has not held back on Chris Henry, Pacman Jones, or Tank Johnson and we have yet to see what he will do with the whole Vick situation. Stallworth should be suspended without pay for all of 2009 and if he’s still on house arrest in 2010, keep him out of the league then too. Going to work at a normal 9-5 job while on house arrest is one thing, but traveling all over the country for NFL games is something entirely different. What are they going to do? Make him stay in his hotel room all night with room service and free HBO? And the team won’t want him to play if he can’t attend practices each week so what’s the point?

Donte Stallworth has never lived up to the hype whether he was in New Orleans, Philadelphia, New England, or Cleveland. He’s been a constant under achiever and now his situation is proving to be an even bigger liability than his weak hamstrings. What Stallworth did is an absolute disgrace. In my eyes, I hope he never sees the opportunity to play in this league again after committing the crime that he did, especially since he came nowhere close to being punished as harshly as he should have been.

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This post doesn’t have as much to do with fantasy advice as it does the fact that Chad Johnson (I refuse to use Ochocinco as his last name because of its pure idiocy) has once again taken the camera lens and pointed it directly upon himself. This time Johnson is relying on popular social networking site Twitter to provide the spotlight.

In an interview with KGOW in Houston, Johnson said, “…when the season starts, it’s going to get even worse. I’m going to really make it fun. I’m using Twitter during games, during halftime, after the games. I’m going to be taking it to the next level.” I cannot say anything bad about Twitter. I update mine several times everyday especially about sports related topics, but if I were to pull out my cell phone constantly while I was at work and update it, I’m pretty sure the people I work for would be pretty disgusted. And I don’t have a high-profile job that earns me millions of dollars in an industry that usually keeps its behind the scenes doors closed to the public.

This of course isn’t the first high profile athlete tweeting during games. Several NBA players have been reprimanded for sending out tweets during halftime of games, but none of them have done it in the middle of a game (at least to my knowledge). Leave it to Johnson to break the mold though.

If I were a Bengals fan I would be absolutely disgusted by this. Sure it might be fun to be given an all access pass of sorts to the Cincinnati sidelines, but wouldn’t you want your team’s most dangerous offensive weapon looking over formation photos and talking with coaches rather than running for the bench to see who @ replied him?

As a fantasy owner, Johnson was nothing short of disappointing last year. Granted, he was without his star quarterback in Carson Palmer for all but four games of the 2008 season, but it’s in times like that that the number one receiver needs to step up and help out the new gunslinger. I can honestly say that if I drafted him for my fantasy team, I would not be very happy with this latest development. Johnson will surely see more attention now that longtime teammate TJ Houshmandzadeh is in Seattle. He needs to be focusing on the game of football and doing everything he can to help his team more than ever.

I don’t think that this latest outrageous comment by Johnson will go over well with head coach Marvin Lewis nor do I think Johnson will get away with tweeting during games in the regular season. However, his sheer desire to distract himself while playing in regular season games makes me question his devotion to the sport that has made him a very rich man. I find it unacceptable that he wants to do anything else but focus on football during the three hours he’s paid to be on the field.

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