Nerd Alert! Nerd Alert!

I feel it's time for a fantasy update, as though I've ever given one. I have four fantasy football leagues:

League #1: This is a league with some guys I play Fantasy Baseball with (I demolished them all in a 20-team baseball league. It wasn't pretty). I won my division at 7-4-2, and cruised in my first round match-up thanks to the usual stellar performance by Brian Westbrook, Kurt Warner carving up the Seahwaks secondary, dominance by the Packers defense, and two other really great performances from Jamal Lewis and Brandon Marshall. My semifinal matchup was against the #1 seed, and I eeked out a win with the usual suspects; Kurt Warner leading the way. I'm actually up by 5 with Sidney Rice going tonight, and my opponent is done. Super Bowl bound! It's going to be really sweet beating these guys in both baseball and football.

League #2: A public league with a bunch of strangers. I didn't make the playoffs in this one. Injuries (Rudi Johnson, Travis Henry, Andre Johnson), ineffectiveness (Lee Evans, who I'll never draft again), and questionable draft choices (Why did I take a chance on Rivers?) left me on the outside looking in at 4-8-1. Of course now that I've been eliminated, I've put up 221 puts over the last two weeks, tops in the league.

League #3: This is another league with guys who are aquaintances, at least over the World Wide Web. I clinched a playoff berth on the last Monday night of the regular season (I finished 7-6) with Kyle Boller as my quarterback and Shaun Alexander and Eli Manning relegated to my bench. I've been carried in this one by Braylon Edwards, Clinton Portis, Chester Taylor and savvy defensive choices (I had the Bucs this week). My first-round match-up against the #1 seed has yet to be decided. He was leading me by 6 after the first week, but going into play tonight I have a 21 point lead. I'm running Chester Taylor and Bernard Berrian against Adrian Peterson (Yes, that AP) and the Vikings D, so it is by no means over. Should I advance, Eli Manning is going to have to play quarterback for me in the championship match-up....

League #4: Easily my best draft and my best performance this year. I finished the regular season 13-0, beating a 12-0 team the last week of the year. I decide to draft a QB a round or two earlier than I normally would, and it paid off, as I have Tom Brady, Tony Romo, and Matt Hasselbeck. At WR I have Brandon Marshall, Dwayne Bowe (who was great early), Bobby Engram (who's been solid of late) and Anquan Boldin. My RB corps consists of Brian Westbrook, Fast Willie Parker, and Edgerrin James. And, just to add to my embarassment of riches, I was ably to move up to the #1 waiver position just in time for a frustrated owner to dump BOTH Jacksonville Jaguar running backs. yes, you read that right, I have the top two quarterbacks, 5 top 12 running backs, and Fred Taylor. Needless to say, I'm steamrolling this league.


Looking ahead, I joined a 16-team fantasy baseball league with some really interesting settings that's doing a bit of an old-school pen & paper draft (albeit on a message board). We're still drafting, as it will probably take 6-8 weeks to complete the draft, but I've assembled quite a roster thus far:

C:
1B: Justin Morneau
2B: Chase Utley
SS: Jimmy Rollins
3B: Garrett Atkins
OF: Nick Markakis, Jason Bay, Raul Ibanez

SP: Matt Cain, Rich Hill, Brett Myers

RP: Brad Lidge, Rafael Soriano

It's a dynasty league with a salary cap and full minor league rosters, so while I'm putting a pretty good team together for this year, the minor league draft is where I'll do my real damage.