This Draft is Mocking Me! Part Two

"You've got Spark Shot and Dallas Clark..."

We move onto the phase of the mock draft experiment where the mad scientists employed by Renal Failure test out Version One of our preferred draft list (aka: The People's Draft List) through the team of Yahoo! AutoDraft robots who can make or break our season.

Test One: Ten team league. Positions: QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 DEF/ST, 1 K, 6 bench. Starting draft position: 4th. Alternating to the 7th in even-numbered rounds.

1. Drew Brees (NO - QB)
2. Ryan Grant (GB - RB)
3. Jamaal Charles (KC - RB)
4. Dallas Clark (Ind - TE)
5. Mike Sims-Walker (Jac - WR)
6. Baltimore (Bal - DEF)
7. Terrell Owens (Cin - WR)
8. Nate Kaeding (SD - K)
9. T.J. Houshmandzadeh (Sea - WR)
10. Reggie Bush (NO - RB)
11. Carson Palmer (Cin - QB)
12. New Orleans (NO - DEF)
13. Bernard Berrian (Min - WR)
14. Mohamed Massaquoi (Cle - WR)
15. Marcedes Lewis (Jac - TE)

An excellent draft. Top tier QB and TE with Brees and Clark. High quality RB's in Grant and Charles and good depth at WR. And in total Wild Card fashion we have the top scoring kicker of the 2009 Fantasy Season in Kaeding, as well as netting two good DEF/ST squads. Grade: B


Test Two: Ten team league, same positions, this time our starting draft position is 9th, alternating to 2nd in even-numbered rounds.

1. Drew Brees (NO - QB)
2. Steven Jackson (StL - RB)
3. Jamaal Charles (KC - RB)
4. Dallas Clark (Ind - TE)
5. Mike Sims-Walker (Jac - WR)
6. Wes Welker (NE - WR)
7. Baltimore (Bal - DEF)
8. Nate Kaeding (SD - K)
9. Bernard Berrian (Min - WR)
10. Fred Jackson (Buf - RB)
11. David Akers (Phi - K)
12. Kellen Winslow (TB - TE)
13. Kenny Britt (Ten - WR)
14. Johnny Knox (Chi - WR)
15. Vince Young (Ten - QB)

Again, we score Drew Brees and Dallas Clark again, and arguably improve our running back situation with again getting Jamal Charles and swapping in Stephen Jackson for Ryan Grant, and adding Fred Jackson for depth. Sims-Walker shows up again at WR, but this time is joined by the awesome Wes Welker, but depth at the position is iffy. Berrian's okay but we'd probably dump Knox and Britt before Week One. And by the time the bye week for Brees came around (Week 10) we would likely have found a better QB than Vince Young. Kaeding returns, paired with another traditionally high-scoring kicker David Akers, and Baltimore always provides quality DEF/ST points. Grade: B+


Test Three: Ten team league, same positions, this time our starting draft position is 2nd, alternating to 9th in even-numbered rounds.


1. Adrian Peterson (Min - RB)
2. DeAngelo Williams (Car - RB)
3. Tom Brady (NE - QB)
4. Dallas Clark (Ind - TE)
5. Mike Sims-Walker (Jac - WR)
6. Baltimore (Bal - DEF)
7. Terrell Owens (Cin - WR)
8. Nate Kaeding (SD - K)
9. Bernard Berrian (Min - WR)
10. Carson Palmer (Cin - QB)
11. New Orleans (NO - DEF)
12. David Akers (Phi - K)
13. Marion Barber (Dal - RB)
14. Julian Edelman (NE - WR)
15. Antonio Bryant (Cin - WR)

Looks like we've figured out the formula for getting Dallas Clark, Nate Kaeding, Mike Sims-Walker, Terrell Owens, David Akers, and either the Baltimore or New Orleans DEF/ST (and Edelman shows up again too for some reason, who the hell is this guy?). The Top Three picks of Adrian Peterson, DeAngelo Williams, and the original "Orbital Bear Chucker" Tom Brady along with the added depth of Carson Palmer and Marion Barber make this our best auto-draft yet. Grade: A-

A few minor tweaks, the luck of a good draft position, and perhaps a few odd decisions from other teams and The People's Champion could possibly draft their way into being an actual champion this season.


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---Renal Failure will lead the fight against the machines who ruin Fantasy Football seasons...

This Draft is Mocking Me! Part One

"Run it again until we get Dallas Clark and Billy Cundiff, damn it!"

Springboarding off Chris's post about the Yahoo! auto-draft, we here at Renal Failure have gathered the maddest scientists we could find to run a little mock draft experiment to see if we've learned anything over the past two seasons when it comes to achieving maximum auto-draft success, or at the very least avoiding auto-draft catastrophe.

Our testing parameters for the first mock draft: Ten team league. Lineups consisting of QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE, K, DEF/ST, and six bench spots. Autopick is on, using the Yahoo! suggested rankings. We modestly placed ourselves as the seventh pick, which alternated us to the next round as the fourth pick in even-numbered rounds. Here's how that went:

1. Andre Johnson (Hou - WR)
2. Rashard Mendenhall (Pit - RB)
3. Miles Austin (Dal - WR)
4. Jahvid Best (Det - RB)
5. Vernon Davis (SF - TE)
6. Brett Favre (Min - QB)
7. Jeremy Maclin (Phi - WR)
8. Minnesota (Min - DEF)
9. Garrett Hartley (NO - K)
10. Fred Jackson (Buf - RB)
11. Visanthe Shiancoe (Min - TE)
12. Donovan McNabb (Was - QB)
13. Eddie Royal (Den - WR)
14. Johnny Knox (Chi - WR)
15. Rian Lindell (Buf - K)

Not bad. Top tier WR's, something our teams in the past have lacked. Strong at TE. And two quality QB's. RB a little iffy though, very unlike our previous teams.

We decided to branch out in our second mock draft experiment, moving up to a 14-team draft, positions remaining the same, and still using the Yahoo! suggested rankings. We took the eighth pick, alternating us to the seventh pick in even-numbered rounds. Here are those results:

1. Andre Johnson (Hou - WR)
2. Roddy White (Atl - WR)
3. Jahvid Best (Det - RB)
4. Joseph Addai (Ind - RB)
5. Jeremy Maclin (Phi - WR)
6. Eli Manning (NYG - QB)
7. Visanthe Shiancoe (Min - TE)
8. Stephen Gostkowski (NE - K)
9. San Diego (SD - DEF)
10. Clinton Portis (Was - RB)
11. Julian Edelman (NE - WR)
12. Devin Thomas (Was - WR)
13. Matt Cassel (KC - QB)
14. Benjamin Watson (Cle - TE)
15. David Buehler (Dal - K)

Amazing one-two punch at WR and decent enough QB's for such a deep league. We hope Javhid Best is the second coming of Barry Sanders because he keeps popping up in the later early rounds to us. And how Jeremy Maclin keeps getting on our team we have no idea, but obviously Yahoo! is keen on him being on our roster.

In part two we'll go over our mock drafts using the super secret Renal Failure preferred player rankings to see if we can do better than random fate. And considering that Renal Failure is known throughout the Fantasy Football universe as The Wild Card (bitches!), that's some tasty irony right there.


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---Renal Failure provides a full serving of vegetables every time you lose to him.

How the Autodraft Seems to Work

For some the Yahoo autodraft seems like a fantasy football version of Dante's Inferno.

But there is a method to its madness. Here is what I think happens based on the parameters of the system and from results of previous drafts.

Oh, one important ground rule to note: the autodraft has to fill the starting lineup by the end of round 8, occasionally round 9.There is no way around tight ends, kickers, and defenses being picked early.

Rounds 1-2: Autodraft picks best players from list. Sometimes both are running backs or wideouts but it's best-available. It will only pick a kicker, tight end, or defense in these rounds if you have one ranked as the highest-avail player when it is your turn.

Rounds 3-5: Computer picks best players from list excluding starting positions filled already. It will only pick a kicker, tight end, or defense in these rounds if you have one ranked as the highest-avail player when it is your turn.

Rounds 6-8: Autodraft usually picks tight end in the 6th, defense in the 7th, then kicker in the 8th. If one of the positions is already filled by round 6, then the computer will pick whatever three positions are left but it will maintain the same order.

For example: You picked TE Dallas Clark in round 4 but didn't pick a QB by round six. The autodraft would pick a QB in round 6, defense in the 7th, then kicker in the 8th. 

Sometimes the computer picks a bench player in round 8, and the defense in round 9.

Rounds 9-14: Autodraft picks backups excluding positions already full.

Rounds 15-16: Autodraft picks backup defense and kickers. This only happens if the positions are not full already.

My conclusions?

-Put all your kickers and defenses, except the few you want the autodraft to choose in rounds 7-8 in the 150-170 ranking level.

-Make sure your rankings for the top 50 (first five rounds) are solid because these are the ones you have the most control over. Once the tight ends, kickers, and defenses enter the mix in round 6 a bit of that control is lost.

-The autodraft format of picking the starting lineup first seems to be a way to level the playing field when in reality it simply moves the depth-picking part of the draft back three rounds.

-While in most cases the defenses and kickers drafted in rounds 6-8 will not be the same ones down the road for fantasy teams you still want to try and get one of the highest-ranked since you have to pick them early. Might as well make the pick count. Or try to.

Do you have any observations about the Yahoo autodraft? Leave them in the comments below...

2010 FF Offseason Report

Like in 2009, the HBFFL officially kicks off the 2010 fantasy football season with our look at the before-time that is the offseason...

Brett Favre Works Out With High School Team Again…Retires Again…Denies it Again…

As the quarterback turns. The only thing missing from this soap opera is the bad lighting.

Oh, and add a few more records to Favre’s amazing list:

-most times worked out with high school team: 2
-most times retired: 4
-most times denied being retired: 4
-most times returned from retirement: 3*

*Player still active in category.

Everyone in Fantasy Football Had Ray Rice On Their Team

 One thing I noticed in the fantasy football forums in the offseason was how everyone and their mother either drafted Ray Rice or picked him up on the waiver wire.

Somehow everyone won their league with the same player too. Weird.

Terrell Owens Signs with Cincinnati; ESPN Drools

Owens is now lined up opposite Ocho Cinco, who wasted no time in getting his own name above the fold with contract talk just a day after the signing. If they are already battling for media attention in July you can just imagine how the season will be.

ESPN thought the signing was so amazing that they even posed the question of which combo would be bigger, the Owens/Ocho duo or the Big Three on the Heat.

Yeah, it was a slow news week.

What is your big news of the 2010 offseason? Leave your answers in the comments below...

2010 Season of the HBFFL Blog Is Almost Here

Just wanted to give a short FYI to our faithful readers and of course the members of the Humor Bloggers Fantasy Football League that the season, the league, and this blog will be active and teeming with life, much like an envelope of Sea Monkeys in the next few days

We'll also be doing a little re-designing of the blog to make it look less meh and of course we are looking for a few good owners for the 2010 season.

To get you warmed up for the season here is HBFFL's favorite fantasy football rap song...