Roster Freak Out: Week 4

Two weeks, two wins, too sweet.

Admittedly, I had some help last week thanks to an abysmal performance from Deals and Steals. With bye weeks in effect now, it'll be tougher to beat anyone, but hopefully the picks below will keep the streak alive.

First though, a Serious word on my waiver claim for DeAngelo Williams. Did I overpay? Yeah, by a lot evidently. Anything more than a $0 claim was overpaying for him - I seriously misjudged the market for him. You may still be wondering: 'why did you think he was ever worth $41 in the first place?'

BELIEVE

Here's the deal: remember the market for Donald Brown? He went for $38, beating out a matching bid of $38 and several other bids in the double-digits. I get why: he was the lead back ahead of a then-healthy Danny Woodhead for probably the next 4 weeks.

Now let's compare with DeAngelo. The RBs who would compete for touches with him are both injured: Jonathan Stewart reportedly for about a month, and Mike Tolbert until Week 13. My understanding is Cam Newton's ribs are all busted and he's not as likely to rush at the goal-line. That leaves a lot of workload for DeAngelo.

Sure, he has had injury issues in recent years, but he was once an elite RB when he was a workhorse back several years ago, and certainly a more proven player than Donald Brown. So I see a bid of $38 for Brown and think 'I should probably bid a bit higher to get him.' Little did I know that no one had the same thinking. My brain was basically Frank the Tank streaking across the quad, not realizing it was the only one who made the mental journey.

Aaaaaaanyways, with that explanation aside, here are this week's picks!

Roster Freak Out: Week 3

I wish I could take credit for a thrilling victory in Week 2, but in reality I've got to acknowledge the tremendous amount of luck I had. Who would have figured Stevan Ridley would reprise his old role as a workhorse back and carry 25 times, or that Josh McCown would rush for 2 TDs. I actually had high expectations for Mohamed Sanu, but A.J. Green's injury gave him a huge boost, too. Hopefully all this luck doesn't evaporate!

Dwayne Bowe, what are you even doing ever...

Unfortunately, most of those big performers are now ineligible due to recent waiver wire activity, but I've got a whole new crop of diamonds in the rough for Week 3...

Roster Freak Out: Week 2

Now that the season is fully underway, I wanted to resurrect a fun column called the "Roster Freak Out."

The premise is simple and very similar to your typical "walking into 10th grade chemistry class with no clothes on" dream: imagine you have a fantasy team with zero players, and you've got to build a team solely using players available in free agency. Who do you pick week-to-week?

What can Sanu do for you? Probably not much...

The goal is to actually build a team that beats at least one of our UMassBallers teams. If you accomplish that feat, we call it a win. If not, it's a loss.

Surprisingly, I was able to get more than a couple wins last year, and I'm terrible at fantasy football. Without further ado, here are my picks from the runts of the litter...

The UMassBallers Post Draft Autopsy

The UMassBallers are back in action having completed a thrilling draft with 100% participation, a new 100 dollar buy-in, and 100's of virtual dollars wasted on future injuries and busts. Let us lay bare the shocking horror of a draft fleetingly gone by over a mere two and a half hours...

That moment you look at your roster after a draft and go "what the hell am I even looking at?"

For a synopsis of last year's edition of the UMassBallers, including all of the 20/20 hindsight you can handle looking back at that year's draft and trades, click here. Did we learn anything from last year? Read on to find out.

Spoiler alert: the answer's "no."