A Day in the Life of a Fantasy Sports Manager

This can be your novice fantasy player or your most seasoned of fantasy experts: everyone needs a schedule for satisfying your fantasy cravings

7:00AM Morning Wake up call (usually a little ditty, or a famous tune, but for the most ardent of fantasy managers, automatically tuned to the Daily Fantasy Sports Show).
7:00AM Hit the snooze button on your alarm, go back to sleep.
7:20 AM Finally decide to wake up because there will be severe consequences if you don't
7:21 AM Log on to laptop computer, access fantasy teams.
7:23 AM See How your team fared the previous night
2 Options: 1.) If players did well, sing the praises of (insert best performer here), marvel at own fantasy prowess, proclaim with 100% conviction to "just engrave my name in the championship now.
2.) If players did poorly, curse and moan about every single player on your roster and their weaknesses, swear to never draft/ pick up (insert worst performer here), drown yourself in sorrows.

7:45AM Have breakfast, flip on sportscenter to matchup your player's stats with real-life plays that occured.
8:00 AM Get in the car on your way to school/work.
8:00AM -8:30 AM Reflect on your team's weaknesses/ strengths, ponder long-term strategies and possible improvements to make.

8:30AM-9:00AM Arrive at work/school, seek out other fantasy managers in your league at the water cooler, launch into strictly fantasy talk.
Option 1: If team did well, brag about how much of a genius you are at fantasy rub into the face of team that you just beat in a head-to-head matchup
Option 2: If team did poorly, avoid all talk of team's own deficiencies, lament on how opposing manager got extremely lucky in picking his good players and how you hope (insert other manager's best player) doesn't get hurt soon, while secretly praying that he does.

9:00AM -12:00AM
Go through the motions of work/school, pretending to learn/ get work done will suffering from Fantasy withdrawal.

12:00AM -1:00PM
Have lunch with fellow classmates/ co-workers. While eating, pick up on little things that they do, such as allude to their appreciation for Maurice Jones-Drew, or their affinity to take risks on things (going for the spiciest burrito on the menu), or their plans for the weekend (as a gauge for how much attention they'll put on fantasy) to get the most important insight on your opposition. Lunch is not just a social activity; it's an all-important scouting trip.

1:00PM-4:00PM
After spending a rough morning off from fantasy, you go back to doing "work," but of course with one screen open to fantasy news, fantasy alerts, and the o-so-awesome fantasy blog, fantasysportguru.blogspot.com. Have the "boss" or "professor" button ready to flip over to real spreadsheets and official-looking documents in case person of authority happens to be near your computer screen.

4:00-5:00PM
If in fantasy basketball league, chew your nails and sip several cokes/coffees/Redbulls/Monsters in anticipation of the start of hoops at 7:00PMET (4:00AM PT, depending on where you live.) Anxiously browse over box scores before games to make sure your "boys" are in there and will be producing for you. Break out the lucky charms, magical devices, rabbit's feat, lucky keychains, and do whatever prayers you feel are necessary.

5:00PM- 8:00PM
Watch said sport religiously, not even caring about the score but instead concentrating on how many points your boys score, while people watching the game with you give you weird looks as you root for divsion rival/archenemy/ team currently playing the team of the city that you live in.

8:00PM- 12:00PM
Go to sleep with a smile on your face, knowing that tomorrow is another day of fantasy, and the cycle will start all over again.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

NFL week 10 run-down

Upset but not surprised 'bout them Bears Thursday night. A lot of times, optimism is overrated: Bears had a lot of it coming into the season, now it figures to be a cold, playoff-less winter in Chicago.

Guess who's back? Back again? The one and (not) only.....Steve Smith! (of Carolina). Still not racking up the catches and yards like he can (primarily due to Jake Delhomme, I'm naturally assuming), but 2TD's are encouraging for the fantasy playoffs. Like a wet hog in a hog-catching competition, still one of the most elusive players in the NFL.

Ronnie Brown going out w/ crutches is bad news for his owners and the whole Brown family (my condolences) but terrific news for Ricky Williams, whose extra opportunity paid immediate dividends w/ 20 carries for 102 yards. The way the Tuna like to run, Ricky's gonna be tokin' up those yards (parden the pun)

Minnesota playing Detroit was like upgrading your army's attack points in Warcraft by double. Every offensive player had a healthy dose of action, highlighted by Jerry, I mean Sidney Rice's, 201 yards. Brett Favre looked like he sipped from the fountain of youth (the Lions have that effect on people) and threw for 344. Basically, the lesson here is start everyone and their mother against the Lions.

There's something about Maurice Jones-Drew that must make his owners smile. He's just always ready to play, always present in the game, always ready to bust a big play, always ready to score, always ready to justify his high pick by owners. Nothing says feature back like MJD: 24 carries for him, 2 carries by some guy named Snelling. Might as well be named Irrelevant.

Not much to report in Pittsburgh besides Jeff Reed and Shayne Graham probably single-handedly propelling their owners to victory. Kickers aren't supposed to do that.

Most casual fantasy owners don't know this, but Drew Brees isn't the #1 QB this year in fantasy: it's Aaron Rodgers. Consider that when you draft QB's in the first round.

If I didn't have a viable QB I would not hesitate to pick up Vince Young, who looks much more like '07 version than '08. He's still young and he's Vince Young.

Denver's in trouble after losing to the Skins and dropping to 6-3. We've read this chapter before just last year, and they face San Diego next week in a crucial matchup.

Woulda recommended starting peeps against the KC or Oakland Defense, but because it was their offensive players playing each other, it was all neutralized. Probably the best if you stayed away altogether. Jamaal Charles could be intriguing young player, but his matchups the next few weeks (Pitt, @ SD will make you shy away).

Have I mentioned how much I love Aaron Rodgers?

Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin will forever be mentioned in the same sentence for fantasy owners, like saying your going to your neighbor Fred and Wilma's house, but 10 years from now Larry Fitzgerald will be remembered as the better WR. Boldin will be described as gutsy, tough, strong, bulldozing, and "a real football player," but Fitzgerald is just better.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

Buy Low Now

Perfect opportunity in both Fantasy Basketball and stocks to buy low for similar reasons: early in the season for hoops, early in the rally for equity. Seriously about stocks, I'm hyping it up. Cramer (and you may have differing opinions about this guy, but here's what he said) has an interesting theory that it's a cyclical bull market now, where one industry goes up for a while, stops, while industrials go up, then financials, then tech, and another, and suddenly all stocks are moving forward. Have no idea whether or not that's true or not (sounds plausible), but here's my basic psychological analysis for the market:

Investors who pulled all their money out early in the year want to find good stocks to put money back in. They pour some money in, other investors see a slight gain, their mindset is the gains must be coming, they dump some money in, build some momentum, more cautious investors do the same thing w/ all the excess money, and suddenly we have a rally. Just like the massive withdrawals that caused the recession, except the opposite. Buy, buy, buy!

Deron Williams: Numbers slightly down from previous years, especially %'s. They'll normalize; he's only 25 years young.

Al Jefferson: Ever go long-distance running after not doing so for 6 months? Takes a while to build up the stamina, doesn't it? Same thing w/ Al-Jeff's knees. Patience.

Antawn Jamison/ Rashard Lewis: lower value simply from inactivity; their owners might fallen into the fantasy fallacy and discounted them despite lack of opportunity. Sounds silly, but it happens: even good owners (so yea, I've done this before) hold a guy while hurt and just lose patience, release just when they're about to come back.

Gilbert Arenas: Value may be at an all-time low w/ the unfathomable 12 TO-performance in the last game.
Caron Bulter: pair of wizards who will benefit w/ Jamison's return.

RIMM (Research in Motion) stock: one of few stocks in its industry who hasn't recovered much from March lows. A volatile behemoth in 2006-2007, he's like the Dow Jones's Josh Smith: risky, but has upside ready to explode.

Andre Miller: Soon to be the point man of a 50-plus win team. Time to low-ball somebody.

Anthony Randolph: hesistated to put him on there cuz he killed Nellie's goldfish or something equivalent to permanently anger him, but just look at what he does when on the floor. Goes under the "talent always wins out" category.

To end, how exciting has Russell made Survivor the last few weeks? Sure, he overplayed by revealing to everyone and their mother that he had the idol, but w/o scrambling his tribe woulda been picked out anyway. Now he's in good shape w/ a 5-5 divide and goes head-to-head w/ Laura (how crucial were her immunity wins, btw) next week in what from the previews may become a rat-race sort of chaos for the immunity idol. Good job, survivor, you got me hooked again.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

NFL week 9 run-down

Slumdog Millionaire is a sick movie. Love where he ran a fake tourism scheme, stole the Americans' belongings, then got paid for it. Splendid, reminds me of a Ponzi scheme.

Aaron Rodgers is a sick human being. 3rd and goal from the 14, scrambles around, sees nobody open, pump fakes, pump fakes again, decides he's a man and he's just good, and rams into the end zone. Very Elway-like. This guy is excelling even with a depleted offensive line. The QB of the future for the next 10 years.

Ray Rice top 5 RB? I think so. involved in all facets of the offense, this guy is, and scores lone TD so far for the hapless Ravens O.

Ronnie Brown is the new L.T. Except his offense isn't as good, but today he THROWS a TD pass. He's the defintion of a triple threat: Run, catch, and pass, especialy out of the wildcat.

Houston is a sneaky good team, even if they don't beat the colts today. Looks like they will. Pick up Ryan Moats; looks like the Texans have lost patience w/ Slaton and Moats hasn't disappointed yet.

I found out last week Ahman Green is back w/ the Packers. If this was 5 years ago, I'd say pick him up in a heartbeat. Now it takes a Ryan Grant injury for Green to be even relevant.

Like Matt Hardy, Joseph Addai will not die. Another double-digit carry day, also a rush. Key part of the Indy D, just ask Peyton Manning.

Chris Chambers somehow went from the Chargers to the Chiefs, and not surprisingly, being the freak athlete he is, he took no time to adjust and caught a 50+- TD pass from Matt Cassel in garbage pass. I would take a flyer; Cassel might atually be able to utilize this deep threat.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

friday night fantasy

A lot of people like al harrington, and he's an intriguing young player, but it's intriguing just how bad he is sometimes: just watched him miss BADLY for the knicks in a 20-point Cleveland blowout.

Ok, Big Ben Wallace is not back to prominence. I dunno if he was swallowed by Dwight Howard's shadow, playing inside Dwight's sleeves, or just had your normal sleepwalk-in-the-park game, but 2 points and 1 reb is all the stats he had onight, not what you needed from a guy who you expect stls and blks from.

You know how sometimes at the grocery store the guy in front of you leaves cuz he forgot something, and you slide right into his spotand save yourself big-time minutes? Well, Brandon Haywood is taking full advantage of Antawn Jamison's absence from the Wizards' grocery lineup and had the game of the night. 19 rebounds and 4 blks? Yum. Haywood's muscled out Andray Blatche from that money big-man spot, it's time to cut Blatche and his 1 pt tonight loose.

Absolutely floored that Phoenix will hand the Celts their first loss tonight; lotsa good fantasy perfmances ( and probably real-life performances too) from the Suns' revamped lineup, and as much as i hate to admit it, i think the suns are back to being a regular-season machine and all suns are worthy of grabbing, especially Channing Frye and Grant Hill cuz they might be available. Amare? Might be back to the promised land this year.

Something's wrong w/ Dwayne Wade, or more accurately, with his surrounding cast. Still getting overall point numbers, but the defensive numbers and noticeably assists are missing. He looks healthy, but maybe the Heat's offensive system is just not conducive to his godly stats this year. Stay tuned.

Lamarcus Aldridge takes too many fadeaway, turnaround jumpers.

DeJuan Blair is just what the doctor ordered for the old, ailing Spurs.

If the Clippers can't beat the banged-up, can't-defend-my-grandpa Warriors, they're NOT getting into the playoffs.

Eric Gordon: the born scorer, indeed.

Jose Calderon: That's more like it for the Spanish flea. 16 points, 8 assists, and more impressively, 0 turnovers. Against Chris Paul.

Ha, but what did Chris Paul do? Only 21 points and 18 assists. Nothing fancy.

Chris Kaman: Man must love to go on vacations in the offseason. The human traveling machine.

It's so blatantly obvious that the refs compromise between calling a foul and no-foul by awarding the offensive player the ball if it goes out-of-bounds, even though it's blatantly obvious it's off the offense. Compromise is NOT good for a bright-line game like the NBA. This stuff makes me wonder if Tim Donaghy was right about all that stuff.

If batted-bats was a stat category, Manu Ginobili would be the all-time leader. Awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TSucjvxBNo
If you haven't checked this outyet, you should. It's like watching a train wreck: can't take my eyes off of it. Too bad the girl didn't do this before Halloween, cuz there may have been a lot of Liz Lamberts this year. Woo.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

Why I am not a true fan

Don't get me wrong, I'm a very reliable guy, sticking to my assignments and making sure I do what I said I would do for my group. I am loyal to my family and would defend them against everything, and my friends can count on me to be there for them. However, when it comes to being a sports fan, I admit, I am not a diehard fan of any fan.

A diehard fan lives and breathes with their team. They literally bleed the team color. They skip business meetings, dental appointments, counseling sessions, important dinners, and choral practices to watch their team play. Even if they're at one of those other activities, their heart is not in it and they'll constantly be jonesy-ing for a score report of their team. There is no TiVo or "I'll record it" for the diehard fan, they're either at the game or pressed against their TV hanging on every play.

A diehard fan makes sure his closet is at least one authenticated jersey of their team. A diehard fan has team mugs, team helmets, team socks, team scarves, team kneecaps, and all other sorts of apparel that they wear only on game day. A diehard fan has the team's schedule hanging on a poster in their room or programmed into their blackberry, depending on the income class. Not that the diehard fan needs it; they've memorized the season schedule as soon as it came out in the off-season. A diehard fan has their children wear mini-team appareal.

A diehard fan never loses faith in their team; the fan sticks with them through thick and thin, through 7-game losing streaks and rebuilding campaigns. The diehard fan remains patient with their team, remembering how patient their parents/ ancestors were with the team and their parents before that. The diehard fan doesn't change allegiances even if they move to a different city, different state, or even different country. They will literally go to their graves a fan of that team. They resist the urge to quit despite cocky free agents, boneheaded playcalling, micro-managing managers, lame-duck GM's, and unlikable players.

A diehard fan suffers through all those things as above, but the reward is great. The pot at the end of the rainbow is that much sweeter for the diehard fan, as they've had to travel the whole way to get there. The diehard fan can quote by memory all of the wins and losses of their teams throughout the years, and when victory in the form of championship comes, they will be the real winners, the ones who have endured through the chaos to emerge victorious as championships of the night.

Ahh, how sweet it is to be a diehard fan. I, alas, am not one of them. Of any team.

I'd say I WAS a Cubs fan, and that's the closest I've ever become to being a diehard fan, watching them since I was 7, listening to Pat Hughes and Ron Santo call the games on the radio, remembering Harry Carey and Chip Carey, from Mark Grace to Sammy Sosa to Jose Nieves to Kerry Wood to Derek Lee to Milton Bradley, being there in the 65-win seasons as well as the 100-win seasons. O the cubs. Alas, I have given up on that team, and you can strip the diehard fan status from me. Other teams I have had an interest in but far from being diehard about: The Bulls, the Bears, the Fighting Illini (all sports), the Boston Red Sox, the Los Angeles Angels, the San Diego Chargers, the Los Angeles Clippers.......all just common fandom, nothing serious. Will I ever become a diehard fan of any team ever again? I doubt it. I'm now a dedicated diehard fan of Big Brother --> that's my summer Super Bowl.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan