There was a lot more to write about last year. Well, actually there are plenty of bad picks to write about but very few good ones. This year's draft is like a black hole of bad picks. So I'll start out with the top 10 best picks. If I can find 10.
(I found more than 10!)
Honorable mentions:
Rashard Mendenhall, Halifax Spitfires, 9th Round -- Since Juice! has come in Mendenhall has benefitted. Could even sneak into Spitfires Keepers next season.
Greg Orton, Bucky's Goodgers, 12th Round -- Looked pretty good, hampered by injury, limited production.
Jaycen Taylor, Golden Goblins, 10th Round -- frustating Joe Tiller RB, 13th ranked BTFFL Fantasy RB.
CJ Bacher, Bucky's Goodgers, 14th Round -- It has taken almost all year but Bashay looks like he'll be the heir to the pass happy Northwestern offense now that Fitz has figured out that being able to throw the ball accurately and downfield is more important to the spread offense than being able to occasionally run for 13 yards when the play breaks down (see Mike Kafka and Andrew Brewer)
John Stocco, Golden Goblins, 12th Round -- 8th QB selected, 5th highest scoring QB. Good, not great value.
And on to the list:
10. Alex Daniels Fighting Farmers, 16th Round -- I know he's moving back to defense or some other move designed to retard his development as a football player but who woundn't use there 16th round pick on a player if they knew they would get 33, 15 and 10 points in the first three weeks?. Virtually nothing after that, who cares? No one picked after him comes close to such production.
9. Ted Ginn, Jr, Fighting Farmers, 4th Round. I hate to have such high picks in the best picks but that's just the nature of the beast this year. Ginn is first WR selected in the draft (among those not kept) and he is the highest scoring WR in the league (tied with Manningham).
8. Logan Payne, Halifax Spitfires, 11th Round -- Payne is the 9th WR off the board. Those selected ahead of him include missing person and teammate Ernie Wheelwright, Shaun Herbert, Jeremy Scott, Herb Grigsby, and PSU disappointments Deon Williams and Derrick Butler (whatever). Payne has more fantasy points than both of the WR who were kept this season, Dorion Bryant and James Hardy.
7. Adrian Arrington, Golden Goblins, 15th Round -- Arrington has been the benificiary of Mario Manningham's injury. After scoring zero points in the first three games, Arrington has not scored less than 7 since. That's good enough to make him the 11th highest scoring fantasy reciever despite being the 15th off the board. His future certainly looks bright and could push for a keeper spot on the Goblins.
6. Damien Sims, Golden Goblins, 9th Round -- Another benificiary of an injury. Sims has taken advantage of a hobbled Albert Young to score 82 fantasy points and turn in a top 10 fantasy year so far. He was the 17th RB selected, behind such fantasy and Big Ten non factors as Chris Wells, Lance Smith, Kevin Grady, EJ Jones, Austin Scott, and DeMetrius McCray.
5. Anthony Gonzalez, Golden Goblins, 14th Round -- Gonzalez could easily be ranked even higher. Selected after such WRs as Greg Orton, Steve Breaston, Shaun Herbert, Jeremy Scott, Herb Grigsby and PSU disappointments Derrick Williams and Dion Butler (or whatever). All Gonzalez has done is score 97 points while putting together the 3rd best fantasy year for a WR. Also selected ahead of Gonzalez: Brian Hoyer, Tim Brasic, Shonn Greene, Evan Royster, Carlos Brown, Brandon Minor, John Stocco, Mike Kafka, Dywan Rowan, Brandon Roberson, well, you can see why it is going to be a long Worst of 2006.
4. PJ Hill/Tony Pittman, Halifax Spitfires, 1st and 2nd Round -- A pair of early picks gets the nod here because Andy gets the highest scoring player in the BTFFL in Hill with the first pick. You can not do any better than that, although you can do much worse. And Pittman, selected in the second round after Chris Wells is a gutsy second pick that also just happens to be the right on. Pittman is running neck and neck with Tony Hunt for the 3rd highest scoring RB and I'd guess that by seasons end he will have outscored Hunt. Either way, Andy gets the core of his likely BOB team with these picks. One can easily imagine a worse set of picks submarining his team.
3. Juice! Bucky's Goodgers, 10th Round -- The only appearance in the Top 10 best picks for the Goodgers, Juice! comes in at 3 based on his taking over the Illinois job much sooner than any expected and looking like he'll be a keeper for as long as he plays college football. Despite not starting the first 2 games, Juice! is the 7th ranked BTFFL QB and has looked better and better with each passing week. Passing week, ha, ha, that's funny.
2. Amir Pinnix, 7th Round, Golden Goblins -- A forgotton man, or at least suspect starter, on draft day. Pinnix has clawed his way to the top of the Gopher depth chart and has produced numbers that make him the 7th highest scoring back in the BTFFL. He has more points than BTFFL keepers Albert Young and Tyrell Sutton. He was selected after Chris Wells, Javon Ringer (inj.), Pierre Thomas, Lance Smith, and Kevin Grady.
1. Mario Manningham, 7th Round, Halifax Spitfires -- Looking at the top 4 best picks, it is apparent why the Spitfires appear poised to get to the BOB for the first time in their history. Manningham, or Touchdown!, completes the core of Spitfire starters. He is the BTFFLs highest scoring reciever, selected after the disasterous 6th round trio of Butler, Williams and Grigsby(!). Despite his injury, which has caused him to miss three games, he remains the highest scoring WR in the BTFFL. If he had not been injured, he'd likely be scoring on par with top 5 RBs in the BTFFL. In any case, he's a Sophomore and he'll certainly be a keeper. Adding insult to injury to the rest of the BTFFL is the fact that he was on every roster last year -- starting with the Goblins, who cut him, moving to the Goodgers, who traded him, and ending up with the Farmers, who didn't keep him, along the way passing through his eventual destination: The Litter Box. I expect to be watching him catch Touchdown! after Touchdown! for more a couple more years and being annoyed that I picked Herb fucking Grigsby over him in the 2006 BTFFL draft.
If I have the time, watch for the carnage that is the Worst of the BTFFL Draft.
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2 comments:
Nice work Jay! I don't have that much to add, but the blog has been kind of disappointing this season, so I feel compelled to.
I agree that Manningham was the best pick of the draft, and I actually thought he was a steal when I picked him, as I had him the #1 reciever on my draft board. My decision not to take Wells, and go with the Hill/Pittman combo is the best decision in the history of the SPitfires, and probalby saved my from 2-3 more years of basement dwelling.
The only major disagreement I have with your list...is I would have Anthony Gonzalez as the 2nd best pick of the draft. He has put up amazing numbers for where he was picked! I was considering taking Gonzalez the pick before Matt did, but for some unknown reason, decided against it. That could cost me a celebration with the Blue Ox in The Litter Box at seasons end.
It is true that Gonzalez could go as high as 2, really. And maybe Pinnix is too high -- although his potential as a keeper makes him a pretty valuable pick. He might be the only RB selected after the first 3 rounds that is kept (Mendenhall, Sims are possible keepers I would think).
It is interesting to think how bad your team could have turned out. But it sure looks like the Spitfires will have a good team for at least a few years based on this draft. Hill, Pittman, Manningham are certain keepers. Kellen Lewis, Mendenhall, (Grady, Smith or Jones if you're lucky), and maybe even Payne are possible keepers and likely a strong core for next year. But Keeper speculation is for another post, really.
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