Tag Archives: Sports

12.18.12
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From Fantasy to Reality – A Story of Social Games

English: The Mirage

The Mirage (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The correct title of this blog should have read, “From Social to Reality” but that didn’t have the same ring as the overused and slightly more catchy, Fantasy to Reality. During this past summer, MGM International released a social game on Facebook that has sent me down a path of obsession. For the first time in my brief social game playing career you could play a game for free and win real-life prizes. Since MGM owns approximately 80 percent of the resorts on the Strip, including Aria, Bellagio, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Monte Carlo, New York-New York, and Luxor; they have the ability to  offer attractive rewards. Continue reading →

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06.28.12
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When can we expect RB dropoff to occur?

In the first part of this running back series, we discussed when to expect a RB dropoff to occur, and we highlighted the dropoff numbers for fantasy RBs from the ’90s. The results showed players from that decade were workhorses and by the time they reached 30 years of age, they averaged 300 carries per season and 2,700 total careers before their statistical dropoff.

For this post, the second part of the series, I researched running backs from the 2000s on the same statistical categories and compared the two groups’ dropoff period. Continue reading →

06.19.12
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Preseason Strength of Schedule in the NFL

Every NFL season fans and analysts breakdown the preseason strength of schedule. We dissect it trying to figure out the games our favorite teams will win and predict the likelihood of a successful season. Do teams who play a weak schedule according to the previous year’s results have a higher success rate than teams who don’t? Teams change from year to year and we have seen bottom dwellers flip in one season and Super Bowl participants not even make the playoffs. Would you rather see a schedule full of teams who missed out on the playoffs and not named New England or Green Bay? Does avoiding the top teams from a season before guarantee success during the current season? Continue reading →

05.13.12
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NBA Award Winners and Team Success

We always hear as a sport fan, you need a great team to win a championship. A sport like basketball requires more than one piece to win it all, and teams have rushed out to assemble all-star like rosters to achieve success. With all of the individual awards being handed out during the NBA Playoffs, I wanted to research how many of these award winners were actually on teams that had success. Continue reading →

05.08.12
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Kentucky Derby Dreamin’

One dream of mine and something I always thought would be an interesting venture is to own a racehorse. From a small circuit horse to a Kentucky Derby thoroughbred, the excitement of watching your horse race (not to mention, having a little wager on him) would be a great experience. Of course, this would be a challenging and expensive dream to obtain due to many factors. For one thing, my knowledge on horse racing doesn’t extend further than walking up to the window and placing an exacta or trifecta, and even that went up in flames on Saturday with my 4,6,8 horses. Financially, horse racing is very expensive to enter, but after I read an article by Darren Rovell last week on the prices of the competing Kentucky Derby horses  I noticed that some horses sold for reasonable prices. I know the purchase of a horse is only the beginning, and the annual up keep and training is where the money is at, but hey it’s fun to dream. Three horses closed as clear-cut favorites heading into the Kentucky Derby: Continue reading →

04.24.12
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Can a Single Decision Cost You a Job in Boston?

There is no shortage of disdain lately for Bobby Valentine amongst Boston Red Sox fans, but how much of this is deserved?  Let’s take a look back in Red Sox history… In 2003, manager Grady Little made a controversial decision to leave Pedro Martinez in the 7th game of the ALCS, a game where a win could have sent the Red Sox to the World Series and in the process slay the mighty Yankees.  Martinez was the number one pitcher in the bigs that year, with a league leading 2.22 ERA, but was showing signs of fatigue late in the game. This decision (combined with the extra inning home run by Aaron Boone) quickly became on par with the 1986 Buckner play and cemented its place in Boston sports nightmares. Continue reading →

04.21.12
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MLB Starter Money Statistics

My last blog I broke down at-bat importance for fantasy baseball. Today I am going to shift gears and focus on pitchers. Let’s combined fantasy and gambling to dissect some of the pitchers off to hot starts in terms of money won. Continue reading →

04.17.12
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MLB Fantasy Breakdown – At-Bats

Matthew Berry of ESPN recently released an article explaining the importance of player at-bats in relation to fantasy baseball success. You can read the article here. This makes perfect sense to me and I was interested in breaking down the relevance as it pertains throughout this season. At-bats, according to the article, has more importance for total fantasy team at-bats and its relation to success among many stat categories.  That being said, I was interested in breaking it down by individual league leaders and how those players are performing, to evaluate free agents and current players on a roster.  Continue reading →

04.11.12
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Is Fantasy Baseball Fun?

Now that baseball season has completed a couple of weeks I figured I would do another fantasy sport opinion blog. In a past blog I commented on my experience in the land of fantasy basketball. If I may add, I am in the finals in my head to head league this week thanks to some key acquisitions off the waiver wire. This blog takes a look at fantasy baseball. Behind football, baseball is the second most popular fantasy sport played. It gives numbers crunchers games from morning till night, seven days a week. For hardcore fans the summer months of baseball are heaven, but what about casual fans? Is the day-to-day pressure and commitment too much? I asked my friend to help me out with this and his response is below: Continue reading →

03.31.12
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2012 MLB Player Projections

Last week marked the beginning of Major League Baseball, did you know that? MLB made the announcement that the Dodgers were purchased for 2 billion dollars, by a group led by Magic Johnson. This price broke the all-time record for a franchise purchase and seemed a bit high considering they were valued at 800 million dollars last year. Oakland and Seattle got the regular season started in Japan and provided us fantasy fans with little to cheer for. With that being said, who is ready for some more projections? I have stepped into unfamiliar territory this year with fantasy baseball and decided to take a shot at some projections. Continue reading →