A Great Tuesday

This is a pretty good Tuesday... one for which all Tuesdays to follow should be measured! OK... I'm going a little overboard, but with an inspirational Steelers MNF victory over the Ravens and a sweet trio of albums released today, this Tuesday isn't too shabby.

First, the Steelers game... our offensive line is horrific and with Simmons gone for the year, don't expect Trai Essex to improve the situation. It's also disappointing to lose Mendenhall for the season, but for a 4th string RB, Mewelde Moore filled in nicely. I will get back to him in a minute, but first... let's touch on how important Ben Roethlisberger is to this team. I'm proud to have him as our QB and it's great to hear him become more of a vocal leader of the team... especially without "The Chin" on the sideline. I like Tomlin, but he has more of a team-centered attitude. It's great for camaraderie, but not so good for lighting fires in bellies. So it's good to have Big Ben get in their face occasionally... and I think they will respect him for it. Hell... even the defense fed off of him after the TD pass to Santonio (particularly Harrison and Woodley). I am also extremely grateful to have Jeff Reed as our kicker. He has proved to be extremely reliable in tough environments and tight games, as well as drunken photo production. Well done. Finally... Mewelde... where have you been all of my life? I was watching the game in a bar and I didn't realize till a bit later that Mendenhall and Davis were out with injuries, so I was initially flippin' shit when I saw Double M getting so much work down the stretch. In fact, by my count... Mewelde was the go-to guy in a shocking 12 of our final 14 plays! Amazing! His fresh legs at the end of the game certainly helped, but he was breaking off and getting open very nicely when Ben was under pressure. I hope to see more of him to come.


The second part of this great Tuesday is because of some excellent CD releases. Anberlin, Amon Amarth, and Trivium all have new albums out today... and from what I can tell, they all sound remarkable after a few listens. I got the Anberlin album through newburycomics.com with a limited edition autographed 7-inch. I haven't listened much, but it's a pretty standard release for them... and that's a good thing. The first single from New Surrender is "Feel Good Drag", which was originally released on Don't Take Friendship Personal, but don't judge them for that... they explained themselves here.

Amon Amarth... wow! I had to go out and by this one too, however I didn't get the bobblehead set. I've only briefly listened to from Twilight of the Thunder God, but this is a monster album! The production is outstanding and Lars' vocals/growls are at an all-time astonishing level. They've really hit their stride as a band and this album sounds like the tightest, most intense offering to date. Have a listen on Myspace or the widget below.

Finally, Trivium has conquered their identity crisis with mistaking themselves for Metallica (see The Crusade) and put out a very good, technical, melodic metal album. I was always very disappointed with The Crusade's combination of promising musicianship held back by embarrassingly awful lyrics and cliched song structure. All indications are that Shogun is a great rebound album, and I'm particularly fond of their first single "Down from the Sky".

Not a bad Tuesday, huh?... and I didn't even mention Iron Man being released on DVD!

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ESPN Fantasy Woes

I decided to try out ESPN's fantasy football services for our league this year. The main reasons I did this were curiosity, free real-time scoring, and 120 seconds per pick in the online draft (vs. 90 sec max at Yahoo!). There are a lot of other very nice features (almost too many at times).

However, I'm not here to praise the World Wide Leader's great fantasy site... there are a lot of drawbacks too. I find the menus and tabs to be pretty convoluted... then again, it's hard to adapt after 7 years at Yahoo!. The Bye Week information seems to be intentionally hidden (especially during the draft) with the exception of looking at the extended player schedule. This is a useful view, but there should be a more succinct way to get this info. I also overlooked an option that prevented us from drafting TEs, even though I had selected WR/TE roster spot. That was a mess... but oh well.

But all of those complaints are dwarfed by the ridiculous scoring limitations. I'm baffled by the difficulty of implementing fractional scoring (for example, when a RB gets 89yds in a game and you get 8.9pts, instead of 8pts). A very common and logical setting is seemingly overlooked in the ESPN rules. Here is a very painful email exchange I had with ESPN customer service about the problem:

Fractional scoring is (seemingly) very counterintuitive. Why not just have a button to say "Fractional Points" instead of having to put 0.1pts per 1yd. I've never discussed or thought about FF like that, it's always "1pt per 10yds", with or without fractional points. Plus I still don't know how to get fractional scoring for QBs, since you can't specify to the hundreths decimal (ie. 0.05pts per 1yd, since I really want 1pt per 20yds). Can you help???

Ben
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Thank you for contacting us.

You are able to do this to the nearest tenth in custom leagues. The LM will need to change the scoring settings. For example rushing 10 yds = 1 point would need to be changed to 1 yd = .1 point.

Regards,
John
ESPN.com Customer Care
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You didn't answer my question. I knew that about Rushing and Passing... but QBs can't have 0.1pts per 1yd. It needs to be0.05pts per 1yd (or less). If that's the best ESPN can do here... I'll be going back to Yahoo! next year.

Ben
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Thank you for your reply.

You could go with every 5yds = 2.5 points. I know this isn't exactly what you want, but that is the closest we offer to what you are asking for. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Regards,
John
ESPN.com Customer Care

That's real effing brilliant, John... that means Phillip Rivers would have scored 203.5pts this week! Let's hope ESPN hires some people who understand fantasy football and make their site more user friendly... otherwise, it might be back to Yahoo! for me next year.

Google Bling

Introducing Google's new automotive effort, the 2009 Google Bling! Featuring 26" Google Chrome rims, hands-free Google Talk cell phone kit, and Google Earth nav system with real-time street view (so you can admire your own ride while cruisin' down the strip!).

NFL Week 2: Chaos Ensues

Wild week! LT and Darren Sproles are having identity crises. Anquan Boldin hates Arizona, but LOVES touchdowns. GTO 'Sullivan is revved up! Marion Barber is a fantasy love machine. Brandon Marshall is putting to good use his reduced suspension. ("I was wrong." - in TMR voice) A pair of Arkansas rookie RBs are delivering the goods. And Romeo Crennel has taken over for Art Shell in the statuesque staring competition.
(Note: Bill Simmons deserves credit for the Art Shell Face. The man's brilliant.)

But if we learned nothing else, at least we can take away one thing from Week 2...
DON'T DROP THE BALL!!

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