Do you pay for your fantasy knowledge? (Includes Poll)

[Atog]

My first year of FF, and i'll i've used is the cafe and some of Yahoo's free articles. 3rd place out of 14

[Flux]

I will always buy a fantasy magazine that has statistical predictions. I dont use this as my draft cheat sheet or anything, but I like to see how these "experts" rank players and what they have to say about them.

A huge problem about magazines is the way they rank players. I mean what is their scoring system? Sometimes they have the players ranked for TD leagues or yardage leagues, but most of us play somewhere in between or have receptions count or whatever else. Thats why I like to see predictions for yards and receptions and TDs, i can sort of use that and tweak it to my scoring and change things for my own rankings.


So I generally buy one magazine, but when Im trying to decide on which one to get, I look at all of them and try to find any crazy predictions or rankings or whatnot. Then I try and find out if any of my opponents in my money league have the magazines Ive looked at and use that to my advantage later as Ill talk up the stupid picks and talk down the good ones . But Im sure they all are doing the same with me.

I really think thats the best part of playing w/ friends, especially w/ money on the line. We all try and mess w/ each others heads and when it comes time to trying and predict the first couple rounds of our draft it all goes to hell and everyone is just like wtf... ahhhhhhh i love fantasy.


Yeah so anyway back to your question, buy a mag if you want, dont take it too seriously but you can definitely use it as a guideline or a starting point to help you with your predictions. There are way too many free sites to pay for anything like that. I basically get all I need from this place, and then use rotoworld, fanball, and ffmastermind for any news or notes on players.

I will say this though, if you want to pay for info, you can cut me a check and Ill tell you anything you need to know

[brewmaniac]

This was my first year of fantasy...

I won the championship (small 7 team points league) and blew everybody away points-wise. There were guys in my league who have been playing fantasy for 20 years, so I was surprised.

I used a combination of a FF magazine and personal research on the internet to draft. One thing I found out too is that drafting your players involves some common sense, and you have to be on top of things (look at injury reports, disciplinary actions ) etc.

Do some research during the week, call in your lineup every weekend (One guy gave his week 1 lineup and didn't change it since), use common sense, and you'll have a chance. A little luck doesn't hurt either!

One thing is for sure...fantasy is ADDICTING, God I can't wait until the draft in September '05!

[Kilroy]

Our League was hosted by NFL.com, but I did'nt think their info was any better/worse than what you can find for free. Hell, you never know if some supposed FF "expert" has a F**king clue what he's talking about, so I figure if you're gonna get crap info it should at least be FREE crap info. (NOTE: This by no means includes Cafe Members, who are always (I mean usually(I mean sometimes)) correct with their info and advice.

Not to mention that I've made it a subconscious habit to follow only the WORST Possible advice.

[SwiperNoSwiping]

We use a pay site for our league service and i will read the articles there. I will also buy 2-3 magazines each year too. Mainly to get the blood going...Haha.

I also do the ESPN insider, but that is not for fantasy purposes exclusively. Although I will read some of the things. I actually had been a subscriber previous to them putting most of the fantasy stuff into the insider or fantasy edge...

[PackerAttack84]

Yeah, I have ESPN Insider and we got it a couple of years ago back when Victor and Hector's projections were free.

[TTTBone]

I will also buy 2-3 magazines each year too. Mainly to get the blood going...Haha.

About all they're good for.
I usually find I can get enough from these mags by perusing them at the local newsstand.
When I see their stuff completely outdated as usual, I'll then head home and back to the internet (and The Cafe) for the latest info. Really, there's no "for pay" info out there that you can't get otherwise for free.
Opinions, sure... you can pony-up the $$$ and get a bunch of them from the"insiders" and "experts".
However, I trust a lot of guys' opinions around here more than I do these so-called "experts", especially when it comes to strictly FFootball matters.