Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Masters Hot Pick(s) & Fraud(s)

The hottest ticket of the year is here--the 2008 Masters. Fantasy players should be thinking about who is hot, who isn't, and who is just a fantasy fraud for this tournament. So, starting out with the hot picks, here are some thoughts on who could win and who could be in the top 5:

Tiger Woods--No comment necessary

Phil Mickelson--Again, not much comment necessary (as long as he keeps his head in the game).

Vijay Singh--Is his game coming back?

Steve Stricker--He's been playing well under the radar.

Ian Poulter--Seems to do well in majors.

And the not-so-hot picks (the fantasy fraud list):

Rory Sabbatini--Great golfer, is playing well, but just needs to beat Tiger (so he can quit hearing about his comments). However, he did win the par 3 tournament, so tradition is against him. He putted well in the par 3, so no one can accuse him of scamming out a win.

Jim Furyk--Probably this week's biggest fraud. Furyk is a great golfer, but he is accused of not having the long game for Augusta.

Ernie Els--Getting better, and the family issues are getting better as well. But, the guess here is that he isn't ready to take Augusta.

Obviously, luck plays into the tournament, (except for Tiger). There is no reason to pick against him, but there are players who can challenge and perhaps beat him this year. However, that seems to rely more on Tiger falling apart than someone else stepping up.

Todd Lokken's Fantasy Baseball Frauds

Top three frauds for the fantasy baseball season? The three nominated frauds are Barry Zito, Eric Chavez, and Mike Hampton.

This is what makes fantasy baseball great. All three players were no doubt drafted in most leagues, and all three are way down on their expected performance. In fact, both Hampton and Zito are behind Chris Volstad and Manny Parra thus far in 2008.

While the performance of both Zito and Hampton is directly related to the Hampton's health and Zito's inexplicable loss of velocity, Chavez is simply broken down. It looks like he will be on the shelf for another month, giving fantasy owners zero help through April.

Although it may not be fair to judge players with just one week gone by, it should be pointed out that each of these players were expected to perform much better this year (versus 2007). If they do not perform one week, the team may be ok. Two weeks of poor stats places a fantasy team in an early hole. Three weeks? You may want to start looking at next year.

Strategic Fantasy Sports provides fantasy analysis and strategy for players of fantasy sports. For more information, see http://www.toddlokken.com.