News From Ball Street

Ball Street-Wall Street. It rhymes, see what we did there? Here we watch the stocks (ehh, ehh?) of players who are rising and falling, and decide whether you should target these shooting and sinking stars. Clever, I know. In the same way that you scan the free agent pool at this point in the season for guys who will give you reliable involvement down the stretch, it's time to make some deadline deals to stock up on high opportunity, high impact players. You need to search for guys you know will get a chance to succeed and pick a few who you think will follow through on that promise. Think Cliff Bars. You know they'll get the opportunity to produce and you are fairly confident that they will. Savor, or trash, the oat-nutty goodness of the following Ball Street stocks. Stock Up Willis McGahee/RB Baltimore—Twenty-five carries, 112 yards, and two touchdowns shoot McGahee back to fantasy prominence right? Well, the performance didn't seem to excite the Baltimore coach all too much. The Monday after Willis's big game, Jim Harbaugh reinforced that the Ravens plan to continue to vary their running back usage from week to week, all depending on the gameplan. McGahee hasn't shaken the time share yet. Course of Action: Sell Tennesee Titans Passing Offense—So this past weekend the Chicago Bears became the first NFL team to face the Titans with some remnant of resistance towards the two-headed Tennessee backfield touch tandem (alliteration jubilation!). The Bears made Jeff Fisher's crew beat them with the pass—and they did. However, not many teams can stop Chris Johnson and LenDale White, so don't expect the Titans offense to be spearheaded by the pass very often. For Pete's sake, Kerry Collins hasn't had a two-touchdown or a 200-yard game once the rest of this season. Course of Action: Sell Kevin Smith/RB Detroit—Did you really believe Rudi Johnson would be relevant in Detroit for very long? Over the past four weeks, Smith's touches have steadily increased in number and he's been making the most out of it. The only game over that stretch in which Kevin didn't score was against the Redskins, and he climaxed this past weekend with his first career 100-yard game, which he paired with another rushing touchdown, on 23 carries. Plus, there's this from Marinelli: "We wanted to get him a full boatload of runs and I think he showed some real spring and some real life." You can now add Smith to the overflowing group of stud rookie runners. Course of Action: Buy Stock Down Jake Delhomme/QB Carolina—Try your absolute hardest to ignore the 12.3 passer rating against the 2-7 Oakland Raiders and focus on the previous five weeks in which Delhomme had two scores on four different occasions. No, no, I said brush back the 72 yards and four interceptions on Sunday. Hey seuss, bury the 26% completion percentage! Can't do it? I doubt his owner can either. Which is why it's the perfect time to grab his, aside from Week Ten, solid production as a legitimate fantasy starter down the stretch for those in need of one. Course of Action: Buy Julius Jones/RB Seattle—Remember when Maurice Morris was a name worth knowing? Ya, I don't either. And his one carry this past week didn't stir up any old memories. Julius Conehead's 16 carries for 88 yards, a 5.5 average, are helping him emerge as the feature back in Seattle, and with Matt Hasselbeck returning, that's a decent situation to be in. Expect some solid production from here on out. Course of Action: Buy Bobby Engram/WR Seattle—Much like JuJo, Engram will enormously benefit from having Matt Hasselbeck back in the lineup. Koren Robinson can hardly be confused as a solid NFL starter let alone a fantasy starter, so don't let his decent output week 10 fool you. Engram is the guy you want. The epitomy of an underneath outlet, he will rack up the receptions, producing yet unearthed in 2008 fantasy gold during the playoffs. Course of Action: Buy
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News From Ball Street

News From Ball Street is like news from Wall Street. It rhymes, see what we did there? Here we watch the stocks (ehh, ehh?) of players who are rising and falling, and decide whether you should target these shooting and sinking stars. Clever, I know. Al Davis has already changed his mind on certain players that he just signed a few months ago. He released $70 million man DeAngelo Hall and supposedly has a whole list of other guys who are heading in that same direction. The Bears, Browns, Texans, and Lions will all have new starting quarterbacks next week. Phil Fullmer is done in Tennessee and John Gruden could be pulling up to take his place. Obama was right, change has come to America. And there is no place where that is more relevant than in the fantasyosphere. Values are constantly rising and falling. Let's see where they're at this week. Stock Up Greg Camarillo/WR Miami—He's a solid option, but his 11-catch, 111-yard performance against the terrible Denver secondary is misleading. He's normally good for six or seven grabs and 60 or 70 yards, so this is the time to see what you can get for him. Course of Action: Sell Tim Hightower/RB Arizona—The writing was on the wall all season that Hightower would eventually phase Edgerrin James out and take over as Arizona's starting running back. The moment finally came last weekend at St. Louis and Hightower came through big, putting up 100 yards. He's looked good all year but I can't fully trust him as a feature back when his only test is against the Rams. However, he draws two mediocre defenses in the next few games in San Fran and Seattle, so I would wait two weeks before selling him high, before he faces the Giants, Eagles, and the Vikings in three out of his following four weeks. Course of Action: Hold Sage Rosenfels/QB Houston—Rosenfels came in for an injured Matt Schaub on Sunday and looked solid. He tends to do that every time he fills in for the oft-hurt Schaub. Seriously, their stats are indistinguishable, as both succeed in the powerful Texans offense. Ride him high for the next four weeks if you managed to claim him off waivers, or if you missed out, snag him on the cheap. The two-touchdown games aren't going anywhere. Course of Action: Buy Stock Down Kellen Winslow/TE Cleveland—Easiest buy low of the week. He hasn't had a touchdown since the first week of the year, but with young Brady Quinn replacing Derek Anderson, his touches and production should increase as he plays the role of a learning, first-time starter's safety outlet. Course of Action: Buy Larry Johnson/RB Kansas City—Aside from arrests, public tension with his team, and suspensions, LJ has fallen in another aspect. He's sucked at football. With rookie Jamaal Charles looking as good as any Chief has all year, Johnson has nowhere to go but down. Find a Kansas City fan and trash this guy. Course of Action: Sell Reggie Wayne/WR Indianapolis—It's hard for me to believe that he'll continue to average 39 receiving yards from here on out, as he has the last three weeks. Find a worrisome Wayne owner and steal him. He'll put out of the slump. Hopefully. Course of Action: Buy We voted. FFWritersWithHair@gmail.com
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News From Ball Street

News From Ball Street is like news from Wall Street. It rhymes, see what we did there? Here we watch the stocks (ehh, ehh?) of players who are rising and falling, and decide whether you should target these shooting and sinking stars. Clever, I know. I used to have an old third cousin twice-removed from my uncle or something who always used to wake up every morning and say, "Another day, another dollar." Try telling that to stock brokers. Nowadays it's "Another day, another dollar," strikethrough text and all. The DOW dropped another 500 points Wednesday. Reportedly, our stock market continues to weaken because traders are worried that the global economy is weakening. Kind of like since everything sucks, so do we. Make sense? Yeah, I didn't think so. You should be in the mindset of finding the jewels among the crap. The bright spots among the darkness. The Seinfield reruns among crappy modern sitcoms. That's not to say that avoiding the Paris Hilton's My New Best Friend's out there is not important, because it is. You have to equally stay away from the pyrite. Through listening to the archaeologist. Stock Up Mewelde Moore/RB Pittsburgh—The 26 year old certainly has made the most out of his opportunities. Filling in for an injured Willie Parker and Rashard Mendenhall, Moore has proven himself to be a fully capable NFL starting running back, putting up 250 total yards and three touchdowns in his two starts. However, Parker will be back soon, very probably this week, and while Mewelde has definitely cemented himself as the third-down back and will surely continue to be highly involved in the Steelers offense, he's only a backup. Course of Action: Sell Houston Passing Game—Andre Johnson, who started off slow, has averaged 150 receiving yards over the past three weeks, including a 131 and one performance against the third-ranked Indianapolis pass defense. Matt Schaub has thrown for 646 yards in the two games since coming back from his injury. Owen Daniels is starting to show that he can consistently produce solid numbers. Get them all right now if you can. Course of Action: Buy Steven Jackson/RB St. Louis—Over the course of Jackson's past three games, he's had a week with 188 yards and a score, 111 yards and nothing, and 176 yards and three scores. In that middle game, he was without Orlando Pace. Pace is back. So is SJax. Course of Action: Buy (if you can) Stock Down Ronnie Brown/RB Miami—I sense that people never really believed in Brown. No one truly bought that a guy coming off an ACL injury could fly back to the top of the league so quickly and score eight touchdowns in four weeks. Now that he's had 77 total rushing yards in his past two games, swoop in and snag him from the doubtful owners. The only two defenses who have really shut him down are the Ravens and Jets, the best and fourth-best run defenses in the NFL, respectively. Course of Action: Buy Dwayne Bowe/WR Kansas City—Bowe has dropped three straight touchdown-less weeks with under 90 yards. Losing the top two quarterbacks, Brodie Croyle and Damon Huard, on an already weak depth chart to season ending injuries and having Tyler Thigpen or Quinn Gray as replacements does not help your cause. Get rid of him while you can. Course of Action: Sell Roy Williams/WR Dallas—I could plug any Cowboy in this hole. The entire franchise is rapidly losing value. But not in a "Crap, the Titanic is sinking" way—more like "It's the bottom of the ninth and the Yankees are down one with one on as Reggie Jackson comes to the plate." Just wait. It'll resurrect. Coming off a goose-egg weekend, Williams can be had on the cheap. When Romo returns next month, he'll be a stud again. Might as well get him when it's easy and stash him on the bench. Course of Action: Buy We talk to strangers. FFWritersWithHair@gmail.com
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From The Feature That Takes Us A Month To Get Up And Running Department - News From Ball Street: Week 5

News From Ball Street is like news from Wall Street. It rhymes, see what we did there? Here we watch the stocks (ehh, ehh?) of players who are rising and falling, and decide whether you should target these shooting and sinking stars. Clever, I know. Whadya know, the Dow is down again. Crude oil's rising. And my town is currently going through the ceremonial and educational Suicide Prevention Week. Coincidence? It's a response, I say. Kind of like this feature. Players' values rise and fall, and we respond with analysis. Will you use this week's info to kill in your league? Stock Up Larry Johnson - LJ has put up around 34 points over the past two weeks but I still don't feel like people believe in him as a legitimate, non-crappy, option again. Rightfully so. In week three and four Johnson faced up against Denver and Atlanta, two bottom 10 rushing defenses. He had 96 total rushing yards in the first two weeks against the Chiefs' first two opponents, New England and Oakland, both of whom are better than horrible D's. Course of action: Sell High Jason Campbell - The Redskins have swagger right now. Campbell has performed at a consistently high level thus far this year. Right now his value is rising, but it will only get higher. He's good for 20 points every week. Get him right now when his owner still probably considers the bench player that he drafted him as. Course of action: Buy High Chris Perry - DeDe Dorsey is on IR, Kenny Watson is hurt, and Cedric Benson is... Cedric Benson. So Perry will get tons of touches and be a fantasy force, correct? Neeeope. Perry rushed for 28 yards last Sunday. Against Cleveland. While getting the majority of the touches at running back. Course of action: Sell High Stock Low Ryan Grant - I guarantee that Grant owners have benched him by now. Get him now. Right now. The Bucs are one of only two teams in the league who haven't given up a rushing touchdown yet in 2008. They have a good, good rushing defense. Grant's 20 yards in week 4 weren't because he sucks. They were because of the matchup. Relax. He's also still recovering from his leg issues. He'll bounce back. Course of action: Buy Low Kevin Smith - After a nice week one, Smith was looking like a good addition to what's turning out to be an awesome rookie running back class. About that. Weeks two, three, and four have been terrible. And Rudi Johnson just won the starting job. The same Rudi Johnson who couldn't keep a job on the 0-4 Bengals. Nothing's getting better for Smith. Course of action: Sell Low Ben Roethlisberger - A guy who was so solid last year can't keep playing this mediocre. Especially when his team is on their third-string running back and will have to rely on the passing game. Right? I gotta believe his value will rise back up near the top. Course of action: Buy Low
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