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	<title> &#187; FANTASY FOOTBALL</title>
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		<title>2010 Fantasy Football Rankings</title>
		<link>http://youbeenblinded.com/2010-fantasy-football-rankings/7993</link>
		<comments>http://youbeenblinded.com/2010-fantasy-football-rankings/7993#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:31:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Antwan Leonard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[#3FEAT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FANTASY FOOTBALL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2010]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DRAFT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fantasy Football]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Guide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NFL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Quarterbacks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rankings]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Stats]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wide Receivers]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Ranking the top 50 players for the 2010 fantasy football season.]]></description>
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<p>With just a few days to the start of NFL training camps, it&#8217;s time for serious <strong><a href="http://www.h2hfantasysports.com/category/football/">Fantasy Football Heads</a></strong> to start thinking strategy.  Some of the more enthusiastic commissioners have already held their league drafts.  For those of you who dared have your draft without my 2010 Fantasy Football Rankings, good luck with that.  For the rest of you geniuses who were waiting with baited breath for my rankings, here&#8217;s my top 50 overall player rankings (standard 10-12 player league with 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 RB/WR, 1 TE, 1 K and 1 DEF/ST):<span id="more-7993"></span></p>
<p>Click here for the 2010 <a href="http://www.docsports.com/schedules/nfl/index.html">NFL schedule</a>.</p>
<p>1. <strong>Chris Johnson, RB, Tennessee Titans</strong> &#8211; With a newly re-structured contract C.J. is now a sure bet to show up for the beginning of training camp.  Only a prolonged holdout would have left any doubt as to who was #1.</p>
<p>2. <strong>Adrian Peterson, RB, Minnesota Vikings</strong> &#8211; The consensus #1 in most people&#8217;s 2009 preseason rankings comes in at #2 for 2010.</p>
<p>3. <strong>Ray Rice, RB, Baltimore Ravens</strong> &#8211; Has all the tools and now the team around him to top this list in 2011.</p>
<p>4. <strong>Maurice Jones-Drew, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars</strong> &#8211; Would have been my #3 overall if the team around him was better.</p>
<p>5. <strong>Michael Turner, RB, Atlanta Falcons</strong> &#8211; Could have easily gone with my top-rated WR or QB here, but I have a feeling Turner bounces back with a strong 2010 campaign.</p>
<p>6. <strong>Frank Gore, RB, San Francisco 49ers</strong> &#8211; Gore had an interesting 2009 with several explosive games sandwiched between a number of duds.  Should be more consistent in an improving 49ers offense in 2010.</p>
<p>7. <strong>Steven Jackson, RB, St. Louis Rams</strong> – As with Gore, injuries are a concern but the numbers are there when healthy.</p>
<p>8. <strong>Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans Saints</strong> &#8211; Close call between Brees and Aaron Rodgers for top QB honors.  Brees gets nod for longer history of consistency.</p>
<p>9. <strong>Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay Packers</strong> &#8211; You&#8217;d get very little argument from me if this guy was your #1 Fantasy QB.</p>
<p>10. <strong>Andre Johnson, WR, Houston Texans</strong> &#8211; Size, speed, hands and a guy who&#8217;s developed into a Pro-Bowl caliber QB tossing him the ball.  Any doubts as to why he&#8217;s the #1 receiver?</p>
<p>11. <strong>Rashard Mendenhall, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers</strong> &#8211; Bounced back strong in his 2nd season after a disastrous rookie season in 2008.  Should see plenty of opportunities with Willie Parker now in Washington.</p>
<p>12. <strong>Randy Moss, WR, New England Patriots</strong> &#8211; Just continues to put up big numbers year after year.  Is there any reason to believe it won&#8217;t continue?  Didn&#8217;t think so.</p>
<p>13. <strong>DeAngelo Williams, RB, Carolina Panthers</strong> &#8211; Even though he shares carries with Jonathan Stewart, the Panthers commitment to the run provides Williams with plenty of opportunities to shine.</p>
<p>14. <strong>Shonn Greene, RB, New York Jets</strong> &#8211; Looked like a sure-fire top 10 guy prior to LaDanian Tomlinson arriving.  Should emerge as the starter in a run-heavy offense, but the question remains: how many carries will LT steal?</p>
<p>15. <strong>Reggie Wayne, WR, Indianapolis Colts</strong> &#8211; As steady as they come at the WR position.  </p>
<p>16. <strong>Peyton Manning, QB, Indianapolis Colts</strong> &#8211; His reign as the No.1 Fantasy QB may be over, but Archie&#8217;s boy can start for my team anytime.</p>
<p>17. <strong>Cedric Benson, RB, Cincinnati Bengals</strong> &#8211; Let&#8217;s hope the surprise of 2009 has a better 2010 on the field than he&#8217;s had off of it.</p>
<p>18. <strong>Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Arizona Cardinals</strong> &#8211; Perhaps the most difficult player on the list to rank.  No Kurt, no Anquan &#8211; how does this impact the best pure receiver in the league?</p>
<p>19. <strong>Ryan Grant, RB, Green Bay Packers</strong> &#8211; The best thing Grant has going for him is lack of competition in the Packers backfield.  He is the Green Bay running game, so expect enough opportunities here to justify a top 20 ranking. </p>
<p>20. <strong>Roddy White, WR, Atlanta Falcons</strong> &#8211; In QB Matt Ryan&#8217;s 3rd season, expect the Falcons to allow him more opportunities to throw the ball down the field.  This sets up perfectly for White who was already one of the most explosive WRs in the NFL.</p>
<p>21. <strong>Tom Brady, QB, New England Patriots</strong> – Should be business as usual in 2010 for Mr. Brady.</p>
<p>22. <strong>Jamaal Charles, RB, Kansas City Chiefs</strong> – Was headed to the top 10 before back-to-back 1300 yard rusher Thomas Jones came over from the Jets.  Will likely lose valuable goal line touches to Jones, but the explosive end to 2009 is hard to ignore.</p>
<p>23. <strong>LeSean McCoy, RB, Philadelphia Eagles</strong> – Has some big shoes to fill after the Eagles cut ties with the incredibly productive Brian Westbrook.  </p>
<p>24. <strong>Miles Austin, WR, Dallas Cowboys</strong> – Last season’s breakthrough receiver should be even better this season now that he has the full confidence of Tony Romo.</p>
<p>25. <strong>Ryan Mathews, RB, San Diego Chargers</strong> – The <strong><a href="http://www.h2hfantasysports.com/2010-rookie-fantasy-football-rankings">first rookie to grace these rankings</a></strong> has been designated the starter since draft day.  The kid has a chance to be an elite back right away in this offense.</p>
<p>26. <strong>Calvin Johnson, WR, Detroit Lions</strong> – If Lions QB Matt Stafford takes the leap many are expecting this season, Johnson could move way up this list for next season.</p>
<p>27. <strong>Knowshon Moreno, RB, Denver Broncos</strong> – The more talented Moreno should eventually secure most of the carries over his current running mate Correll Buckhalter.  Question is: how soon does it happen?</p>
<p>28. <strong>Brandon Marshall, WR, Miami Dolphins</strong> – With a quicker than expected recovery from hip surgery, Marshall should have plenty of time to develop chemistry with his new QB.</p>
<p>29. <strong>Beanie Wells, RB, Arizona Cardinals</strong> – Like Moreno in Denver, Wells should eventually distinguish himself from his less talented backfield mate Tim Hightower in 2010.</p>
<p>30. <strong>Pierre Thomas, RB, New Orleans Saints</strong> – The Saints crowded backfield got a little less so with the departure of Mike Bell.  This should allow Thomas more opportunities – especially around the goal line.</p>
<p>31. <strong>Tony Romo, QB, Dallas Cowboys</strong> – Romo now has as many weapons as any QB in the league and will take full advantage of that this season.  Could be nipping at Brady’s heels.</p>
<p>32. <strong>Phillip Rivers, QB, San Diego Chargers</strong> – The absence of Vincent Jackson will hurt some, but the cupboard will be far from bare for Rivers and the Chargers offense.</p>
<p>33.<strong> Marques Colston, WR, New Orleans Saints</strong> – Colston owners often find themselves the victim of Brees’ spread the wealth passing style, but he remains a Fantasy stud at WR nonetheless.</p>
<p>34. <strong>Greg Jennings, WR, Green Bay Packers</strong> – An explosive talent teamed with an elite QB = excellent Fantasy production.</p>
<p>35. <strong>DeSean Jackson, WR, Philadelphia Eagles</strong> – Will he continue to make huge plays so consistently?  I have my doubts, but he will have enough to go fairly early in most drafts.</p>
<p>36. <strong>Jonathan Stewart, RB, Carolina Panthers</strong> – Has remained very productive despite sharing the load as a backup to DeAngelo Williams.</p>
<p>37. <strong>Sidney Rice, WR, Minnesota Vikings</strong> – Favre seems likely to make his annual training camp comeback, so expect Rice to once again put up excellent numbers.</p>
<p>38. <strong>Matt Forte, RB, Chicago Bears</strong> – One of the biggest disappointments in 2009 after a stellar rookie season.  The newly acquired Chester Taylor is a concern, but Forte should remain the no. 1 back in Chi-town.</p>
<p>39. <strong>Joseph Addai, RB, Indianapolis Colts</strong> – Quietly had a pretty productive 2009.  Rushing numbers won’t impress you, but is a great flex option and solid RB2.</p>
<p>40. <strong>Jahvid Best, RB, Detroit Lions</strong> – Our second rookie would be higher if durability wasn’t a concern.  Should supplant incumbent Kevin Smith very early on.</p>
<p>41. <strong>Matt Schaub, QB, Houston Texans</strong> – The Texans offense was one of the more potent in the NFL with the emergence of Schaub as a high-end QB.</p>
<p>42. <strong>Ronnie Brown, RB, Miami Dolphins</strong> – A definite pattern has emerged with Brown:  flashes of brilliance usually interrupted by injury.  When healthy though, Brown is a very good RB option in all Fantasy formats.</p>
<p>43. <strong>Anquan Boldin, WR, Baltimore Ravens</strong> – Boldin finally moves out from under the shadow of Larry Fitzgerald and will show what he can do as the go-to-guy.   </p>
<p>44. <strong>Brandon Jacobs, RB, New York Giants</strong> – His days as a stud RB are in the past, but the bruising Jacobs is still the starter in an offense that loves the run. </p>
<p>45. <strong>Chad Ochocinco, WR, Cincinnati Bengals</strong> – Came back strong last season after a very disappointing 2008.  Strong play should continue in 2010 – even with the addition of Antonio Bryant.</p>
<p>46. <strong>Ben Tate, RB, Houston Texans</strong> – Word is the Texans are very high on their rookie out of Auburn.  He will begin by sharing time with Steve Slaton, but his more physical style should result in more carriers as the season wears on.</p>
<p>47. <strong>Vincent Jackson, WR, San Diego Chargers</strong> – Suspension and the potential for a prolonged holdout knock Jackson out of the top-tier WR rankings.</p>
<p>48. <strong>Dallas Clark, TE, Indianapolis Colts</strong> – Yes, a tight end did make it into the top 50, but Mr. Clark is so much more than just a TE in Indy.</p>
<p>49. <strong>Joe Flacco, QB, Baltimore Ravens</strong> – Like a lot of others, I’m high on Flacco this season.  He has a lot of weapons now at his disposal in Baltimore, and there’s just something about good young quarterbacks in their 3rd year.</p>
<p>50. <strong>Marion Barber, RB, Dallas Cowboys</strong> – There are signs of a slow down with the Barbarian, and Felix Jones waiting in the wings doesn’t help, but I have a feeling Barber has a strong 2010.  He is still the goal line back of choice in Big D and that’s important in an offense that figures to be in the red zone a lot. </p>
<p>&#8211;Antwan Leonard</p>
<p>Antwan writes a Fantasy sports blog &#8211; <strong><a href="http://www.h2hfantasysports.com/">H2H Fantasy Sports</a></strong> &#8211; with the latest in Head2Head Fantasy news, tips and recommendations.</p>
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		<title>Interview: The Talented Mr. Roto Matthew Berry</title>
		<link>http://youbeenblinded.com/interview-the-talented-mr-roto-matthew-berry/1052</link>
		<comments>http://youbeenblinded.com/interview-the-talented-mr-roto-matthew-berry/1052#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:47:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>HG</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BRIAN MCCANN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CARLOS LEE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ESPN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ESPN.COM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FANTASY BASEBALL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FANTASY FOOTBALL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FANTASY SPORTS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FANTASYMOGULS.COM]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[MATTHEW BERRY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MEL KIPER]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SIGN UP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[THE TALENTED MR. ROTO]]></category>

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Fantasy sports have reached heights that many people thought impossible. What was once a game for nerds and stat freaks is played everywhere, from corporate offices to professional sports locker...]]></description>
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<p><img src="http://youbeenblinded.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/matthewberry.gif" alt="matthewberry.gif" align="left" />Fantasy sports have reached heights that many people thought impossible. What was once a game for nerds and stat freaks is played everywhere, from corporate offices to professional sports locker rooms. One of the most prominent faces in the fantasy sports world is ESPN&#8217;s Sr. Director of Fantasy, The Talented Mr. Roto Matthew Berry. I was able to catch up with my former co-worker and talk Hollywood, breaking into the fantasy sports scene, and a little fantasy baseball. The  conversation is after the jump.<span id="more-1052"></span></p>
<blockquote><p><strong>HG</strong>: Prior to becoming the Talented Mr. Roto you were a writer in Hollywood. You&#8217;ve been involved with numerous projects but I have to say I&#8217;m most impressed by Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles.</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: Thank you. I&#8217;m a Razzy nominee for my work on Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles. I co-wrote that with Eric Abrams who was my writing partner for a number of years and we got the job because they correctly answered the question &#8216;<em>they wanna pay us how much</em>?!?&#8217; So it was great. Listen, it bought me a house, God bless The Croc.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: When you were writing in Hollywood were you always secretly hoping to wind up working in sports or were blindsided by the opportunity?</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: I think it&#8217;s more of the latter. I always had a huge passion for sports. I&#8217;ve been playing fantasy sports since I was 14 years old.. And not just a passion for sports, a passion for fantasy sports. That&#8217;s my true love. In 1999 there was a fantasy sports website that was looking for writers. I sent them an email and said &#8216;<em>Hey, I&#8217;m a professional writer living out here in Hollywood and fantasy sports is the passion of my life. I think it would be so much fun if I could just do something on the side. Maybe I could write a little column for you guys, can I try out? can I send you a little sample</em>?&#8217; They email me back the next day and say <a href="http://imdb.com/name/nm0077627/" target="_blank"><strong>they looked me up on IMDB</strong></a>, Married With Children was  their favorite show of all-time, and I&#8217;m hired. That&#8217;s how I became a fantasy sports expert/columnist.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: How did you come up with the name &#8220;The Talented Mr. Roto&#8221;?</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: Well I started writing the column, I wanted to come up with a name that made me sound like an expert, and was memorable, but wasn&#8217;t like I was taking myself too seriously but still official sounding. So my then wife at the time, we had just seen The Talented Mr. Ripley, said &#8220;What about The Talented Mr. Roto&#8221;? I had been doing all of these lame ones like Doctor Fantasy and Mr. Roto.. They were all terrible. So she came up with that I was like that&#8217;s hilarious, we should do that and it stuck.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: How did you go from writing a column on the internet to the face of fantasy sports at ESPN?</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: I just kept writing the column and the column seemed to be getting popular with readers.. Then there was a host at Fox Sports Radio named Steve Mason who was a big fantasy fan, you were actually producing his show then, you guys reached out to me and said why don&#8217;t you come on for 15 minutes and do a fantasy segment. It went well. Eventually 15 minutes turned to 30 turned to an hour, turned to <em>why don&#8217;t you guest host</em>? Then I ended up getting hired for two years by Fox Sports Radio to be their official fantasy sports expert. So I did 11 different hits over the course of a week, various shows but mostly on Sundays. Along the way, Steve ended up leaving Fox for ESPN radio in Los Angeles, 710, an ESPN owned and operated station. He introduced me to the program director over there and they wanted me to do a two hour fantasy football show. I went over to do that, I wanted to get in with ESPN, I thought it was a great opportunity. I left Fox to go to ESPN and once I started doing ESPN radio, that ended up introducing me to some people at Cold Pizza and I started doing some tv hits on Cold Pizza, which led to me doing some stuff on ESPNEWS, which led to ESPN the Magazine offering to let me write a column, which led to me getting the fantasy show last year with Ron Jaworski and <a href="http://www.survivorshrine.com/s11/images/bios/ind/danni.jpg" target="_blank"><strong>Danni Boatwright</strong></a>.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: Damn. That&#8217;s a huge mountain to climb in such a short amount of time.</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: It is. I was very very lucky. A lot of things broke right. My rise if you will, was along the same rise as fantasy sports. As it started becoming more and more mainstream, regular media companies such as Fox Sports, ESPN, NBA.com, The Sporting News, they knew fantasy was getting big, they knew they needed someone to talk about it, but they didn&#8217;t have anyone in house that could, or that they felt comfortable putting out there. In the case of ESPN they had some people here, but with more and more platforms, more and more content was needed. So what happened was people continued to like me. I would walk through a door and another door would open. Let me go back for a second.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: Ok</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: I&#8217;m sort of jumping around here but in 2004, the website I was with fired me. I was making 100 bucks a week to write my column. They came to me and said &#8216;we want you to take a pay cut to $25 a week.. We can&#8217;t afford $100 a week at this time&#8217; This is before the internet really exploded. And I said &#8216;I&#8217;ve been working for you for 3 years and you want me to take a 300% pay cut?&#8217; I didn&#8217;t take the pay cut, it was a principle matter, the money was so minuscule it didn&#8217;t really make a huge difference but it was the principle. When I refused to take the pay cut and they fired me so I decided to start my own site, thetalentedmrroto.com&#8230; And I started it cause I was really enjoying it. It was more of a creative outlet and something I enjoyed doing more than the Hollywood stuff I was doing. So the website kept growing but I didn&#8217;t have any marketing budget so the best way for me to get out and promote the website was ME. I just basically took every radio station gig, every tv thing, anyone who wanted to interview me, offered up my content for free. All I wanted to do was try and get the word out, try and get traffic. What happened was twofold. Number one was that it helped build up some traffic and awareness for the website and in addition it got me more and more reps on the air. I got a lot more comfortable, I was able to work with producers that understand what they want. Every time I did it I got better at being on the radio, being on tv. Suddenly, I found myself in this unique position of being one the very few guys in the industry that had been playing this and could speak the language of fantasy. I was able to speak about it in an entertaining way that radio and tv producers liked, and I could explain it to an audience that may not be as familiar with fantasy&#8230; So the website continued to get more and more popular and after the Ron Jaworski show, the fantasy show I did, they really liked my work on that, it tested well. ESPN basically decided they were looking for the Mel Kiper of fantasy sports and they thought I was the guy. They said they really liked what I had done with my website because Talented Mr. Roto started in 2004 and was profitable by the middle of 2005. By 2006 I had over 50 writers, we had more nominations and more wins as far as industry awards, in terms of writing and content, than any other site. Things were going real well so they said we like what you&#8217;ve done with the site, we like what you&#8217;ve done business wise, we like you on the air so we&#8217;d like to buy your website, bring you over here, have you bring your talented writers over here, and let&#8217;s really blow out fantasy so I said &#8216;Where do  I sign?&#8217;</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: Do you like the title &#8220;The Mel Kiper of fantasy sports&#8221;?</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: Sure. I think it&#8217;s an easy shorthand. Obviously Mel Kiper&#8217;s terrific. He&#8217;s synonymous with one day a year. It&#8217;s amazing what he&#8217;s done with one day a year, draft day. Now it&#8217;s so much more than that. I think the idea is basically Mel Kiper&#8217;s become synonymous with something that has a very passionate following and is considered by some to be niche and fantasy certainly fits within that. I think fantasy actually has a broader appeal, but it&#8217;s a good shorthand. There&#8217;s a lot worse things to be called than the Mel Kiper of fantasy sports because he&#8217;s been phenomenally successful.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: You just laid out everything it took for you to get where you are today. Playing fantasy sports at 14, running a website, networking.. but if I <a href="http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=berry_matthew" target="_blank"><strong>go to your blog</strong></a>, everybody thinks they can do your job. Does this happen to you a lot in public? Do people run up to you complaining about your draft advice or telling you how much better they are at fantasy sports than you?</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: People are much braver on the internet than they are in public. Anytime somebody recognizes me in public and comes over and talks to me, they&#8217;re extremely complimentary, very flattering, and wanna tell me all about their team. And to all the people that say I can do your job better than you, I always say then go ahead. I just told you my whole story. It&#8217;s not like I&#8217;m someone&#8217;s kid, I didn&#8217;t have any connections or anything like that. I answered a blind ad on a website in 1999. From there, I definitely got some breaks, definitely got some people like Steve Mason and yourself that helped me out, but I worked my butt off. Every single day I woke up thinking about the website, went to bed thinking about the website, gave up nights, gave up weekends, and pushed forward with it while doing a full time job as a movie writer. So whether people love me or hate me, I don&#8217;t think anybody will accuse me of being just handed this. I&#8217;ll bring this up, and he&#8217;s been very public about it, Mike Harmon. Mike Harmon who was the big fantasy expert over at Yahoo for a long time, <a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/writer/archive?authorId=3540247" target="_blank"><strong>now he&#8217;s over at Fox.</strong></a> Very sweet guy, really nice, I like him a lot, but Mike Harmon was in the customer service department  at Yahoo when they were starting. Somebody said &#8216;Who plays fantasy?&#8217; and Mike Harmon says &#8216;I play fantasy&#8217; so they brought him over. So I&#8217;m not a guy that was already working at Yahoo or working at ESPN or working at one of these big media companies that just happened to be right place, right time, &#8216;We need someone that plays fantasy, hey you do right?&#8217;. Anyone can do what I did.. Which is answer a blind ad on a website, write well, develop enough of a following that you&#8217;re confident about being out on your own, buying a url at register.com, throwing some content up there, going out there and promoting the site driving traffic, and getting noticed enough that a media company wants to buy you. I don&#8217;t wanna say it&#8217;s easy because it&#8217;s not, it&#8217;s real tough but there&#8217;s no barrier to entry there. So that&#8217;s what I say to that. As far as my actual picks or analysis, I can&#8217;t predict the future. I&#8217;ll be the first to admit that.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: So what can you do?</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: My job is to provide analysis and that analysis is based on trends and research, and to do it in an entertaining way&#8230; and I think that I do that. My track record&#8217;s pretty good.. I tend to think that most people read fantasy analysis to see if the expert agrees with them or not. Most people that play and know it wanna know does this guy like the guys I like? If you like the guys they like you&#8217;re a genius, if you hate the guys they like you&#8217;re a moron. It doesn&#8217;t bother me, I encourage it in fact, I like to print hate mail.. My sort of feeling is that I don&#8217;t care whether they love me or they hate me, it&#8217;s when they don&#8217;t care what I&#8217;m saying that I&#8217;m really screwed.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: I like to say fantasy sports is to sports what porn is to the movie industry. They were considered dirty and underground but they&#8217;re being accepted by the mainstream more and more. Do you have an analogy or explanation for fantasy sports?</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: It basically gives you a rooting interest in every single game. It brings you together with your friends.. There&#8217;s nothing better than talking trash with your buddies in the spirit of fantasy. You&#8217;re watching SportsCenter at night, they&#8217;re showing some highlight of the Tampa Bay Rays and the Pittsburgh Pirates in interleague play, and it&#8217;s like who cares about that? Well I do because I have Carl Crawford and Jason Bay on my team.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: So you don&#8217;t combine porn and fantasy?</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: I don&#8217;t, I don&#8217;t.. but understand, we&#8217;re owned by <a href="http://www.neckermann-reisen.de/top/frankreich/disneyland-paris.html">Disney</a>.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: Aah. That&#8217;s true.</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: I understand you&#8217;re analogy though because for a long time fantasy sports was pushed to the side, sort of a dirty little secret, and now it&#8217;s completely mainstream. Everybody does it. I got to go down to ESPN the Weekend in Orlando. They sent all the bigwigs down there, the Stuart Scotts, all of the big shots at the network. So if they sent 75 celebrities down there, I&#8217;m number 75. I&#8217;m probably #76 but 75 got sick or something. But anyways, I get to go down there and they have me interviewing some of these athletes for fantasy and the thing I was amazed about, every single baseball player plays fantasy football. Brian McCann walked in the interview room and said &#8220;Hey, Matthew Berry the fantasy guy, man watch you all the time.&#8221; It&#8217;s like, in what universe should Brian McCann recognize me? It&#8217;s ridiculous.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: Guys are skipping past Berman and Stuart Scott to get to you?</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: It&#8217;s absolutely insane. It makes no sense whatsoever. Brian McCann told me all about his four teams and he&#8217;s like &#8216;<em>Oh, Larry Johnson screwed me last year</em>&#8216;, he&#8217;s into it and I asked him, who&#8217;s in the league. &#8216;<em>Francoeur&#8217;s in it, Smoltzy, Glavine</em>&#8216;. It&#8217;s amazing to me. Everyone plays. Even Carlos Lee. Carlos Lee said he wasn&#8217;t a big football fan, but now he&#8217;s a football fan. I asked him why&#8217;s that he said  &#8220;<em>I didn&#8217;t use to watch American football, but Hunter Pence wanted me to co-own his team with him in the Astros clubhouse</em>.&#8221; They finished 2nd and he really got into it. And that&#8217;s what fantasy does. It gets you into sports. Sports you don&#8217;t care about, sports you may not have as much of an appreciation for and it&#8217;s a lot of fun. I&#8217;ve never had someone play fantasy, try it, and say &#8216;eeh not for me&#8217;, not if they&#8217;re a sports fan. I&#8217;ve had people say it takes too much time or they got too addicted to it, but if you try it, you will like it.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: Fantasy sports might not be for everyone but you have ways people get the fantasy feel without being involved in sports right? I think it was something you and Bill Simmons were discussing? A fantasy hollywood league?</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: Yeah. Movies. I started one of those, but when I took my deal at ESPN I had to sell my interest in it so I have a minority stake in it and I don&#8217;t have anything to do with it, but a company called <a href="http://fantasymoguls.com/" target="_blank"><strong>fantasymoguls.com</strong></a>. They do entertainment based fantasy games and they do a great job. I&#8217;m just a money investor, I have a small piece in it but movies would be my choice.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: Ok, I guess that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m thinking of. Well, it&#8217;s about time to wrap this up but I can&#8217;t have a conversation with a fantasy sports expert without getting some advice so give us some guys you like this fantasy baseball season and a few guys you think people should stay away from. Sleepers and Dogs I guess.</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>:  Here&#8217;s the problem with that. Define a sleeper. To me a sleeper is a guy that exceeds expectations. Is Brandon Phillips a sleeper? I don&#8217;t think so but he&#8217;s going in the third round of most ESPN drafts and I actually think he&#8217;s a first round guy, so it&#8217;s always hard to say. I really like Jeff Francoeur this year. Last year he hit 19 home runs however he almost doubled the amount of doubles he had from 2006 to 2007, and 14 of those doubles hit the wall. He added 20 pounds in the offseason, he&#8217;s played 162 games each of the last two years. That&#8217;s a guy that I think is gonna have a monster year. I was on tv the other day and they asked me for a bold prediction. I said &#8216;Bold prediction? Rick Ankiel 40 home runs.&#8217; Here&#8217;s the reason I gave. Rick Ankiel hit 43 home runs between triple A and the Majors last year. When he got to the Majors, he was hitting home runs one every 14 at bats. If he gets 600 at bats this year, which playing everyday he should, he&#8217;s gonna hit more than 40. He needs to stay healthy and I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s gonna help you&#8217;re batting average, I think he&#8217;s gonna hit .250-.260, but 40 home runs is a definite possibility, especially if he&#8217;s hitting in front of Pujols. Third, I think Rich Harden. Somebody&#8217;s gotten in Rich Harden&#8217;s ear. I think he stays healthy this year. Oh, I love Corey Hart this year. Look at <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=5973" target="_blank"><strong>Corey Hart&#8217;s numbers</strong></a> from last year and compare them to <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=5882" target="_blank"><strong>Grady Sizemore&#8217;s</strong></a>. They&#8217;re almost identical and yet Grady Sizemore had 120 more at bats last year. Also, it&#8217;s a small sample size, but Nick Swisher&#8217;s batting average at U.S. Cellular Field the last three years, .383. I think Nick Swisher&#8217;s gonna have a big year in Chicago. If you want a deep sleeper I wrote that I like Shawn Hill in Washington as a pitcher.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: Who are you staying away from this year?</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: I&#8217;m staying away from Albert Pujols because to get him you&#8217;re gonna have to get him in the first round or so and it&#8217;s just too much risk. If the Cardinals are out of it in the middle of June, why wouldn&#8217;t they shut him down? He needs surgery on that elbow eventually. I&#8217;m really concerned about that. They&#8217;ve already said he&#8217;s going to be resting.. I&#8217;m not crazy about Francisco Liriano. Everyone&#8217;s all hyped up about him but remember he&#8217;s never pitched more than 175 innings at any professional level. He&#8217;s coming back from surgery, he&#8217;s never stayed healthy&#8230; and Hiroki Kuroda. He&#8217;s a guy that I don&#8217;t like. First off, he doesn&#8217;t strike anyone out, he&#8217;s a groundball pitcher and last year the Dodgers had the fifth worst fielding percentage of any team in Major League Baseball. This is a guy where a lot of people are like &#8216;whoa, a Japanese import&#8217; but no. So there you go, those are three busts.</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: All right man. I appreciate that and I&#8217;m sure all of the fantasy baseball players do too.</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: If you&#8217;ll allow me to pimp a little bit..</p>
<p><strong>HG</strong>: We&#8217;ll allow it.</p>
<p><strong>MB</strong>: You can still <a href="http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage/baseball" target="_blank"><strong>sign up to play fantasy baseball</strong></a> with free live scoring on ESPN.com, Fantasy insider is every Sunday at 11 a.m. EST on ESPNEWS, Nate Ravitz and I do a podcast every single day that&#8217;s free. It&#8217;s the top-rated fantasy podcast, it&#8217;s one of the top five ESPN podcasts, and it&#8217;s currently in the top 40 of all podcasts on Itunes. Our downloads are well into the six figures. Also, Sunday nights Fantasy Focus radio show, it&#8217;s 9 p.m. EST on ESPN radio or ESPN.com. Starting next week I&#8217;m gonna be on daily doing fantasy minutes on First Take and Baseball Tonight. In addition, we do a daily online fantasy show. It&#8217;s on ESPN.com and ESPN mobile tv so either you can watch it on your cellphone or on the dot com.. It&#8217;s also called Fantasy Focus and of course I write for the magazine and the dot com.</p></blockquote>
<p>Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Matthew+Berry" rel="tag">Matthew Berry</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Fantasy+Expert" rel="tag">Fantasy Expert</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/ESPN" rel="tag">ESPN</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/interview" rel="tag">interview</a></p>
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		<title>EVERYDAY I&#8217;M HUSTLIN&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://youbeenblinded.com/everyday-im-hustlin/485</link>
		<comments>http://youbeenblinded.com/everyday-im-hustlin/485#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:25:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>HG</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BALL HYPE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FANTASY FOOTBALL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FOOTBALL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MISC.]]></category>
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The fine folks over at Ball Hype let me do a little guest writing on their site. The name of the post is Roger Goodell&#8217;s Fantasy Quarterback Rankings. Do me...]]></description>
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<p>The fine folks over at <a href="http://ballhype.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Ball Hype</strong></a> let me do a little guest writing on their site. The name of the post is <strong>Roger Goodell&#8217;s Fantasy Quarterback Rankings</strong>. Do me a favor and check it out <a href="http://ballhype.com/story/roger_goodell_s_fantasy_quarterback_rankings/" target="_blank"><strong>HERE</strong></a>.</p>
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		<title>FANTASY FOOTBALL RAP</title>
		<link>http://youbeenblinded.com/fantasy-football-rap/268</link>
		<comments>http://youbeenblinded.com/fantasy-football-rap/268#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2007 22:34:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>HG</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FANTASY FOOTBALL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FOOTBALL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MISC. SPORTS]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[RAP]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://208.73.33.197/~youbeenb/?p=268</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
			
				
			
		
This video sums up why I had to get out of the fantasy sports game.. It starts controlling your life and making you do foolish (albeit funny) shit.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1ZCPv94ATo]
DIGG ITÂ  *Â ...]]></description>
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<p>This video sums up why I had to get out of the fantasy sports game.. It starts controlling your life and making you do foolish (albeit funny) shit.</p>
<p>[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1ZCPv94ATo]</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Castellar;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><strong><a target="_blank" href="http://digg.com/"><font color="#4e4e4e">DIGG IT</font></a></strong><span>Â  </span>*<span>Â  </span><strong><a target="_blank" href="http://del.icio.us/"><font color="#4e4e4e">DEL.ICIO.US</font></a></strong><span>Â  </span>*<span>Â  </span><strong><a target="_blank" href="http://reddit.com/"><font color="#4e4e4e">REDDIT</font></a></strong><span>Â  </span>*<span>Â  </span><strong><a target="_blank" href="http://ballhype.com/"><font color="#4e4e4e">BALL HYPE</font></a></strong></span></span></p>
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