Week 16: Semifinal boxscores

EGGERS 61, BULLDOGS 47

Bulldogs (47)

Roethlisberger PIT  3

Martin TB   6

Hightower NO   17

D. Thomas DEN   zero

A. Robinson JAX    13

Catanzaro AZ     8

Eggers (61)

Stafford DET    13

Peterson MIN   11

L. Murray OAK  9

Hopkins HOU   11

Sanders DEN    6

Gostkowski NE  11

QUAGS 50, BRAWLERS 43

Quags (50)

Bortles JAX 22

Woodhead SD   zero

D. Johhson AZ   9

Crabtree OAK  6

Watkins BUF  3

Gano CAR   10

Brawlers (43)

Wilson SEA   11

Freeman ATL  6

Lacy GB    6

Gronkowski NE   3

Baldwin SEA   11

Boswell PIT    6

Week 17: Finger Bowl 22 preview

HURRICANE QUAGS (8-7-1) at HAM N EGGERS (11-5) 

At Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Playoff records: Quags 4-5; Eggers 5-8-1

Finger Bowl records: Quags 1-0; Eggers 0-4

Head to head: Eggers 58, Quags 30 (Week 8)

The skinny: Quags returns to the Finger Bowl for the first time since winning his only other appearance in 2007, beating the Sodor Rail-Layers 47-42. ... The Eggers have lost the last four Finger Bowls despite scoring an average of 44.5 points in those games. ... Quags is the fifth different opponent for the Eggers in the Finks League championship. ... Eggers owner Mike Miazga has tied Mike Wilcox and Staff Goff with his fifth consecutive playoff appearance and tied Goff and Matt Simo with his fifth Finger Bowl appearance.

Projected starters: Quags -- Bortles, Woodhead, D. Johnson, Crabtree, Watkins, Gano; Eggers -- Stafford, AP, L. Murray, Hopkins, OBJ, Gostkowski.

The pick: Eggers 55, Quags 40

Week 16: Semifinal previews

HAM N EGGERS (10-5) at CANTON BULLDOGS (10-4-1) 

At Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, Canton, Ohio

Playoff records: Eggers 4-8-1; Bulldogs (Dah Commish franchise) 6-3

Head to head: Bulldogs 61, Eggers 21 (Week 7); Eggers 60, Bulldogs 31 (Week 12)

The skinny: The Eggers are the four-time Finger Bowl runner-up and will make their fifth consecutive playoff appearance. ... Owner Mike Miazga will make his eighth playoff appearance. ... Dah Commish appears in his sixth postseason with the Bulldogs. ... The Bulldogs set a new franchise record for Dah Commish in his 22nd season with his best record in league history. Four other teams owned by Dah Commish had 10-5 finishes during the regular season. ... Dah Commish won a division title for the third time. ... The Eggers won 10 games for the third time in their history.

Projected starters: Eggers -- Fitzpatrick, L. Murray, Peterson, Hopkins, Sanders, Gostkowski; Bulldogs -- Big Ben, Martin, Hightower, A. Robinson, M. Bryant, Catanzaro.

The pick: Eggers 50, Bulldogs 45

HURRICANE QUAGS (7-7-1) at DUBLIN BRAWLERS (12-3) 

At Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland

Playoff records: Quags 3-5; Brawlers 3-1

Head to head: Brawlers 36, Quags 19 (Week 2); Brawlers 56, Quags 43 (Week 9)

The skinny: Quags was the only losing team to reach the Finks League playoffs with a 7-8 record in his first season in 2005, now Quags becomes the only team with a .500 record to reach the Finks postseason. Quags lost in the semifinals that season, but placed third. ... Quags makes his fifth playoff appearance after finishing fourth in 2014. The Brawlers make their third playoff appearance and are in the postseason for the first time since 2010. ... The Brawlers won their second division title since 2010 when the Dubliners placed second. ... Both Quags and the Brawlers have won only one Finger Bowl title, Quags in 2007 and the Brawlers in 2008.

Projected starters: Quags -- Winston, Bernard, D. Johnson, Watkins, Crabtree, Gano; Brawlers -- Wilson, Ivory, Freeman, Gronk, Baldwin, Boswell.

The pick: Brawlers 55, Quags 25

Week 14 preview: Clearing up playoff picture

With two weeks remaining in the regular season, three of the four playoff spots have been wrapped up between Stabler Division champion Bulldogs and Starr Division finalists Eggers and Brawlers.

To be decided is the Starr champion and the Stabler runner-up. The Stabler runner-up will be decided between Quags (5-7-1) and Prayer (4-8-1). Those two teams play against each other in the Week 15 regular season finale.

Week 9 review: One-sided crossovers

With four winning teams through Week 9, the Starr Division has established itself as the dominant division in Finks League 2015. Without a doubt.

Looking over the history of the Finks League at the All-time Stands page, the division races have been pretty balanced over the years. This season is an exception.

The five Starr Division teams swept all the crossover matches in Week 9 after winning 4-0-1  in Week 8. The Finks League schedule reserves its crossover portion of the schedule for midseason to leave division contests for the beginning and the end of the season.

For those that might not be aware, opponents for Weeks 7 and 9 were picked at random which accounts for some teams playing against each other in back to back weeks. Otherwise, all teams will play teams from the other division will play at least once in the season. There will be two teams from the other division that you will place twice.

The playoff teams have always been the division champion and the division runner-up, but this year's imbalance has made Dah Commish wonder if the Finks League should have wild card teams after division champs earn automatic playoff berths.

This season, the Starr has dominated 16-4-1 in head to head games against the Stabler Division. In Weeks 7, 8 and 9 crossovers, the Starr teams led 12-2-1.

Serk du fail?

If anything could go wrong for the defending champs, it seems it is for Serkus Act.

Owner Stan Goff already forgot that both of his QBs were on the bye in Week 5. That rarely happens for a veteran owner.

But Serkus also suffered another devastating loss when RB Charles KC tore his right ACL during the Week 5 Bears game. Charles joins the list of injured starters such as QB Romo DAL and WR Bryant DAL for Serkus. Goff is taking the gamble of keeping Bryant on his roster while hoping for his eventual return, but already replaced Romo with QB Newton CAR.

"Wow. First Dez gets hurt. Then Romo and now Charles. The football gods do not want me to defend my Finks title," Goff wrote after Week 5.

Bulldogs, Prayer pull 6-player deal

It's take two to tango on a trade, but it all starts with one proposal.

With a hot start for Dah Commish's Bulldogs, I thought it was time to deal despite having to offer only a pair of WR1s in D. Thomas DEN or Fitzgerald AZ. The Bulldogs have only had 28 Finks points of production from its quarterbacks since starter Roethlisberger PIT went out in Week 3. Roethlisberger scored 33 Finks points himself in just the first two weeks of the season.

After waking up Tuesday morning and taking a survey of a desperate QB situation for the Bulldogs with Mariota TEN and Taylor BUF to replace Roethlisberger (QB Stafford DET was released by the Bulldogs in Week 4), Dah Commish sent out a couple of emails to Finks owners with loaded QB situations seeking help.

Sean King of Prayer responded quickly. The Bulldogs and Prayer agreed on a six-player deal Tuesday morning involving WR Fitzgerald AZ and QB Rivers SD as the key principals in the deal. The Bulldogs also sent QB Mariota TEN and PK Lambo SD to Prayer. Prayer sent WR Tate DET, WR D. Jackson WAS to the Bulldogs and released inactive PK Parkey.

The trade is the first major deal of the Finks League season, coming just before Week 6.

Hopefully the trade works out for both teams, ironically since both Prayer and the Bulldogs are in the Stabler Division. Time will tell.

Week 4 review: Santos' big day

Though Finks League records to not exist for individual points scored in a given week, Sunday's huge day for Serkus PK Santos KC is likely a record since Dah Commish started asking for Player of the Week nominations at least three years ago.

For comparison's sake, Santos' seven field goals, plus two 50-plus kicks, totalled 32 Finks points. The highest Finks points scored by a single player in 2014 was 29 by Khans RB Lynch SEA in Week 10.

Santos' 32 points accounted for 55 percent of the scoring total for Serkus' 58-48 victory over the Brawlers. KC lost its game to the Bengals. 

Introducing My Roto at Rotoworld.com

I don't know about you, but I am always looking for some gadget to help simplify my lineup choices week to week. As I've discussed with former Barrels owner Chris Traczek, every fantasy website in the world tries to predict week to week success for individual players, but it's all hogwash. You don't know with any certainty how mediocre players will do week to week.

I used to use a website called KFFL.com to keep track of my Finks League players, but that site was taken over by USA Today a year ago and dropped its Team Tracker service. I have found another Team Tracker service at Rotoworld.com under its My Roto link. You input your roster under the "Manage Players" link to the right and the site gives you updates on each of your players.

It's free. To sign up on Rotoworld.com, here's the link. 

The picture above is a screen shot of My Roto with a couple of sample briefs on two of my Bulldogs players. Hope this helps. 

Week 2 review: Rookie winners

Congrats to rookie owners Anthony Quagliano of the Jays and Sean King of Prayer for wins in their Finks League debuts in Week 1.

The Jays beat defending Finger Bowl champion Serkus 38-28 behind QB Brady NE's 17 Finks points on Thursday Night Football. Prayer won 43-16 over the Khans with help from PK Bryant ATL's 21 points on Monday Night Football.

In Week 2, the Jays face the Distillers and Prayer takes on the Bulldogs.

Auction 2015 comments

Finks owners shared a few comments after Saturday's auction. Here is a highlight from defending champion Stan Goff of Serkus:

"Lineups look pretty balanced and I’m ready for some football. (Boy George, hope you didn’t pull an all-nighter getting these done, but Thanks.)

Sean, wow, welcome to the league. You landed FOUR stud RBs and a really nice team.
I think I got pretty much every player I went after (except at Kicker)…yet I look at others getting AP for 1.02, and George getting THREE starting RB behind CJ Anderson for a combined  12 CENTS and I am reminded of how crazy and unique this draft is.

Hurricane Quags are sure ready to roll with the Colts this year, what with Luck, Hilton and Andre Johnson….Hope I get to face Dick when Indy has a Bye…and Dan has had great luck with Brees and Megratron in the past, so I can see some celebrating in Lockport on Sundays this fall."

Welcome to Finks 2015

Barrels owner Chris Traczek (pictured far left)

For the first time in 20 years, the Finks League's annual auction went on without Creighton Barrels owner Chris Traczek, who retired from the league. And so we carry on...

Thanks to all for getting your bid sheets in so the auction could be held Saturday night. The bidding was spirited and there were no blind drawings for any equal bids. Your rosters should now be set for Week 1.

Here are a few highlights:

Top money: Here were the highest bids by position. QB -- Quags $44.87 for Luck IND; RB -- Newt $38.00 for Lynch SEA; WR -- Distillers $27.00 for Cal. Johnson DET; PK -- Eggers $5.51 for Gostkowski NE.

Close calls: Need some tight bidding? Here were a few... Khans outbid Prayer $4.83-$4.03 for TE Olsen CAR; Newt outbid Serkus $3.88-$3.01 for PK Tucker BAL; Bulldogs outbid Eggers $7.10-$7.02 for WR D. Thomas DEN; Khans outbid Jays $22.43-$22.33 for WR A. Brown PIT.

Bargain bin: Prayer received QB Brady NE for $8.04; Eggers got RB Peterson for $1.02.

Best available: Using rankings by Jamey Eisenberg of CBSSports.com, these are the best available players for free agents by position: QB -- Newton CAR; RB -- J. Bell DET; WR Jeffery CHI; PK Catanzaro AZ.

Gibron Trophy has a new owner

Khans owner D.J. Wanberg (right) passed the Abe Gibron Trophy over to Serkus owner Stan Goff Jan. 1 in a parking lot of a local saloon after watching the Blackhawks in the Winter Classic.