Week 6 recap: Barrels post big win

Barrels owner Chris Traczek filed this report from his rousing win over Serkus:

Serkus Act got out to a quick start in this week's Finks League matchup with the Creighton Barrels as Arian Foster rolled to 17 points on Thursday, but the Barrels responded with their most complete performance in years to storm back for a 78-43 victory. The key to the win was Barrels coach Chris Traczek (finally) getting it right on several coin-flip lineup decisions: starting Cam Newton over Tony Romo at QB, Dan Bailey over Blair Walsh at PK and Ben Tate over Lamar Miller at RB. For perspective, both of there Barrels' losses this season came as a result of the coach starting the wrong PK. It also didn't hurt that GM Chris Traczek reached into owner Chris Traczek's pocketbook and splashed the cash for free-agent TE Julius Thomas, who responded with 2 TDs as erstwhile receiving bell cow Clavin Johnson nursed an "owie."

TDs the difference in Week 5 showdown

For Serkus Act owner Stan Goff, the Week 5 showdown against the Decatur Staleys was a matter of getting 6. Staleys players scored three TDs. Serkus had none.

Bonus yardage is helpful, but the Staleys won 41-26 to hand Serkus its first loss behind one TD each from QB Luck IND, RB Robinson NO and RB S. Jackson ATL.

Here's the boxscore:

Staleys (41)
QB Luck IND 16
RB Robinson NO 9
RB S. Jackson ATL 6
TE Graham NO zero
WR S. Smith Sr. BAL zero
PK Tucker BAL 10

Serkus (26)
QB Stafford DET 6
RB Murray DAL 5
RB R. Jennings NYG zero
WR Sanders DEN 5
WR Edelman NE zero
PK Parkey PHI 10

Week 3 wrapup: We have our first tie

Quags and the Barrels battled to our first 28-28 tie of the season. Barrels owner Chris Traczek noted that five of 12 players in the match failed to score. PK Bailey DAL was the leading scorer with 12 points.

Other notes:

• In the first of five weeks of straight crossover games, the Levy Division beat the Kelly Division 4-0-1 in Week 3.
• The Staleys crowned their third consecutive Player of the Week. Please send your weekly Finks points leaders on to Dah Commish. 
• Serkus held off the Eggers 54-53 by virtue of Monday Night Football. The Eggers needed one point from RB Forte CHI, but Forte was shutout.
• There are six teams on the bye for Week 4. Check those out before the free agents deadline.

So many fantasy leagues, so little time

Crazy fantasy football league owners are rarely in just one league anymore. Dah Commish held a random poll among Finks owners to see what other leagues, if any, they belong to.

Brawlers owner Kris Herigodt: "I'm in one other league with my school and in a confidence pool league."

Eggers owner Mike Miazga: "In my 17 years of Finks participation, there has been only one year where I was in multiple leagues and that occurred during my first tenure in the league in the early 90s. The other one was a live draft league complete with draft board on the basement wall of a guy running the league. I was in it one year.

As far as I'm concerned there is only one fantasy league -- Finks."

Chico owner Steve Alavi: "I'm in three leagues -- told myself I wouldn't do more than one but somehow got convinced there is never too much fantasy football. Each league is different (keeper vs. silent auction vs. full roster with individual defenses). If I have a horrible season, I might go down to two leagues.

The keeper league is a live, in-person draft, which consumes half the day (because it should). The other one is online via ESPN."

Dick Quagliano: "I am in one other league. We do a live draft each year in my garage, except for four years ago when I had pneumonia.

We may be the longest league around, just starting our 29th year. Our trophy has all the previous winners engraved on it.

We predated fax machines so owners had to call their lineups in by 10 p.m. on Saturday. I had to manually calculate the scores and then call each owner to give them the final score. I then had to type in standings and scoring sheets and mail them to each owner each week.

It is a scoring league only. Our draft had eight owners. We only had one owner with a football magainze (Street and Smith), which everyone shared.

Our league rules are 15 pages long detailing the draft, rosters, scoring, etc."

Barrels owner Chris Traczek: "The Finks League is the only league I am currently in. I was in an eight-team Yahoo league with some friends for about five years, but that one broke up after the 2010 season. I've also been in a number of random leagues online with strangers over the years, but the Finks League is the only one that I have been in consistently."

Week 1 Review: Showing Megatron love

Barrels owner Chris Traczek shares his passion for WR Cal. Johnson's 19-point Finks performance for the Lions' Monday night. His Barrels went from winner to loser.

Traczek: "That's why they pay him (and bid) the big bucks. The Ham N Eggers went into Monday night's games with a 43-27 lead over the Creighton Barrels thanks to solid Sunday performances from Peyton Manning (14 points, though nowhere near the epic 30 he rolled up in last season's Week 1 matchup between these two franchises), Stephen Gostkowski (12 points) and Antonio Brown (11 points), though both owners had to be disappointed in lackluster, scoreless Opening Day showings from their bell-cow RBs, Jamal Charles and LeSean McCoy. The Barrels, who were staying afloat behind 15 points from PK Blair Walsh, did have an ace in the hole, though, in WR Calvin Johnson. Needing at least 17 points from him, Megatron posted a ridiculous 15 (2 TDs, 98 yards) before the game was even 5 minutes old. Then, barring catastrophe, it was just a matter of time until he crossed the 100-yard barrier to seal the victory, and indeed he did, finishing with 164 yards and those 2 scores for 19 points and a 46-43 come-from-behind win for the Barrels."

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Auction wrapup: 2014 season is a go

After a delay, Dah Commish was able to complete the Finks League auction Monday. Rosters should be set and are posted on the website.

A few notes from Auction 2014:

HIGH BIDS: By position, these were the highest bids of the auction.

Quarterback -- Brees NO 38.00 (Distillers)
Running back -- Lynch SEA 35.23 (Khans), Peterson MIN 34.37 (Quags)
WR/TEs -- Green CIN 36.37 (Khans)
Place kicker -- Gostkowski NE 5.43 (Eggers)

BEST AVAILABLE: Using USA Today's non-PPR fantasy rankings, these are the top players still available by position.

QB: Palmer AZ (ranked No. 14)
RB: S. Jackson ATL (No. 24)
WR: A. Johnson HOU (No. 16)

BARGAIN SHOPPING: These were perhaps the best bargains of the auction... QB P. Manning DEN 4.76 to Eggers; RB Charles KC 1.75 to Eggers, RB McCoy PHI .50 to Barrels.

Good luck to all.

Goodbye, KFFL

USA Today is spending some money on fantasy football and bought out my favorite fantasy site this month: KFFL.com.

You get this story when you click to KFFL. http://fantasy.usatoday.com/2014/08/kffl-shuts-down-becomes-usatoday-fantasy-sports

The spin is not appreciated. KFFL had a neat player tracker that delivered regular email updates on your rostered players. There was other cool stuff on KFFL that has now disappeared under the USA Today banner.

Another departed fantasy site was Fantasy Sports U, which was run by former Hinsdale South football player Ryan Neiman. I think Ryan got a job out of the area and realized there is no money in fantasy football analysis.