If you’re wondering how your fantasy team will be impacted by the NFL’s fast and furious free agency period, I’ve been writing daily recaps over at 4for4.com:
Tuesday, July 26
Wednesday, July 27
I’ve also launched FantasyShrink.com, which will host my rankings this season, while my Waiver Wire Watch and Defensive Team By Waiver Wire (and more) will be going up on 4for4. Read more about my new position with 4for4.
In today’s quick hits, Albert Haynesworth and Reggie Bush have new homes, the Dolphins could be ready for big things this season and are the Texans now the new front-runners for Nnamdi Asomugha?
– Can I sing the praises of Bill Belichick for a moment? Ah what the hell, I’m going to do it anyway – with or without your permission. Has the man ever been had in a deal? He traded a second round pick for Corey Dillon, who helped him win a Super Bowl. He traded Richard Seymour, who was due a raise, for a first round pick and netted a potential starting offensive lineman in Nate Solder. He traded a fourth round pick for Randy Moss, who helped him reach the Super Bowl. He then traded an older, more disgruntled Moss for a third round pick. And now in his latest move, Belichick landed Albert Haynesworth, who is undoubtedly one of the best interior defensive tackles in the game when his head is on straight, for a messily fifth rounder. Granted, in the end the Patriots are just acquiring talent, much like any team would. But they’re not like any other team because they have Belichick, a man players like Dillon, Moss and now Hanyesworth will fall into line for in exchange for the chance to win. The man never ceases to amaze me.
– The Jets and Patriots will still get the bulk of the attention in the AFC East but I really like what the Dolphins have done the past two offseasons. They hired a solid defensive coordinator in Mike Nolan, signed the most versatile linebacker in the league in Karlos Dansby, acquired a No. 1 receiver in Brandon Marshall, have drafted good young talent in Mike Pouncey and Daniel Thomas, are on the verge of trading for the underrated Kyle Orton, and on Thursday nabbed Reggie Bush for a late round pick. Bush has proven that he isn’t an every-down back but he’s the type of game-changer that Miami needs. (How good will Bush look out of the Wildcat?) Assuming Thomas pans out, the Dolphins now have more explosiveness in their backfield and will soon reunite Marshall with Orton, a duo that worked well together in Denver. The Dolphins are slowly building a winner, folks.
– I want to see the incriminating photos that Carolina GM Marty Hurney and head coach Ron Rivera have on Steve Smith in order to get the 32-year-old receiver to back off his desire to be traded and essentially state that he wants to remain a Panther for life. Not that Smith has been making a big fuss about being traded, but if there were one player I thought was a shoe-in to be dealt this summer, it was Donovan McNabb. But if there were two players I thought were a shoe-in to be dealt this summer, it was McNabb and Smith.
– NFL Network’s Michael Lombardi tweets that the Texans have “moved into the lead” for free agent Nnamdi Asomugha. Considering their defense was scored on more times than Jenna Haze last season, I would like to think that the Texans would be aggressive in their pursuit of Asomugha.
– The Cardinals and Eagles are getting close to completing the Kevin Kolb deal according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Arizona has to be stoked to get a quarterback that can actually play. Wait, Kolb can play can’t he? Ah whatever, the Cardinals will worry about that later…
Zach Wheeler isn’t someone I would give up for a 34-year-old rental who probably won’t stick around for more than two months. But then again, when you have the opportunity to play in your second World Series in as many years, you do whatever it takes to get back there.
This Carlos Beltran trade has had me spinning. At first I was shocked when I heard the Giants were willing to part with Wheeler (their top prospect) for a potential rental like Beltran. Then I was downright furious when I got to thinking about how the Giants just gave up one of the best pitching prospects in baseball and only got Beltran in return. I even had a 700-word piece written on how Giants GM Brian Sabean once again overpaid in his pursuit for a veteran player.
But after sleeping on it, I’ve come to my senses. I still don’t like the fact that Sabean parted with his top prospect for someone who may not be around in two months. It’s too risky. If the Giants fail to make the postseason or get swept in the divisional round, then this trade was all for naught. The Mets wanted a top prospect for Beltran and they got one of the best in baseball. The Giants had money to burn and were (albeit seemingly) willing to pay most of Beltran’s contract in order to avoid giving up a good prospect. So instead they gave up their best prospect. As I alluded to in the intro, I wouldn’t have parted with Wheeler for Beltran. I would have parted with Wheeler in a deal for B.J. Upton, who hasn’t hit his weight since 2008 but who is just 26 and a potential five-tool player. He’s also under team control for the next several years, unlike Beltran, who becomes a free agent this winter.
No, I wouldn’t have traded Wheeler for Beltran. But then again, let’s stop and look at the big picture here. The Giants already have three young guns in Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner, who all figure to be around a while. And the club’s scouting department is so good that they’ll probably draft three Wheelers by the time they need arms again. What they needed now was offense – and bad.
Pre-Beltran, I don’t think anyone could look at San Francisco’s lineup and say it was good enough to beat Philadelphia or Atlanta in the postseason. But Beltran gives them the middle-of-the-order presence that they sorely needed. For as good as Pablo Sandoval is, he isn’t enough and for God’s sake, Bruce Bochy has been reduced to batting Mike Fontenot third at times this year. If there’s any team that needed a Carlos Beltran, it was the Giants – Zach Wheeler be damned.
And for once, let me give Sabean credit. Some criticized him for trading Tim Alderson for Freddy Sanchez (another potential rental) a couple of years ago, and for dealing John Bowker in the deal that netted LOOGY Javier Lopez. But without Sanchez (whom Sabean wound up re-signing) and Lopez (who was virtually un-hittable in the playoffs), the Giants would have never won last year. Sabean has some downright nasty acquisitions on his resume, but the guy has been pretty damn good over the past couple of years.
Before the 2010 season, the Giants hoped they would have a team ready to seriously contend by 2011 or 2012. As it turns out, destiny brought them a title last year and now they have a great opportunity to win again this year. But they needed a big bat. That’s why you part with a Zach Wheeler for Carlos Beltran, even though the latter might only be around for another two months. You part with a Zach Wheeler so you can win. And really, isn’t that the point here?
Like Mike Florio, I like this trade (not yet confirmed) for both teams.
As Florio points out, people will give Bill Belichick the benefit of the doubt. Other teams would likely be criticized for taking on this head case.
That said, Belichick will likely use Albert Haynesworth properly, avoided the idiotic showdowns in Washington where defensive offensive “genius” Mike Shanahan tried to make this elite interior pass rusher into a hole-clogging nose tackle.
As resident Patriots
homerexpert Rosenthal points out, the Pats use a 4-3 front roughly half the time. Thus, Haynesworth likely will be a part-time player, but he possibly will be in the alignment he prefers 100 percent of the time that he’s on the field.And while there’s no way he’d be asked to play the nose tackle position in New England’s 3-4 alignment, thanks to the presence of Vince Wilfork, Belichick surely wouldn’t expect Haynesworth to be a traditional lineman-occupying presence at defensive end in that formation. That’s where Belichick’s brain becomes important. When a player doesn’t like a certain type of system, it’s because he doesn’t play as well in that system. So instead of forcing Haynesworth to eat his brussel sprouts, Belichick will find ways to let Haynesworth get the most out of his talents. Who knows? Maybe that will mean periodically lining him up on the edge in obvious passing situations and letting him maul a tackle one-on-one and chase down the quarterback.
Belichick understands the concept of calculated risks. His team needs a pass rush, and this move makes sense.
Meanwhile, the Redskins are looking for a fresh start, so this helps. We haven’t seen them break the bank yet with idiotic free agent signings, so maybe new GM Bruce Allen might be taking control from Mr. Ego Daniel Snyder.
While we muddle through another lockout, it’s not a bad time to take a look back at the top performers at each position in terms of Efficiency Per Game (EPG) and Efficiency Per Minute (EPM). Here are the top 10 in EPG at each position; only players who played 41+ games qualify.
The point guard list looks pretty solid; Ray Felton chimes in at #10 after a strong start with the Knicks…Westbrook’s efficiency stats look great because he’s really an off guard who is playing point guard. It’s important to consider assists and turnovers when evaluating point guards…John Wall makes the list in his rookie season — not bad considering how tough it is to learn to play the position in the NBA…At SG, it’s interesting to note how thin the position is these days — just look at Stephen Jackson making the list with 15.0 EPG and a very mediocre EPM…Andre Iguodala is very solid all-around off guard and these numbers don’t even reflect how good of a defender he is.
No surprise at 1/2 with LeBron James and Kevin Durant at small forward…No surprises really until #9 and #10 with Dorell Wright (who had a nice season for a bad Warriors team) and Wilson Chandler (whose numbers were boosted by his start with the Knicks)…Considering the Bobcats pretty much gave him away, Gerald Wallace comes in strong at #6…The power forward list is solid with Kevin Love surprisingly dominating both categories. In fact, he had the highest EPM in the league, which makes the fact that he came off the bench earlier in his career all the more unbelievable…How good can Blake Griffin be?
Howard dominates the position but still can’t shoot free throws or convert in the post in crunch time…This list is a good snapshot of the position…The Nuggets need to re-sign Nene Hilario to stabilize the frontcourt and build on the team’s good play at the end of last season. He is a quality big man when healthy…Andrew Bynum’s EPM is the third-highest at his position, but the big question with him are those knees…Andrew Bogut posted the 5th-best EPG despite dealing with a recovering elbow.
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