Yahoo! Auto-draft sucks. I think.

I'm part of a fantasy football league through Yahoo! Sports. I'm sure you all remember my compelling football articles throughout the past year, with all my football knowledge, so you know I'm going to absolutely kill my fellow fantasy football players... Or not. On a good day, I could probably name ten professional football teams. My biggest accomplishment last year was winning one week, but it was a bit of a fluke. I have no idea how points are calculated. I know nothing.

The league was an auto-draft league. Sure, I could set draft preferences, but I don't know that I could name ten football players, and if I could, they certainly wouldn't be any good, since I live in Minnesota, and that means the players I overhear mentioned are probably Vikings. So, I let Yahoo! take care of drafting my team.

My Offense, according to trends, is actually pretty good. The trend is what percentage of fantasy teams have picked up a guy. I've got Peyton Manning as my quarterback, and needless to say, he's owned at 100%. He's one of the two Manning Brothers. The lowest percetage owned on my offense starting line-up is 95% owned (some guy named Hines Ward who plays for the Pittsburgh...Penguins*). On the bench, 68% is the lowest number in the percentage owned category (some guy named Ted Ginn, Jr., of the Miami Dolphins--whom I shall henceforth call Tony Gwynn, Jr.). On my bench the lowest percentage owned is 68%, and there five guys on the offense bench. It should be noted, that I'm only guessing that "WR" is "wide receiver" and "RB" is "running back." I have no idea what "W/T" is--"weight-lifter/tap-dancer"? I know the QB--quarterback--position.

My kicker, Rob Bironas (of the Tennessee Somethings--Titans, perhaps), is 91% owned. His back-up is less popular at 57% owned, but how often are kickers used in the game? No, seriously, how often are they? Is having a good kicker vital to fantasy football? I have no idea! I'm pretending they don't.

But here's where Yahoo sports failed me. My one "D" position is filled by a guy who's 97% owned--hey! I've heard the name Jared Allen before! Oh, he plays for the Vikings, that's why. The next highest percentage is 61%--Terrenece Newman of the Dallas Cheerleaders--who is a "DB" (Defenesive Back, I presume). My two DL (Disabled List? Defensive Linemen?) guys are 11% and 14% owned. I have on guy on my bench, but he's at 0% owned. The only good point about my Defense is that I've got a guy named "Chike Okeafor", of the Arizona Something (Cardinals, I think. If I recall, they moved from St. Louis and weren't creative enough to come up with their own name).

The disparity between the popularity of my offense and defense makes me think that perhaps Yahoo auto-draft isn't set up well. It seems that rather than filling each position, and then coming back and filling the bench, they simply filled the offense, the bench for the offense, and then the kicker, and by the time they got to the defense, there was no one left. My guess is the other fantasy football owners in my league probably set up their draft to get all the positions filled with good guys, before letting auto-draft fill in the cracks.

It's a good think I wasn't planning on winning.

Oh, if anyone knows any defensive football players who are probably flying under the radar, I've got two empty bench spots open.

*One of my friends is a huge hockey fan. During baseball season, whenever she sees "PIT" she always thinks of the Penguins, leading to the great text message: "...the Yankees beat the Penguins". And after a few minutes of thought, I remembered that Pittsburgh has the Steelers. Right?

I had a better idea for a post planned for today, but I managed to leave my flash drive at home this morning and I can't remember what it was.

In other news: Today I found out that Rod Barajas and Randy Choate share my birth day. Ryan Spillborghs shares my birthday!