By Brett Avery Guilt is digging into a monster-sized hot fudge sundae when you're trying to stick to the diet. Guilt is catching a baseball game or a few rays at the beach after blowing off work or chores for an afternoon. But guilt should have nothing to do with your roster selection methodology in this last week of League Championship Fantasy's inaugural season. It's the dreaded double hyphenation week of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club and the Reno-Tahoe Open at Montreux Golf and Country Club. There's a passel of players between the two fields, meaning there's no reason to go into this swan song of a week without a full lineup. But there's a better reason for having 10 active players this week: You get to dump a few inactive reserves who have done you wrong! Think back on all those weeks when you protected a player with the fervent hope that he'll come out of his stupor or clogged a roster spot with a guy who decided to take another week off to sit on the sofa and eat bonbons while watching Oprah. It's time for revenge, girls and boys. And this time around revenge is a dish looking and tasting like that hot fudge! Bundle up all those roster frustrations from this season and tack them onto a few add-drop moves. Have a guy sitting out this week? Run your finger down that In The Field list, find a hot player and give your guy the boot. Everyone has one guy on the roster who went sour at the end of the LCF, just when he was needed to step into the breech. Give him a hard spanking and send him packing, even if you replace him with Dick Mast, the dead-last guy in week's depth chart. In fact, there's something perversely pleasurable in taking Mast. Trading down has its rewards, doesn't it? The Fantasy Insider made five last-minute moves between his rotisserie and head-to-head lineups and cast our demons with each one. It's not that he had anything in particular against any of these guys -- certainly not Jeff Sluman, who figured in a swap in each league and went with a cheerful wave from TFI after Slu's strong showing in recent weeks. But Sluman isn't in either field this week so his name popped to the top of the list. Decorum prevents TFI from naming the bums he invoked when he hit "enter" on each transaction to exorcise the roster bumbles this season. But it was a delicious 15 minutes reworking the rosters. And TFI highly recommends you do the same, as a way to head into the LCF off-season with a smile on your face. Now, TFI doesn't like to become maudlin but he does want to note how much fun he's had writing about LCF this season. The steady stream of reader reaction that found its way to the inbox underscores the learned nature of fantasy golf players. And he thanks you for all the interaction this year. Beginning next week the column's format will morph into concentrating solely on Salary Cap Cup instead of making it an end-of-the-column mention. LCF is close to the end of Segment Three -- next week's Deutsche Bank Championship is the clincher -- and then it's on to Segment Four with the Fall Finish leading to The TOUR Championship Presented by Coca-Cola in Atlanta. If you're not in Salary Cap Cup this is an ideal time to make the transition from League Championship Fantasy. It's a simple game -- pick five players while staying under a $1 million weekly salary cap -- but it's as much fun as taking in an afternoon ballgame. Without any guilt. Three players TFI might pick up/trade for to get onto his roster this week: • Woody Austin. His playing record stands out at Reno-Tahoe, especially those four top 10s in his last nine starts (and two in the last three). He's struggled with final-round scoring this season (72.17, 139th) so that 73 to finish off the PGA Championship (and drop four spots to a tie for 16th) actually is a big improvement over earlier form. In fact, it was his first Sunday round above 70 since the U.S. Open. • Luke Donald. TFI took him as his sleeper pick for PGATOUR.com, although he's not exactly a sleeper after last week's PGA Championship in his adopted hometown. Ties for sixth and 16th in his first two starts over Firestone CC's South Course show he can handle this venue and this quality of opponents. What he needs is a smidge better putting (tied for 25th at Medinah No. 3 with 114) and to not pull Woods for his Sunday pairing. • David Howell. He's on rosters in only 74 percent of LCF leagues yet he's worth a look. Tied for sixth last year at Firestone CC in his WGC-Bridgestone debut. TFI's convinced that tie for 46th at THE INTERNATIONAL and solo 67th last week in the PGA (made worse by shooting 82 in the closing round) aren't indicative of his form. Three players TFI might waive/drop/trade away to get off his roster this week: • Go ahead, pick anyone not playing or guaranteed a spot in your active lineup. It'll do your psyche good! Rotisserie results for Expert League at PGA Championship: 59.5 points (third). One-putts 132 (fourth), birdies 73 (third), bouncebacks 15 (second), 300+ drives 19 (first), fairways 156 (fifth), greens 216 (fourth), money $553,100 (third), scoring 71.3 (second), scrambles 61 (fifth), eagles 2 (tied first). Overall: 65.0 (second). TFI continues his late-season climb toward first place but probably will fall short. Let's see if he can protect second in the last week. Rotisserie lineup for WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and Reno-Tahoe Open: Woody Austin (Reno-Tahoe), Sergio Garcia (WGC), Trevor Immelman (WGC), Brandt Jobe (Reno-Tahoe), Geoff Ogilvy (WGC), Henrik Stenson (WGC). Competing but not active: Ben Crane (WGC), Vaughn Taylor (WGC). Not competing: Jason Bohn, Camilo Villegas. Roster changes: Added Henrik Stenson, dropped Jeff Sluman; added Brandt Jobe, dropped Heath Slocum; added Woody Austin, dropped Billy Andrade. H2H results for Pacific Tour League at PGA Championship: Playoff semifinals, TFI 146, hookn and a slicin 120. Driving: Robert Allenby 49, Angel Cabrera 24. Short game: Jeff Sluman 10, Tom Pernice Jr. 12. Putting Chad Campbell 40, Paul Casey 11. Talk about flukes: Unfortunately for hookn and a slicin, Bo Van Pelt withdrew and wasn't replaced in the lineup. Too bad, because if hookn and a slicin inserted any of his three competing reserves he'd be in the final. And that totally sucks because hookn and a slicin went 4-0 vs. TFI in the regular season. H2H lineup for WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and Reno-Tahoe Open: TFI at Polynesian Pride. Driving: Robert Allenby, Angel Cabrera. Short game: David Howell, Ian Poulter. Putting Paul Casey, Shaun Micheel (the only player at Reno-Tahoe Open). Roster changes: Droppped Tom Pernice, Jr., added Ian Poulter; dropped Jeff Sluman, added Shaun Micheel. So it's the top two teams in the West Division battling for the title after a 2-2 split in the regular season. Salary Cap Cup results for PGA Championship: The main lineup of Tiger Woods ($1,424,000, won!; includes $200,000 round leader bonus), Sergio Garcia ($353,600, tied third), Mike Weir ($244,800, sixth), Tom Pernice Jr. ($0, missed cut) and Ian Poulter ($165,000, tied ninth; selected after Bo Van Pelt withdrew) earned $2,187,400 and placed 164th (!). In Majors Matchup the same lineup totaled $1,987,400 (there are no round leader bonuses) and placed 13th (yes, 13th!). Through Week 33 the team totals $10,342,686 and stands 130th (!). And this is no fabrication -- after Van Pelt withdrew TFI selected between Van Pelt and eventual runner-up Shaun Micheel. What an amazing week! The backup "Hey, buddy" lineup of Ernie Els ($94,000, tied 16th), Geoff Ogilvy ($165,000, tied ninth), Robert Allenby ($71,250, tied 20th), Stewart Cink ($53,100, tied 24th) and Camilo Villegas ($0, missed cut) earned $383,350 and placed 19,305th. In Majors Matchup the same lineup placed 2,562nd. Through Week 33 the team totals $3,715,028 and stands 20,142nd. So that's eight of 10 players in the top 25 for the PGA. Not a bad week, huh? Week 33 winner: BigDaddy4 $2,706,700. Segment Three leader: Golf Geek $12,003,622. Majors Matchup: The Dawgs $2,681,133. Salary Cap Cup lineup for WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and Reno-Tahoe Open: Main lineup, Tiger Woods $300,000, Geoff Ogilvy $280,500, Paul McGinley $173,250, K.J. Choi $150,500, Chris Riley $92,000. Total: $996,250. "Hey, buddy" backup lineup, Jim Furyk $293,500, Luke Donald $270,750, Stewart Cink $186,250, Dean Wilson $121,250, Corey Pavin $105,000. Total: $976,750. Have a question or comment for TFI? Send it to him at brettavery@aol.com. Please remember to include your team and league names and whether you're playing a rotisserie or H2H league. |
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