East Coast Gambler -

JMP has been awesome to make picks and help analyze fantasy football for ECG this season.  It’s been awesome that he’s been able to do this.  These have been some of the more viewed articles.  Here is the season finale which includes his Super Bowl pick as well as a look back and forward to next year’s fantasy football WR’s and RB’s.  I’ll get my Super Bowl pick and prop bets up later today or tomorrow morning.

Hey, everyone, before I get to what you’re all waiting for (all 1 of you!), let me first thank TC for giving me this opportunity.  Like I said a while back, I originallly ‘pitched’ myself as a PA racino correspondant, yet I haven’t set foot in one since.  He could’ve just as easily said “no thanks” to any of what I’ve written, especially my fantasy football post-mortem.  I mean, heck, even *I* am getting sick of ranking players now that the season is over.  I know I said “there is NO off-season” and maybe I needed some extra time to let this season go, but right now I need a BREAK!  To wit, here’s a quick and dirty listing of RBs and WRs:

RBs

Chris Johnson, MJD, AP, Rice, Gore, Turner, Deangelo Williams, CedBen, SJax, Ronnie Brown, Jamaal Charles (although if they redo his contract, watch out for a let down), Pierre Thomas, Ryan Grant, Moreno, Mendenhall, TJones, Jerome Harrison, Beanie Wells, Matt Forte, Shonn Greene, MBIII, Addai, J-Stew, Reggie Bush, Brandon Jacobs, Steve Slaton.

WRs

Andre Johnson, Wayne, Colston, Austin, Rice, VJax, DJax, Randy Moss, Roddy White, Julian Edelman, Calvin Johnson, Jennings, Holmes, Steve Smith (NYG), Fitzgerald, Meachem, Driver, Ward, Nicks, Harvin, Bowe, MSW, any IND WR not named ‘Reggie Wayne’

So now that that’s out of the way and there’s only one thing left to do, you may be wondering what’s next for ol’ JMP.  Well, I’ll be fine.  The weather will warm up, the busses to AC continue to run, and when I run out of bacon, I can take a pork belly over to Parx b/c I hear it’s a veritable smokehouse.  Also, what I’m guessing is a temporary casino with the SugarHouse label is supposed to open on the Philly waterfront in July.  Perhaps I’ll make my way over there.

Okay, enough padding.  If you’ve made it this far, congratulations!  Here’s your reward.  In Sunday’s big game, the Colts are favored by 5 (so says vegas.com).  I’m reminded something ESPN’s Gregg Easterbrook wrote a few years back: in games where it’s easy to say it’s one vs the other, it’s ’something else’ that decides the game.  On Sunday, we’ll have two dominant aerial attacks and two mediocre defenses – one that thrives more on turnovers than the other (N’awlins).  Let’s see Peyton brings his A game and doesn’t throw a pick.  That leaves the running games; I think IND can run on the Saints.  I don’t have the same confidence in the Saints to run on the Colts.  5 is a high number for me to consider laying, but I’m going to do so.

Again, thanks for reading, and I’ll be in touch!

ps. 2-0 in Championship week, 4-6 in the playoffs overall.

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I caught a virus midweek that slowed things down here, but I was able to get a few more items up from my trip to Las Vegas as well as some news.  Hopefully all future posts will come from my new Macbook.

• Harrah’s Takes Over Planet Hollywood This Weekend
• NFL Divisional Round Picks + Fantasy TE Roundup
• Seven Stars Insider: December – January Edition
• Room Service!
• Coffee At Palazzo

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Welcome back to JMPlayoff Picks!  1-3 last week, but it still beats Bill Simmons who went 0-4.  My lone bright spot was the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets.  Let’s see if I continue to roll with them, shall we?  Once again, these lines are from vegas.com.

ARI @ NO (-7) – Arizona’s win over Green Bay was the misfire that bothered me the least.  It was a back and forth affair; had Aaron Rodgers connected with Greg Jennings on that long pass in OT, GB most likely would’ve won.  I’m going to pick the Cards here, as I don’t like the way the Saints ended their season and am concerned about the rust factor.

BAL @ IND (-6.5) – Baltimore’s thrashing of the Pats bothered me a lot, relatively speaking, mainly b/c it seemed like the Pats didn’t even bother to show up!  I’d like to think Peyton and Company show up, but Baltimore always plays them tough.  I like the Ravens to beat the spread here.

DAL @ MIN (-3) – Dallas’ win also irked me b/c the Eagles failed to show up, as well.  Now we’ve got Wade Phillips against Brad Childress.  Ugh.  Dallas is playing some inspired ball right now and the ‘vaunted’ MIN D hasn’t been the same since EJ Henderson got injured and Antoine ‘Toast’ Winfield got ‘healthy’.  This game has ‘push’ written all over it, but just in case it doesn’t turn out that way, I’ll take the ’boys.

NYJ @ SD (-7) – everyone loves the Chargers this year.  That means this is the year Norv screws the proverbial pooch.  If they don’t lose outright this week, they probably will next week.  So let’s spend another week on the Jets bandwagon, since a good running game and a great D travel well, even with a rookie QB.

Last week: 1-3

Overall playoffs: 1-3

Regular season: 124-129-3

Tight End rankings

What?  You thought I was gonna give up the good stuff (RBs and WRs) prior to the Super Bowl?  Oh no.  I whetted your appetites last week with QBs, but you’ll have to keep reading for a couple of weeks more to get the ‘good stuff’.  That said, TEs are important to me, as in my money league they are the only ones who get a PPR bonus.  So, without further ado…

1)      Dallas Clark – wrests the top spot away from such luminaries as Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates.  Never stays in to block, gets the looks at the goal line, has a stud QB.  Quite frankly, that’s all you need!

2)      Antonio Gates – kept out of the top spot b/c Rivers never looks his way at the goal line and will disappear in games where Vincent Jackson can beat his man.

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It’s been a very wordy week for ECG.  I started reviewing thing from my trip to Las Vegas and found that it was pretty difficult to describe Legasse Stadium at the Palazzo.  I had tons of pictures from my Palazzo suite so I wanted to share those.  If you read my trip notes there is still a lot to go.  I’d like to get to the bulk of it this week.  On to the week that was.

• Table Games Approved in Pennsylvania
• Rock and Roll at Smokin Hot Aces
• NFL Wild Card Picks + Fantasy QB Rankings
• Resort Fees: Quick Poll
• Legasse Stadium Review
• Palazzo Suite Was Sweet
• The Loft at The Pool at Harrah’s

My favorite picture of the week from ECG.

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The NFL playoffs are upon us!  As the NFL regular season has come to an end JMP graces us with his Wild Card round playoff picks as well as his wrap up of NFL quarterbacks for fantasy football.  I did so poorly this year in my fantasy football league that I have no opinion on the QB’s.

Go Jets!

Only 4 games this weekend, so I’ll pump up my word count with some QB rankings for 2010’s fantasy season.  I figure it’s a good idea to get these thoughts written down somewhere so I’ll have a starting point in July.  What’s that, you say?  Most drafts don’t happen till at least August?  Maybe so, but when do you think prep should start?  For some of us, there is no offseason! RBs will probably be next week, unless I decide to use them to seriously inflate the column where I pick the Super Bowl.

Oh, btw, now that Yahoo!’s Pick ‘em game has ended, I’ll be using vegas.com for the lines.  Since I’m a Harrah’s kind of guy, I’ll use whatever Caesars is using.

NYJ @ CIN (-2.5): this one’s tough because the Bengals faded down the stretch, even before they rested starters and went vanilla in Week 17.  I don’t know which of Bill Simmons’ playoff rules trumps the other between “don’t take a rookie QB on the road” and “when in doubt, back the better coach”, but since Sanchez isn’t QB as much as he is a “guy who hands the ball off”, I’m going to take the Jets here.

PHI @ DAL (-4): despite living near Philly, I was born and raised in Middlesex County NJ and am lucky enough to get the FAN on my car radio down here.  So, when I hear Francessa talking about how the Eagles rarely blitzed last Sunday against the ‘boys, I know it’s a big issue that’ll be corrected come Saturday.  I like the Birds to beat the spread, but I still hope they find a way to lose, as dealing with Eagles fans at work during a playoff run is one of the more annoying aspects of my job.

BAL @ NE (-3.5): Irresistible force – Pats don’t like to stop the run and the Ravens have Ray Rice as well as Willis McGahee to vulture his TDs.  Immovable object – Ravens don’t like to stop the pass and the Pats still have Brady, Moss, Ben Watson and Kevin Faulk out of the backfield.  Irresistible force – serious Ewing Theory potential with Edelman replacing Welker.  This last one trumps everything else.  I’m a little concerned about that half-point, but I’ll still go NE here to cover.

GB @ ARI (-1): throw out last week b/c ARI played not to get hurt while, for some reason, GB felt like showing off.  Kurt Warner’s due for a stinker and GB would be favored by 2 on a neutral field.  University of Phoenix Stadium isn’t THAT much of a home-field advantage so I like the Packers to win outright.

QB Rankings

1)      Peyton Manning

2)      Drew Brees – falls in behind Peyton b/c the yardage totals weren’t there each and every week, but he’s really 1b to Peyton’s 1a.

3)      Aaron Rodgers – the consensus ‘best fantasy QB’ by some metric like ‘yards per attempt’ or something.  Still not #1 though since he’s still young and too many late-season games occur outdoors.

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After spending a week under the weather I was able to get back in action last week.  While catching on news I noticed that there was a lot to share.  It pushed back my reviews from my Vegas, which will be coming in the next couple of weeks.

• Week 17 Picks
• Trump Casinos Worth “Little”
• World Series Of Poker 2010 Plans
• Nathan Burton In Atlantic City
• Things Are Normal With PEEPSHOW
• Notes From Las Vegas
• PA D-Day For Table Games is Now Jan 8
• PEEPSHOW Closing!
• Slot Machines Slow The Bleed
• Hard Rock Opens All Suite Tower In Las Vegas

My favorite picture of the week, that wasn’t Holly Madison or Aubrey O’Day was from the Hard Rock Las Vegas article.

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It’s the last week of the NFL season.  I’ve been having internet problems all week so I’m finally getting JMP’s picks and fantasy football wrap up.  This was my worst year in fantasy football – ever.  JMP, thanks for your contributions all season!  On to the picks…

This column started off early on Saturday as just another picks column.  However, as the chores piled up, time went on and it became obvious I wasn’t getting this out such that TC could post it before Sunday morning I decided to roll my ‘fantasy post-mortem’ into it so it would have value either way you wish to read it.  It was an interesting fantasy season for me.  In my money league, I bottomed out at 3-6 before finishing 6-7 and sneaking into the playoffs (5^th out of 12 teams) where I promptly lost in week 14; read on to learn what star QB sunk me.  In my free league, I turned the #2 seed into a Yahoo virtual bronze trophy for 3^rd.

IND (-8.5) @ BUF: lost in all the hoopla surrounding what the Colts did in Week 16 and the emergence of Pierre Garcon is the fact that Dallas Clark is now the #1 TE in fantasy.  In my money league where only TEs get a PPR bonus, I would probably take him just after the upper tier of WRs go off the board.  In this game, I like Buffalo.   Sure, they still can’t stop the run, but the Colts will have to throw occasionally and it’s Curtis Painter slingin’ the pigskin back there and the Bills still have a stingy pass D.

JAC @ CLE (-1.5): MJD may be at or near the top in TDs, but his receptions slid this year and his yardage wasn’t what it should’ve been.  Part of it was David Garrard’s inconsistency but part of it was the playcalling.  Trading Mike Sims-Walker while his stock was high to get Thomas Jones was one of the highlights of my season.  The fact that I had to package him with SJax wasn’t so high, but more on that later.  Cleveland’s Jerome Harrison was firmly on both my benches for the fantasy playoffs during his breakout week, but I got beat so badly in one game it wouldn’t have mattered.  If you’re gonna lose, lose big, I always say.  Harrison will be overvalued in 2010; tread carefully because you don’t want to waste a 2^nd/3^rd round pick on 2010’s Amos Zereoue or Kevan Barlow.  In this game, I like the Jags b/c of the whole underdog thing.

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