Week 4 Waiver pick-ups and a trade!

Some of the highlights of this week's wavier wire were that the first trade of the season took place, also Louie and Tom decided to do the double switch by getting rid of their kicker and defense and picking up new ones. In fact, Tom decided to do the rare double switch on his defense he just picked up this morning. We have also learned that Gunnar doesn't understand how to properly use the waiver wire (I'll get to this in his recap). But before I get to that, I would like to point out a couple interesting things about teams who didn't pick anyone up. First off, Multiple Scoregasms didn't pick up a defense yet which is something he might want to do considering the one defense he has is on bye. The other team team that suprisingly didn't pick anyone up was the Kalamazoo Red Hawks. The Red Hawks have 4 starters on bye this week including their one and only quarterback Peyton Manning. It is troubling to see Chris hasn't tried to make a move yet, especially since he is still carrrying Ray Rice on his bench. I will be monitoring this team throughout the week to see if he puts together a full roster. If not, I'm going to have to walk over to his house and have a talk with him. Now on to the pick-ups.

TRADE:
Show Me Them TD's recieve Giovani Bernard and EJ Manuel
Baghdad Bombers recieve Phillip Rivers and Frank Gore

So the first trade in our league this year was very quick to develop. Last week Josh called me a couple times, each time he mentioned that his quarterback postition (at the time held by RG3) was bringing him down. I offered him this trade after he mentioned he would be interested in Phillip Rivers, and he accepted it right away. At first sight it might seem like he got a way better deal here, and maybe he did. But Frank Gore is slowly loosing his starting job to Carlos Hyde so he is becoming less valuable and I really wanted a running back I could trust to get me double digit points each week. Bernard is that guy, he has put up double digits in each of the first three weeks for the undeafeted Bengals. Unfortunetly, he is on bye so I won't be able to use him this week. On Josh's side of the deal, he gets a solid fantasy qb in Rivers (although he now has Cousins who looked great last week). He will atleast have a couple of good options at that position, and even though I said Gore is loosing his job, he will still gets enough carries to put up decent points. Josh needed a solid running back for the next week or two while Jamaal Charles and Doug Martin are dinged up and now he's got one. I forgot to mention EJ Manuel. I just threw him in the trade to even it out at two players a peice, but I will most likely drop him soon.
 
Wisconsin ArticCats: add Jordan Matthews, drop Danny Amendola

For the third time this year Gunnar decided to drop a player before the waiver period on Wednesday. Instead of dropping and adding players at the same time like everyone else, Gunnar has decided to split his adds and drops for whatever reason. I have a fealing he may just not understand how to use the waiver wire and therefore just drops people at the begining of the week to make room for the guys he wants when they magically appear on his team on Wednesday. Anyway, last Sunday Jordan Matthews had a huge 17 point game, thanks mostly to the 2 touchdwons he caught. Prior to that Matthews had a total of 4 points through 2 weeks. Normally I would call this a reach by Gunnar to just pick up someone who had one good week, but looking at who he dropped I don't think it was that bad of a move. Amendola has not been part of the Patriots offense at all so far this season. Amendola has 1 point from week one, and has not caught a pass since that game. The Patriots offense has not looked sharp this year and Amendola has suffered becasue of it. Also, Gronkowski and Edelman seem to get all the passes thrown thier way anyway.

the rare white guy running back

Team Mustangs: add Donald Brown, drop Shonn Greene

These are two backs that are heading in different directions. Donald Brown has become the starter in San Diego thanks to injuries to both Ryan Matthews and Danny Woodhead. It doesn't look like either one of them will be back for the next few weeks and even when Matthews comes back he'll probably just get hurt again becasue it seems like that what happens to him. This could be a great pick-up for the rest of the season for the Mustangs. Shonn Greene is going the other way, slowly losing playing time to Bishop Sankey in Tennessee. It was only a matter of time before this happened since everyone knew the Titans wanted Sankey to eventually take over and be the running back of the future.

Rolling Meadows Mustangs: add Dwayne Allen, drop Carlos Hyde

This one suprised me becasue, as I mentioned in the trade between Josh and myself, I think Carlos Hyde is slowly going to take over the starting running back job for the 49ers. Dwayne Allen, though, is coming of a good game agaisnt the Jaguars on Sunday and he looks to be the number one tight end target over Coby Fleener for Andrew Luck. When I looked at Zach's roster, the reason for the move was obvious, Zach's only tight end is on bye this week. As I have mentioned before, Zach's team is pretty stacked so it gives a little more sence to why he dropped Hyde in order to fill the empty tight end spot with Allen.


Smokin Blounts N Drinkin Fortes: add Bears D/ST, drop 49ers D/ST, drop Bears D/ST, add Lions D/ST

Fresh off his second 57 point game week, Tom decided to blow everyones mind by picking up a defense only to drop them a few hours later for another defense. The origianl dropped defense, the niners D/ST, have struggled this year with so many key players either hurt or suspended. they also have tough matchup against the Eagles coming up this week, so it miakes sence to drop them. Here's where it starts to get crazy, Tom picked up the Bears D/ST only to drop them 5 hours later. My guess is after seeing he got the Bears d, he realized there was a better defense out there that he could pick up for this week. That better defense is the Lions. They shut down the Packers offense last week, as well as putting up a touchdown and a safety. This week they play the Jets, which should almost gurantee them a couple of turnovers. For at least this week, this move makes since for the Tom and maybe just maybe he will score more than 57 points this week agaisnt the AtrcticCats.

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Codey Parkey, drop Stevan Hauschka

Codey Parkey or high scool freshman?

Kicker swap! As you will see in the next couple pick-ups, Louie decided to get rid of the bottom three starting guys on his lineup (TE, K, D/ST). Like I've said before I really don't have any criteria to judge kickers swaps, but this move is easy to figure out. Hauschka is on bye so Louie needed a kicker, why not get the kicker from a team that scores a ton of points week in and week out. Parkey has put up double digit games every week so far and there is no reason to believe he won't continue to do that.

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Owen Daniels, drop Kyle Rudolph

This is another easy move to disect. Rudolph has to have sports hernia surgery and will be out atleast 6 weeks, and he was Louie's only tight end. MAJD BTSY was luckiy enough to scoop up Owen Daniels, who has had one double digit point game this year so far, to replace him. His numbers should improve going forward since Dennis Pitta injured his hip and is probably done for the year. Daniels becomes the number one tight end on the team and a great red zone option for Joe Flacco.

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Dolphins D/ST, drop Chiefs D/ST

To complete the trio Louie made a defense swap! The Chiefs D/ST has been hurt with injuries and they yet to force a turnover this season, leading to some low weekly scores. The Dolphins, on the other hand have been more oppurtunitsic by forcing 4 turnoves in the first 3 games. To make things better for the Dolphins defense, they play the Raiders this week (the most likely reason Louie picked them up). It would not suprised if this defensive swap nets Louie somewhere in the 10-15 points range this weekend.

Smokin Blounts N Drinkin Fortes: add Dan Carpenter, drop Shayne Graham

Kicker Swap! I have no explanation for why this switch was made. Graham is not on bye and he plays for the Saints who are always going to put up points. Carpenter has had a couple of better weeks to start the year but I don't know if that was the reson for the swap. In the end it's a toss up so I decided to flip a coin, heads this was a bad move, tails it was a good move.....and its tails! Woohoo, way to go Tom, looks like you made a good move.

Show Me Them TD's: add Colts D/ST, drop Texans D/ST

This was a move I felt I had to make since the Texans D/ST got torched by the Giants last weekend. Anytime your defense get picked apart by the Giants they should be put down, so I decided to get rid of them. The Colts defense hasn't been good outside of thier big week last week agaisnt the worst team in the league, the Jaguars. However, I believe they can keep the momentum from the Jags game this week when they play at home agaisnt the Titans who haven't been very good offensivley this season. Looking ahead, the Colts play the Ravens and the Texans after the Titans so this may be a 3 week stint on my team before I find a different defense.