Fantasy Football - Caleb's Medium-Sized Board

Here is a quick list of my top 50 players for this next fantasy season I put together just for fun. I wish I had more time to make it a complete 100, but I'm leaving for Michigan soon! I've highlighted the players I'm particularly high and low on. I just threw this list together, so it's not really that great of a list, but that's okay. It's also obvious that I used the Yahoo Rankings as my baseline and moved players up and down, because the ESPN rankings are completely different. Feedback would be appreciated.

Assumed Scoring: 0.5 PPR, Yahoo standard otherwise.

1	Adrian Peterson	Consistency is king, and AP has been consistently awesome. McNabb only helps.
2	Arian Foster	One-year wonder. Let's see if he can do it again. Houston does look good, though.
3	Ray Rice	Valuable for receptions, and can break the long run. No more McGahee to steal TDs
4	Jamaal Charles	Crazy fast, reminds of CJ. Cassel and KC getting better and better, but Charles only had 5 TDs last year.
5	Chris Johnson	Main question: Can he get his deal done?
6	LeSean Mccoy	A not-as-rich man's Ray Rice. Had 78 receptions for 592 yards last season. Insane.
7	Andre Johnson	Big man, great hands, good quarterback, awesome offense. Also, good boxer.
8	Rashard Mendenhall	Solid back - he'll get his touches.
9	Michael Turner	If the Burner can stay healthy, TD's should come often and easy. Doesn't catch many balls, though.
10	Calvin Johnson	Megatron produced no matter who's under center - will beast if Stafford stays healthy.
11	Larry Fitzgerald	Will Kevin Kolb be able to feed the beast? I think so.
12	Roddy White	Matty Ice only getting better and better. We'll see if Julio takes away some of his productiveness.
13	Aaron Rodgers	Passer rating of 101.2 last season, and no indication of slowing down. Finley's return will only help.
14	Michael Vick	Million dollar question: Can Vick stay healthy through all 16 games of the season?
15	Darren McFadden	Was electric when he played. Too bad he's on the Raiders, but he'll get his touches.
16	Maurice Jones-Drew	Top 3 back in 2009, top 15 back in 2010. Has had knee problems, but hey, at least he plays the Colts twice a year!
17	Shonne Greene	Sanchez to Plaxico fade in the endzone will have Greene owners groaning.
18	Frank Gore	Alex Smith not turn the ball over enough for old-man Gore to touch the ball? Who knows.
19	Tom Brady	36 TD to 4 INT in 2010. Ochocinco will definitely help stretch the field.
20	Drew Brees	Threw 22 picks last year - way too many to still be elite.
21	Matt Forte	Bears OL probably worst in the league, but those screen plays seem to be...*puts on sunglasses*...his forte.
22	Steven Jackson	The workhorse finally has a quarterback! Won't get as much work as in the past, but should have higher YPR.
23	Hakeem Nicks	Had one great season, but still doesn't change the fact that it's Eli throwing it to him.
24	Peyton Hillis	As if his past mediocrity isn't bad enough, he's on the Browns. I'm not sold on his talent.
25	Tony Romo	Averaged nearly 30 TDs from 2007-2010. Has weapons all over the field. Has chance to be top 3 fantasy QBs.
26	Miles Austin	Romo's healthy, but Witten and Dez might steal his TDs.
27	Philip Rivers	Usually has great numbers. Will his inability to actually win games catch up with his statistics?
28	Vincent Jackson	Held out in 2010, but should have a good season as long as Rivers continues playing well.
29	Mike Wallace	60 receptions in 2010, but the Steelers will always be a run-first offense.
30	LeGarrette Blount	Decent speed, and big enough to punch it in at the goal line. Upside back.
31	Mike Williams	The Bucs are poised to have a great season with Freeman at the helm. Williams had 11 TDs last season - look for that number to increase.
32	Ahmad Bradshaw	Very fast, but had 6 fumbles lost last year. Jacobs has also looked good in the preseason.
33	Brandon Lloyd	Lloyd quietly led the entire NFL for yards receiving with 1448 yards. Let's hope Orton keeps that starting job.
34	Dwayne Bowe	Led the league in TD receptions with 15. There's no reason why that number would drop much lower this year.
35	Peyton Manning	Peyton will be Peyton...unless his neck continues to hurt.
36	Ryan Grant	Packers didn't look like they needed much of a running game last season for their Super Bowl. Wonder what his workload will be like this season.
37	Greg Jennings	Jermichael Finley healthy -  4 TDs in 2009. Jermichael Finley injured - 12 TDs in 2010. Finley is healthy again, so look for that TD count to drop.
38	Reggie Wayne	Has had at least 1000 yards in the last 7 seasons, but Peyton problems and old age (33!) are red flags.
39	Dez Bryant	Had 6 TDs last year despite Romo's injury. If he can keep his off the field issues off the field, he could easily jump Miles Austin as Dallas' #1 fantasy WR.
40	DeSean Jackson	Only had 47 receptions last year, tied for 71st in the NFL with Bradshaw, Moeaki, and DMF.
41	Mark Ingram	Looks to get the goal-line touches. I've only heard great things about him from the New Orleans camp ESPN.
42	DeAngelo Williams	Crappy team, no passing threat, 2-back system. Season's not looking great for Deangelo.
43	Felix Jones	With no more Marion the Barbarian to steal his TDs, look for him to get a lot more scoring opportunities (he's averaged around 3 TD's per season the last three years)...if he can stay healthy.
44	Jahved Best	If he can stay healthy, would be a very solid RB2.
45	Mario Manningham	Manningham has looked awesome in the preseason. Let's hope Eli doesn't suck it up.
46	Antonio Gates	An oldie but goodie - has averaged 9.6 TDs over the last seven years. You read that correctly. SEVEN YEARS.
47	Brandon Marshall	Did decently well in Miami last year, but only had 3 TDs. Marshall has top 10 talent, but his success really depends on the play of Chad Henne.
48	Cedric Benson	Do the Bengals have any other choice but to feed Benson the ball? Don't think so...
49	Jermichael Finley	Had 55 receptions and 5 TDs in 2009, and I expect him to do even better this year.
50	Stevie Johnson	Had a breakout season last year. With Lee Evans gone for good, he'll only get more looks from Fitzpatrick.

"Do not look back"

Does it ever intrigue you that God asks his people to do some pretty weird stuff sometimes? He told Joshua and his people to take a walk around Jericho in silence for a week, told Gideon to determine his army by how they drank water, and told Hosea to marry a prostitute.

It wasn't until Friday that I realized how strange and almost unreasonable God's command to Lot and his family are. If you don't remember the story, here's a refresher:

Genesis 19

12 The men said to Lot, ...13 "For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it."

5 As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city." 16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 And as they brought them out, one said, "Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away."

24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. 25And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

"Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley."

Growing up in church, I've never really give much thought to the command the angels gave to Lot and his family. How hard it could have been to run away from a burning, exploding city without looking back? After all, action heroes do it all the time. Upon further reflection, I realized how difficult it really must have been on Lot, and I more deeply understood the blessing of God's salvation.

Cool guys don't look at explosions.

My Last Day at Harris

Last Friday was my last day at Harris, and after the exit interview, I left the company to walk to the bus stop. I don't think I've ever literally walked away alone from something like that, and the feeling I got was pretty interesting. Despite not really being emotionally attached to the company, I couldn't help but feel kind of sad walking away from the place and the people I spent my last three months with that I would probably not see again. Also, unlike what it would be like if I was driving away, not only did I have much more time to think about it (because walking is slow, especially when you've gained as much weight as me), I had no rear-view mirror and couldn't see the place I was leaving without turning around completely to look.

I remember having sort of an internal battle about turning around to glance at Harris one more time. The awesome manly part of me told me that looking back was such an emotional and sissy mood, but my more nostalgic side was telling me to screw my manliness and to glance back. I did. It didn't really solve anything. I really don't even know why I did it, or even why I had the desire too. Just emotions, I guess.

It's not easy leaving somewhere that you've grown accustomed to, and it's even more difficult when you don't know what's ahead. I don't have a set career path yet, and this lack of sense of security in employment felt very real as I left Harris. Saying goodbye isn't easy, and having your life change drastically isn't easy either.

It must have been hard for Lot and his family to obey.

My insignificant struggle with leaving Harris reminded me of the story of Lot and his family. Why did God command them not to look back? What was the big deal? Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back. A pillar of salt! This was the first time that it struck me how hard not looking back must have been for the family. Not only do we know that Lot still had family in Sodom, they probably also had made friends with people from the city. And now God wanted them to walk away from the city where they've lived for a good amount of time without looking back. Isn't that a little bit unfair?

I know that what God really wanted from Lot and his family was for them to leave behind the sinfulness and immorality of Sodom. God wanted the family to display that they hated evil and that they had no connection to the evil of Sodom. But it still doesn't seem fair. Lot and his family had to leave behind family and friends to be killed by great balls of fire, and they couldn't even glance back to look at their destruction? Did God really expect them not to look back just to get a glance of what was probably an awesome fireworks show? I'm probably taking the text too literally, as they probably did look back from time to time, and God probably turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt because she was still connected to the sin and her heart was still in Sodom, but this command of God still isn't an easy one.

Sometimes when we read Scripture, especially the Old Testament, it's easy for us to self-righteously look down on the characters for their mistakes. We tell ourselves that we'd never make the same mistakes that they did and that we would obey God to do whatever he told us to do, whether it's refraining from eating some random fruit or commanding a rock to transform into a water faucet. If I was in Lot's situation (and I know I don't ever want to be), I don't know if I could run without looking back. I can't say with complete certainty I wouldn't desire to be with the friends and family that I left behind to perish. It's not easy leaving a place of security for a whole new life. Would I be like Lot and escape, or would I be like Lot's wife and look back and die?

I have already been rescued.

Colossians 3:1-4 - "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

All that speculation about me in Lot's shoes is merely hypothetical. Unlike Lot and his wife, I have a real relationship with Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. I know that ultimately, because of Jesus, my decision of whether to "look back" or not has already been made, not because of my obedience, but because of His. Christ has rescued me from the flames of hell, and my life "is now hidden with Christ in God". This unfortunately also means that I am inevitably leaving others behind, friends and family that I may care for and love. However, no longer is my heart bound to the things of the world. Though I still need to work out my salvation and strive to have my heart and my mind in heavenly things, growing in the likeness of Christ, I will never be like Lot's wife. Unlike Lot's wife, my treasure and heart are ultimately in and with Christ, not by my own power, but by the saving grace of God. Christ has given me a new life and a new path, and there's no turning back now...or ever.

I have decided to follow Jesus;

I have decided to follow Jesus;

I have decided to follow Jesus;

No turning back, no turning back.



My Summer - 2011
"I promise I'll read it!"
Summer 2011 - Lessons Learned

Summer 2011 - Lessons Learned

Believe it or not, this summer was the first time I've lived alone. I've had at least one roommate
all four years of college and have lived at home with my family every summer until this one. Living alone in an unfamiliar area has been a great experience, and God has used this summer to grow my walk with him. Here are two simple lessons that God has taught me specifically about living alone.

Spiritual disciplines are important.

The first month or so of living in Maryland, my spiritual life tanked. I was too tired to read Scripture before work at 6AM, and I was too tired to read Scripture after work at 6PM. It was so much easier coming home after work and just watching TV and playing computer games for a few hours until it was bedtime at 10:30. As expected, this lack of God in my life only resulted in sinfulness, as there wasn't really anyone to hold me accountable either.

God then grabbed a hold of my life again, and he helped me focus on Scripture in the morning and Scripture after work. I've had the opportunity to memorize a few Bible verses a week, and God has used those Bible verses to speak to me at different times of my summer. Memorizing Scripture again has really been monumental in my spiritual life, and I really recommend that everyone do it (so does John Piper)! Spending more time with God has really put things into more perspective. Would I rather watch episode after episode of The Office that I've already seen before, or would I rather deepen my relationship with the eternal, sovereign God and solidify my foundation on His Word? We get sucked up into all of these little temptations that just steal us away from God, little by little, and we miss the great things that God has in store for me.

Looking at the title of this section, maybe it's more appropriate to say instead that "Spending time with God is important", but whatever. These spiritual disciplines are the way that God uses for us to know him and love him more. [I'll probably share more about the stuff God has taught me through Scripture, but just not in this post.]

"It is not good for man to be alone" - Genesis 2:18

Especially in the beginning of my stay in Maryland, it was hard to not feel lonely at times and to desire being in a relationship. It's not so much that I was actually feeling sad and down in the dumps, but it was more of a sense of purposelessness and boredom. Instead of wondering what I would occupy myself with after work, it would have been nice to be able to come home after a long day of work to someone who would be forced to talk to me and spend time with me. It certainly didn't help that seemingly everyone I met over the summer was either dating, engaged, or married. It became very real to me that even though I'm not a very people-centered or relationship-focused person, I wasn't created to live alone, but to live in community and fellowship with others.

God reminded me that I don't need to have a significant other to not be alone and to experience companionship. Accountability with a Christian brother is something I haven't really done since school ended, so starting up accountability again with Cory was really helpful in my walk with God. We had weekly phone calls to talk about life and to pray for each other. These weekly phone appointments gave me one more thing to look forward to in the week, and gave me even more motivation to stay holy and to walk with God. In the future, when I'm living by myself, I'm going to need to maintain these kinds of accountability relationships, so that brothers like Cory can check up on me and we can encourage and build each other up.

I was also able to join the young adult Bible study of a local church, and I built some pretty cool friendships with the people there. As I mentioned in my previous post, the Bible study gave me something to look forward to, and it went further to fill my life with God-related stuff. One of the guys that I met, Shawn (who actually knows Michael from Cornell), picked me up from work to go play basketball and ultimate two or three times a week. In the car, we'd mostly talk about topics like religion, Christianity, and the church, making every car ride was like an "iron-sharpen-iron" sort of experience. Shawn's a mature, older guy who is extremely well-read in matters of faith (and he's also about to get married), and I learned a lot about life, doctrine, and different religious beliefs from him. To me, this was fellowship at its best...or at least very good fellowship.

God reminded me this summer how important being connected through fellowship with other members of the body is important in my walk with Him, as he uses people to speak truth into my life.

Why I need accountability:

My Summer - 2011
"I promise I'll read it!"

"I promise I'll read it!"

God did something crazy to me on Friday.

tl;dr - I gave my awesome new Bible away to a complete stranger on the bus.

Long version:

The Setting

When I come home to New Jersey from Maryland, I take a 45-minute bus ride from my apartment to the Amtrak station, and then I take the train home. Yesterday on the bus, I was reading my awesome new Bible. I read Matthew 11, which was about how John the Baptist was rebuked by Jesus. "Blessed is the man who is not offended because of me." I then read Joshua 5 and 6, which was about the mass circumcision of all the Israelite kiddies, Joshua's encounter with the commander of the Lord's army, and finally the fall of Jericho. What I have been getting most out of Joshua is the obedience that everyone displays. Joshua obeys God faithfully, and the people obey Joshua without question. I was stunned at how Joshua basically told everyone to shut up while they marched around the city, and they did! Holiness through obedience.

The Setup

Suddenly, one of the guys nearby sitting on the bus poked me. He was a 41 year old black man wearing a t-shirt and shorts named Donell. Donell asked me, "Is that a Bible you're reading?" I told him it was. "You go to church?" I told him I went every week. "That's good, that's good." He said he doesn't really go to church anymore. He then asked me "When you get a chance, just remember me in your prayers." I asked him if there was anything specific he wanted me to pray for him about. "To make my path straight. I haven't really been on the straight path, but pray that God will give me a straight path. And to give me a good job." I said I would do that for him, and we talked briefly about God when he got a phone call and started talking on the phone. While he was talking on the phone, I went to go look for the "Trust in the Lord with all your heart.....and he will make your paths straight" passage that I knew was in Proverbs, but I couldn't remember the chapter and verse. Miraculously, when I opened my Bible to Proverbs I opened right to the correct spot and saw it immediately. Fastest verse search ever.

At this point, I was really hoping I could pray for him right there on the bus, and maybe share the gospel more explicitly using the Proverbs passage, but he started talking about his family and football (he's a big Ravens fan), so we talked about how awesome the Eagles did in the off-season and how bad Miami's management is. We talked about Sean Taylor and how he died.

The Act

Sean Taylor was the last topic we talked about before we began pulling into the Amtrak station. Suddenly, I felt the urge to give him my Bible. No. This can't be from God. It's from me. The urge was too strong. This is my brand new Bible. I bought it for $20.00. He probably won't read it anyways. I wanted to read it on the train. I really didn't want to give him my Bible. We were pulling up to the station, so I needed to make the decision. Maybe he'll have his own Bible or maybe he won't want my Bible.

"Do you have a Bible at home." "I do, and I don't." Uhh...what? The bus was going to come to a stop soon. I needed to make a decision. "Do you want my Bible?" "I feel bad for taking your Bible. Do you have another Bible for yourself?" "Yeah, I have a lot of other Bibles. But if I give you my Bible, you gotta promise to read it." "Okay I will. Write your name in it, so I can know who gave it to me." I was really running out of time, because the bus was basically at the stop. I scribbled my name in the front cover, and as I was frantically gathering my things to get off the bus, I opened to Proverbs 3:5 that I had previously bookmarked, basically shoved the Bible in his hands, and told him to read the Proverbs passage. As I took my stuff and walked off the bus he proclaimed again, "I promise I'll read it!".

The Reflection

As I walked into the Amtrak station, I was still shell-shocked at what just happened. I stood there a little dazed, before I remembered I needed to go print out my ticket. I printed out my ticket, sat down, and pulled out my journal and prayed. Here are some of the things that God showed me in that time of prayer and reflection, nicely organized so it's not just a crazy cluster of all the thoughts that were racing through my head.

"It isn't sacrifice until it hurts"

I'm not sure where I heard this saying (my guess is Urbana), but as people living in the US, giving has become really easy, and we can comfortably give money without much sacrifice. Even though the Bible cost only $20, it hurt a lot more than giving away a 20 dollar bill would. It's somewhat strange to me how giving away a Bible could be so painful when giving away $40 or $50 might actually be less painful, and I asked myself why I was so upset about losing my Bible. I gave away something that I wanted, something that was dear to me. I also had planned on reading it in the train station and on the train, so I also sacrificed my plans for the next few hours. I gave away something that I loved, and the thought of it being in the hands of another man scared me because I didn't know if he would actually read it or treat it well. I felt a lot like Larry, when his hairbrush was taken - Take caaaaaaare of my Bible. Take caaaaaaare, oh my Bible. Take care, take care, don't dare not care, take care, nice hair, no fair. Take care, caaaarreeeeeee of my Bible.



This realization that such a little thing could get me all riled up really revealed a lot of inner weakness inside of me. If I couldn't give away a little thing like a Bible, how can I give away bigger things to God - things like my career, my future, my future kids? It dawned on my the huge faith it must have taken Hannah to very literally give away her son to the Lord. I have trouble giving away an inexpensive Bible, but she had to give away her firstborn and only son! God demands my firstfruits, and I need to be able and willing to give them to Him.

I need to trust God

I think much of my distress stemmed from a doubt: "Did I do the right thing?" What if Donell never used the Bible? What if he just forgets and leaves the Bible on the bus? What if it starts raining and the Bible gets all wet? I needed to make the conscious decision to not think about these doubts and just in God's sovereignty, that God is in control and his wisdom is infallible.

God is sovereign and has prepared me for this moment.

This is by far the biggest thing that I got out of this whole experience. Once I sat down in the train station, Scripture that I read and memorized in the last few days and weeks came flooding back to me. On the bus, I was read Matthew 11 and Joshua 5,6. As I've been reading Joshua, I've been struck by the obedience displayed by Joshua and all the Israelites. In Joshua 6, Joshua obeys everything that the commander of the Lord's army commands him to do. Joshua then tells all his people to not say a word as they marched around Jericho. We take that for granted sometimes, but Jericho was an enormous city, and it must have taken a long time to walk around it once, not to mention seven times. If I was an Israelites, I definitely would have grumbled or complained, but none of them did. And the walls came tumblin' down. My takeaway from reading Joshua so far is to always obey God, the first time. It's funny how God prepared my heart to obey him, even when I really didn't want to.

Some of the verses that came to mind:

Matthew 11:6 - "Blessed is the one who is not offended by me."

Matthew 10:39 - "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Joshua 3:5 - "Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you."

Matthew 10:28 - "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

God is using his Word to help me increasingly grow in His likeness, and it was really cool seeing how the Scripture that I've been reading and memorizing has actually affected my thinking. I need to continually consecrate myself in expectation of the amazing things that the Lord will do in my life.

"Trust and obey, for there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."

[This post is describing events that happened on Friday, August 5th, while the large majority of the post was written on the day after that.]

Stupid Me, Stupid Bee

Something crazy just happened.

I'm sitting here on the floor with my back to the couch watching the Yankees beating the White Sox 4-1. I lean back and extend my arms on the couch, as I often do on church pews...or just chairs in general. My pose is sort of hard to describe, so I hope the following picture illustrates it. I looked something like this (also, this):

This guy isn't as good-looking as me, but this picture will have to do.

A few seconds later, I realize that my left hand kind of hurts, with a piercing sort of pain. I pull it back, wondering why my hand is hurting. I played with my hand a bit, but it didn't seem to hurt when I applied pressure to the pain. It hurt a lot when I clenched a fist, but would then disappear for a little bit. I thought it was a splinter, so I examined my hand under the light, but there doesn't seem to be any cut or any splinter. I spent a bunch of time looking for it, but as you can see pretty much, nothing:

I should be a hand model, yes?

By now, my hand was really throbbing, and the pain was becoming unbearable. I went to the freezer to get myself an ice cube to numb the pain. Walking back to the couch area, I find this on the pillow sitting on the couch. :

This is the thorn in my hand's side. Ouch. 

Yes, that is a bee, and yes, it is dead. Then hit me. When I stuck my arm back and rested it on the pillow, I inadvertently rested my hand on the stinger of the dead bee. I can't believe that just happened to me. I stung myself with a dead bee. The bee didn't sting me, I literally jammed my hand into the bee's stinger. I essentially ran into a parked car. Stupid bee. Stupid me.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of how I stung myself with a dead bee.

Medical update for all of you who are deeply worried about my well-being: 
My hand hurts a lot. I need to ice my hand twice a minute or else the sharp pain in my hand is more than my low pain tolerance can handle. I'm not positive, but I think I'll make it through this one. But hey, at least the Yankees are about to win the game 7-1!

Dang it. 7-2 now. Mariano just gave up a 9th inning HR? It has been a weird day.