Keeper League Corner - Rashard Mendenhall

There isn't much written specifically for keeper league players, so I thought I'd try some of my own. Most will be centered on players (probably players I have) that may or may not be keeper worthy even in 5 keeper leagues.

We get our first look at Rashard Mendenhall tonight. He has probably lost carries this year because of his fumbles in the preseason, which is a concern. Running backs can overcome dropping the ball but the stigma is a little more difficult to tackle. Even so, he got the opportunity to start tonight because of the injury to Willie Parker. Mendenhall got banged up and left the game on a cart, but even before wasn't having much success against a stout Ravens defense.

Long term look - he doesn't play on third downs. The elite backs (LT, AP, Westbrook, etc.) play every down. That's where they get their value. Especially in PPR leagues, receptions on third downs can mean lots of points. When Mendenhall was in for passes, he was not effective as a blocker, unable to stop even simple rushes up the middle. Many rookie RBs are probably not used to blocking, but some have been effective this year like Matt Forte and Steve Slaton.

Keeper? - No. Willie Parker has the lock on the spot, even if he struggles to stay healthy through the year. Mendenhall needs to play all three downs to be an elite back and recognize the full potential of the RB spot. He would also need to start and play a full game to have any sort of value. I've got him behind at least two other rookie RBs, Forte and Slaton, and most other RB that start. Take a wait and see approach, maybe his situation will change.

Since writing this, Mendenhall went down with a fractured shoulder and is out for the rest of the season. I'm keeping him in my IR spot and I'll reevaluate next fall before it's time to select keepers. If Parker leaves or gets hurt right before next season, Mendenhall would be a borderline keeper.

Hurricane Ike - Last Update ... probably

Well, since the last update I have regained electricity. Power came back last Wednesday (9/24) afternoon. That made for 12 days without power. Long time! Luckily, I didn't have to spend all of it here. I suppose I should appreciate the electricity, but I'm right back to taking it for granted.

As I write this, approximately 115,000 CenterPoint customers are without power. Some of those customers use wells for water. And without power, those wells don't run. Through this whole ordeal, I realized how terrible it would be without water. You can work around the lack of electricity, but without water you can't shower well or use the toilette.

I think I might sign up for the hurricane ride-out crew at work. They kept power through the whole ordeal, so they could watch TV and use the internet. They had to be at the plant for 5 days, but I think they were released to take a look at their homes. Really, I'd just have to get everything set at home as best I could. Make sure everything was put up and away from the windows. The ride-out crew gets paid to be there! A bunch, I hear!

As someone put it, why would I want to stay here, when I could be somewhere else, watch the coverage on TV and drink cold beer. Oh well, I guess you learn.

Hurricane Ike Update #5

I survived! The power went out shortly after my last update at 8PM. That was a bummer, made for a long night of waiting for the hurricane and then watching the hurricane. Here's a rundown of the events from that night. I was able to find a cd player that also had an FM tuner on it. That's where most of my information has been coming from for the past 4 days.

8:30 - Power went out
10:00 - CenterPoint reports 315,000 customers w/o power - I wasn't alone
10:45 - The rain started at my place, but there were no sustained winds
11:00 - 425,000 w/o power
- Christian's tailgate was still open, and said they'd be open until 12AM. Maybe this is the place Anderson Cooper was talking about
12AM - No sustained winds yet. Rain wasn't too bad.
12:30 - 725,000 customers without power. They said that the outage area was pretty much south of north beltway 8 and east of west beltway 8 toward the coast, if that makes any sense
- The Galveston police department is getting calls to rescue people, but isn't sending anyone out. They apparently quit at 8:30ish.
- It's getting warm, without the air conditioner, but I did manage to sleep from 11PM to 12AM
1AM - Sustained winds out of N, NE. Some rain. Reported gusts of 45 mph
1:15AM - Wind picked up, but rain still isn't bad
- Heard bang that sounded like a tin roof
- Not sure what the wind speed is, but its blowing pretty hard and sustained
- Area across 23rd still have power
1:30AM - 1 million customers w/o power - "transformers popping all over downtown"
- W. Heights reporting 45mph winds, steady
3AM - lots of wind, some water, basically what you'd expect a hurricane to be
- power out across the street. Can't see any working lights.
3:30AM - 1.3 mil. w/o power.
4:15AM - Hellacious wind. "Hurricane" wind. Rain is harder. Won't go outside. Our 3-story brick-front townhouse is shaking in the wind.
- Probably on west or south-west side of eyewall at this point
4:45AM - Winds died down a little. Not quite so ferocious. Still raining some
- Rain/wind very constant. Rain blows N to S. Not much rain hitting the ground.
- Reports that Clear Lake at Hwy 146 has an 11ft storm surge
5AM - Nearly everyone agrees that back end of the storm has been worse than the front.
- 2 mil w/o power. Downtown and Med Center all that's left (served by underground lines)
5:15AM - Kemah Boardwalk is under 6ft of water
- phone system and 911 down
- nearly all overhead power customers are w/o power
5:30AM - Driving rain, everything is wet. Pieces of leaves stuck to the sides of the houses. "Typical" tropical storm
5:30 - 8:30AM - Slept

Still no power. 50-some hours and counting. We maintained enough water pressure to flush the toilets, which was good. In terms of importance; Water/Sewer >> Power. I'd kept the bathtub full so I could flush if we did lose power, but Galveston lost both, and probably won't get those services back for a while. Sunday morning, the shower didn't work so well, but by Monday morning, it was back to normal (and even hot - must be a gas powered water heater).

Sunday afternoon I hooked my 19" TV up to my vehicle through an AC/DC converter. I was able to watch the Saints/Redskins game and root on both Drew Brees and Clinton Portis. That was a good way to spend my time, I was tired of trying to read a magazine.

Most stations aren't open because the pumps don't have power. I noticed very long gas lines around 3:30PM on Sunday. This has continued as of Tuesday afternoon. Gas stations maintain lines until they run out of gas. From what I have noticed, about 25-50 cars will be in line at a time and the stations run out of gas once a day. They should have heeded the interstate signs: "Storm forming in Gulf. Keep your gas tanks full."

The power has been coming back, more quickly than I would have anticipated. CenterPoint is going to throw a bunch of people at it, borrowing workers from all over the US and Canada. Most of the easy fixes have already been done.

Well, that's most of it. There's probably more to it but I'll leave it at that. Here's a sad picture.

NFL Week Two (After 12pm Games)

After watching the first wave of games from Week Two in the NFL, a few things came to mind that I wanted to write about.

1st and 10 (Feel like im John Clayton)

I would like to designate myself as a future NFL Sunday Ticket subscriber. I used to never understand why it was necessary to have every game at my finger tips but this was when I wasn't as big of NFL fan and my Chicago Bears were on TV every Sunday in Cedar Rapids. Now that I am in Ames, the coverage is split between Chicago, Detroit, GB and Minnesota. It would be nice to watch the Bears games in their entirety. Also, there are so many good games in the NFL week in and week out I don't really want to be stuck with KC vs OAK again when Minn vs Ind was on CBS as well.

2nd and 13 (Bears Offense)

The NFL is starting to become really, really fun for me to watch. I used to favor college heavily over pro football and I still do to a certain extent. College games can get ugly really quick. NFL games are close week in and week out. Any team truly can beat any other team. Fantasy Football is awesome and has really sparked my interest in NFL again. I had never understood how people loved the NFL so much but I am beginning to understand the obsession.

3rd and 4 (Matt Forte)

I hate to root for the Packers and by no means am I but being forced to watch them play and having Aaron Rodgers on my team has forced me to pay attention. Rodgers is really good. I have thought he was going to be good for awhile. He was able to sit on the bench and learn for several years and whoa! The Packers were smart and lucky that Favre stayed around for so long but they made the right call this year. By no means does two weeks make a season, but Rodgers is very mobile in the pocket which allows him to find open receivers. He looks through his progressions unlike many other young quarterbacks. I think there is something to be said for how the Packers groomed Rodgers and I think other franchises should take note.

4th and 1(Bears Playcalling)

I couldn't watch the Bears game today which is probably a good thing at the end. Up 17-3 they lost 20-17. I was watching the game on Stat Tracker and they had a drive starting with a little over three minutes left in the 4th quarter. First down resulted in a 9 yard gain from Forte for 2nd and 1. Second down was "Orton incomplete to the left". Ok, maybe they wanted to trick them. Third Down, "Orton incomplete to the right". WTF! The Bears aren't the Colts. Fourth Down, Jason McKie up the middle for no gain. I don't see the reasoning at all by not giving Forte another effort during that sequence. They needed just 20 more yards for a game tying(sp?) field goal. Not happy with this playcalling-would have liked to have seen it live.

Hurricane Ike Update #4

No rain yet at 8PM, but the winds have picked up. The winds are from the north at 10 mph with gusts up to 39 mph. Here's where I'm watching the wind speeds. The winds were stronger when I went outside an hour and a half ago. Everyone thought that the rain and some wind would be here around noon today. It appears that the hurricane is tightening, which means a stronger storm for a shorter period of time.

Waiting for this thing to hit has been brutal. The news just runs on a cycle, giving us the same stuff all the time. Everyone is posted up on Galveston Island, but I'd like to see what's going on closer to Houston. The strangest thing is that there is a bunch of flooding both on the island and in town, and it hasn't rained at all yet. The storm surge is flowing from the gulf, up the bay, up the ship channel and into the bayous.

We've just had our fifth and sixth power blips. I'm not sure if the next one will be the last one. It isn't enough to kill my clock, but the lights go out, the AC trips and the tv cuts out. I've heard parts of town have reported power outages, so maybe the blips are coming from load dropping off the grid.

I'll write shorter posts more frequently so I don't get cut off. The power blips probably aren't good for my TV, so I think I'll be moving it into the closet here shortly. I'm hoping to keep power for a while, because I don't think I have a battery powered radio. Oops.

Satellite Image of Ike

Hurricane Ike Update #3

This is getting serious ... Anderson Cooper is here! Ahhhh!!! And I thought it was bad when Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel was in Galveston! Cooper keeps asking everyone where he should broadcast from tomorrow night. No one wants to tell him he should be right in the middle of it, but he's looking for the good stuff. Some tie-him-to-a-pole-type stuff. He's getting cavalier, he didn't get to New Orleans until after the actual storm. Having somebody out there in the middle of it gives some perspective, but I don't need every major news anchor out there in a slicker in the middle of the hurricane.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox. Back to the hurricane at hand. The "new" news: apparently, one of the weather services is telling people that if they stay on Galveston Island, it means "certain death." Hardcore! That sounds a little far-fetched for me. The storm of 1900 killed 8000 of roughly 100,000 people living on the island and that was in
View Larger Map'>wooden structures. I haven't taken the time to get any numbers on the 1900 storm, but I'd think that the storm surge in 1900 would have been worse then than after construction of the 16 foot storm wall. In any case, it appears that this hurricane will come "straight up the gut" as we have been saying.



I guess what this means, the winds and the storm surge could be worse. The storm surge isn't nearly as bad on the "left" side of the storm, so if it moved just east of Galveston Bay, Houston would get the wind, but not the surge. It sure looks like downtown Houston, of which I'll call myself a part, will be getting some serious winds. 80+ for sure. Sustained for hours. Should be intense.

Earlier in the day, I missed a couple things. There is a small community called Bayou Vista, TX that started taking on water as early as 4PM this afternoon. The local news showed video of cars driving through a foot or more of water. I didn't find a pictures of this on the internet, so I've included a map. As you can see, it's on the mainland side of the bay, right before the bridge to Galveston Island. Oh, this flooding occurred 36 hours before the eye of the storm was to hit landfall.



Another unsettling thing I saw while driving about, was the boarding up of houses and businesses. A couple homes were boarded up and the funeral home (I'll have to post a picture!) was boarded up all the way around. Hopefully they don't know something I don't. Like I said earlier, the worst we have is eastern exposure on the windows, which is probably bad news if the hurricane comes in directly south of us.

If anyone is wondering, our 2nd (what's it called if it's twice in one year?) official CPC Hurricane Party occurred at Onion Creek in the Heights neighborhood and was delightful and breezy. I had Red Stripes because they were an affordable $2 each! We didn't have any hurricane parties for two summers and now have had two in one summer, wonder when the next one will be?

I'm off to find Anderson Cooper!

Hurricane Ike Update #2

I've seen some places near me that have boarded up. That makes me a little worried. The forcasts are for possibly 96mph wind where we are at. Our place doesn't have any southern exposed windows, but the windows to my bedroom and the doors to the other room face the east, which is probably the second most vulnerable. At this point, its probably too late to think about boarding up. I've got a closet that I might put my TV in to keep it safer.

It seems people are taking this seriously. The grocery store parking lot was completely full and there were quite a few people out driving around. Most people must be off work, and a lot are buying supplies.

The evacuation is going well, but the roads are starting to back up. I get why they want to stagger the evacuations, but it doesn't seem like they did a very good job. The toll roads are free, and too many people are excited to use them. The south beltway is getting backed up even though 610 looks good. The picture below must be old because I-45 over the bridge from Galveston is stop and go, and they said it would take better than 2 hours to get from Galveston to downtown (usually an hour or better drive).

Ike Traffic 2PM Thur

Preparations:

Doing laundry - hey got to have clean undies

Cleaned bathroom - something that had to be done

Clean dishes

Grocery Store - (water, beer, canned goods)

Start filling cooler with ice

Vacuum room

Clean out pantry - (smells like something died)

Lift weights

Find somewhere with drink specials for tonight

The "preparations" I've listed look a little goofy, but if I were to watch the hurricane coverage for another 48 hours until the storm passed, I'd go crazy. The weathermen would fly away if they flapped their arms any harder. And there's only so many times you can hear that mobile homes will be destroyed.

Hurricanes Ike! Update #1

Neither of the previous two summers have been like this one. Before July, I was largely ignorant of our work's hurricane policy. Hurricane supplies, evacutations, missed work hadn't really entered my mind. We've been kept home from work once and now we've been sent home for two days for Ike. This seems like it will be the real deal. Here's a few highlights from the hurricane preparedness so far.


The hurricane track






This is the second time this summer that we've been within the 3-day track. To me, that means you need to be getting ready. Hurricane warnings are new to me. What's different about this storm is that it's very large. I would think it would be unusual for hurricane warnings to be in effect outside the projected landfall area. The storm is about 500 miles across.

We were told to go home from work this morning at 8:30 after Harris County called for a mandatory evacuation of some areas. Many people who work at the plant live in Clear Lake, La Porte, Baytown, and other areas along the bay.

Zones 1 and 2 are under mandatory evacuation

The reason for the evacuation of these areas is the storm surge. If Ike hits southwest of Houston, as is planned, Galveston Bay will be on the "dirty" side of the hurricane. The winds might not be as high as near the eye, but the storm surge is worse.

The mandatory evacuation was called for Zones A and B for 12PM, but it looks like people have already started leaving. Unfortunately, they waited to call for the evacuation of Galveston Island until later this morning, so I-45 northbound between Galveston and Beltway 8 is getting very bad, but still moving. I-45 through downtown is bad but still moving. I-10 west by the beltway is also bad in a small stretch.

I'll give more updates as I see fit.