The International Fantasy League: Checking in with The Prince

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Marion Barber just might lead Team Japan to win it all.

The founder of the ESPN International League is Prince Abdullah, an improbable fantasy expert from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who will host the league winner in his home country. He's been a silent competitor thus far, so this week, the Prince shares some of his impressions of the International League as we enter the home stretch of the first season.

The Prince says that the teams representing the Asian continent (his own team, Saudi Arabia, plus Japan and India) had the best drafts. Team Saudi Arabia took Steven Jackson and Maurice Jones-Drew; Team Japan took Marion Barber and Reggie Wayne; Team India took Clinton Portis and Ryan Grant. (It's a testament to the Prince's fantasy acumen that his top two picks have had subpar seasons and he still leads his division.)

His response, verbatim, when asked which team had the worst draft: "USA is having a very bad year except for Obama." Can't disagree with that. (See below for confessions regarding the worst draft of all time.)

He sees his toughest competitor in Team Chile, which leads the league with a 9-2 record. Chile's roster reads like a list of fantasy all-stars: LT, Matt Forte, Thomas Jones, Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson.

The best strategic move, according to Prince Abdullah, was his own trade of Santonio Holmes for Frank Gore after Poland's autodraft stuck Daniel Krysiak with six RBs; Poland's trading away Gore, the Prince notes, was the league's worst strategic move.

The Prince checked his preseason list and didn't see any upside surprises in the players he initially ranked high. On the downside, however, he says, are "basically all first-round picks. LT, Steven Jackson, Brady, Owens, LJ, and so on."

The die-hard San Francisco 49ers fan laughs and cites Mike Singletary dropping his pants as the highlight of the 2008 season. He continues to think that his favorite team needs an ownership change, but he likes Singletary staying on as head coach unless Mike Shanahan, longtime head of the Denver Broncos, becomes available. He also cites Mike Holmgren, who's leaving the Seahawks after this season, as potentially a good GM.

THE WORST FANTASY DRAFT EVER

Prince Abdullah leads his division at 6-5, but it's close. Teams Mexico, New Zealand and Lebanon are tied just behind Team Saudi Arabia at 5-6. Team Chile's running away with the other division.

Just when I thought Team USA was getting somewhere, my guys went out and crapped the field again, putting up 58 points against Lebanon, a league low. As Team USA's helmsman, I feel that I should explain myself. How did I manage to come up with a team that's so incredibly bad?

This entire bad season has been a result of a bad draft—a draft so bad that I didn't really even have trade bait to improve my team. Having had a lot of fantasy success over the last four or five years by making unorthodox moves—I won a league a couple of years ago starting two entirely different backfields in the semifinals and finals—I had confidence in my strategy. I departed from the norm by taking two WRs with the ninth and 12th picks—Randy Moss and Marques Colston. This backfired pretty horribly.

I still stand by the idea, though. Putting blinders on and pursuing a single dominant running back is becoming a riskier strategy with each passing year, and more of a crapshoot. (The only team in any of my leagues that drafted LT first that's having a good season happens to be Team Chile in this league.) Though there have been some surprise breakout WRs, largely, as the Prince mentions above, the WRs who were supposed to have good seasons have done well. Think T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Reggie Wayne, Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, etc.

So it seemed almost safer to select two top WRs at the end of the first round and the beginning of the second. I just picked the wrong ones.

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