The Sin City BetBot Presents...Slumming It Nov 3, 2006 | More

Initially built by NASA to set lines for the Las Vegas casinos in the late 50’s (who do you think funded the Apollo missions? The government? It was the mob…), The Sin City Betbot 6000 calculated lines for over 30 years. The Betbot was given various upgrades through the years, not always with the best equipment, but he was very good at setting lines, and living the good life. 

The Betbot was de-commissioned in 1990 after San Francisco destroyed Denver in the Super Bowl. The 45 point spread simply fried a number of the Betbot’s wires and he retired. The Betbot was discovered by Fantasysharks.com and retooled to give fantasy advice. He lives now to help your team with deeper sleepers to start each week.

The Betbot’s column is transcribed each week by Joe Petrizzi and Tom Walls, because, “Typing is a dame’s BZZZT job.”

Need more BetBot?  Try a daily dose of BetBot at http://blog.sincitybetbot.com and look for other content, including weekly NFL picks, on http://www.sincitybetbot.com.

First, please accept my apology for not ...BZT... writing an article last week.  I was on vacation for a little less than a week and didn’t get a chance to submit anything – I should have let you know ahead of time, but somehow I think you’ll forgive me.  If not, well…feel free to send me more angry e-mails, if that’s what you need to make yourself feel better.

Anyway, I’m not the only one taking time off – we’ve still got some bye weeks to deal with, so let’s get to some players that might be able to help you out.

QB – JP Losman – BUF – Donovan McNabb owners are scrambling to figure out what to do this week – most likely McNabb is a big part of their success this season and the Eagles are on a bye.  May I suggest one JP Losman?  What?!  Well, Losman mostly stinks, but he has thrown a TD in most games this season, and his numbers can even be respectable against a bad pass defense (see the Detroit game a few weeks ago).  Well, his upcoming schedule contains such defensive powerhouses as Green Bay, Indianapolis, and Houston.  Can you say shootout?  Look, I like a classy woman as much as the next robot, but every now and then you have to slum it a little, just to fill in life’s little gaps.  It’s quite possible that we’ll see a few good games in a row from young JP, followed almost immediately by reports that he’s finally coming of age (and the Bills are geniuses for sticking with him.)  Trust me; they’ll be tripping over themselves to be the first person on the block to tout Losman’s improvement.  That’s exactly when you’ll kick him to the curb, but until then he’s perfect for the little gaps in your fantasy lineup.

QB – Joey Harrington – MIA – If using Losman means you’re slumming it, using Joey Harrington means you’re shacking up at a seedy motel with a heroin addict.  There are some things you just don’t want to do.  However, the Dolphins are already playing out the string, and so you can just about forget any chance Daunte Culpepper is going to play again this season.  If you’re desperate, at least you know Harrington is going to be starting.

RB – Nobody – Seriously, I have no recommendation this week for RB.  At some point, you’ll want to handcuff your starters in anticipation for the stretch run after the trading deadline.  But for right now, I don’t see too much talent that’s lurking.  You should already know about Brandon Jacobs and Marion Barber, and the other RBs that are getting significant goal line carries even though the starting RB is running very well.  They should already be on a roster, and going deeper isn’t coming up with anything you can use.  I’ll continue to monitor the situation.

To read the WR and TE write ups, you may want to check out my Sin City Betbot 6000 Receiver Confidence Index, as I’ll be referring to it going forward.  I’ll often refer to a receiver’s CI score as a triplet of numbers – his raw CI number, his receptions weighted by CI, and his yards weighted by CI.  For example, Reggie Wayne’s CI score is 1.37/52.0/879.

WR – Samie Parker - KC – This is a guy who may have been drafted late in your league. If he was, I’m betting he was dropped pretty early in the season by the guy who drafted him to fill some other need. That’s what happens with Kansas City receivers not named Gonzalez or Kennison. Well, I think it’s time to pick Parker up and sock him away.

Parker’s cooled off the past couple weeks, with Damon Huard at the controls. Whether or not Trent Green comes back any time soon, Parker is worth a gamble, and let’s face it, these deeper sleepers…BZZT.. are gambles. Parker was having a nice season, with week 6 versus Pittsburgh his best week yet, but, as I wrote, he’s cooled off.

Parker’s CI numbers look pretty good 1.31/27.4/269 , his un-weighted CI score (1.31) ranks 22^nd overall for WRs. 16 of the 32 times he’s been targeted have resulted in first downs or touchdowns (Positive Plays). Pick up Parker, and save him for a rainy day. St. Louis has an OK pass defense, but the Chiefs get to play the Dolphins NOV 12^th, look for big things from all the Chiefs skill players that game.

TE – Tony Scheffler – DEN – Another ‘wait and see’ candidate here. You probably already know about Owen Daniels, if he’s still available in your league, pick him up. But Daniels is no longer a deeper sleeper, so we look at Scheffler.

Scheffler’s season has been pretty disappointing so far, but last Sunday, Scheffler came alive.  By the way, I have a bone to pick. You obviously know about Peter Frampton’s great live album Frampton Comes Alive , right? If not, go out and buy it, it really is a great rock album, plus I get some of the proceeds. I wrote a couple of the songs on the album, and I performed. That’s my voice you hear during the guitar solo on Do You Feel Like We Do . I mean, please, did you really think it was some guitar sound effect?

Frampton and I no longer talk. We were in a van…BZT… one night in the 80s, he was driving us to Reno. The SOB ran off the road, flipped the van 8 times and left me for dead in the desert. Somehow he didn’t get hurt, but I couldn’t move, my left leg’s motivator was completely busted. I heard Frampton pulled the same stunt a couple years later with another ‘good’ friend. He apologized to the other guy on VH1, but for me? I get bumpkis, I guess I should have been paralyzed or something to get an apology out of him, the jerk. I don’t know what his problem is…really.

Where was I? Oh bleeping yeah. Scheffler. Look, he’s near the bottom of my CI rankings, with an abysmal .58/3.5/39, but he had a nice game against the Colts. Grab Scheffler, watch him against the Steelers and Raiders, if you like what you see, start using him. Get him now, while he’s dirt cheap. After all, what’s your 2^nd TE doing for you anyway? You might as well get a rookie with some upside, right?