Predicate Fantasy Pigskin: August = Preseason!

...would like to commend Miah's daring use of that classic, "Cat In Lime Hat." In his honor, I will be constructing an elaborate helmet made of grapefruit for my own cat, Abigail.

Right before the draft (which will be set up on August 31st, the day before I hop on a plane for the L.A.bor Day / Predi-que Extravaganza), make double-sure that you are up-to-date on the latest injuries, and make sure all those folks get put on your "Do Not Draft" list.

With 20 teams in the league, it'll be hard enough to find the talent without wasting roster spots on some gimp who won't be ready to play until Week 6, if at all. :)

A significant portion of your job as a team manager during the regular season involves managing around injuries, so you'll need to be able to read an injury report. I'll go ahead and break the basics down for you here, just so you have the chance to familiarize yourself with them before the season starts. Luckily, everything you really need to know from a fantasy perspective is generally summed up in a single letter, thusly:

• P -- Probable: Start 'em. This player has a minor injury, and is at least 75% likely to be on the field for the next game. You can confidently start a player at this injury status, and expect pretty much 100% production.

  NFL teams are required by the rules to declare all player injuries, no matter how minor, so you'll see this one fairly often. For example, New England Patriots QB Tom Brady played every single game last season with an injury status of "P" because of a sore shoulder, and exhibited no ill effects.

• Q -- Questionable: Cause for concern. This player has a fairly serious injury, making them roughly a 50-50 bet to start in the next game. This condition is the toughest to judge, because whether or not the player will start the game depends a lot on the circumstances: how conservative their coach is, how critical the coming game is, how serious the injury is, how reliable the player's backup is, and a host of other factors. There's also the fact that even if they do start, this level of injury often means they won't be playing their best football, and might be replaced mid-game.

  If you have a less-injured player on your roster who plays the same position at roughly the same level, you may wish to avoid the risk of starting a Questionable player. In any event, you will want to pay close attention to the NFL news bulletins about them, as these will give you the best idea of whether they will play or not. Take special care to check their status before game-time, in case you need to make a quick substitution based on last-minute information.

• D -- Doubtful: Bench 'em. This player has a serious injury, and is no more than 25% likely to start in the next game. In real-life terms, you will almost never see a player rated as Doubtful take the field unless the game is truly pivotal and the team has to have him on the field to have a chance to win.

  You will almost definitely need to start someone else at that position in place of this player for the next game, regardless of skill level. However, depending on the nature of the injury and the value of the player when he's healthy, you probably don't want to cut him from your roster -- yet.

• O -- Out: This player is too injured to play in their next game even in an emergency, and you'll definitely, 100% have to find someone else to start at that position.

  Players who are injured this seriously are likely to miss multiple weeks of action, so depending on where you are in the season, you may have to think about cutting them from the roster and picking up a free agent to finish out the year. If the player is truly talented, you won't want to be hasty about that, though, so be sure you keep abreast of the NFL news concerning them -- their NFL team's website is a good place to start.

• S -- Suspended: This player probably isn't injured, but has been suspended by their team (or more usually, the NFL) for a number of weeks for some reason. They won't play this week, but will be plenty rested when they're due to come back. Depending on the length of the suspension, the quality of the player, and how many weeks are left in the fantasy season, you may want to wait it out, or you may want to kick them to the curb.

  Stay abreast of the team news for these players -- a suspended player can sometimes find that their former backup has performed so well in their absence that now they are the backup, which is bad news for fantasy managers who have them on the roster.

• X --Injured Reserve: This tag is only given to players whose injuries are serious enough to effectively finish their season. This guy won't play in another NFL game this year, for his team or any other, so you'll want to drop him from your roster and pick up a replacement immediately. No need to follow the news on these guys -- they're done until next year.

There are a few other injury codes, but they rarely come up so I won't bother going through them here. If you see one you don't recognize during the season and have a question about it, by all means ask. :)

With the rules Ajax has set up, recievers are going to be more highly valued than they would be with the default set of rules. Yahoo's pre-draft rankings reflect the players' values by the default rules. Adjust accordingly.