Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

8/12/14, Preseason News, The West, The Bridge

This week we’re joined for the first time by our buddy and drinkfive writer Matt Cochrane. We enjoyed some leftover Two Brothers beers from this past weekend’s draft. We also featured the music of Frank Zappa tonight, mostly because he’s just a badass.

On to more important things, like football finally being back! We talked about a couple of things that we learned from the first week of preseason games. Yes, it’s very underwhelming, but at least it’s football. The real stuff is coming soon.

We’re now halfway through our attempt to preview every single fantasy relevant player. This week we covered the West divisions. We’ll be doing either the South or East next week, we haven’t decided yet. We also made it to the most recent episode of 'The Leftovers'. Be sure to check out Dave's review here.

Make sure to join us next week, live at 9pm CST on blogtalk radio (blogtalkradio.com/drinkfive). Feel free to send us your questions and we'll answer them on the podcast! Ask us on our Facebook page, follow us on twitter (@drinkfive), or send us an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You can also grab the podcast on iTunes.

8/05/14, We Go North! Chile Verde Saison Country!

This week we're joined by one of our writers, Graham Sell. Graham took care of the 'Extra Point' article last year, breaking down his team each week in our drinkfive league. This year, stay tuned - with our new site design, we can do anything!

Anyways, back to the show. There were no bets, unfortunately, but soon we'll compile all of the offseason bets and start keeping track of them.

We started off with the Hall of Fame Practice breakdown, which really only took a few seconds. Then we decided it'd be a good idea to talk about as many fantasy players as we can for the next couple weeks. First up, the NFC and AFC North. Next week, we'll move on to two more divisions and hopefully we finish every team before the end of August.

We had just a few minutes left, but we were able to get in some talk about the most recent episode of The Leftovers, my personal favorite of the season so far. Be sure to read Dave's review of this episode.

Make sure to join us next week, live at 9pm CST on blogtalk radio (blogtalkradio.com/drinkfive). Feel free to send us your questions and we'll answer them on the podcast! Ask us on our Facebook page, follow us on twitter (@drinkfive), or send us an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You can also grab the podcast on iTunes.

Welcome to the TV Soup podcast, the home of drinkfive.com’s television review series. This episode continues our discussion on the Breaking Bad spin-off prequel series Better Call Saul starring Bob Odenkirk. The third episode of the season is a doozy, bringing us just a little bit closer to Saul Goodman. Be sure to check out the companion article to the third episode of the season, "Nacho."

Our plan is to review every episode of whatever series we are currently watching (unless they end up being too horrible for either of us to handle, in which case we have no problem panning the show and changing it up!) both on the podcast and also in more traditional, long-form articles. Please follow along with us as we begin our journey into Better Call Saul and thus into the mind of Jimmy McGill / Saul Goodman.

Finally, we've arrived at the fight that everyone has been talking about for two weeks. The fight was shocking, violent and surprising, everything that everyone should have expected. As a book reader, I was still surprised at how shocking the end of the fight was, even knowing what was ultimately to come.

First, let's rewind back to the violence that opened the show. The Wildlings are creeping ever closer to the wall, raiding all the way there. The most recent stop is Molestown, which is basically the brothel for Castle Black. The Wildlings are knocking on the wall (almost literally) and some shit's about to go down.

Reports before the season started were that they filmed a battle that was much bigger than "Blackwater", which took up an entire episode. Apparently this battle is going to be along the same lines, where it dominates the entire episode. Next week should be worthy of being the ninth episode of a season, which is traditionally the biggest one of every season.

A surprisingly heartwarming scene, if it can be called that, was between Roose Bolton and his son Ramsay Snow. Roose gave Ramsay the Bolton name, and is essentially legitimizing him and making him his heir. The impetus for this is a particularly gruesome scene featuring the slaughter of the remaining Ironborn holding out at Moat Cailin, the gateway to the North. I guess some good ole flaying is the way to a Bolton's heart.

In the Vale, we see Sansa grow up before our eyes. It turns out that she has actually has been listening to all the lessons that Littlefinger has been trying to teach her since she got to King's Landing. She spins a great web of lies, dropping a few truths in there just to get them to buy into it. This is basically the only way out for Littlefinger, who has no clear way to wiggle out of this one.

I don't really have much to say about Jorah Mormont being exiled from Mereen for betraying Daenerys a long time ago. These scenes were all beautiful but just straight up plot and as a book reader, almost came off as boring, but I'm not the one they're making the show for. It's clearly essential for show watchers.

Before the big fight, we get one, seemingly last, conversation between Jaime and Tyrion. Tyrion talks about his cousin who used to smash beetles senselessly. It's probably reading too much into this, but it sure does seem like quite a metaphor for George R.R. Martin and all the jokes on the internet about how he just loves killing off characters.

Speaking of killing off characters, we arrive at the final scene. On one side you have the flashy Oberyn Martell showing off his sweet spear skills to the crowd. The other, Gregor Clegane, a literal mountain. The Mountain is all brute force and it's clear that he is nothing more than a killing machine. Oberyn dances around him, much like Bronn said would be the only way to beat him, and delivers enough glancing blows to get him stunned, which allows him to spear the Mountain through the stomach.

Of course, for Oberyn, a man literally built of passion, just killing him is not enough. He must have revenge on his terms, and wants the Mountain to admit what he did and admit who told him to do it. Oberyn's thirst for revenge is his downfall, and this is an unexpected way to turn the revenge trope on its head. Just as shocking as the rest of the events we've experienced over the last 12 or so episodes, Oberyn quickly finds himself in the grasp of the Mountain and it's only seconds until he literally makes his head explode. This was shocking, even for a book reader who knew what was coming. Bravo Dan and David, they're taking Martin's story and somehow making it better on screen.