But is your team everything it can be? Not sure? Look it over carefully then ask a few friends or people you trust to tell you your weaknesses and/or recommend some things to try to strengthen your team. Sounds like I am recommending you add to the growing list of "Rate my Team" posts on the local Fantasy Football Newsgroup?

Well, I guess I am ... sort of. I, too, get tired of reading all the "Rate my Team" and "How's this Trade" posts. But if you structure your question, and reflect it in your title, you should get plenty of responses to your request for help. Personally I skim by, without reading, any post that just says "Rate my Team" in the subject line.

But when I get to one that says something like "What Can I do to Improve my Team?" I tend to read it. Now to get me to answer the post, there are specific things I look for.

• Scoring System - Is it included?
• Roster - Is your roster believable?
• Other Response - Can I add anything to what others have posted?

You see, if you don't include your scoring system, then there is little advice I can give that is meaningful. And if your lineup is too weak, or too strong, I tend to think you are just trolling and wasting bandwidth. And, finally, if someone else has already said what I would have, there is little point in me just adding "Me too!" to the thread. Now if there are a lot of varied responses, I will probably do a "Me too!" post to add the weight of my view to the side that I agree with. But even then, I try to add some analysis so as to explain why I agree with whomever I am agreeing with.

There are a few other resources available to you. If you subscribe to a newsletter, and there are too many good ones for me to go into which one I would recommend here, then you should feel free to contact the staff of the newsletter for opinions on any Fantasy Football issue. If they don't answer promptly and with courtesy, then you should invest your money elsewhere. The people who are paid for their thoughts tend to do more research than the average newsgroup participant. They have to. This doesn't mean that their opinions are any more valuable (though I believe they tend to be more accurate than the average poster), but it does mean that they are usually not just shooting from the hip.

If you have questions about why they feel the way they do about your depth at a position or about the advice they give you, ASK! They are paid to be your consultant. Not to make decisions for you, but to provide you with information that will aid you in your own decision making.

By the same token, you should not ask someone who sells his knowledge and research for free information other than as an occassional favor. I know that guys like Mike Nazarek, Sam Caplan, Bob Harris and Brian Hulett get hundreds of emails every day. Several of these pro's have told me that it is literally impossible to answer every email they get and still put out their newsletter. So guess who gets priority.

That's right, the paying customer. And deservedly so. But if you do ask, and they do respond, respect that. Whether you agree with their advice or not, try to remember that you asked for it, and they gave it freely. Try getting a Lawyer or a Doctor to do that. Most of the aforementioned gentlemen (if not all) are very patient and tend to answer any question directed at them, but they do have times of the week when it is virtually impossible for them to respond.

A final thing to try is to gather a list of those people in the newsgroup that you consider to be expert in the field and ask them. I know there are several people that I will run ideas by. I often consult with guys like Joe Bryant, Terry Cannon, Eric Nelson (SeaHawk42) and Bob Scheckman (CoolBear) when I have questions. And there are many others, both new and old like Chris Soon, Scott Johnson, Mike Switzer, Chris Rito, Mike Henderson, and many, many others that I read.

I know a lot of you wonder at my sanity when I say I read guys that tend to argue with my point of view, but I respect people whose opinion differs from mine if and when they can present logical arguments and back those up with quotes from coaches or statistics. Everyone I named above can and does do that. I may not always agree with everything they say (right, Chris and Scott?) but I do listen to what they say, and they have been known to change my mind.

I think the real point of this article is to take advice from wherever you can get it, combine it with some of your own research, toss in a little "gut instinct" and you should do alright.